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thedigitalgarden.org
Lotus TV
1 DVD9
Label: Eye Records
Cat No:  #EYE 096
Running Time: 183 mins
Source: Professionally Filmed
Quality: EX
Released: October 2009
Various TV Appearances & Live Performances
Professionally Filmed
2006 - 2009
UK Music Hall Of Fame - 14th November 2006

Prince's Induction

Superbowl XLI Press Conference, Miami - 1st February 2007

Don Mischer (intro)/Prince Speech / Johnny B. Goode / Anotherloverholenyohead / Rock Lobster (instr.) / Get On The Boat

Superbowl XLI Halftime Show, Miami - 4th February 2007

We Will Rock You (intro) / Let's Go Crazy / 1999 (intro) / Baby, I'm A Star / Proud Mary / Baby, I'm A Star (reprise) / All Along The Watchtower / Best Of You / Purple Rain

Board Meeting / Commercial / Thank You

9th Annual Alma Awards, Pasadena - 1st June 2007

The Word / Get On The Boat / The Glamorous Life / A Love Bizarre (intsr.)

3121.com Live In London - 3rd August 2007

Joy In Repetition / Anotherloverholenyohead / Rock Lobster (instr.) / Peach

Sky News Broadcast, London - 21st September 2007

I Feel For You / Controversy

3121.com Live In London - 21st September 2007

Take Me With You

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Burbank - 25th April 2008

Turn Me Loose / 1999 (off air) / Guitar (off air)

Live At Coachella Music And Arts Festival, Indio - 26th April 2008

Shhh / Creep / 7 / Come Together

Target Commercial

Dreamer (edit)

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Burbank - 25th - 27th March 2009

Ol' School Company / Dreamer / Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful

The Tavis Smiley Show, Hollywood - 22nd April 2009

Interview (2 Parts)

The Ellen Degeneres Show, Burbank - 22nd April 2009

Crimson & Clover

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Burbank - 28th May 2009

Somewhere Here On Earth

Bonus Track: Musicology Tour, Detroit - 31st July 2004

D.M.S.R.
*Review*

Ok, so let’s deal with the content first. Eye Records have attempted to compile all of Prince’s recent activity ranging from TV appearances to live footage from 2007. It’s certainly comprehensive and the concept is sound and I must admit, it’s always nice when someone else does the hard work for you, saving you the time of sticking it all together and burning it yourself.
Starting at the top, we have Prince’s induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and his Superbowl XLI performance (including press conference) and if I’m honest, I really wish these had been left off this release. There is no need for them to be here. They’ve been out on countless other releases and on at least 2 of those (Rock Hard In The Sunshine State, Lotus TV - The Right Way) in much better quality. As this is an attempt to put together Prince’s recent activity, content from the last 2 years was all that was really needed. Sometimes, you just don’t need that ‘filler’ material. Anyway, there’s some good stuff on here and a lot you may have already seen. Appearances on Jay Leno from 2008 and the 3 night run from this year, including the un-aired parts, are all here. All of the footage from Lotusflow3r.com has also been added including the stunning rendition of ‘Shhh’ at the Coachella festival (seriously, if you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a real treat). There’s also some O2 footage thrown in for good measure. With a lot of this still fresh in our minds, there’s little point commenting in detail on the appearances themselves, they are of fairly standard fair (although, make sure you have a sick bag ready for the Tavis Smiley interview, I’m surprised he didn’t just bend the little guy over and get it over and done with). Other than the Superbowl stuff, I can’t really fault Eye’s selections here.......and so onto quality.
This is where the problems begin. On the whole, the quality is fine when it’s concerning the LF footage. Let’s be honest, this was only going to be as good as the FLV’s they came from. But as for the TV appearances, this is really what let’s this release down. Eye took the time to get all this footage together but neglected to bother getting the best footage together. All of this is available in much higher (HD) quality and if you’re going to do this and charge people for it then I really think you should go all out and do a proper job. The problems don’t stop there. Some of the chaptering is off and the video formatting is all over the shop on some sections.  Even if you have your set up at home all configured correctly, you’ll still find some of the videos wildly uneven, out of proportion or even ‘snapping’ into the wrong format at times. It’s such a let down because the menus themselves look great.  This could really have been a great release for Eye Records, maybe even changing the opinion of some of their detractors, but with some average quality footage and unnecessary mistakes in the formatting, what your left with is a distinctly average release. If you want to see what a little care and attention can do, I’d suggest you check out LTV - The Right Way.