Thursday, August 12, 2010

INSIDE THE DVD

Some scans from the Early Years UK DVD.  On the inside:


The info:


NTSC?  And a 5.1 surround option??  Wow.  And finally the promo sticker:


Another thing I noticed is on the Eagle Rock website.  They list both versions of the DVD, but only making the USA edition available to buy. I'm still waiting on a UK DVD to see if it works here.  I bought one because it's listed as NTSC and Region 0.

and for the USA fans, a preview clip of Strange Magic is on Amazon's page.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

My (UK)copy of "Early Years" has just been pushed through my letter box...

The DVD has a running time of 111 mins, and is region 0.
There is an insert with a write up and a good selection of stills.
Here is a brief review.....

The navigation is set out very well and is user friendly.
It is a fantastic insight into the early years of ELO - hence the title !!!

There is a lot of stuff that most fans would be familair with, but just to
touch on a couple of stand out features (!!) :

Brunel University 1973
Jeff Lynne pulling off (in great style might I add) a fantastic impression of a Caveman !!

Fusion 1976
"Strange Magic"
Particularly prominent on the curtain behind Bev Bevans drum kit - a somewhat familiar
image (bearing in mind this is 1976) a prototype of a certain album cover Character
who would make another appearance in 1979 ????

Would it not be interesting to find a link between the two ??

From the sleeve - "2010 Arden Enterprises exclusively licensed to Eagle Rock...."
I assume "Arden Enterprises" is David Arden - I wonder what other "ELO goodies" Mr Arden has tucked up his sleeve.....
When Jet Records went boom (for example) and for whatever reason, are there any ELO
studio session recordings hiding in a cupboard (bursting to get out !) ??
I for one still wonder to this day....
I wouldn't mind asking David Arden that question myself !
(And if there aren't any - what happened to them ??)
I wasn't even going to mention David Arden until I read that.....

I don't suppose this release has the full blessing of Jeff Lynne, having not made an appearance on "Face The Music" (not as active as you would like, almost DORMANT)
previous to release, or ELO.BIZ........ (lets ignore the former band members and buy a t shirt or a cap - a lot of thought has gone into the t shirt / cap designs don't you think ?)
In fact a lot of thought has gone into the site to be blunt - truly, truly AWFUL....
The fan sites have more of an ELO feel than ELO.BIZ !!!! (to date anyway)

Back to the DVD....... (got a bit sidetracked / emotional there, sorry....)
Sound and picture quality is good - imagine if the quality available to a band on a live stage these days was available to ELO back then (visuals and audio) - as good as these live concerts were / are - if ELO were afforded todays "live on stage" technology they would have been a couple of notches up from AWSOME :
Remembering that Jeff sorted the 'concert audio' for the "Concert For George" DVD release and a great job he did too. If Jeff had all that technology available back then.........
Having said that - no complaints, it is all part of the ELO history and as a fan I am more than happy with the DVD - a lot easier than fast forwarding / rewinding a video tape !!.
A recommended addition to your ELO collection, and worth a revisit or two.....
Buy it !!

Anonymous said...

My (UK)copy of "Early Years" has just been pushed through my letter box...

The DVD has a running time of 111 mins, and is region 0.
There is an insert with a write up and a good selection of stills.
Here is a brief review.....

The navigation is set out very well and is user friendly.
It is a fantastic insight into the early years of ELO - hence the title !!!

There is a lot of stuff that most fans would be familair with, but just to
touch on a couple of stand out features (!!) :

Brunel University 1973
Jeff Lynne pulling off (in great style might I add) a fantastic impression of a Caveman !!

Fusion 1976
"Strange Magic"
Particularly prominent on the curtain behind Bev Bevans drum kit - a somewhat familiar
image (bearing in mind this is 1976) a prototype of a certain album cover Character
who would make another appearance in 1979 ????

Would it not be interesting to find a link between the two ??

From the sleeve - "2010 Arden Enterprises exclusively licensed to Eagle Rock...."
I assume "Arden Enterprises" is David Arden - I wonder what other "ELO goodies" Mr Arden has tucked up his sleeve.....
When Jet Records went boom (for example) and for whatever reason, are there any ELO
studio session recordings hiding in a cupboard (bursting to get out !) ??
I for one still wonder to this day....
I wouldn't mind asking David Arden that question myself !
(And if there aren't any - what happened to them ??)
I wasn't even going to mention David Arden until I read that.....

