Review of Status Quo Anniversary Waltz

Introduction

Status Quo need no introduction. The group is often slated for playing simplistic songs with just three chords, but are still going strong 35 years after being formed, and still manage to sell out their tours

One of my friends is a Quo nut, in fact his whole family are, and he`s seen them live at least once a year since 1986 (no, he`s not receiving professional help for this!). Last year I joined them when Quo played Dundee`s Caird Hall which saw a surprisingly broad age group in the audience. Aside from the band, the highlights of the evening included people running up and down the aisles with inflatable guitars, and an old bloke waving his walking stick in the air in delight...

Anniversary Waltz refers to the band`s 25th Anniversary and features a show recorded at Butlins in Minehead in 1990.

Video

Ok, here`s a surprise. The video on my check disc was in NTSC. Now whilst this doesn`t pose me a problem, anyone with a non-multistandard television would have been watching in black and white, or not at all. Presumably retail copies will feature PAL video...

So consequently, my rating of the video refers to NTSC, which features less resolution and inferior colour reproduction to PAL. The quality itself is merely average, not looking overly different from the previously available Anniversary Waltz video, a slightly grainy image, not too much detail and nothing to shout about.

A little camera icon appears before the songs, and clicking OK brings up a short (and exceptionally cheesy) intro that is best forgotten about. The video combines footage of the band with a timeline of world events for each year of the bands career - which provides an interesting backdrop to the music. There is also archival footage of the band performing.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0. I listened to the songs with both soundtracks, and although the Dolby Digital 5.1 version sounds warmer, both are quite flat and suffer from excessive compression of the higher frequencies, with cymbals almost unnoticeable at times. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is particularly flat and lifeless.

Features

The main menu features an animated Eurostar train, which is rather bizarre, as the Eurostar didn`t exist when this concert was filmed. Considering that the disc contains footage of the train which Quo travelled on to the gig, surely it could have been used instead? Still, the menus look reasonably good…

The jukebox feature provides links to the songs within the main feature, via a nicely animated jukebox which is a pleasant alternative to the usual dull lists found on music discs.

There`s also a five minute "review" of the concert, with interviews and clips, along with a performance from the 1991 Brit Awards, where Quo were awarded with an award for their outstanding contribution to music.

Conclusion

Overall, most Quo fans probably already have this in their collection on VHS and the DVD offers nothing to warrant an upgrade - the video is unspectacular, the sound unimpressive and the extras aren`t all that good either.