Captured during their 1994 sell out tour of Japan, Earth, Wind & Fire - Live is a showcase of the quality of this legendary R&B group, covering most of their big hits and capturing the showmanship that they were renowned for. The hairstyles are still there as are the clothes, although they're not quite as "out there" as they once were though. Sadly for charismatic front man and band creator Maurice White, this was to be his last taped performance with the group. He has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

Right from the opening number September, EWF demonstrate how good they really are. Most groups of that era would struggle to hold a note let alone the attention of an audience, but that is never an issue here. Philip Bailey’s vocals defy logic at times, how can such a big man sing so high? Verdine White on bass just never stops moving and Maurice White heads proceedings in his unique style. Running for just under one hour there is plenty here to make you race to dig out those old records. I would guess that this was originally taped for television, as there are small animations to fill the breaks between songs, even though they are well done, a little more interaction with the audience might have been nice. Camera work is a little amateurish at times with several instances of blurring, bad panning and unusual effects. The continued switch to black and white and the stuttering effect were quite annoying at times. To over come this however, there are multiple angles to choose from. No subtitles are available with this recording and the layer change is located at 29:58, thankfully between songs.

Track listing:

This is a must have DVD for Earth, Wind & Fire fans. The overall quality is extremely good and although only one hour long, still well worth purchasing as you will play certain songs over and over again. A few bands nowadays would be well advised to view this show and learn how to truly entertain. They may even learn how to combine so many differing styles of music to come out with one style that is truly unique.

Presented in full frame and not 16x9 enhanced, the picture definition is sharp with no noticeable aliasing. Colours are bright and natural with deep blacks and very good shading. This transfer was done from a video recording and as such, there are little artefacts.

There are two audio tracks available, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. Both are excellent, the 5.1 using the surrounds evenly, predominantly using the front speakers for the clear vocals while utilising the rear for crowd noise.

There are two extras on this DVD. The first is interviews with Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White and Ralph Johnson. These are provided as a menu of questions for each on the left of screen and a television screen on the right side where they appear to answer those questions. This is a novel way of doing things, but an option to play the entire interview would have been nice rather than having to select each question.

The other extra is the Easter Egg Bonus Song, Sunday Morning. For instruction son accessing this song, please go to the Easter Egg page.