Review of Deep Purple: Come Hell Or High Water

Introduction

We’ve already established elsewhere DVD Reviewer that I am an AC/DC fan, well it’s now time for another confession – I also like Deep Purple (and all the associated bands – Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake etc). I’ve got about 20 Deep Purple CDs, plus some old vinyl and the slightly disappointing Albert Hall DVD.

This DVD features a 1993 concert filmed at the NEC, Birmingham and has 16 tracks covering Purple’s classics, along with material from the then current “The Battle Rages On” album. Also included are interviews with Gillan, Paice, Lord & Glover (Blackmore is, as ever, absent from the interviews – and in fact didn’t bother completing this tour).

Video

The video is presented in 1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen – this ratio is 15:9 so it’s either a case of using the 14:9 mode on your television and still having small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, or using 16:9 mode and losing a little bit of the picture. I would have preferred something a little closer to the standard ratios provided on 16:9 TVs!

Despite not being anamorphically enhanced, the picture quality is very good, and far better than many other live concerts I’ve seen on DVD. There’s no dirt on the print, and the image is detailed and blemish free.

There are interviews with band members between each track, which maintain the same standard.

Visually, the concert is standard rock-group stuff, with smoke, lasers and lighting accompanying the band on-stage.

Audio

The sound has been remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 and sounds great – the mix uses all channels, but is concentrated on the three front speakers. There is plenty of range in the soundtrack, and the music and vocals are all clear.

During the interviews, the dialogue is always clear and understandable.

Features

xtras consist of biographies, interviews and details of the various band line-ups. There are also interviews between the tracks in the main feature and I would have preferred that they were all put together into one long documentary, rather than spread out all over the place.

The menus are straightforward and easy to navigate.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case which includes a folded insert containing some background information on Deep Purple, some quotes from the tour and a track listing (also repeated on the rear of the outer label).

Conclusion

Overall, this is a superb DVD for fans of Deep Purple. The track listing is fantastic, and the songs are well performed and all very enjoyable. Aside from the classics, there’s also “Beethoven” – a track Blackmore once performed with Rainbow and an orchestra and some of the newer (at the time) material.

The video looks good, despite the odd ratio, and the 5.1 remixed sound makes good songs sound even better. The interviews are interesting, although they would have been better if they had all been combined together.

All things considered, I really enjoyed this DVD and recommend it to fans of the group.