Description
Released exclusively on the long since discontinued and deleted formats of VHS, Betamax, VHD and LaserDisc. This particular release has NEVER been available on DVD until NOW!
This REMASTERED DVD is sourced directly from the original high quality LaserDisc to DVD for the first time ever! Quality is unmatched as it transferred from the long since deleted LaserDisc from OVER THIRTY SEVEN years ago.
Background information: Originally this documentary/Live performance collection was released on LaserDisc in 1986. The LaserDisc format was only available in Japan and America no other countries. The VHS however was more widely available and released also 1986 in the United Kingdom as well as Japan along with Australia and New Zealand.
Some audiophiles and sound purists argue that unless the remastering process includes completely “lossless” compression of audio that no matter how it may be converted/processed, it still is compressed audio thus producing some say a more audibly muddled sound. This is due to the lessening of the dynamic range between the loudest and quietest parts of the audio signal thus producing some distortion and a clipping audio effect. The DVD offered here is sourced from the LaserDisc from 1986. Because of the large 12 inch size of the LaserDisc format it can easily support the amount of physical space required to successfully playback large uncompressed sound and in this case even digitally remastered in uncompressed form. This Remastered DVD features the original completely uncompressed digitally remastered audio recording allowing the original true recorded mix to come alive as it was originally intended to be heard in optimum sound quality. This original mix featured with completely uncompressed audio is exclusively preserved here and available in it’s original intended state of production for the very first time on DVD.
Another original offer from your team at MVR!
Description: An In-Depth look at the band during their first trip to China. George Michael and Andrew Ridgely tour China with their group WHAM! as the first Western band to tour the Communist country, beating out Queen for the privilege. Director Lindsay Anderson was the surprise choice to chronicle Wham!’s tour of Communist China, taking in performances in Hong Kong, Beijing and Canton for a two week period in the month of April, 1985.
George Michael gained artistic control over the film, Wham!’s management decided to fire Anderson – a move which saw the editing team quit in protest. In October of that year the film was hastily recut, renamed and released as Wham! In China: Foreign Skies. It received its world premiere at Wembley Stadium ahead of Wham!’s farewell concert The Final on June 28th in front of a record-breaking 72,000 spectators.
Several sequences depicting everyday China possess the unmistakable visual eye and compositional skills of Anderson, but in the context of the subject matter overall, they’re just travelogue pieces; beautiful evocative ones. The real heart of the film has to be Wham! George Michael often appears to be, with Ridgeley arguably the only one happy to participate and play before the camera, getting them to accompany him buying clothes in the marketplace or showing off his football skills in a friendly with the members of the British Embassy.
There’s a particularly hilariously pointed needle-drop during the scene in which Wham! are guests at the British Embassy; when the ambassador is heard to say something like “let’s go into the garden and have drinks”, their hit Club Tropicana arrives on the soundtrack with its opening lyrics “Let me take you to the place, where membership’s a smiling face”. I’m guessing this was not an original feature of Anderson’s edit!
But what this film is most emphatically of all is a striking time capsule. The concert footage assembled is remarkably solid, both in its ability to showcase Michael and Ridgeley at the peak of their powers and also the reaction a Western pop group initiated in such a previously sheltered Communist country.
DVD Menu divides content as “Side 1” and “Side 2” to mimic the content style of the original LaserDisc
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Bad Boys
2. Club Tropicana
3. Blue
4. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Side 2
5. Ray Of Sunshine
6. Young Guns (Go For It)
7. Careless Whisper
8. Everything She Wants
9. Like A Baby
10. Runaway (cover version of the Del Shannon song)
11. Love Machine
The Band
Featuring – Andrew Ridgeley
Featuring, Producer, Arranged By – George Michael
Guitar – Hugh Burns
Bass Guitar – Deon Estus
Drums – Trevor Murrell
Percussion – Danny Cummings
Saxophone – Dave Baptiste
Trumpet – Paul Spong, Raul D’Oliveira
Tour Crew
Make-Up – Melanie Panos
Presenter – Jazz Summers, Simon Napier-Bell
Wardrobe – Yioda Panos
Photography – Alvin Allen, Dennis Smith, Lee Kenower, Paula Goldsmith and Peter MacKay
Production Crew
Directed By – Lindsay Anderson
Film Editor – Finn Arden, Len Tremble, Mark Mostyn, Peter Culverwell
Edited By – Nigel Galt
Cameraman – Bobby Shepherd, George Stephenson, Leslie Otis, Paul Cameron
Cameraman [Technician] – Ernest Jew
Design [Lightning] – Jonathan Smeeton
Production Manager [Concert] – Benny Collins
Sound Designer [Documentary] – Paul Rusnak
Gaffer – James Sofranko
Grip – Bill Moore
Management [Assistant] – Siobhan Bailey
Management [Location] – Joel Hinman
Management [Tour Assistant] – Stella Y Nelson
Management [Tour] – Jake Duncan (2)
Public Relations – Connie Filippello
Advisor [Financial] – Leigh Genis
Total Running Time: 1 Hour 2 Minutes
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