Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band (Warner Vision) (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo Discography
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	91:01 (Case: 60)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Gary Lagon
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Ringo Starr Billy Preston Joe Walsh Nils Lofgren Levon Helm Rick Danko Dr John
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Various

    I've finally worked out why The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr seldom ventured from behind his kit and took control of the microphone. Apart from a couple of tunes such as Yellow Submarine and his signature song With a Little Help From My Friends, Ringo basically bashed the skins and left the rest of the singing to Lennon and McCartney. Why? - well if this performance is any indication it is really quite simple - he can't sing very well.

    Filmed in 1989, Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band (what else would you call it!), sees one quarter of the Fab Four take to the stage with a few mates, including Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Nils Lofgren (Springsteen's E Street Band), Dr John, Clarence Clemmons (E Street Band), Billy Preston, and Levon Helm (The Band). Ringo opens the show in front of the mike and performs the first three songs including a lacklustre Yellow Submarine. Thankfully he then hands over the reigns to his guests for a few songs, moves back to the drums, and subsequently things improve dramatically. The members of the All-Starr band perform some of their own songs, including Life In The Fast Lane and Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), The Weight (Levon Helm), and You're A Friend Of Mine (Clarence Clemmons).

    There are twenty tracks in this ninety minute show. They are as follows:

Video

    The transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This isn't the sharpest image doing the rounds, with a general fuzzy look to much of the image. The image suffers most under the intense red stage lighting creating a distinct halo around many of the images. Shadow detail is lacking on several occasions, though this is mostly source related I think. Grain is mostly controlled and thankfully there is no low level noise.

    Colours are quite solid, though there is plenty of obvious chroma noise throughout the whole transfer, especially obvious in the solid blue and red backgrounds. At least the blacks are solid and true with no evidence of any problems.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. There is some obvious shimmer on a stage grille at 14:37. Source video artefacts include some obvious tape tracking lines at 17:55.

    There are no subtitles available.

    This is a single layered disc only, so no layer change is necessary.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio soundtrack on this disc. It is a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at a bitrate of 224 Kb/s

    The soundtrack is fairly stock-standard and, without being overly critical, is just a little too conventional for my tastes these days. There is nothing seriously wrong with the track, it just didn't grab my attention like the really good 5.1 mixes we have become so accustomed to do. The vocals are mostly clear, and with Ringo's accent not that strong he is easily understood.

    A fair dose of quality rock 'n' roll is forthcoming from a band that obviously know their craft. They're just let down by Ringo's voice on occasion.

    There is no surround channel or discrete subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

Biographies-Cast

    Detailed biographical details for Ringo Starr and most of the main All Starr band members.

Gallery-Photo

    Running for 5:35 minutes, this gallery features dozens of photos of the All Starr band in action. Interestingly, the audio accompaniment is Levon Helm's version of The Weight and not one of Ringo's tracks.

Discography

    Two pages simply listing all of Ringo's solo albums.

    This DVD is not yet available in Region 1.

    I can't say that this inspired me greatly. The performance is somewhat lacklustre, and with Ringo Starr's non-singing talents so very much in evidence, it was actually quite amusing at times. It was a bit of a sad indictment on the whole thing that I found myself enjoying the performances from his guests more than I did his own numbers.

    The video and audio are only average.

    The extras are pretty basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall