The ShadowMusic Web Community

Thanks for the link Phil.
Interesting reading and it worked perfect.

Nice find, Phil.
Screen was a peachy idea!

Thanks for this info Phil. I must say that the screens were well used at the Paris concert I attended. Excellent job !

Didier

Thanks, Phil. As my wife and I frequently had our view of the stage blocked by
the 'stand up and be selfish' part of the crowd, we were grateful that the screens
gave us some glimpses of what was going on.
Ray L

RayL wrote:Thanks, Phil. As my wife and I frequently had our view of the stage blocked by the 'stand up and be selfish' part of the crowd,
we were grateful that the screens gave us some glimpses of what was going on.
Ray L

My wife gave me huge grief when I decided I didn't want to attend the concerts, because she's been a Cliff fan since childhood. We saw the Shads at Cornwall Colliseum many years ago and were sat three rows back dead centre so had the perfect view and sounds to enjoy. That was superb and a great memory so my concern was that unless we were sitting pretty near the front and centrally (for a balanced sound) at the 02 or wherever, we'd end up too far back or off to one side and having to watch the screens, which seemed pointless to me.
She said the atmosphere of actually being there amongst the crowds would be fine for her even if she could only see small stickmen on the stage due to being too far back, or up in a gallery behind a bunch of tall people doing exactly what you've described, or way off to one side with only a partial view and unbalanced sound. I thought that would be an intolerable annoyance and just couldn't bring myself to spend money on tickets, travel, hotel etc if all we'd see was a large TV screen and hear some echoey sounds from being sat in lousy seats - all the front/middle central area block seats had long gone by the time we even realised the events were taking place.

I bought the DVD and it's superb played through our hi-fi speakers to get the bass response, full rich stereo effects, and watch each of the Shads and Cliff up close enough to see great details of the guitars and Hank's fingering etc. The professional sound recording is of studio quality, we both really enjoyed it and will no doubt watch it again many times.
But my little acid drop's still said she'll never forgive me for refusing to go and that if another such concert crops up she'll go on her own if necessary
I think I'm in the s--t . . . so for a while it may may be prudent if I don't bring up my recent idea of buying another strat . . .

Regards,
Martyn

Hi Martyn,
You've nicely summarised all my antipathy towards "Arena" gigs!
However - although we very nearly didn't "Do" the Reunion Concert for those sorts of reasons - we relented at the last minute and got tickets "up in the Gods" at Sheffield. The Video Screens were a godsend (WELL DONE, XL Video!) although I DID try my best NOT to look at 'em all the time ("paying all that money to watch a video screen" etc etc )! The sound was FANTASTIC, and I think would have been wherever you sat, and the "atmosphere" was totally electric. No problems with "Cliffhangers" (Paul O'Grady's description of the Cliffettes during last night's TV show ) blocking our view - although if anyone had tried, they would have needed abseil equipment and crampons where WE were sitting!!
You're right about the DVD, though - it'll no doubt be going through our player and associated "play it loud" equipment MANY times during the coming years!
Regards
Paul