The Clash-Westway to the World (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Clash On Broadway (22:30) Interviews-Cast-(44:51) Discography Gallery-Photo-(2:28) Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	79:55
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Don Letts
Studio Distributor	Sony Music Sony Music	Starring	Joe Strummer Mick Jones Paul Simonon Topper Headon
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$29.95	Music	The Clash

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/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 French Spanish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In the annals of rock music, there is perhaps no more controversial period than that which embraced the music that garnered the name punk. Of the punk bands, there is perhaps none more synonymous with punk than The Sex Pistols, probably due to the fact that there were few bands ever that garnered as much publicity in so short a period of time. Whilst most of that publicity was extremely negative, the fact was that The Sex Pistols had something to say and the only genuine album they made, Never Mind The B******, Here's The Sex Pistols, was one of the seminal albums of the punk era. However, the almost constant linking of the punk era with The Sex Pistols almost solely does significantly denigrate a number of other bands of that era. Indeed, amongst all the great bands of that era, The Sex Pistols would not rank as the best. You will have plenty arguing as to who was the best but to my mind the best was beyond doubt - The Clash.

    The evidence for such a statement? Well, aside from the fact that they survived longer than The Sex Pistols, the evidence is in the albums they made. As good as Never Mind The B******, Here's The Sex Pistols was, it barely stands above the eponymous debut album of The Clash. However, whereas The Sex Pistols blew apart rapidly, The Clash went on to make the ever so slightly disappointing Give 'Em Enough Rope, before coming out with the double album London Calling. Rolling Stone selected the album as number one in the book The Greatest Albums Of The 80's. I would go further - London Calling is the greatest rock and roll album ever made. Whatever way you look at it, London Calling is a gem of an album with no filler - a rarity then and even rarer now. You start with the title song, wind through Brand New Cadillac, Jimmy Jazz, Hateful, and Rudie Can't Fail to get to Spanish Bombs. Were the album to end there, you would have a decent album indeed, but then you really get into the guts of the album: The Right Profile, Lost In The Supermarket, Clampdown, The Guns Of Brixton, Wrong 'Em Boyo and Death Or Glory. Now you have an arguable case for one of the top ten albums of all time, but The Clash did not leave us there: the album finishes with Koka Kola, The Card Chest, Lover's Rock, Four Horsemen, I'm Not Down, Revolution Rock and the bonus Train In Vain. Nineteen songs that define the band and make up the greatest rock and roll album of all time. It also was the last genuinely punk influenced album the band made, for the follow up was the rather more experimental and reggae-influenced triple album Sandanista! Whilst not of the calibre of its predecessor, it is still an album of great worth. It in the end represented the height of the band for whilst Combat Rock was by far the band's most successful album in the United States (mainly on the strength of the single Rock The Casbah), it was also the beginning of the end of The Clash in its purist form. Whilst Topper Headon did not join the band until after The Clash was recorded, the true form of the band was Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon - the line up from 1977 through to 1982. At that time Topper Headon, whose drug abuses were getting way overboard, was sacked and in 1983 Mick Jones was gone too (he went on to have some success with the underrated Big Audio Dynamite). Whilst the band continued, the final album Cut The Crap was hardly worth mentioning and the band died shortly thereafter.

    As you may possibly be able to gather, I am what you might call a huge fan of The Clash. I devoured their work in a myriad of ways - notably seeking out some pristine high quality vinyl pressings even after already having several dozen copies of the various albums in my collection. I still have somewhere a copy of London Calling on vinyl that is almost pristine. I sought out and still have rare Japanese imports of their albums on CD, issued long before CBS (now Sony) ever decided to release them locally on CD. So to say that my hand went up like a shot when this came up for release is to be seriously understating things. As you can also gather from the ID number for this title, I have been awaiting the release of this DVD for some time.

    The Clash - Westway To The World broadly chronicles the history of The Clash from its beginnings in 1976 through to the departure of Mick Jones in 1983. The story is told through the aegis of newly filmed interview material with the four members of the band, along with former drummer Terry Chimes (he was the drummer on the debut album), rock journo Tony Parsons, photographer Pennie Smith (it is her brilliant photo that graces the album cover of London Calling), a former roadie (Johnny Green) and producer Bill Price. All the interviews are conducted separately, probably as there is still some bad blood between the band members, and are interspersed with still photographs and archival live footage. The story is broadly told in chronological fashion, although there are a few odd jumps here and there.

