The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Musical	Menu Animation & Audio Interviews-Cast-Show's key presenters Interviews-Character-Interviews with 6 major stars Audio Commentary-Michael Appleton - show's founding producer Scene Selection Anim & Audio On-Screen Information Track-Links to artist notes from performances
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	236:23 (Case: 292)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (84:00) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jill Sinclair Mark Hagen
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Richard Williams Annie Nightingale Mark Ellen David Hepworth Andy Kershaw Bob Harris
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Various

    The Old Grey Whistle Test, latterly known as just Whistle Test, ran from 1971 for 16 years as a weekly music magazine show on British television during what was probably the most dynamic and productive era for popular music. Before the personal computer, CD-ripping and the games console evolved (not to mention cable TV and DVD), a large portion of one's free time was spent listening to music. A correspondingly large proportion of earnings were spent feeding that habit, through the purchase of  funny black vinyl discs with holes in the middle that spun around between 33 and 45 times a minute. The coffers of the music industry were replete with funds, and new bands were struggling to achieve that crucial air-play essential for the big break. The 'opium for the masses' was catered to by the singles-oriented Top of The Pops programme whilst Whistle Test catered for the more 'discerning' (dare I say rock-snobs) who took their music seriously. As such, it exclusively played tracks off albums and without exception (almost) the bands were expected to actually perform their music on the show. Some of the bands weren't available to perform and so the pop-video was born by film archivist Philip Jenkinson stringing together a visual accompaniment to the soundtrack.

    A key feature of the show, and reflected on this DVD, was the eclectic nature of the featured musicians. There could hardly be any greater contrast than Focus and New York Dolls or Meatloaf and Emmylou Harris, Bill Withers and Talking Heads - all of whom feature on this DVD. At the onset of Whistle Test, bands such as the 'Stones and 'Zeppelin were already huge whilst other such as Elton John and U2 were yet to achieve mega-stardom. Artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Blondie and Lynryd Skynryd were introduced to the European market by Whistle Test whilst others such as Queen received their first air-play. Surviving the anti-album, anti-establishment new wave onslaught in the early eighties Whistle Test finally decided to throw in the towel in the late '80s, when club and disco music became pre-eminent and its crowning glory - the 'Live-Aid' concert had been such a spectacular success.

    This 2-disc DVD release presents a staggering 4 hours of music featuring 45 artists over the span of the show's run. In addition, there are six interviews with artists and introductions to most of the artists by six of the show's key presenters. Notes on each performance are available by browsing through the extras or selecting an 'enhanced feature' whereby clicking on a microphone icon skips straight to the notes feature. In addition, a fascinating commentary by the show's founding producer, Michael Appleton, runs for nearly two hours and provides plenty of anecdotes and insights into the artists and show. Some of the performances are extremely rare eg Bob Marley with the original Wailers (before Peter Tosh left), some of them poignant - Lynryrd Skynrd's Freebird (most of the band was wiped out in a plane crash not long after this recording) and one of them nearly killed the show (Meatloaf's use of the 'eff word during a gutsy rendition of Paradise .. ).

    There is not a single bad performance featured - they are all classics. Nobody will enjoy all the music but then again it's hard to imagine anyone who won't find something of interest. For me, just hitting the teen years at the start of the show and sitting mesmerised every week during the star-kicker cartoon introduction and Charlie McCoy's Stone Fox Chase (played by Area Code 615),  this archival release falls nothing short of hog heaven!

Video

    The transfer is presented in full frame 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer has a certain amount of graininess, especially when magnified. Otherwise, there is good rendition of shadow detail and minimal low level noise.

    Colours were rendered well and accurately and BBC expertise meant a welcome change and variety from the usual blue/red saturation of many live performances.

    This was a good transfer and the twin dual layer discs enabled a high transfer rate (9.8Mbps) for most of the video. There was mild aliasing in the usual areas (mike stands & cymbal edges) but this didn't prove distracting. There was mild edge enhancement around the face of Tom Waits and Randy Newman which proved mildly irritating and mild posterization on some of the close up facial flesh tones on the same singers. As the majority of the feature was filmed on video (apart from some snatches of outside broadcast interviews), film artefacts were absent.

    There are no subtitles.

    Both discs are RSDL formatted and the transition point on the first disc is between scenes at 84:00.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks, the feature soundtrack and Mike Appleton's commentary (on the first disc only) in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

    The quality of dialogue from both presenters and performers was very clear and expertly rendered.

   Audio and lip sync was spot on.

    The music came across very well in stereo although it sounded a little on the thin side. The sample rate of 448 kbps certainly helped with the quality of the rendition. Some AV processing on the sound with THX or DTS:Neo processing certainly helped round out the sound and I guess it would suit Dolby Prologic II processing well also.

    The surround speakers were not utilised in the original coding.

    There was no subwoofer output unless hard-wired in or ported out via your A-V processor. Both these latter options certainly helped round out the sound.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Presenter's choice

    Short vignettes from Richard Williams, Bob Harris, Annie Nightingale, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Andy Kershaw with their individual top five pick of the DVD tracks.

Archive interviews

Audio commentary

Artist's gallery

Random choice

As the name suggests - random playing of music videos sans introductions.

    The video quality is satisfactory.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are fabulous and provide many valuable facts and insider stories to enhance the feature. Also an impressive illustration of what the ravages of time do to artists and presenters (that reminds me - must check out the mirror sometime ..)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall