JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (DVD)

The latest and best repackaging of the Journey concert yet, this is a great representation of Wakeman's work and talent at the time.

The DVD contains three tracks from Wakeman's hit "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and two from the yet to be released "The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table". The shorter tracks from Six Wives are a real treat, performed excellently, and I must say far surpass the original in quality. The absence of vocals in those tracks are a plus, but sadly that tradition doesn't continue throughout the DVD. "Guinevere" contains some stomach churning vocal work from the two male vocalists, the famous Ashley Holt, and Gary Hopkins. At LEAST he could have picked some better singers.. They sound terrible. But in terms of instrumental work, the performances of the King Arthur material is really enjoyable. Rick hardly misses a beat on that fast piano solo, and the hard edge version here is alot better than the dismal studio album.

"The Journey" itself is quite a adventure. Since the original Journey was played live, it sounds very similiar besides the narration, which on this DVD is hard to watch. A sweaty man on a wicker chair screaming beyond his abilities with major arteries dangerously close to errupting is not a enjoyable scene. But between the dreaded narration and vocals, is an excellent performance by Rick and the band. The choir and orchestra do their job admirably as well. During "The Battle" a horrifying scene occurs on stage.. MASSIVE INFLATABLE SEA MONSTERS!! It's comical to see the heads bouncing dangerously close to the heads of performing choir members, and it was a nice touch to keep things from getting too serious.

"The Lost Journey" is a bonus segment, it shows an aged version of the original band sitting around an oval table marvelling at old 8mm footage from the Journey tour. It's hard to hear what they're saying most of the time, as you would expect from several eccentric englishmen in converse. It's generally boring, only for hard core fans and even then worth a single viewing. A welcome addition though.

The video quality is generally very good, only in a few spots you can see cuts or washing out in the film, colour is fair and clarity is good on close up shots. Sound quality is a little congested, but during solos or quiet segments it's hard to notice and is overall excellent for the time period.

Although sadly showing changes of the times, this is a excellent DVD, and I would reccomend it to any Wakeman newbies, or fans of keyboard-heavy symphonic rock. Also An essential part of any Yesfan's collection, and fans of Wakeman's first three concept albums will enjoy immensely.

I remember clearly the day I got this DVD, it was the same afternoon I bought my first home theater, I had the money and went to the store to see what if there was enough material to justify the price of a DVD player, and there it was one lonely copy of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (2001 UK Collectors Edition with it's characteristic logo in double triangle shape), shining in the top shelve so I bought it a few minutes before searching for a DVD player able to read PAL system, something not usual in Lima on the early 2000's.

On my way home while driving with one hand and reading the song list with the other, I was simply impressed, it was something I had only dreamed of watching when I was a kid but after installing the DVD I was a bit disappointed because of the quality of the image and the sound , but anybody who buys a video material recorded. In 1975, shouldn't expect the best picture an sound because the value is in the music and the show and I had to own it.

The first two tracks are Catherine Parr from "Six Wives of Henry the VIII" and Guinivere from "Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" (Not released yet in those days), but my attention and expectation was placed in "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", so when it was announced I forgot all the flaws and concentrated in a show for which I had waited almost three decades.

The narration is absolutely poor, Terry Taplin's accent and vocal range is distasteful, a caricature of the perfect English and cult voice of David Hemmings, this poor guy shouted with the same pronunciation as a man who is selling fresh fish in the harbor market and not as an educated narrator telling an amazing adventure, horrendous is too good to describe it.

But then the music starts, the first thing you notice is the difference between The London Symphony Orchestra and The Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra which is evident, but still the performance is excellent, Rick gives a very solid show, even the usually terrible voices of Gary Pickford and Ashley Holt are appropriate for the story, if it wasn't for the repulsive narration would have been almost perfect, despite the sound problems and the not so perfect image.

After the central piece Rick gives two more excellent performances from "The Six Wives of Henry the VIII (Catherine Howard and the unforgettable Anne Boleyn), simply delightful plus a good version of "Merlin" despite a few wrong keys that must be understood because the song requires an amazing speed and it was new stuff for him on this days.

The show ends with a reprise of "The Forest" as an encore, making evident that in those early stages of his career, RICK WAKEMAN didn't had enough material for such a long concert.

If you're a perfectionist obsessed with excellent image and sound forget it because this is not the case, but you would be missing a unique experience that only a few lucky guys witnessed in the early/mid 70's, if you ask me, I don't regret for a second.

Not a 5 stars DVD because of all the problems already mentioned but without doubts 4 solid stars being that the historical value of this concert and the chance to watch RICK WAKEMAN with full orchestra is something hard to find..

As a historical document, this DVD is worth having. But as a musical experience I much prefer the album, or even more so the recent live versions of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. The actual quality of this film is not very good and even if it is surely very interesting to see Rick in action on all those vintage keyboards, this is not a film I have viewed more than once or twice. The new arrangement of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, without any narration, that Rick has played on his more recent tours is much better than this original arrangement of the piece. I would strongly recommend the live DVD Made In Cuba that starts with an excellent performance of this piece in its new arrangement. Made In Cuba (and similarly the Live In Buenos Aires DVD) is sonically and visually far superior to this old film.

The stage props are extremely cheesy and embarrassingly dated, especially the inflatable dinosaur during The Battle. What was he thinking?

This video is only of historical value. There are much better live concert videos of Rick performing this music. Only for fans and collectors this one.