What is it about musicians, and musicians in the ‘60s in particular, that makes them all want to get together, indulge in certain substances and leave the rest to the musical gods? Is it boredom, the chance to show off, the vibe of being with other like minded musos, or simply an excuse to ‘do their own thing, man�?

Supershow is a recording of just such a ‘60s event, and took place at a disused linoleum factory to the west of London. It brought together some big musical names of the day such as Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Buddy Guy and Stephen Stills. There are many styles on display such as rock, jazz, blues and psychedelic rock, all to be filed later under ‘funky’. For two days these musicians jammed and played to a small and selective audience. There are some recognisable tunes on offer, but the players seem keen enough to bend them, interpret them, jam them and even bludgeon them, into submission. The instrumental numbers and some of the vocal numbers are quite long and loose. The audience is quite expressionless, but seemingly attentive. I suspect they were too groovy, or more likely too out of it, to care.

I guess musically this collection of players was something out of the ordinary in the ‘60s, but by 2003, such things as ‘super-groups’ and ‘rock festivals’ are so common they are almost blasé, which makes the hype surrounding this event a little easier to understand.

The show itself has been edited down from two days to a more respectable and bearable 70 minutes, and moves along with no break between songs. This means there are no introductions either, however the cover slick does have a line-up for each song. It really doesn’t matter though, as this DVD is really just one long musical outpouring that probably made more sense to the ‘space-cadet’ audience that was in attendance than it will to today’s musical audience.

Recordings from the ‘60s rarely surprise and this one is no different. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but is not 16:9 enhanced. The image is quite soft and suffers from a lack of detail and clarity. It is not the worst video I have seen, but has little going for it on the whole. There is a lot of grain in evidence, and while colouring is mostly acceptable, the lighting in the factory was not really conducive to a quality DVD experience. There is some evidence of chroma noise, and a fair amount of colour bleeding, but it can be wholly attributed to the source material. Black levels are fine, but shadow detail is generally poor with little to no definition. There are also some film artefacts, but not as many as I was expecting. There are some white specks that pop up frequently, and some vertical lines that are not too disruptive. There is no layer change.

There are three audio options on offer, but coming from a mono source, pushing the sound out to a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 audio just doesn’t work and the remastered Dolby Digital stereo track is easily the audio of choice. The 5.1 track sounds too thin and forced. It lacks any fidelity and body, has no depth and by default of being from a mono source, makes no real use of the surround channels. Likewise the mono track lacks a solid bottom end, and also sounds thin and weedy, and naturally delivers no separation or real clarity. By default then, the choice should be the Dolby Digital stereo. There is still not a significant amount of separation, but it does sound fuller with a better range and fidelity. There are no problems with audio-synch with any of the options, but there is some background crackle that is largely unnoticeable and not intrusive in one or two of the infrequent quieter moments.

There are no extras included.

There is not a lot to recommend here. The video and audio presentation is average to say the least, the songs are not well known by and large, and while there are some big name musicians on show, including a pre-country Glen Campbell, most of them were still to become world beaters. Supershow will appeal to a limited audience.