The Moody Blues – Live At The Isle Of Wight
Festival 1970 (Eagle DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Main Program: (Docum.: B-/Concert: B)
Finally,
some classic footage of vintage The Moody Blues in action, even if it is part
of a somewhat longer documentary. After
releasing footage of The Who (reviewed elsewhere on this site) from the same
classic event, The Moody Blues – Live At
The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 shows that it was not a concert event
dominated by a single band by any means. If anything, it was a greater event that has
been told about in recent years.
Justin
Hayward, Graeme Edge, John Lodge and Mike Pinder are among those interviewed,
discussing the band then and now, plus circumstances, the concert and the
evolution of the band which is still around today and never broke up no matter
the personnel changes. The concert
happened on the heals of the album A
Question Of Balance and of all the footage I have seen of the band playing,
this is easily the best and most remarkable of many clips and full-length
concerts I have seen to date. When
Director Murray Lerner finally gets to the music in the latter half of these 79
minutes, the songs include:
1)
Gypsy
2)
Tuesday Afternoon
3)
Never Comes The Day
4)
Tortoise & The Hare
5)
Question
6)
The Sunset
7)
Melancholy Man
8)
Nights In White Satin
9)
Legend Of A Mind
As an
“encore”, a collage of several clips of the band performing their earlier hit, Ride My See Saw ends the program, though
I would have preferred either one clip or including all the clips uncut in an
extras section. Though the interview and
history segments are good, they are easily eclipsed by the concert which is a
must see for all fans of the band and great music in general. They are in amazing form and you can see what
a real band (and real Rock band) is all about as they go into action
reproducing music most bands could not begin to pull off. Don’t miss this disc.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a mix of mostly new High Definition
footage and 1970 concert footage from 16mm film, which can be grainy and even
faded at points. I would like to see
this footage on Blu-ray, while the HD footage has some softness and motion
blur, which will likely be more exaggerated on Blu-ray.
The DTS
5.1 mix is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes, but DTS for
the interviews only does so much, so its best use is for the 1970s audio which
can show its age, but sounds good otherwise despite some background noise to be
expected for a recording of its age and in its situation. There are no extras.
For more
on the band, try these links:
Super
Audio CD wave (five albums up to this concert, including Days Of Future Past, A
Question Of Balance, et al)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3637/The+Moody+Blues+%E2%80%93+U.K.
Live: Lovely To See You Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7200/Chicago+and+Earth,+Wind+&+Fire
Live At Montreux 1991 DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2289/The+Moody+Blues+-+Live+At+Montr
- Nicholas Sheffo
