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DVD reviews:
Nigel Bond
Dean Hido
Nigel Young

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Difficult to Recommend

I'll start this review by being positive. This is the first time that the Doing Their Thing footage has been available on DVD. Unfortunately, this DVD has been put together so badly that it's difficult to recommend it.

The biggest problem is the sequencing. The Doing Their Thing and Beat Club tracks are mixed up so that you get Speed King from DTT followed by No No No from Beat Club followed by Child in Time from DTT, etc. It would have made much more sense if the DTT tracks were in one block followed by the Beat Club tracks and then the Gillan tracks - which are out of place on this disc anyway. As far as I can tell, there's no way to get the tracks to play in their logical order.

Because the tracks are mixed up, each one is preceeded with a title screen showing the name of the track. This is on screen whilst the first five seconds of each track is playing, obscuring the visuals completely.

Furthermore, Hush is listed on the back cover but does not appear on the disc. Also, the cover claims that the sound has been digitally remastered for 5.1 surround sound. This is only partly true. Of the 11 tracks on the disc, only 5 are in surround sound - and 4 of those are the Gillan tracks! The other track is Hallelujah from Beat Club.

There are no extras and the DVD menus are fairly simplistic.

Having said all this, Deep Purple are on blistering form on the DTT tracks, so if you can pick it up cheaply it might be worth shelling out for this DVD. Alternatively, the DPAS are supposed to be putting this stuff out on DVD, along with other stuff at some future date so it might be worth waiting till then.

Nigel Bond