Wembley 1995 DVD

I was watching it again last night, and I was thinking: The Crush Tour DVD sucks ass, TLFR sucks ass and MSG is even worse. I'm not talking about song selections and perfomances, but about the production. In all of them, you never get connected with the show, I don't know, it sounds too artificial to me, and the edition is clueless (thank you Obie). On the other hand, I think that Wembley 1995 is a great DVD, I really like the edition and the sound there. So I was wondering:

.Was Obie the editor back then ?
.Why was the vast majority of songs cutted from the original release ?

Regards

Eduardo

For the Wembley show Bon Jovi hired a regisseur called David Mallett, who had worked with acts like Madonna, Tina Turner, U2 and Mick Jagger before, to shoot their concert. Initially it was even planned to release night one, but there they suffered huge sound problems while recording (meaning that some channels dropped throughout the show) and therefore they went with the final night.

About so many songs not making the final cut: Jon really put a lot of effort in it vocally when they started off, but his voice got shot during the show and he started to sound flat and weak on some songs. The radio recording shows that, Bed of Roses was quite boring and in my book they delivered one of the worst These Days performances as Jon couldn't go for the high notes at that point.
An indicator that the theory might be correct is that around 80% of the songs on the released video are from the first part of the show.
Although I also have no clue why songs like Runaway, Dry County, I'd Die For You or the classic jam with Bob Geldof didn't make it in the end as they all sounded pretty good. The only other explanation I can think of is the fact that it was released on VHS at that time and that it was a lot cheaper printing those shows to 90min video tapes instead of using 180min cassettes for the entire show.

The VHS is the main reason.

Jon's voice wasn't great on Bed Of Roses or These Days though, but picked up again. Just on those two songs he sounds really nasally. However I don't think that was a reason they cut the songs at all, just because of the length.

It's a shame, too, as the performances of 'Dry County', 'Someday I'll Be Saturday Night' and 'I'd Die For You' are stunning.

Aloha !

It's not the VHS, it's Bon Jovi who do not own the rights to the songs that weren't broadcast live. Before the VHS was released parts of the show were broadcast live on the BBC and it's this compilation made by the BBC that made it onto the VHS. I'm sure the band could've opted to buy the rights etc. but it was all filmed by a crew that wasn't theirs and thus the only thing they could release was what had been broadcast on TV. A long time ago (2002 or something) the Oompas or Obie gave a more detailed answer on the BJ Q&A explaining why Live from London was so short.

The show is terribly overrated among many fans though, and Bon Jovi who keep mentioning it as one of the highlights of their career doesn't help either. I'm sure it left a big impression on them personally but the three shows were just alright with Jon holding back all the time just to save his voice for the third night and then blowing it anyway. Most of the second part of the show has Jon slowly losing his range. It's just that Jon losing his range back then still means having an insane voice compared to nowadays. There have been better shows on the 1995 tour, most in North and South America. But as for Europe; the only show where they were actually peaking was in Rotterdam during that leg. All other shows were "just" good. Spectacular compared to nowadays standard, but back then they could do much better than what they did on the 1995 European leg.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

You're talking absolute shite again and trying to rewrite history to suit your own sad agenda.

Wembley 1995 was the highlight of the bands career and everyone agrees the concert video is phenomenal. It's weird how no one (including the band) has mentioned some unheard of show in Rotterdam,

Clueless.

Wembley was an epic event. Although, I really like the Bremen boots, the sound is awesome on them. A big reason why its so fondly remembered is because there isnt as much footage as we have nowdays. Pre-Youtube and HD recording phones, that show pretty much represents the whole tour. If we had the sort of technology we did then who knows what gems of shows we would all remember- where shows like Udine on the last tour are now captured thanks to all who were there and we can re-live a magical show that otherwise wouldn't make a wider audience.

It also helps that the Wembley shows seem to have been polished a lot- I remember listening to the radio 1 broadcast and some of the songs (Hey God in particular) Jon sounded shot to pieces on, but on CD/VHS they were a lot more tidied up ( or different nights, I think the radio 1 show was the same night but would need to dig the cassette out to be sure!).

Whilst it may not be technically the best, its just an iconic Bon Jovi show for reasons for than just the show and the performance, and I really wish it could somehow be tidied up and re-mastered for a full release or airing somewhere.

Well, obviously there have been better shows during that tour (and footage can be found on youtube, as there have been a few TV broadcasts, like from South America), but it is still a pretty impressive show that I always loved a lot. So please don't make it worse than it is. I have nothing to moan about, except for the length - half the show is missing. I always thought VHS is the reason, because back then almost all concert videos were around 90 minutes. It's a shame though they never gave it a proper DVD release, because it does really show Bon Jovi at their peak.

As Bremen was mentioned: The 2nd show was really phenomenal. There is some magic in the air, and it could have just been released as a double Live-CD without editing. The band delivers from start to finish, and the radio broadcast really captures the atmosphere in the stadium. It's also about the little things, like Richie doing the into of "Wild Is The Wind" in his pre-"Wanted" acoustic solo, and you can hear how the audience (or parts of it) recognize it and applaud and start to clap along. Great final endless version of "I'll Be There For You" that sends shivers down my spine.

Aaanyhow, I love the Wembley DVD, but of course it is just a copy of the VHS version and therefor NEEDS a new remastered and unedited re-release.

I do love the "Crush Tour" DVD as well, especially the 2nd part. And to the initial post, I always thought the MSG DVD works very well in taking the watcher into the arena. I saw it in the cinema before it's release, and of course it helped having fans all around you singing and clapping along, but I really felt like I was in the venue like I had with no other concert DVD. (There are other things about it that suck though, editing foremost). But I still love it.

Well of course they're gonna be talking about the one that is available do buy, wouldn't they?

Think.

Those crazy inflatables...