Cardiff, Wales (3-Oct-97)

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is a fairly big organisation this side of the pond, "opposed to the growing mass production of beer and the homogenisation of the British brewing industry" as their Wiki entry states. All laudable enough, anything that opposes choice and variety is more likely than not to be a 'bad thing'. Trouble is I've sat in too many pubs where the only Ale on offer has been some local brewers, and nigh on undrinkable. At least when you pour a pint of Tennants or Becks you know what you're getting, it mightn't be top of the range stuff, but you know that it'll taste like the last one, and the ones before that. Solid and dependable, though clinical and soulless it may be. CAMRA ales, well it's a lottery, prefection may result, or might be undrinkable dishwater, though the vast majority do occupy the 'it's ok, but...' slot.
And I haven't mentioned Bob yet.
Well, look on this as a CAMRA video, as opposed to the cold perfection we have from some of the latterday DVDs coming our way, D894 & D889 are good examples, almost an industrial perfection, with all the lifelessness we get from digital cameras.
And is this 'Ale' worth tracking down ?
It's all shot from one spot on the floor, pretty solidly framing Bob's left from the elbow up. Band gets very little look in, and there's constant interuption from heads and from the camera being shook and jostled. Don't believe the screenshots, they've been carefully selected. Not a lot of colour either, tends to black & white, [is B & W for good spells] with a colour wash over it, green or red or orange or blue....
Not the complete set either, just the three discontinuous chunks, tape changes maybe ? So missing is the Intro, and 'Stuck Inside Of Mobile..', and the starts of 'Stone Walls & Steel Bars' and 'This Wheels on Fire' aren't here either alongside the end of 'Rainy Day Women #12 & 35'
Sound is OK, but it is just the camera audio, and being recorded from down in the mosh-pit has a fair bit of crowd noise.
D674 and D674.su are the same concert, but filmed from the other side and from the balcony. Clearer and with less Bob concentration, ie, from farther out and so the band does get a look in. They're the ones to get if you only had to choose the one film.
So, get this one as well ?
I think I'd put it down in my CAMRA guidebook as well worth a look if you're passing that way, not something you'd drive several hundred miles just to taste, but if you do, you won't be that disappointed. Not perfection, but someways above the 'It's OK, but..' category.
A fine solid effort, easily worth 3 Stars.

Firstly, the disc has no menu and chapters aren't related to the show-- looks like about every 4 minutes or so there's another one.

The distance is five star stuff here. The taper is close and gets a nice face and shoulders shot of Bob... when he gets a shot of him at all...

The audio is solidly four star-- not the best ever or anything, but it's perfectly acceptable.

Steadiness is just okay-- call it four stars-- but the taper does the best he can with what he gets.

Heads is a big problem here. The taper gets plenty of them and can't really do much about it. I'll call this two stars. It gets somewhat better after the first couple of songs, but it's a consistent problem.

Focus, light, color gets five stars. Video-wise, this does NOT look like it's almost a decade old.

This was a nice tour and is a quality video that would be great if not for so many heads in the way. Ah well, when it comes to audience tapers, one very rarely gets it all. Still, very worth owning.