Midge Ure-Rewind: The Greatest Hits Tour (Warner Vision) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Music Video-Spielberg Sky Music Video-Move Me Featurette-No Regrets (Acoustic) Featurette-Vienna (Acoustic) Featurette-Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (Acoustic) Interviews-Cast-Bonus Interviews (15)
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	95:24 (Case: 140)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:25)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Colin Brewer
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Midge Ure
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	Midge Ure

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   Another disc featuring an artist from the New Wave era of the 80s! My favourite period in popular music (I know, I live a very sad life). This one is from singer/songwriter/guitarist Midge Ure. He has been writing songs and making music for many years as part of several bands, starting in the early 70s. Mostly known for his role in 80s band Ultravox, Midge also played a significant role in Visage (who were a bit of a one hit wonder with Fade To Grey), helped out his mate Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy fame for a tour, co-wrote the Band Aid smash Do They Know It's Christmas with Sir Bob Geldof and has since forged a successful solo career which gave him the number one song If I Was from the 1985 album The Gift. Quite a repertoire over a significant period of time.

    Picking up this disc to review reminded me of a time in the early 1980s when the only means I had to build a collection of recorded music was to tape them off the radio (how times change). For Christmas 1981 I'd received a Panasonic tape deck, and I set about recording all my favourite songs of the time onto cassette. One song that I taped was quite by accident. I thought it was something altogether different, but the song I ended up with was one I had not heard before, and had no idea what it was called or who sang it. Turned out that song was Vienna by Ultravox and it went on to become one of my all-time favourite 80s tunes. I also remember hearing If I Was for the first time on Countdown and hearing Molly Meldrum ranting about how great it was. I thought so to and bought the limited edition 45 single (which I still have).

    It was quite interesting to get hold of this disc, to just see what Midge Ure has been up to since I last took any notice back in the 80s. He had released a new album in 2001 titled Move Me and this show was part of the fifteen date tour to promote it. It was filmed at London's Shepherds Bush Empire with Midge and his four piece band on stage. Nineteen songs are performed in the concert and among the new tracks are some of the older biggies such as Fade To Grey, If I Was, and of course Vienna (for the latter Ure is joined by vocalist Russell Watson, who can hit the high notes in stunning fashion, making this a truly remarkable version of this classic). Not a large audience, but they are appreciative, and the band deliver in fine style. There are some extras included on the disc, including two music videos and three acoustic numbers. The acoustic version of Vienna is certainly unlike any renditions I had previously heard.

Video

    Yet another widescreen concert performance, magic!. This one is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is also 16x9 enhanced.

    Even sharpness all round with no traces of edge enhancement. There are a few problems with shadow detail, but these cannot be blamed on the transfer, rather the source. There is minor grain present and no low level noise.

    Colours once again fall victim to the concert curse. Highly saturated blues are the worst offender causing plenty of minor posterisation. Couple this with some really bright white lighting that renders a washed out hue to many shots, and you get something that's not really too obnoxious, but problems nonetheless.

    No MPEG artefacts are present. There are only minor visible traces of any shimmer on a couple of surfaces but these don't become too distracting . There are no video artefacts of any sort.

    There are no subtitle options. A shame. I love singing along sometimes, especially when I am unsure of the lyrics.

    A dual layered disc, formatted RSDL. The layer change is at 70:25, perfectly placed in a silent moment between Vienna and Love's Great Adventure.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio soundtracks on this disc. Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 soundtracks are joined by a dts soundtrack encoded at the lower bitrate of 782 kb/s. I'm really beginning to feel that the inclusion of the lower bitrate dts soundtracks are purely a marketing exercise that allows the distributor to put the eye-catching dts sticker on the front cover. In this case, I really cannot pick any difference between the Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts soundtracks, and have rarely been able to do so in all the other similarly specified dts soundtracks. In fact if I really think about it, all the dts releases since the standard setting Eagles - Hell Freezes Over have been only just as good as the equivalent Dolby Digital soundtracks. Maybe we should be insisting on dts only specified discs encoded at the full bitrate? Sorry, I'm rambling.

    I listened to the Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts tracks in full and sampled the Dolby Digital 2.0 track to verify that it was there and actually worked. There is really nothing to pick between the two 5.1 soundtracks, other than the dts variant being mastered marginally louder than the Dolby Digital track. Both offer decent, though certainly not earth-shattering separation across the front channels. Dialogue and lyrics are clear and prominent with no evidence of any audio sync problems. All up I'd summarise this as a solid, well mastered soundtrack that will please all but the fussiest audiophile.

    The surround channels see plenty of action, though in a mild, understated manner. Audience sounds of course are present, in addition to several instances of musical fill in sounds.

    The subwoofer is seamlessly integrated into the mix with no undue attention brought to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

Music Video - Speilberg Sky

    The song Spielberg Sky was from Midge Ure's most recent (well 2001) album Move Me. This video is presented full screen 1.33:1 with audio provided from a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Running time is 4:02 minutes.

Music Video - Move Me

    Running for 4:10 minutes.

Featurette - No Regrets (acoustic)

    Presented in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1, though lacking 16x9 enhancement, this is strangely features all three soundtracks the same as the main concert but the subwoofer channel is missing from the surround tracks. Running time is 3:47 minutes. Recorded in what looks like a warm up rehearsal setting for the concert, the video footage is variable with a fair bit of grain. It is certainly not as sharp as the main concert.

Featurette - Vienna (acoustic)

    The same details as above in terms of audio and video apply here. This is a very good rendition of a timeless classic from the 80s. Running time is 3:03 minutes.

Featurette - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (acoustic)

    Ditto for audio and video as the previous two songs. Running time is 3:09 minutes.

Interviews - Cast

    Fifteen mini chapters that need to be selected separately (very frustrating. As a side note to disc authors: please, if there are fifteen or twenty 30 second interview segments, stick them all together in a play-all type scenario. It makes for a really frustrating experience having to select them all individually). Presented in the widescreen aspect of 1.78:1, it also does not feature 16x9 enhancement.

    The total running time of these chapters is 10:05 minutes. In the brief segments Midge is sitting on a couch discussing many of his songs, both solo and those from Ultravox. He explains how they came about and what they are about (albeit very briefly).

    This is a disc encoded for all regions. It would be identical throughout the world.

    Midge Ure is the consummate professional, and despite his voice not quite being what it once was, this is a polished and enjoyable show. Fans of Ultravox or the solo Midge will love every minute of it. Old songs, new songs, all performed very well.

    The video suffers from the usual concert afflictions but these minor problems do not hamper the enjoyment of the show.

    The audio is top notch. The Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 tracks are high quality, though are so similar you are left wondering why they are both offered in the first place. A marketing ploy perhaps?

    The extras are numerous and also of decent quality. No padding here, though the execution leaves a little to be desired.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall