WINGS - DVD
ROCK SHOW

LABEL:
Wings Fan WINDVD01
SOURCE:
Seattle Kingdome, Seattle, WA - June 10th, 1976
FORMAT:
NTSC all region DVDR
RUNNING TIME:
approx. 103 minutes
SOUND/SOURCE:
dolby digital stereo
PACKAGING:
plastic keep case
 

WINDVD01 - front

WINDVD01 - back


SOUND 9 / PACKAGING 7 / PERFORMANCE 9

 
TRACK LIST:
Venus And Mars, Rock Show, Jet, Let Me Roll It, Spirits Of Ancient Egypt, Medicine Jar, Maybe I'm Amazed, Live And Let Die, Bluebird, I've Just Seen A Face/Yesterday/You Gave Me The Answer, Magneto And Titanium Man, Go Now, Listen To What The Man Said, Let 'Em In, Time To Hide, Silly Love Songs, Beware My Love, Letting Go, Band On The Run, Hi Hi Hi, Soily
 
REVIEW:
Rockshow is a relic that doesn't deserve its obscurity.  The Wings' 1975-1976 tours were so massive they produced a triple live album, a television special "Wings Over The World" and the concert movie Rockshow.  The television show wasn't broadcast until three years afterwards in 1979 and the film had to wait almost four years for its U.S. premier on November 26th, 1980 and five for its U.K. premier on April 8th, 1981.  It was in the theater for only several weeks and received very poor reviews (Roger Ebert hated it).  It received some rotation on cable.  Thorn/EMI Video issued it on home VHS and a laser disc in Japan in the mid eighties are the only official releases of the film and has been out of print for twenty years.  (There is a semi-official looking release listed on Amazon with the movie plus various videos from the seventies but it too is out of print).  Rock Show on Wing Fan is a dvdr transfer of the Japanese laser disc in excellent quality.  The film was shot on 35mm and the theatrical 4:3 aspect ratio is preserved on this release.  The picture looks very good but a bit soft with some specks and scratches.
 
The sound is stereo dolby digital 2.0 audio that sounds very good on my system.  There are some syncing problems on the original release as well. 
The June 10th, 1976 show at the Kingdome in Seattle was filmed.  On this release "I've Just Seen A Face", "Yesterday", and "You Gave Me The Answer" are all tracked together as "3 song medley" for reasons unexplained.  "Call Me Back Again", "Lady Madonna", "The Long And Winding Road", "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)", "Richard Corey", "Blackbird" and "My Love", are omitted.  About this show The Seattle Times reported:  "If there was any doubt that the Kingdome was suitable for rock shows, Paul McCartney and Wings wiped it out last night with a spectacular extravaganza that was the highlight of their American tour.  It was the biggest audience of the tour and set a new indoor attendance record for a single act - 67,000-plus. The stage light and sound systems were larger than any other date on the tour and were specially designed for the Dome. The concert was filmed, videotaped and recorded and Geraldo Rivera and his crew shot footage for an upcoming ABC-TV special.

"McCartney himself was bubbling with enthusiasm and obviously happy with the record crowd. He was full of boundless energy throughout the two-hour show, mugging, prancing and joking. He said he was having a good time and he looked it . . . One of the great excitements of the entire evening was the deafening roar of 67,000 people at the end and the sight of thousands of matches lighting the darkened hall before the encore. . .Nothing could have christened the Dome as a rock hall more dramatically or excitingly - the only currently performing Beatle in the biggest show of his tour. It was a night Seattle rockers will long remember."  One assumes the entire show was filmed although the other songs have never surfaced in any form and there are no plans to release a special edition of the film on dvd which is a shame because this is a very enjoyable document.  The Wings on stage were an interesting group to watch with Denny Laine's double neck guitars and Paul's Rickenbacker bass and the endless tambourines on mic stands.  Like most Wings productions Paul gets most of the camera. 

Even during numbers like Jimmy McCulloch's "Medicine Jar" the cameraman focus upon Paul blowing kisses to his wife instead of Jimmy singing the song (poor guy).  The fashions will also make one cringe with Paul sporting a mullet ten years after they were in vogue.  Wing Fan is a very minor label.  This is their first and probably only dvdr production.  The insert is very cheaply produced with the photo used for the movie poster on the front cover.  There are no extras on the dvdr either, simply the movie and a menu listing for each individual song.  Hopefully someday a special edition dvd will be officially released with the entire concert and tons of extras and the ultra cool television trailer with a print made from the master film.  Paul seems to have disowned the Wings period of his career so releasing the movie and the television special are pretty much out of the question.  However the quality is as good as can be expected and is an affordable way to pick this film up.   


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