I don't suppose this release has the full blessing of Jeff Lynne, having not made an appearance on "Face The Music" (not as active as you would like, almost DORMANT)
previous to release, or ELO.BIZ........ (lets ignore the former band members and buy a t shirt or a cap - a lot of thought has gone into the t shirt / cap designs don't you think ?)
In fact a lot of thought has gone into the site to be blunt - truly, truly AWFUL....
The fan sites have more of an ELO feel than ELO.BIZ !!!! (to date anyway)

Back to the DVD....... (got a bit sidetracked / emotional there, sorry....)
Sound and picture quality is good - imagine if the quality available to a band on a live stage these days was available to ELO back then (visuals and audio) - as good as these live concerts were / are - if ELO were afforded todays "live on stage" technology they would have been a couple of notches up from AWSOME :
Remembering that Jeff sorted the 'concert audio' for the "Concert For George" DVD release and a great job he did too. If Jeff had all that technology available back then.........
Having said that - no complaints, it is all part of the ELO history and as a fan I am more than happy with the DVD - a lot easier than fast forwarding / rewinding a video tape !!.
A recommended addition to your ELO collection, and worth a revisit or two.....
Buy it !!

Anonymous said...

For some reason my comments have doubled up - and my review has appeared twice ! apologies....
But still buy the DVD !
: )

Jerry said...

Excellent. Thanks!

Yep, the Arden's (I believe) put out the Wembley DVD, so I'm guessing Jeff isn't necessarily doing back flips over this one.

But, I'm reading good things about this DVD so far. A lot of fans have been begging for a clean Fusion concert for years.

TrekkiELO said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TrekkiELO said...

Seeing Bev Bevan play the tambourine and sing up front on that Strange Magic Amazon video sample instead of behind his drum kit was strange!

8-)

Rick

Anonymous said...

Re : Strange Magic

I wonder if there is a link between the artist responsible for the image on the curtain behind Bev Bevan's drum kit and the artwork for the Discovery album ????
Maybe it was an idea kicking round in Jeff Lynne's head on both occasions and he has a thing about turbans ??

michelle mendoza said...

ok just to be absolutely clear, if i buy the uk version of this dvd it will play on my dvd player/xbox no problem, right?!?!?

thanks for the help! :)

michelle mendoza said...

i am in the USA by the way! sorry, i forgot to include that in my previous post!

Jerry said...

Hi Michelle, I have a UK version on the way, I will confirm in the next few days either way.

It's odd that the info on the back of the DVD case says NTSC and not PAL. If it's NTSC and Region 0, we should be able to watch it. But you never know...

Michelle Mendoza said...

Thanks so much for you help, Jerry! I just want to make sure that it will work before I get my hopes up!

Jerry said...

Michelle, the retailers where I got a UK version haven't charged my card yet, I just checked. So, the wait for this may be a bit longer than I expected. Stay tuned...

Michelle Mendoza said...

That's alright, Jerry! I have waited a long time for a new ELO DVD. A little longer won't hurt (much)! =] thanks again for letting me know!

TrekkiELO said...

Received mine on Saturday, August 14th and I can definately confirm it plays just fine on my 5 year old Magnavox NTSC DVD player bought from a Wal-Mart in Indiana!

Anonymous said...

UK version appears to be "enhanced" somewhat after playing it on my blu ray player !
(it plays dvd and blu ray discs)
VERY impressed with the brunel university stuff.

TrekkiELO said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TrekkiELO said...

My quick review:

First off, all of its menus have this very cool on/off electricity effect.

These performances are great, raw, then lively, one awkward moment where Jeff Lynne has a bow wrapped under him which strums his guitar, another take on what Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page did, also nice to see Kelly get some frontman vocal time while Jeff jams around other band members.

Their Bonus Feature Rockpalast Interview has band member introductions, somebody says Mik Kaminski farts, then Jeff Lynne credits himself, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan and Richard Tandy as coming up with the ELO concept.

Awesome insert advertises Wembley/Discovery 1998 & Wembley2006 remaster DVDs as well.

Bottom line, buy it now!

8-)

Rick

Michelle Mendoza said...

Thanks for the help everyone!!! I really appreciate it! =•] off to buy my own copy now!!!