Supertramp: Live In Paris (1979) [Blu-ray]

Great concert, great music

An edit - I am beginning to realize that the "absurdly grainy picture" may be only coming from film shot by one camera. The one in the center of the rear of the arena. That would explain some of the below picture problems.Yep, this Supertramp Bluray works fine on my American Sony player. (Relief!) I have known for decades that this concert was filmed so have always been disappointed that it was never released on VHS or, later, DVD. So I was quite excited when I learned that it was finally being released, and as a BluRay with DTS HD sound to boot!! My one concern?...it was an import!!As I posted on the comments of some of these other reviews, region coding isn't the only thing you have to worry about, there's also the format, PAL vs. NTSC. We use the latter, Europe uses the former, and regional coding is just another kind of copyguard. So just telling me it's region 0, without telling me the format of the disc itself, is no guarantee at all.In fact I have ½ dozen import concert (regular) DVDs, and a few movies, that I was guaranteed would work because they were region 0, but when they arrived I discovered that, yep, they were PAL format and wouldn't work in any of my players. Of course there are multi-format players available (and for under $100 too!) and there's also software that will convert and burn onto a DVDr, which is what I did for the other DVDs. Of course, with a BluRay I can't do that (yet)!But I went ahead and purchased it after one reviewer assured me that he actually owned the BluRay and it worked fine (so thanks Neil!)On to the review.........First thing - the DTS HD sounds AWESOME!! One of the more drastic improvements over PCM stereo I have heard yet (there is no Dolby track). Of course DTS is almost always an improvement over other sound formats but it's usually a matter of "opening up" the soundscape or adding "punch" to the sound. In this case it's almost like my tweeters aren't even working in stereo mode. There is a considerable boost in high range when using the DTS HD.DARN grainy picture though. Weird, especially considering the source was film, which I can only assume has deteriorated (and they didn't want to pay for a "Hollywood-level" restoration)!! Can't really tell in brightly lit scenes, like close ups of band members, but BAD in low light scenes. Especially those taken from the cameras at the back of the venue.I can also do without what I call the "artsy fartsy" visuals, like playing movies while the songs are playing (an old B&W train sequence over the middle of Rudy for example). I never have liked that, just show me the darn concert, that's what I paid for!!Or at least give me the feature to turn it off!! (A perfect example of this is Yes' 9021Live DVD which allows you to remove the visuals and animation and just watch the "raw" concert footage.)There are also 5 songs that were recorded on one of the other nights, not the night that was filmed (probably the same audio tracks that are on the CD). They added them as bonus tracks with newly created visual animation. While it's nice they included them, I am slightly disappointed because I was looking forward to "seeing" Ain't Nobody but Me, You Started Laughing and From Now On.But we all know many bands vary their setlists from night to night. And the DVD does have several tracks not on the album/CD, including Goodbye Stranger, Give a Little Bit and Another Man's Woman.Bottom line - despite the grainy picture, and speaking as a long-time Supertramp fan who counts the (now 32 year-old) album of this among his top-20 all time favorite live albums, this BluRay is definitely worth it to me, even at the import price!Oh - and shipping from England was under 2 weeks!

Supertramp's seventh album entitled Paris was released in October of 1980.Now, a Blu-Ray (and DVD) has been released of the classic Supertramp performances from Paris in December of 1979 called Supertramp Live in Paris 1979.The film was shot and recorded in December of 1979 in Paris, France at the Pavillion on the penultimate night of the band's Breakfast in America European tour. Supertramp Live in Paris is a superb concert film, capturing the band at the peak of their popularity when co-leader/guitarist/singer/keyboard player/songwriter Roger Hodgson was still with the group. When you consider that the possibility of Hodgson returning to Supertramp these days very doubtful, Paris becomes an extremely important live document of the classic lineup of the band, indeed. This concert film had been fabled for years and no footage had been officially released (aside "The Logical Song" and "Dreamer" as promo films) it wasn't until the master tapes of the December 1, 1979 performance were discovered in drummer Bob Siebenberg's barn in cow dung. Then longtime producer Peter Henderson and old concert sound engineer Russell Pope (whom produced the original album) painstakingly restored and transferred the audio from analog to digital and brilliantly mixed the audio. Then Peter Clifton (the same man who finished Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same after Joe Massot bailed) salvaged the footage shot by Derek Burbidge (who filmed much of The Police's promo videos in the day) and added some bits to round out the film. What is available is a superb document of the classic Supertramp lineup.Many great Supertramp classics are included in this live concert film, such as most of 1974's grand breakthrough Crime of the Century (the spirited opener "School", a slightly extended "Bloody Well Right", an excellent "Hide in Your Shell", a superb "Asylum', the Top 20 hit "Dreamer", a superb "Rudy" and the closing "Crime of the Century" which closes this live concert film), two songs from 1975's highly underrated followup Crisis? What Crisis? ("Another Man's Woman" and "Two of Us" both superior to studio versions), three from 1977's Gold selling US breakthrough Even in the Quietest Moments (the title cut, "Give a Little Bit" and the best version of "Fool's Overture" ever which has an ending that is to be seen to believe), and half of the #1 Multi-Platinum selling Breakfast in America (the monster hit "The Logical Song", the hit "Goodbye Stranger", the title cut, the Top 20 smash "Take The Long Way Home" and the epic closer "Child of Vision").Hodgson and co-leader/keyboardist/singer/songwriter Rick Davies sing their hearts out and play their respective keyboards with great passion, and Hodgson also serves up some incredible fretwork on the guitar. Co-horts John Helliwell on saxophones/clarinets/occasional keyboards and additional backing vocals, drummer Bob C. Benberg and bass player Dougie Thomson have terrific interplay with Hodgson and Davies, helping to bring the band's great melodic music to life in tremendous fashion. Just like on their studio albums, the band totally cook live in concert, too. The songs on here rival their studio counterparts, especially on Rudy which is sped at faster speed than the studio version on the Roger/Rick vocal duel section and the visuals of the backdrop films are superb.The songs that weren't shot for the film which were recorded ("Ain't Nobody But Me", "You Started Laughing", "Downstream", "A Soapbox Opera" and "From Now On") are here as bonus tracks with visuals created specifically for the DVD/Blu-Ray.Also, much to Roger Hodgson's chagrin, the songwriting credits are printed on the back of the Blu-Ray (may not have been there on the first issue) and the Supertramp fans are just grateful that this classic document of the band's peak is FINALLY AVAILABLE!!!Highly recommended!

It is a must-have for Supertramp fans!

Gran concierto. Un clásico de la era Supertramp-Roger Hodgson. La calidad de audio y vídeo no podría ser mejor. El bluray incluye un par de temas que no vienen en el dvd.

Ein tolles Konzert aus meiner Jugend - nur was für Fans

What a superb concert. The disc has a long running time and extra audio tracks. The original good quality 16mm film maybe doesn't justify HD Blu-ray in terms of video quality - DVD quality would be fine. Audio quality is excellent. Really enjoyable.

Bella prestazione del gruppo all’apice della carriera. Buona registrazione audio/video.