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16 years today since the Shads final tour hit Blackpool.
Be getting the blu ray out and toasting the lads. Wonderful
night best show ever.

Yes Norman,

A good occasion to view the Blu-ray or DVD again.
It's so sad the first half of the show before the intermission,Hanks sound is distorted and you can clearly see they know it, during the second part it was fixed...
They saw during the pause the raw footage, and the story is... one of Hanks Q20 input level was turned up by accident.
Hard to believe, because that could be heard on the monitor mix and JJ aka Stage Left would notice.

Cheers Rob

The recording for the VHS, DVD, double CD and Blu-Ray was made exactly 16 years ago today in Cardiff. How time flies! Did anyone on this forum attend this concert? The audience seemed a little subdued.

iefje wrote:The recording for the VHS, DVD, double CD and Blu-Ray was made exactly 16 years ago today in Cardiff. How time flies! Did anyone on this forum attend this concert? The audience seemed a little subdued.

Someone did a report at the time, having attended on the night (this would have been on the old site). I recall there being one or two fluffs - the most noticeable being from Hank on Riders towards the end - but they kept it all in. I remember Hank saying afterwards that the presence of the TV cameras can sometimes make you make the odd mistake - which wouldn't normally happen!

Regarding Rob's comments, which I think are overstated - personally a little overdrive (which was only really marginally noticeable on Kon-Tiki for me) from the Q20 didn't bother me at all - it certainly doesn't ever register or detract from my enjoyment of the DVD / Bluray as a whole. I recall some negative comments at the time (again on the old site) which Brian Bennett actually responded to, saying that if it really annoyed anyone that much, he would buy back their DVD from them!

Hi Bernard,

Back then there were quiet more then a few who heard distortion on a large part of the tunes before the intermission.
The culprit is, not all systems could play all the sound options on the DVD's Blu-ray.
Most folks with systems with all the surround options, the ones they switched between the sound-modules could hear on some of the modules a distortion on Hanks signal during the hole first half, some tunes more and some less...
On the top of my head, it's years ago I listen(yes indeed because of the sound before the pause).
One of the options is much worse then others and their is one, on which Kon Tiki is the worst and the rest much lesser then on the other modules.
Some bass mixes are also very different between sound modules.

It's nice you bring Brian's first reaction on this matter....in a later stage(when peeps including Warren demoed the distortion) Brian reaction was different.
A year later when I mentioned to Hank in Brian dressing room(Amsterdam), he told me they were unhappy surprised during the intermission(and that is visible on their faces when they re-enter the stage.
Also it was discussed on a serious level not to published the DVD etc....but commitments were on paper and involving a lot of money.
So I have it from 3 of the horses mouth so to speak....stupid me I forgot to ask Bruce that day...

It's indeed long ago and lets go on with other musical adventures

Cheers Rob

I was at the Cardiff concert and I didn't notice anything wrong with the sound in the first half at the time. It wasn't until others pointed it out afterwards and I watched/ listened to the DVD that I picked up on the occasional slight distortion.

To me, the audience seemed enthusiastic and there was a great atmosphere.

bor64 wrote:One of the options is much worse then others and their is one, on which Kon Tiki is the worst.

I agree, it's particularly noticeable on the Kon-Tiki endind chords. It's a pity this occured during the recorded show. No such thing happened at the two Final Tour concerts I attended, Brighton and Paris.

Didier wrote:

bor64 wrote:One of the options is much worse then others and their is one, on which Kon Tiki is the worst.

I agree, it's particularly noticeable on the Kon-Tiki endind chords. It's a pity this occured during the recorded show. No such thing hazpened at the two Final Tour concerts I attended, Brighton and Paris.

The same thing happened during the first set of the first night in Birmingham in 2005, and then it again settled a bit during the second set, to only distort again during the encore. It didn't detract from my enjoyment. There was a real buzz that night. Wonderful stuff.

Neither it happens during the 6 shows I visited in 2004 and also not on any of the 6 shows in 2005 I really enjoy.
The 5 shows I saw in 2009 were also without distortion on Hanks sound.
So apparently it was more then a fluke and it happened more times....
It's on dvd/Bly-ray and that's a pitty

Cheers Rob

I never really noticed anything, sound-wise, that bothered me. From a punter's point of view, it all sounded brilliant. The band themselves are always going to be the most critical of their sound - and rightly so, you may say.

As someone who has played in many, many bands, I'll attest to the old adage that the best concerts are usually the ones that are NOT recorded.

When I met Brian Bennett in 2012, I was discussing the 1975 Live at the Paris Olympia record and, in particular, Little B. Brian said "I didn't think I was at my best that night, as I recall." And yet, to my ears, he plays one of the best versions of Little B that he's ever done.

I saw them on their Final Tour in Nottingham and then a week or two later at the London Palladium. They were both BRILLIANT shows. Two of the BEST concerts I have ever attended.