    Despite the potential for glossing over things that perhaps should not be aired, this is one of those rare occasions where we get to know the band warts and all. Mistakes are readily admitted, regrets are openly expressed and hindsight and insights abound. If you have any interest whatsoever in one of the best bands to ever grace the music business, then you will find this an incredibly interesting eighty minutes. Interesting not just because of the at-times frank interview material but also because of some of the quite rare archival live material. The one big regret about the programme is that it is too short and we never get the full version of any of the dozens of songs that are interspersed throughout the show. Offsetting that though is the interview material and whilst some is a bit naff, there is plenty of interest in what Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon have to say about things. That it is finally here is a great joy and if you have any interest in the band in particular or the era in general, this is an essential addition to the collection.

Video

    Okay, it is important to remember that plenty of the archival material here is not only over twenty years old but was also shot on fairly mediocre equipment in fairly mediocre venues. Whoever had the foresight to film the stuff is to be congratulated but I don't somehow think that they had in mind the use of the footage on a high resolution digital video system twenty odd years in the future. Despite the poor quality in general of the archival material, the overall package is very worthy indeed. It would have been nice though had the 1.78:1 aspect ratio transfer been 16x9 enhanced.

    Since the general quality of the archival material lives up to the third word of the name of the final album of the band, henceforth comments will only be passed upon the recent interview footage shot for the programme. The video rating for the DVD reflects the fact that the archival material is recognised as such and has not affected the overall scores significantly. The importance of the material far outweighs its significant limitations. The interview stuff in general is very good with plenty of definition and detail. Since this is interview material, there is little in the way of shadow detail to worry about. Grain is only really an issue in the other footage. The interview stuff is generally very clear with little issue at all.

    The colours come up pretty well and are nicely saturated.

    There are no significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is some evidence of film-to-video artefacts in the form of some aliasing (such as at 18:10 on a collar), but nothing really bothersome. Indeed, after about twenty minutes I just stopped writing notes as the programme was that interesting. The newer interview footage does not display any issues with film artefacts. Of course, the archival footage is the opposite, as well as being indistinct, poorly defined and woefully saturated.

    This is a dual layered DVD with the main programme on one layer and the extras on the second layer.

    There are just the three subtitle options on the DVD, being English, French and Spanish. I think I espied one spelling error in the English subtitles, which was about the only thing wrong with them.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Since this is predominantly an interview based programme, this makes reasonable sense.

    The audio transfer is very good but it does highlight some of the appalling audio recordings amongst the archival material. There does not appear to be any significant audio sync issues with the transfer.

    Obviously the music comes from The Clash and about the biggest disappointment here is the fact that we get snippets from a myriad of songs but no complete efforts.

    There is really not much to say about the audio transfer: there is nothing wrong with it and it certainly presents the interviews very well indeed. The only issues are the direct result of the archival material quality and that can hardly be blamed on the transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    After an interesting programme we get an interesting package of extras.

Menu

    Nothing highly exciting other than some decent audio enhancement - which we would of course expect from The Clash!

Featurette - Clash On Broadway (22:30)

    A short film by Don Letts regarding the rather unusual seventeen show stand the band performed in New York in 1981. Some of the material is used in the main programme but this is interesting in its own right, with most of the input coming from Topper Headon. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Nice one.

Interviews - Cast (44:51)

    This is a bunch of additional interview material from the four band members, partly expanding on bits seen in the main programme as well as covering topics not in the main programme. As is general for the whole package, the bulk of the material comes from Joe Strummer, but some of the most interesting comes from the least profiled member, Topper Headon. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. In the main this adds nicely to the main programme and is well worth checking out.

Discography

    Covering all twelve albums, the interesting thing is that each album is highlighted by, as far as I can make out, a complete song from the album shown. This is a really big plus and for those not so familiar with the band is a great way to gain some exposure to their work. Huge thumbs up for this.

Gallery - Photo (2:28)

    A self running piece comprising about fifty eight photos of the band, presented in a general 1.66:1 framing. It is not 16x9 enhanced and is accompanied by a dub mix of Rock The Casbah in Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Another thumb up for this!

Web Link

    Not so big thumbs up - www.westwaytotheworld.com is the link if you are interested.

    From the sole review I could locate for the Region 1 version of the DVD, it would seem that there is nothing to choose between the Region 1 and Region 4 releases.

    I of course am unlikely to give a truly unbiased view on the overall worth of the DVD, but it has to be said that this is one of the most well thought out overall music DVD packages I have seen for a while. The presentation of the extras, which do add to the enjoyment of the DVD as a whole, is both a little unusual and very satisfying. If you have any interest in the punk era or The Clash in particular, this should already be in your DVD collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall