“The Shadows – The Final Tour” Blu-ray 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
Following the DVD release of Cliff And The Shadows: The Final Reunion (January 19, 2010), The Final Tour (originally released on standard DVD on November 2004) captures The Shadows performing at Cardiff International Arena on June 5, 2004 in the midst of a sold-out UK arena tour. Chipping into a catalogue six decades deep, guitarist Hank Marvin (whose performance style has influenced the likes of Brian May, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton), and bassist Bruce Welch, and drummer Brian Bennett performed over three hours of music. Additionally, a 45-minute bonus interview is included.
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. I realized while watching this concert that I’d already seen some of these guys previously from “The Final Reunion” DVD release a few months back. Shockingly enough I don’t think there’s any overlap between the forty-two tracks presented on the “Final Reunion” DVD and the forty-two tracks presented here on the “Final Tour” Blu-ray. It’s definitely an astonishing number as well as a diverse catalog, as this concert covers music from the 60s, 70s, 80s and other various genres that really makes for an incredibly varied concert.
I know nothing about this band, short of what the press release (quote above) told me, so watching them perform for their “last” time was entirely lost on me, I’m afraid to say. Then again I said the same thing about that final “anniversary” concert too, so who knows how many of these things will happen. Still even when it’s a band you don’t know, thousands of 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.
The full track list includes:
1. Intro – Apache Medley
2. Riders In The Sky
3. The Frightened City
4. Theme For Young Lovers
5. Peace Pipe
6. The Savage
7. Let Me Be The One
8. The Stranger
9. Kon Tiki
10. Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)
11. Dance On
12. Nivram
13. Lady Of The Morning
14. My Home Town
15. Guitar Tango
16. Geronimo
17. Sleepwalk
18. 36-24-36
19. Shazam
20. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
21. Equinox V
22. Mountains Of The Moon
23. Shadoogie
24. Gonzales
25. Don’t Make My Baby Blue
26. The Rise And Fall Of Flingle Bunt
27. Atlantis
28. Shindig
29. Man Of Mystery
30. Foot Tapper
31. Please Don’t Tease
32. In The Country
33. I Could Easily Fall
34. The Day I Met Marie
35. Gee Whiz It’s You
36. Summer Holiday
37. Bachelor Boy
38. Little B
39. Theme From The Deerhunter
40. Wonderful Land
41. FBI
42. Apache
Overall a Recommended concert for fans who have somehow yet to see it (considering it first released on CD and DVD back in 2004, I’m guessing most have seen it already).
The Blu-ray
Eagle Rock Entertainment brings The Shadows – The Final Tour to Blu-ray in a standard Elite Blu-ray case. A booklet inside contains information and photos from the concert as well as information about the group, while the menu system for the disc lays out everything in a nice and tidy fashion. There are a few extras as well, so it’s a pretty solid package.
The video arrives in an AVC encoded 1080i transfer and since this concert is still fairly modern (although in technical terms it’s probably ancient as it clocks in at six years old), we get a very clear picture overall. The usual inhibitors of a live concert are here, such as the lightning or smoke/fog making for a sometimes overly smooth picture, but overall the transfer here is really solid with a lot of detail, particularly in close-ups where the clothing and set detail can pop a bit more. As is usual with Eagle Rock releases, the film boasts three audio tracks as well, a DTS-HD MA, DD5.1 and a PCM track. All three have their merits, but it’s the DTS-HD that is the king of the listing here, as it has a nice spread about the room and represents the individual musical styling’s remarkably well.
Extras include a solitary Bonus Interview (~45 minutes), but it’s a nice overview of the bands history and what they were feeling before this particular show. Once again a solid package and considering there’s three hours worth of performances here as well as a nearly hour long bonus interview, there’s plenty on this disc to keep your attention occupied. Recommended.
The Shadows – The Final Tour is now available on Blu-ray.