Festival Express (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Menu Animation & Audio Bonus Track-10 Interviews-Cast & Crew Featurette-Making Of Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	85:18 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:08) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bob Smeaton
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Janis Joplin The Grateful Dead Janis Joplin & The Full Tilt Boogie Band The Band Buddy Guy Delaney & Bonnie & Friends The Flying Burrito Bros Ian & Sylvia & The Great Speckled Bird Mash Makan Sha Na Na Buddy Guy Blues Band Jerry Garcia Bob Weir
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English dts 5.0 (768Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.0 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    In 1970, following the success of Monterey and Woodstock, a group of promoters in Canada got the idea of making a music festival move across the country by train (known as The Festival Express), bringing a festival to each city it visited. They set about arranging the logistics and organising the bands to take part which included The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin & the Full Tilt Boogie Band, The Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Buddy Guy's Blues Band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and many other lesser known acts such as local Canadian groups like Ian & Sylvia and Mashmakhan.

    The five day journey (with a festival at each end) began in Toronto during high summer in Canada and then continued across the country to Winnipeg & Calgary. The performers ate and were provided with beds on the train but mostly instead of sleeping they jammed and partied for five days. The performers had a phenomenal time but unfortunately the promoter took a bath and lost a lot of money. There was a lot of controversy around the tour driven by the 'music should be free for the people' mantra which affected Woodstock and nearly destroyed the Isle of Wight Festival. This resulted in protests at the first show in Toronto and people trying to force their way in for free. The violence and disruption badly affected ticket sales for the other cities as people were concerned they would be in a riot.

    At the time of the tour, a great deal of footage was shot including on-stage festival footage, behind the scenes footage of the performers jamming in the train and footage of the various riots. All of this original footage was locked away for many years after the festival and then slowly and painstakingly restored and sync'd to the original audio elements. The original footage was shot on 16mm film. More recently (during 2002 & 2003) significant amounts of interview footage were shot with surviving members of the bands, the promoter, Ken Walker and even original audience members. These two elements have been combined into the film contained on this DVD release, Festival Express which was released theatrically in 2003/04. It was compiled in 35mm and includes the original 16mm material blown up in some places but mostly utilises split screen techniques to have some newer interview footage side by side with older 16mm footage or two angles of the older footage side by side. This works well and the quality of the vision is surprising for film from a little known festival which was stored in someone's garage for many years. A great job has also been done with the audio in terms of syncing, restoration and remixing.

    The concert footage is mostly in daylight at stadium shows, however there are also some night time sets including some great Janis Joplin performances (Cry Baby & Tell Mama). Other musical highlights include The Band doing Slippin' & Slidin', Buddy Guy going berserk on Money and The Grateful Dead doing Don't Ease Me In. The train footage includes some jamming but it is mostly under the influence of various substances so although interesting does not stand up so well musically. The only slight annoyance I had with this show was that although the interviewees were named in onscreen graphics, the bands playing were not. Most concert footage was well shot, however the cameras got a little erratic at time especially during Janis' Tell Mama.

    All in all this is a great slice of rock history which is essential viewing for fans of the bands involved and for those interested in this period of music.

Video

    The video quality is generally excellent especially considering the age and genesis of the material.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the footage. Shadow detail was pretty good without being great. There was some grain especially during the 16mm footage which had been blown up to 35mm.

    The colour was surprisingly excellent throughout really highlighting the clothes of the time.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 69:08 and was not noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains an English DTS 5.0 soundtrack, an English Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track encoded at 192 Kb/s.All tracks were very good but the DTS track was easily the pick of the bunch displaying much more fullness and warmth to the music.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. Audio sync was surprisingly good in the feature but some of the extra footage in the special features suffered from a lack of good sync (probably why it was kept to the extras).

    The music sounds wonderful on this transfer considering the age and recording location. The new mix really adds to the presentation. Most of the music sits across the front of the soundstage but is full and warm. When split screen is in use, say with an interview on one side and concert footage on the other, the various sounds are clearly split between the front speakers. This works well.

    The surround speakers were used of an occasional effect (train noises and the like) along with crowd atmosphere.

    The subwoofer was well used adding bass to the music especially on the DTS track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Two discs are included in the case and the extras are spread across both.

Menu

    The menu included music, animated stills and a nice cursor motif.

Disc 1

Bonus Tracks with Interviews (55:03)

    This is a bit of a treasure trove of extra material which will delight fans especially of Buddy Guy or Janis Joplin. There are ten extra tracks here and some short interview pieces to accompany them. 16x9 enhanced and with the same audio options as the feature! The tracks are

1. 13 Questions - Seatrain
2. Child's Song - Tom Rush
3. Thirsty Boots - Eric Andersen
4. As the Years Go By - Mashmakhan (A bit of a find, I enjoyed this Canadian blues rock band despite the face pulling from the guitarist and the average vocals.)
5. Tears of Rage - Ian & Sylvia
6. Hoochie Coochie Man - Buddy Guy Blues Band (Wow - what a track!)
7. Hard to Handle - The Grateful Dead
8. Easy Wind - The Grateful Dead
9. Kosmic Blues - Janis Joplin (a stunning Janis performance)
10. Move Over - Janis Joplin (another stunning Janis performance)

Train Hopping

    This extra allows you to play only the musical numbers from the main feature either individually or all at once.

Disc 2

Extended Interviews (19:18)

    16x9 enhanced DD 2.0. Extra contemporary interview material with the promoter and various musicians which provides much interesting discussion of the controversy and violence surrounding the festival tour combined with reminiscences. Definitely worth watching.

The Making of Festival Express (14:18)

    16x9 enhanced. Documents the interesting process by which the footage was recovered from a legal quagmire, restored, combined with he audio elements, remixed and released as a feature film. Good stuff.

Photo Gallery

    20 stills from the film. Pretty redundant.

Theatrical Trailer (1:59)

    16x9 enhanced. .

    This film is available in both R1 and R2. The R2 version is similar to ours but is missing the DTS track. The R1 is the same as ours except NTSC formatted. The Region 1 is probably the best choice as it would avoid the 4% PAL speed up which would effect the music. Having said that the local release is excellent.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extras are fantastic especially the extra music tracks.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall