Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 17, 2015

Chances are few people on this side of the pond have heard of Nordoff Robbins, but this vaunted British company has provided music therapy for untold thousands of people for the past several decades. A nice array of circa late 80s — early 90s British stars came out to support Nordoff Robbins in a fundraiser staged on June 30, 1990 at Knebworth House. Well over 100,000 were in attendance, and in fact those people as well as latter day adherents watching this Blu-ray may feel that they have received their own particular kind of pop-rock music therapy courtesy of the winning and energetic performances on display here. All of the acts are in fine voice and playing form, and if there are occasional stumbles (Sir Paul makes an unfortunate reference to “retarded people” receiving music therapy), they’re more than offset by the excellence of the music.

The bands and songs performed on this disc are:

Tears for Fears

1. Change
2. Badman’s Song
3. Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Cliff Richard & The Shadows

4. On the Beach
5. Good Golly Miss Molly
6. We Don’t Talk Anymore

Phil Collins & The Serious Band

7. In the Air Tonight
8. Sussudio

Paul McCartney

9. Coming Up
10. Birthday
11. Hey Jude
12. Can’t Buy Me Love

Status Quo

13. Whatever You Want
14. Rockin’ All Over the World
15. Dirty Water
16. In the Army Now

Eric Clapton

17. Before You Accuse Me
18. Tearin’ Us Apart

Dire Straits

19. Solid Rock
20. Think I Love You Too Much
21. Money For Nothing

Elton John

22. Sacrifice
23. Sad Songs (Say So Much)

Robert Plant

24. Hurting Kind
25. Tall Cool One
26. Wearing & Tearing (with Jimmy Page)
27. Rock and Roll (with Jimmy Page)

Genesis

28. Mama
29. Throwing It All Away
30. Turn It On Again Medley: Turn It On Again/ Everybody Needs Somebody to Love/ Reach Out, I’ll Be There/ Pinball Wizard/ In the Midnight Hour/ Turn It On Again (Reprise)

Pink Floyd

31. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
32. Run Like Hell

Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Live at Knebworth is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.30:1. This is one of Eagle Rock's so-called "SD Blu-rays" and anyone who's checked out a previous release in this marketing niche will pretty much know what to expect here. The image is often very ragged looking, though colors have come through with appealing vividness. There are some inherent issues like video roll and interlacing issues which the upconvert have not helped and in fact have probably exacerbated. Things look a bit better in motion than some of these screenshots might suggest, but this is not going to make anyone's "reference quality video" showcase list anytime soon.

Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Live at Knebworth offers what is this release's ostensible calling card(s), lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 audio mixes. Overall clarity on both of these mixes is exceptional, though there are a couple of trade offs worth noting. To my ears, the 5.1 mix offers a bit too much of an overwhelming lower midrange, causing massed instruments to sound on the "boomy" side, sometimes overpowering higher frequencies. On the other hand, the somewhat more focused sounding 2.0 iteration has a bit of brightness on the high end that makes elements like huge waves of applause and cheering from the audience sound a bit on the "silvery" side at times. Either/both of these anomalies are negligible in any case, and both tracks offer generally superior fidelity and excellent dynamic range.

Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc, and in fact this is one of the few Eagle Rock releases I personally recall that just boots right into the feature, without an intervening main menu. (There is a Pop Up Menu available.)

There is a reproduction of the original Knebworth Program included in the keepcase.

Live at Knebworth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Eagle Rock's press materials state that proceeds from the sale of this Blu-ray will continue to support the cause of music therapy, so there's perhaps a karmically offsetting reason to purchase this despite the limitations of the source video. One way or the other, the performances are largely enjoyable and the audio on this disc is generally excellent.