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Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Jailhouse Rock Live!
Warner Vision/Warner Vision . R4 . COLOR . 56 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

It seems to have become a prerequisite that to have musical success in Australia your name must be easily convertible to one ending in the sound of “ee”. Think about it, John Farnham – Farnesy; Jimmy Barnes – Barnesy; Paul Kelly – umm, well his is built in, so obviously he was destined for success. Of course no lesser talent is Mr Billy Thorpe – Thorpie!

Along with his band the Aztecs, Thorpie attracted a fan base ranging from screaming girlies to moustachioed bikers throughout his chart reign of the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Then, after stealing the show at Sunbury ’72 a year later, he also stole Max Merritt’s girlfriend and nicked off to the US to live, and basically didn’t return home until 20 years later. It was then that he was offered a gig at Brisbane’s Boggo Road jail, on a bill that also included the Divinyls and Rose Tattoo, so he set about contacting the original members of The Aztecs and getting the whole show on the road again. The fact that there was also a retrospective CD release to flog was surely only purely coincidental...

This return to the live forum is what makes up the content of this disc. Eight tracks have been plucked from the performance, including a couple of blues classics and what became an alternate national anthem in Most People I Know Think That I’m Crazy. What this says about Australia is certainly open to debate, but settling for the pleasing fact that we don’t take ourselves TOO seriously certainly works for me.

With little in the way of rehearsal time, the original band gels incredibly well, and the crowd obviously enjoyed every moment – after all, why else would you flash your breasts in public? Thorpie seems to ease himself into the performance with a minimum of chat to begin with. He does become more garrulous as the gig goes on, however, which is most welcome, as his renowned larger than life personality gets some air – ah, the wonders of alcohol!

Track listing:

Mamma
Rock Me Baby
Be Bop a Lula
Most People I Know Think That I’m Crazy
C.C. Rider
Rock’n’Roll City
World Turning
Ooh Poo Pa Doo

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

Shot on video, the full frame image is certainly remarkably sharp – which is also its downside as this often leads to alarming amounts of aliasing, no stranger on presentations involving guitars. Colour is quite good for a live DVD, although at times things can be a tad overbright due to the lighting used. In all it’s pretty good, and undoubtedly suitable for a live show such as this.

Unfortunately the audio is only in Dolby Digital 2.0, a format that generally tends to leave live recordings sounding a bit flat and unengaging – after all, we’ve been spoiled with all those new-fangled DD 5.1 and DTS mixes. Still, all is clear and well synched – just don’t expect any surround action going into this and you should be quite satisfied, no matter how much you “crank it up!”, as Thorpie implores.

A couple of bare minimum extras round out the package, a photo gallery featuring 19 black and white stills from the performance and a brief biography featuring input from Billy himself – complete with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Rock'n'roll!

At just under an hour there’s not a heap of Billy here for your buck, however this is a must for fans – and also a very welcome addition to the disappointingly narrow range of DVD releases showcasing our incredible array of home grown talent.


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  •   And I quote...
    "There’s not a heap of Billy here for your buck, however this is a must for fans..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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