Review of Status Quo: The Ultimate Anthology

Introduction

This DVD is billed on the back cover and all the attendant publicity as being film of an anniversary concert filmed at Butlins Minehead in 1990. The band played there together for the first time. Apparently fans were taken down on a special train to the illustrious venue.

Status Quo are a rock institution and some 14 years after this they are still going albeit with some changes in line up and the odd Zimmer frame between them. The track list for this DVD is a pleasant reminder of my own school days and the attendant risks of head banging as a teenager. A friend of mine had a weak neck and was advised against rock music as she might do some permanent damage, those were the days!

Video

This is a pretty poor quality picture mainly due to the source material being rather archival. This is only to be expected with the nature of the medium used.

Audio

There is a warning on the box that the sound being from `a selection of sound sources covering 35 years inevitably not every recording will live up to today`s exacting standards`- a good get out clause. However this disc is sold as part of a range that is `special DTS enhanced version` and herein lies my problem. I could not get this disc to play on a system set up for DTS. It plays well on my 14 inch portable TV combi and the sound quality whilst not being perfect was pleasant enough. Now having no other DTS set up I can`t tell if this is a problem with the disc or my system. Other discs in the range play perfectly well and this did until I tried to select the DTS option. Therefore look out for this if you do decide to purchase it.

Conclusion

Status Quo have a pretty big fan base and this DVD may well be on their list of purchases. I have two caveat emptors for them; firstly the sound problems I encountered may indicate a problem with the disc itself and secondly this is not the film of an anniversary concert. Yes, it features several tracks from the concert but there are other tracks that were filmed much earlier and one from what appears to be Top of the Pops. The cover has been badly put together and does not tell you what is actually on the disc. There are 15 tracks they come from different sources including what could well be The Old Grey Whistle Test. It would be a whole lot better if that had been made clear. There is no dialogue or titling on the disc to explain the source of the additional recordings. There is also another version out of the footage from Minehead previously reviewed on these pages so there may be nothing new here.

I think calling this DVD `the ultimate anthology` is overstating it somewhat. I think Quo fans will be interested especially if they went to the anniversary concert but I was disappointed and felt it should have been more carefully put together as a comprehensive package including background detail to the performances.

The music was great though-I`m off to get me neck brace fitted.