“Cliff and The Shadows – The Final Reunion” DVD Review
With a career spanning six decades, charismatic pop icon Cliff Richard is the only UK artist to have charted #1 in five consecutive decades. In 1959, he began recording with The Shadows, an alliance that strengthened both acts’ legacies. Fifty years later, the most successful partnership in UK history has reunited for a final international tour. Sir Cliff Richard, in addition to over 20 years worth of chart success, was the first pop star ever bestowed knighthood by the Queen of England, receiving the honor for his tireless charity work in 1995. He has enjoyed 123 hit singles, while The Shadows endured with continuous chart success of their own.
Synopsis
Filmed during a three night stint at the O2 Arena in London in Autumn 2009, The Final Tour DVD, with a run time of 137 minutes, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Cliff and The Shadows’ first collaboration. Musical gems such as their #1 hits “Living Doll,” “It’s All In The Game,” “Bachelor Boy,” and “Apache,” as well as a 30-minute bonus feature with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, are included. The Final Tour – Together Again will continue throughout 2010, with stops in Australia and their first-ever shows in New Zealand.
It seems the majority of these concerts being released by Eagle Rock lately are all of British talent I’ve never come close to hearing of. In fact the cover art looks like a collection of old men (and one of them kind of looks like John Kerry) so I was less than thrilled to watch a concert with a bunch of fuddy-duddies playing rock from the 1950s. But, as always, I persevere on and step into the concert regardless and await disappointment. And while the songs definitely showed their age, it was still a rather entertaining concert to witness nonetheless.
I know nothing about this band, short of what the press release (quote above) told me, so watching them perform for their 50th anniversary was entirely lost on me, I’m afraid to say. Still even when it’s a band you don’t know, 15,000 loud and noisy fans will make the hairs on your arms raise in anticipation regardless of who is about to come out on stage. It’s always a great feeling to get and one I doubt I’ll ever grow tired of. Of course it could’ve sounded and looked better if this concert was on Blu-ray…but that’s just a minor quibble.
The track listing for this over two hour concert includes:
01) Reunion 2009
02) We Say Yeah
03) In The Country
04) Gee Whizz It’s You
05) A Voice In The Wilderness
06) Living Doll
07) Dancing Shoes
08) I’m The Lonely One
09) A Girl Like You
10) Do You Wanna Dance
11) Shadoogie
12) Dance On
13) Wonderful Land
14) The Savage
15) Sleepwalk
16) High Class Baby
17) I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You)
18) Willie And The Hand Jive
19) Sea Cruise
20) C’mon Everybody
21) Dynamite
22) Lucky Lips
23) Travellin’ Light
24) Time Drags By
25) All Shook Up
26) Please Don’t Tease
27) Apache
28) Foot-Tapper
29) Atlantis
30) Fbi
31) I Love You
32) The Next Time
33) Don’t Talk To Him
34) On The Beach
35) Summer Holiday
36) Bachelor Boy
37) Nine Times Out Of Ten
38) It’ll Be Me
39) Visions
40) Move It
41) Singing The Blues
42) The Young Ones
Yup…you read that right. Forty-two songs! It’s definitely a full concert and it spans the catalog of The Shadows, so those who knew them throughout the decades at different stages of their career will find songs to enjoy as well as older and newer ones. Or, if you’re like me, new ones entirely because you’ve never heard of the band before. Recommended for fans, but if you don’t know of the band the I’d suggest checking out some clips of their music online before delving into this for a purchase.
The DVD
Cliff and the Shadows – The Final Reunion arrives on DVD in the standard clear Amaray case. Surprisingly enough there’s no booklet included, but the double sided insert is a nice touch and the disc art is a plain black with the concert title in gold. Video is surprisingly strong for a live production, but seeing as it was recorded less than a year ago I imagine this was mastered from an HD source anyway. Audio is a DD5.1 mix (with back-up Stereo) that sounds really quite amazing, with crystal clear audio from start to finish and a great spread around the room for the various instruments. I’m a bit surprised there was no PCM track, although I guess since the concert was so long there likely wasn’t room on this disc for that.
Extras include a singular Behind the Scenes (15:58) effort, but it’s really quite revealing as to the chemistry between the band members. It’s well worth checking out if you really enjoyed the concert or are a fan of them (but if you’re a fan you likely don’t need to be told to watch that piece).
Overall a Recommended release for fans.
Cliff and The Shadows – The Final Reunion is now available on DVD.