Search - Yes - Live in Philadelphia on DVD

In a word - don't bother

Amanda Bartels | Eltham, Victoria Australia | 10/12/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit I get really cheesed off when I see great DVDs of Queen, Elton John, etc cropping up year after year, and Yes fans get these crummy lousy quality drink coasters for themselves. I thought Keys to Ascension was bad, but it's streets ahead of this lumbering piece of junk. The only redeeming quality is the lineup but you quickly forget that after about 5 mins as the appalling sound and video quality begins to sink in and you wonder why you spent 30c on this rubbish.There's this awful metallic squeal from one of Rick's keyboards, Chris Squire is almost inaudible and Jon sounds like the cat's being strangled (this is not his fault - it's just that the EQ is horrendous and really, why didn't they just put this out in 2.0 instead of 5.1 which is totally wasted?) There is some nice stuff from the players such as Rick and Steve but as you can't really hear them above the hiss and distortion it's a bit of a waste of time. Even seeing The Ancient performed live is not really a saving grace - the mysticism and wonder of this piece is completely ruined, like watching Lord of the Rings on those tiny aircraft TV screens. . .The producers have tried to cover up the abysmal sound quality by having lots of hysterical fans screaming at the start and end of each song - maybe an attempt to add atmosphere as well, but as I was completely disgusted by this time the effect was lost.I skipped over to see what Chris Welch had to say, but he's bored and boring and it's nothing new anyway - it's almost as if he'd seen the video and figured it wasn't worth putting any effort into the commentary.And that stage just keeps going round and round - The Roundabout Revolving Restaurant, I bet the band wished they could have got off before this stinker came out.Only worth buying if you find it in a car boot sale, (which you probably will!) Buy another Yes DVD instead. ANY other Yes DVD."

What is this, a bootleg?

Amanda Bartels | 11/03/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If Yes is going to release an old concert from Philly, why pick one that's such poor recording? Why not release the live in Philly show from the Big Generator tour? That show has a lot more songs and is a lot better sound and picture quality. Why not release that concert from the Union tour that they kept showing clips from on the YesYears video? They could have picked a better concert than this 1979 to release. What about the Keys To Ascension show? Even if you're a big Yes fan, you should skip Live In Philadelphia 1979 because it's a big disappointment. Send the band some e-mails and tell them to release videos from the Big Generator and Union tours because they obviously filmed some of those concerts."

Bad Homemovie

Amanda Bartels | 08/17/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Stay away from this piece of garbage!!! I'm a huge Wakeman fan, and had to have it (or so I thought). Audio is beyond poor, and the video looks like a bad homemovie. Add this to a short running time, and you get a real piece of trash. Only get this if you have money you have to get rid of."

What were they thinking?

Amanda Bartels | 01/16/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In 1979, there was a chemical reason that the sound and picture were not in synch. In 2000, did they not think enough to try to match the soundtrack with the video?What were they thinking?"