Roxy Music-Live at the Apollo London 2001 (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet-8-pages Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Documentary 17:06
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	108:44 (Case: 105)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:34)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Julia Knowles
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Bryan Ferry Andy Mackay Phil Manzanera Paul Thompson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Roxy Music

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.0 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s) English dts 5.0 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Song Lyrics	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Oh the joy! Having reviewed the first Roxy Music DVD concert (The High Road) back in January (was it that long ago?), I now have had the pleasure of reviewing what is easily the best concert DVD I have seen and heard. Yes, even better than that revered Eagles DVD reviewed (sigh) over two years ago. Where does time go?

    The song list reads like a minor miracle, and is enough to give fans heart palpitations. I mean, how can you beat “Street Life”, or “Do The Strand?”. During a recent tour in Australia, Brian Ferry was quoted as saying he has a soft spot for his old albums, especially the first two. I am not one to disagree, and nor were the crowd for this concert. Seeing a large part of the audience (mainly males) lose it when the guitar kicks in during the sublime “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”, in exactly the same manner I have done countless times with the my trusty air guitar actually made me shiver – remarkable when you consider that the song is 30 years old. If I had to pick a set of albums to take with me to a desert island, Roxy Music would be my choice, and this would be the compilation to end them all.

    This is also one slick production, and is very polished in all areas. The four original members, Brain Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and “The Great” Paul Thompson are all in superb form. Whilst Andy often looks somewhat bewildered by it all, they all equally wield their instruments with text-book perfection. The songs are performed album-fashion, though “My Only Love” gets an extension par-excellence, and “Tara” gets a fresh twist. The extras are young, talented and obviously very respectful, and special mention must go to Zev Katz, whose bass playing was without error and very satisfying.

    I could go on, but I think you get the idea. This is a masterpiece of a concert, loaded with style, a wonderful array of very attractive young ladies, and superb craftsmanship. This is Roxy Music at their very best.

Video

    Very pleasingly this concert was filmed using 16x9 cameras, and the resulting quality shows. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78 and 16x9 enhanced, this is a very satisfying viewing experience and comes very close to being perfect.

    Throughout the concert all manner of camera angles and crane shots are used to add some pizzazz, and unlike many concerts there was little disparity in quality between the many cameras. Being 16x9, sharpness was always very good, though it did appear that vertical resolution was sacrificed at times in order to stop any aliasing dead in its tracks – it worked; there wasn’t even a hint of it. Having said that, the picture was rock solid in all areas, especially general and shadow detail, which was sublime. The image had a great sense of depth and dimensionality, also helped by the absence of grain of any kind.

    Colours were bold and strong, and there were plenty of them. Rich blues, yellows and reds, and all handled with ease. No chroma noise was visible, nor any significant loss of resolution.

    There were no MPEG artefacts of any kind, which was nice to see given the length of the concert and the inclusion of multiple 5.1 audio formats. Being shot on video, there were no other artefacts either. The image really is of superb quality and will delight fans.

    The was great to see the inclusion of lyric subtitles, something which is an absolute must for many Roxy Music songs if you are unfamiliar with them due to the arty nature of the early pieces.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring during a song break at 60:34 minutes.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio tracks, being DTS 5.0, Dolby Digital 5.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. I listened almost exclusively to the DTS track, and made spot comparisons with the DD 5.0 track. It would be cliché of me to pick out which was the superior, suffice it to say that the DTS track is absolutely superb. Do not be alarmed by the lack of a dedicated .1 channel - it will not be missed in the slightest.

    No real use is made of the centre channel, and so vocals are spread across the front stage by the left and right main speakers. Brian Ferry’s voice is in fine form and comes across wonderfully. Backing singers are placed off-centre and are of equally fine quality. There was no audio sync problem noticed.

    Ah, the music! The musicians have gone to great lengths to produce the kinds of sounds used on the albums, even down to using authentic 30-year old (or more) gear, and they did a great job. During the documentary, Phil Manzanera talks of his guitar effects pedals being very important in the band's need to create the “Roxy Music Soup” mix so important to their image, and the need for all band members to be true to the sounds so familiar to the fans. Extensive use is also made of a truly classic looking synthesizer replete with knobs, dials and blinking lights – and you simply cannot mistake the authenticity of the results.

    The sound quality is stunning, and has great warmth, fidelity and separation. Paul Thompson’s drums have great weight to them (no subwoofer required) and a top end to the cymbals which is as good as you can expect from DTS, suffering minor “fizzle” compared with the best audio formats. Any Mackay’s sax and clarinet are full and warm and the female vocals are truly satisfying. Every song sounds the way it should, from the very earliest to the last.

    I should also mention the end of the concert in which every member individually peels away one by one, leaving the pianist on stage left to finish off “For Your Pleasure.” Very, very well done, especially for those who will appreciate that the word “taraa” is colloquial for “goodbye” in England.

    The surrounds were used as room filler, with no discrete instrument placement within them. Special mention must be made of the audience applause, which was clearly discrete through all speakers and is the best example I have heard of cheering and clapping. You can literally pick individual clapping throughout the room.

    The subwoofer is not used, though again it was not missed at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Booklet – 8 pages

Menu Animation & Audio

Featurette - Documentary

    It would appear that this DVD is not yet available in Region 1. Regardless, given that the concert was filmed in London, it is presumably a native PAL production anyway.

    This is Roxy Music at their best, and is the finest music concert I have yet seen on DVD. Shot in 16x9 and with DTS sound, this is as sweet a DVD as you could hope for of one of the greatest bands ever.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall