Search - Tangerine Dream: Live at Conventry Cathedral 1975 on DVD

Tangerine Dream fans BEWARE! This abysmal DVD is complete RI

Jeffery K. Matheus | Indianapolis, IN United States | 04/19/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Boy, we Tangerine Dream fans are a patient and put-upon bunch! There always seems to be some new plot to separate die-hard TD fans from their hard-earned cash. First it was the unauthorized film soundtracks from Silva Screen Records (including mere snippitts of material never intended for release), then the deceptive "repackagings" of previously released material, then the horrid sound quality of the apparently Walkman-recorded "live archive" CDs...now comes this video abomination! The fact is that this abysmal, amatureish...ummmm..."production" has already been circulating for over 15 years on poor-quality bootleg VHS tapes - and it's release on DVD at this point is completely inexplicable (other than as a quick cash-grab for the producers.) Now, let's be perfectly clear about what this DVD is, and is not. This is NOT the live concert that Tangerine Dream performed at Coventry Cathedral in 1975. Instead, someone took about 10 minutes of film footage from that concert, looped it so that the same few images of Froese, Franke, and Baumann repeat over and over again, then dubbed about half of Tangerine Dream's 1976 album "Ricochet" over the footage...Yep! That's ALL you get, folks! A montage of poor quality concert footage set to some music that any longtime TD fan will already have in their collection. So, what happened to the original audio from Coventry Cathedral? No one really seems sure. Some have speculated that the sorce film was silent, but this seems unlikely for a concert recording, doesn't it? It's more probable that, given the age of the recordings, the audio was not properly recorded and of lousy quality - so someone dubbed another piece of existing TD music over the footage. And anyway, even if the original audio DOES exist somewhere, how much of it could their possibly be? Considering the way footage is repeated here, it seems like only brief excerpts of the concert were ever filmed, so I doubt that any songs were captured in their entirety. But no matter what the true story of the "lost audio" is, the music from "Riochet" certainly dosen't match up to the images you see on screen. One must remember that TD's concerts in those early years were largely improvizational, and no two shows were ever quite the same. Therefore, it's highly unlilely that any of the pieces from "Ricochet", or any other recognizable album tracks, were performed at the Coventry show...In closing, if you want to support Tangerine Dream, I would suggest waiting until some offical, high-quality DVD product is released for the US market - this one is not worth your time or money."

No live Sound .. just a collage of images

ERROL ARIAS | VALENCIA, CARABOBO Venezuela | 03/11/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Be Warned--- is not what you expect after reading the title. You ought to be a truly TD die hard fan to enjoy this DVD.. They took footage from the concert (i agree is about 10 minutes footage) and mixed it using the RICOCHET album as soundtrack.. the whole DVD is about 27 minutes long, so they repeat the images sometimes. i am very dissapointed with this one.. at least it was a chance to see the FRANKE/BAUMMANN/FROESE in action.. but what they do on the keyboards/knobs/sequencers is not what you are going to listen.. remember : The album RICOCHET is used as soundtrack."

Slightly misleading title and no live sound

Loren Nerell | Los Angeles, CA | 03/09/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"With a title like "Live at Conventry Cathedral 1975" you would expect this DVD would be a live show, and in some ways it is. The imagery is from a video shot during this 1975 concert but the problem is the original source material seems to be only 10 minutes long and apparently has no sound.

So what did they do? They collaged the video, showing several sections over and over, slowing the film down, all the usual tricks. And then for the audio they added the music from Tangerine Dreams 1975 album "Ricochet" which in itself was a collage of various live recordings and some studio overdubs.

Had I known what this DVD actually was before purchasing it I probably would not have bought it, at least at the full list price. Since I had no idea and expected at least a proper concert video from my favorite period in this bands long history I feel more then a bit ripped off. Buyer be warned."

Why?

R. Legendre | New Orleans, LA | 05/23/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Can anyone tell me why the legendary and pioneering synth band, with a career that now spans 40 years, cannot release a decent concert video?

Was no one able to come up with a good live film or video of this band in the past 40 years?

"Three Phase: Past, Present, Future" (the video companion to 1993's "220 Volt - Live") comes close, but there simply isn't enough concert footage on this one (there are a few music videos that contain non-TD related film and video footage as well as "vintage" film of the band).

Thank God I rented this DVD and did not purchase it (which I almost did). What little footage there is on this DVD is very sharp and clear, but the footage repeats itself over and over and over again. If I saw that same footage of the analog reels one more time, I was gonna scream! I wanna see the band, not their tape reels!

The music is not live at all, but an abridged version of 1975's "Ricochet". Why would anyone have video footage of a legendary band's performance but no audio to go with it? Who's brilliant idea was that?!?!?

Tangerine Dream fans are very quick to part with their hard-earned money when it comes to anything having to do with their beloved band, but I think now they are being forced to sit back and "wait and see". There have been too many disappointing releases, both CD & DVD, in the past few years and the trend is starting to give TD fans some serious doubts.

I think Edgar Froese & company ought to pay attention to their fans and give them what they really want; not some half-baked "live" concert DVD that contains no interesting footage to speak of and no "live" music!

How can you have a "live" concert DVD with music that is taken from a different venue than the concert footage itself?

Tangerine Dream fans deseve much better than that."