Review of Rolling Stones, The: The Stones In The Park

Introduction

"The Stones In The Park" is a documentary that looks at the famous 1969 Hyde Park concert, which was attended by 500,000 people.

Aside from the behind the scenes footage, the disc includes eight songs from the performance.

Video

Given the age of the video, in general it is presented very well, with little grain and reasonable detail. There is quite a bit of dirt evident on some shots, although it doesn`t detract from the enjoyment of the program.

Visuals consist of the band on stage, the crowd, some interviews with Jagger and various bits of behind-the-scenes footage.

Audio

Despite the packaging proclaiming Dolby Digital Mono 1.0, the sound is actually 2.0, with the mono sound repeated in both front channels.

The sound quality is probably hindered by the analog master tapes, with the high frequencies, notably the cymbals, sounding a little distorted. There`s a general lack of dynamic range, and the sound is more akin to audio cassette than DVD. A couple of songs also seemed to have slight fluctuations in the sound level.

The speech in the documentary sections is clear and easy to understand.

Features

There are no extras, not even a Stones discography. The menus are in a suitable 60’s style and look good, it’s just a shame that “Play” and “Track Listing” are the only choices!

The DVD is housed in a black Amaray Case, which contains an insert with a track listing and adverts for other Granada DVDs.

Conclusion

Overall "The Stones In The Park" is a good snapshot of this historic concert, with good music and interesting documentary and interview footage.

Video and sound aren`t too bad considering that the master material is 32 years old (yes, if you were there it was that long ago!). There are however no extras on the disc, so £19.99 for 53 minutes of old material does not represent good value for money - this disc really should be £12.99 or less in my opinion.

Given the poor value, the overall score is slightly lower than it should be.