Review of Paul Carrack Live at the Opera House

Introduction

You might not have heard of Paul Carrack, but you`ll certainly have heard some of his songs, and you`ll know some of the bands that he`s been involved with. He`s worked with Warm Dust, Ace, Roxy Music, The Undertones, The Smiths, The Pretenders, Mike + The Mechanics, Roger Waters, Ringo Starr, Nick Lowe, Spin 1ne 2wo (whose album is very hard to find), and Squeeze, as well as having a solo career too.

This DVD presents a concert "Live at the Opera House". Ooh, great you`re thinking, a chance to see Paul play at the fantastic Sydney Opera House, with lots of footage of the venue and the surrounding area. Hah - the evil marketing people have fooled you again. The Opera House is in question is not located in Sydney, Australia, but in Derbyshire, England. Ho hum.

The set list is outlined up above, combining work from Paul`s solo career as well as songs from his time with various bands.

Video

A 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer greets us, and it`s a pretty good effort despite the low profile of the artist. It`s a fine transfer, colours are excellent and everything is nice and sharp.

This is a concert DVD, so you know what to expect. The band up on stage, playing their instruments, with a few swirly lights going round.

Audio

A curious choice of soundtracks here. First up is DD2.0 stereo, which is your usual pretty good stereo effort.

Next up is a DD4.0 soundtrack, which is just front left + right, and rear left + right. Who on earth decided to record the DVD this way? No centre channel, no bass channel? For a concert DVD. Are you mad? What you do get sounds reasonable, but you can`t help feeling that something`s missing somewhere, and a bit more thought about the mix would have resulted in a better job.

Finally a dts soundtrack - but this is the same as the DD4.0 soundtrack - just front left + right, and rear left + right again. It does sound slightly more expansive, but it`s still diddling us out of those extra 2 channels. You can listen to it, but you do seem to want more.

Features

An interview with Paul, where he talks about the tour, equipment going missing and more.

Also included is a before and after feature, which shows the venue before and after the gig. There`s a bit of rehearsal, people coming and going, and then interviews with the audience after the show.

Conclusion

You might not have heard of Paul Carrack, but I have. I have that rare Spin 1ne 2wo album, as well as many of the songs that he`s worked on with other bands. I`ve even seen him live, supporting other artists. So I was looking forward to this DVD. And I wasn`t disappointed, until I got to the sound.

You see, if you`re going to release a music DVD, then you should really mix the sound in the best way possible to showcase the music of the featured artist. And some dodgy halfway house DD4.0/dts 4.0 soundtrack doesn`t do that in my opinion. The stereo soundtrack is ok, but if I wanted stereo I`d buy a CD. Music DVDs are all about bringing us the best quality sound. This DVD brings good sound, but it could have been so much better, and it would have been a better showcase for some of the great songs in the set list.

So there`s the problem. Fans will probably want this DVD, and fans of most of the bands mentioned at the start will also be interested in it I expect. It`s just that it`s not as good as it could have been. I`ll probably listen to it again, but I`ll be trying to supress the fact that it`s not as good as it should be while I do.

A missed opportunity to showcase an excellent songwriter.