Search - Black Uhuru: Live in London - 25th Anniversary on DVD

Great concet, great band, bad dub of the VHS tape

Dave | USA | 08/24/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I am a big Black Uhuru fan. I love this version of the band and pre-ordered this DVD the moment I found out about it. I have the CD Tear It Up - Live and VHS Tear It Up releases of this concert and could not wait to get a nice DVD copy of this show. This concert is a five star performance of one of the best Reggae bands that ever walked the earth. I was a little concerned when the DVD re-issue lacked the original Island artwork but as a 25th anniversary release I assumed they updated the artwork. When I got the DVD I became worried when they had Puma Jones' name listed as Puma Rose on the back cover. Inside they dedicated the DVD to Puma Jones and had some rare pictures of this classic Uhuru lineup. I popped the DVD in and it had a very basic menu. There are no audio choices. You can play the concert, pick tracks, or watch the slide show. The only extras are a slide show of the pictures on the case. When I played the concert my worst fears came true. It was just a bad dub of the VHS tape. The video is real blotchy and washed out. I have the original Island VHS tape. I have dubbed it to DVD myself to save wear and tear on the tape and my own version looks better than this. I know this was originally shot on video in the early 80's and didn't expect HD quality but this is a joke. It was definitely not sourced from the master tapes. The sound and video are bootleg quality at best. The audio has a lot of pops and dropouts that I'm sure came from the source tape. I wish they would have used my VHS tape for the source as it doesn't have the audio problems this source has. The audio is stereo only. If you play it in Dolby Surround mode it send clicks and pops to the rear speakers. I can't wait until Island records re-releases this DVD from the master tapes and hopefully with an expanded CD. This DVD is really a disservice to Michael Rose, Puma Jones, Duckie Simpson, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, the rest of the band, and especially the fans. Whoever released this should be ashamed."

10 stars performance. Horrendous scam transfer and packaging

herb | somewhere hopefully | 11/22/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What a band..amazing to watch Dunbar and Robbie as they are incredible. Amazing performance! This is hard to believe for 2008. What a sham...almost not watchable..sad VHS transfer complete with tracking issue...Not even a minimul effort to clean up for DVD...HORRENDOUS!"

It's about time.... revisited

Mustapha Lasram | Ossining, NY United States | 07/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Given the lack of info available at the time of this review (Jul/16/2008), one can only guess this relates the Black Uhuru's concert at the Rainbow-London in 1981.
If that's the case, then this is a MUST-HAVE for any serious Black Uhuru fan; indeed, the concert featured the original and most successful Black Uhuru line-up (Sly and Robbie, Michael Rose, Duckie Simpson, Puma Jones, Sky Juice, Keith Sterling....). This concert was previously only available in VHS and... heavily cut (the video lasts ... 42mn !). Clearly, we are missing a lot of that legendary concert, although the LP edition included some tracks not available on VHS (and vice-versa). It's about time we get the full-length, uncut version of this concert and, the only indication we have at this stage is the video length (90 mn) which seems to indicate that we are in for a special treat.
So, let's keep our fingers crossed and hope my guessing is right.

revised comments (Sep/19/2008): Totally agree with Dave ! I am completely disappointed.... a 25th anniv edition should have been remastered from original tapes AND included the full length concert. Ending up with a mediocre dubbing of the VHS tape is, the least we can say, shameful and disrespectful to the band first and to its huge fans base.

To Island Records, pls, pls, pls, Uhuru fans are waiting !!!!

PS: the 5-star rating is for Uhuru's performance, definitely not for this DVD.

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