Review of Bee Gees, The: Live By Request

Introduction

The Bee Gees - primarily Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb, have had one of the longest careers in popular music, releasing their first album in 1965 and still going strong today with a huge fan base. Perhaps their biggest success (and everlasting popularity) came with the movie Saturday Night Fever which produced the songs "How Deep Is Your Love" and the anthem "Stayin` Alive", along with several other famous tracks.

This disc features a concert held in New York in April 2001 for the TV series "Live by Request" and features a range of their material.

Video

The Bee Gees, The: Live By Request is presented in good old full-frame, and with it only being nine months old, is of high quality with a colourful detailed image that is very crisp. As you would expect, there are no compression problems, and the picture is free from film grain and dirt.

Visually, this disc (as with most other live music releases) is not very exciting and simply concentrates on the band strutting their stuff on-stage and crowd shots, which really isn`t particularly interesting.

Audio

The sound comes in three flavours, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and PCM stereo. I watched the program in DTS 5.1, but tried all three formats for several songs to compare them. The DTS 5.1 soundtrack offers more range than it`s Dolby Digital 5.1 counterpart, providing a fuller, richer sound - the bass sounds much more natural. It is akin to comparing an MP3 encoded at 128kps to one encoded at 256kps - there is nothing wrong with either of them, it is just that one is a bit better. The PCM track in comparison sound rather flat and lifeless, but does an adequate job of presenting the show via the front speakers.

Features

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing extra on the disc, which is disappointing - not even a discography.

Conclusion

This disc is very well presented with good video and sound, but the lack of extras is disappointing. Worse still, there is no "Stayin` Alive", surely a prerequisite for any Bee Gees concert as it is one of their (if not their) signature tunes (and, in a concert that is made up of supposed requests someone MUST have wanted to here the song!) The songs included represent quite a good range of the band`s material, with some rock, some dance and some slow - and all are performed very well by the group in a strong performance.

Overall, as with most music DVDs, you are unlikely to buy the disc if you don`t like the group, so for others, 90 minutes of the Bee Gees may not be too appealing, but for fans, the performance and presentation are good so the disc is worth taking a look at.