Montserrat

    This is a tricky one to review. The star line up is to die for - as well as the ones on the front cover you have Ray Cooper (the best percussionist around), Jools Holland with arrangements by George Martin. This should have been an absolute classic, as with a lot of other benefit concerts however, some of the music just doesn't gel. The problem is generally in the mix. When you have the choice of so many guitarists, percussionists, vocalists etc. all vying for the limelight the poor old engineer doesn't know if he (or she) is Arthur or Martha.

All the artists put in stellar performances with Paul McCartney's Hey Jude the pick, it's just that I have no desire to watch the whole thing again. Quite frankly, you've seen Sting do Message in a Bottle once and that's about it (he seems to do it on every benefit concert I've seen) Eric Clapton revives Layla (yet again) and Carl Perkins plays 12 bar blues in the form of Blue Suede Shoes which apart from it's historical connotations doesn't raise my hackles. This is a DVD released for charity and I think it should be viewed as such, so if you wish to donate to help the people of Montserrat rebuild their lives, buy this DVD (it is a worthy cause after all) but don't expect to wear out your DVD player with it.

Sound is in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Stereo. Quality is variable from average to good. LFE is all over the place with very few tight bass runs. Picture quality is good as the stage lighting was optimised for filming.

Audio 3 out of 5

Video 4 out of 5

Content 3.5 out of five