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Dom Robinson reviews

James Taylor
Live at the Beacon Theatre

Distributed by
Sony Music

      Cover
    • Cat.no: 501719
    • Cert: E
    • Running time: 109 minutes
    • Recorded May 30th, 1998
    • Pressing: 1999
    • Region(s): 2, PAL
    • Chapters: 12 plus extras
    • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Stereo
    • Languages: English
    • Subtitles: English, French
    • Presented in Fullscreen
    • 16:9-enhanced: No
    • Macrovision: No
    • Disc Format: DVD 5
    • Price: £19.99
    • Extras : Scene index, Biographies for James and the band, Two music videos, Discography, Interview


James Taylor: Live at the Beacon Theatre is the full-length concert recorded on May 30th, 1998 at New York's Beacon Theatre. It was the first-ever concert to be broadcast live nationwide on the PBS Network in the US, but this DVD contains 25 tracks, including four which were not broadcast on TV.

James Taylor has done the musical rounds for over thirty years and this performance contains classics such as Your Smiling Face, You've Got A Friend and Fire And Rain, covers of How Sweet It Is, Up on the Roof and Not Fade Away, as well as songs from his Grammy-award-winning album, Hourglass and the track Ananas does not appear on the VHS release.

Surprisingly, despite his popularity, the Guinness Book of Hit Singles only counts three of his songs as Top 75 chart hits :

    
    Nov 70	No.42	Fire and Rain
    Aug 71	No. 4	You've Got a Friend
    Mar 74	No.34	Mockingbird (duet with Carly Simon)
    


The picture has no artifacts but loses a point for obviously being an NTSC recording and, as you'd expect, it won't yield a perfect quality in PAL. The concert is presented in fullscreen and has an excellent average bitrate of 8.25Mb/s, often peaking around 9Mb/s.

The sound comes in Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 and is crystal clear.


Extras. :

Chapters :

There are 27 chapters on the disc: 25 songs with credits to buffer them at either side. The songs on the disc are as follows :
    
    1. You Can Close Your Eyes
    
    2. Another Day
    3. Daddy's All Gone
    4. Everyday
    5. Mighty Storm
    6. Only a Dream in Rio
    7. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
    8. Your Smiling Face
    9. Jump Up Behind Me
    10. Shower the People
    11. How Sweet It Is
    12. Fire and Rain
    13. Me and My Guitar
    14. (I've Got To) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That
    15. Handy Man
    16. You've Got a Friend
    17. Mexico
    18. Little More Time With You
    19. Line 'em Up
    20. Up on the Roof
    21. Ananas
    22. Steamroller Blues
    23. Belfast To Boston
    24. Wandering
    25. Not Fade Away
The bizarre thing is that all of these appear on the disc twice - once topped and tailed by logos and credits and the other on their own for the scene selection menu, which is pointless as the chapters were already on the disc for the main programme. Sony haven't done that before so I can't think what prompted them to do it this time.

Languages & Subtitles :

As stated before, the sound is in Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 and lyrics are available in English and French.

  • And there's more... :

    Biographies are available, with five pages for the main man plus a page each for the band members, the Discography lists all the songs on each of Mr. Taylor's many albums, there's a brief interview with the man lasting just over eight minutes as well as two promo music videos: Copperline and Enough To Be On Your Way.

    Menu :

    The menus are static and silent, each one containing a different picture which is usually of James Taylor.


    Overall, James Taylor puts on an engaging concert and any fan will find it well worth a watch. It might not have a barrel-load of extras, but those that are here are well-chosen ones.

    FILM	 		: ****
    PICTURE QUALITY		: ****
    SOUND QUALITY		: *****
    EXTRAS			: **
    -------------------------------
    OVERALL			: ***½
    

    Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

    Check out the Sony Music DVD Web site.

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    DVDfever.co.uk - Est. February 25th 2000

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