Brian
Henderson's Bandstand: Live At The Capitol Theater, Perth 1965/Live
In Australia: Roy Orbison 1965/The Everly Brothers Live In Sydney
1968/Liza
Minnelli & The Allen Brothers 1967/Dionne Warwick 1966/Best
Of Volume 3, 1965 - 66/Volume
4, 1967 - 70 (Umbrella
PAL Region Free DVDs)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-/B/B/B+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Bandstand
Import PAL DVDs are only available exclusively from our friends at
Umbrella Entertainment in Australia and all can be ordered from the
link below.
Brian
Henderson's Bandstand
ran from 1958 - 1972 and Umbrella Entertainment has been issuing some
really fine footage from the show, which was not connected to the
Dick Clark hit in the U.S., but shares the same name. We covered two
Best
Of
DVD sets and I gave my initial impressions of the show at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12361/The+Best+Of+Bandstand,+Volume+One:+1960
Most
of those acts are back in the 5 new releases that have just joined
the previous two including two more Best
Of
sets and the first star-driven singles. We will now tell you about
the highlights of each set, as the performance lists are too long for
this review.
Live
At The Capitol Theater, Perth 1965
still is mostly acts only Aussies of the time would know from their
home base of music playing the amusingly names New
Wave On Stage 1965
show including the wildly popular Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs,
Bryan Davies, Max Merritt & The Meteors (great name), Lynne
Randell, Paul Wayne and Jade Hurley among them. That leaves the
Lawrence Welk-like style behind, but these acts are really not much
better live than they were in studio on the previous episodes of the
show. Still, it is a time capsule of the show, its artists and how
the acts Down Under were a step or so behind their U.K. & U.S.
counterparts. At least the young audience seems to be having a good
time.
Live
In Australia: Roy Orbison 1965/The Everly Brothers Live In Sydney
1968
is a nice double feature of both legendary acts in prime form.
Orbison had been on a hot streak of hits since 1960 at the Monument
label, young and ironically rapping up his time at company before
moving to MGM Records, but he is in great form in these rarely seen
performances of Pretty
Woman,
Mean
Woman Blues,
Pretty
Paper,
Blue
Bayou
and In
Dreams.
The Everlys were at Warner Bros. for a few years when they delivered
this actual stage performance complete with their joking with each
other and their band, talking to the audience and had racked up over
a few dozen hits there and at their first label, Cadence. Here, they
perform Lucille,
Suzi
Q,
Walk
Right Back,
Wake
Up Little Suzy,
Cathy's
Clown,
All I
Have To Do Is Dream,
Bye
Bye Love,
So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad), Bowling
Green,
('Til)
I Kissed You,
Bird
Dog,
Let It
Be Me,
Be Bop
A Lula
and Kentucky.
There are nice variations on some of the classics, they are amazing
together and it is a rare opportunity to see how great they were in
action. This is a great disc.
Liza
Minnelli & The Allen Brothers 1967/Dionne Warwick 1966
is no weaker with a very young Minnelli opening singing the theme
from Cabaret
five years before making the hit movie, while later delivering Liza
With A Z,
If I
Were In Your Shoes,
Meantime,
You've
Let Yourself Go,
One Of
Those Songs,
Maybe
This Time
and Everybody
Loves My Baby
with The Allen Brothers. She was married to Peter Allen at this
point, who later became the subject of the musical The
Boy From Oz.
Warwick was on a hit streak on the Scepter label recording classic
after classic by the up and coming Burt Bacharach & Hal David,
who she speaks of highly in between amazing performances of Taking
A Chance On Love,
Anyone
Who Had A Heart,
Trains
& Boats & Planes,
Reach
Out For Me,
Message
To Michael
and a jazzy version of Somewhere
from West
Side Story.
It
is easy to forget what an amazing act she was live and she really
lets loose singing live instead of to the hit recordings and an play
against the tricky time signatures with even more challenging
phrasing than you would hear form just about any singer then or now.
There is also her very British Carnaby Street outfit in black &
white and all in mink that you have to see to believe, but the best
reason to see this segment is to see an American original in her
early glory and in exceptional power and control of her talents.
Best
Of Volume 3, 1965 - 66
is loaded with talent from Down Under and highlights that surprise
form this set include Brenda Lee (holding a Teddy Bear, the host says
they were not happy with her visit!) singing Emotion,
Bobby Vee sings Staying
In,
Vicki Carr sings Let's
Talk About Love,
Wayne Newton starts talling up singing As
Long As I'm Singing,
Peter Paul & Mary sing Jesus
Met The Woman,
Patsy Ann Noble sings the very interesting I
Did Nothing Wrong,
The Bee Gees sings My
Old Man's A Dustman,
I
Was A Lover,
Leader
Of Men,
Wine
& Women,
and Spicks & Specks, actress Jacki Weaver sings Wild!,
He
Don't Want Your Love Anymore
and On
The Good Ship Lollipop
and a newly award-winning Helen Reddy sings Come
Back My Love,
Give
Me Some Love
and No
Return
as she begins her journey to become one of the top vocalists in the
world.
The
New Christie Minstrels show up with a medley, as do The Searchers
(five songs including a live version of Love
Potion No. 9
that is far superior to their hit version), a very young Tom Jones
(with 6 songs including It's
Not Unusual
and the title song from the James Bond film Thunderball),
Herman's Hermits do three songs including I'm
Into Something Good,
and The Rolling Stones singing Get
Off Of My Cloud,
Play
With Fire,
19th
Nervous Breakdown,
As
Tears Go By
and Satisfaction.
And if that were not enough for a 5 DVD set, we get a special live
show with a very young Little Richard making his 1960s comeback
singing 10 songs, introducing The Shirelles (who he sings I've
Got Joy Down In My Heart)
who sing Everybody
Loves A Winner
and Will
You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
But in the middle of that show, an also-on-the-comeback Jerry Lee
Lewis shows up all out in full piano power mode performing Great
Balls Of Fire,
You
Win Again,
High
School Confidential,
I'm
On Fire
and You're
Cheatin' Heart.
It
is as amazing as set as has been issued to date.
However,
the Best
Of Volume 4, 1967 - 70
set is impressive, has 5 DVDs as well and includes Jacki Weaver
singing Young
Love
and I
Feel Pretty,
Frankie Avalon delivering 6 songs including It
Had To Be You,
Olivia Newton-John singing The Beatles' Here,
There & Everywhere,
a solid nightclub turn by Lainie Kazan singing Sonny,
Night
Song,
If You
Go Away
and a Porgy
& Bess
medley, The Young Americans, Lou Rawls and Patsy Ann Noble have their
medleys and a young Neil Sedaka shows up for a show that includes Oh
Carol,
Star
Crossed-Lovers,
Next
Door To An Angel,
You
Mean Everything To Me,
Calendar
Girl
and a triad with Judy Stone & Norma Stoneman of The Beatles' With
A Little Help From My Friends.
I
did not include most of the Aussie acts to make a point; these are
great sets even if you are not from there and though they have no
extras, you'll have hours of great performances not available
anywhere else that makes this series worth going out of its way for.
The
1.33 X 1 black and white image transfers are kinescopes of the
performances that can be rough (they records the image off of a TV
picture tube in on 16mm monochrome film) and have some scratches,
dirt and debris. The second-generation copies loose detail and
become a little washed out. Still, we're lucky these survived. All
sound is in
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and can be distorted or a bit brittle in
parts, so don't expect much dynamic range. Still, it can sound fine
for its age and under the circumstances.
To
order any or all of the
Umbrella import PAL Region Free Bandstand
DVDs, go to this link for more information:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
