FAREWELL CONCERT
The two final concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on 26th November 1968 were video taped for a BBC documentary. It was also released on 16mm film which I saw in the early 70’s.
The performances are highly edited without any being complete (White Room and Spoonful coming closest). Interviews are included which date to late ‘67 or early ‘68. These are particularly interesting as they demonstrate their playing techniques. Ginger is very high and very funny when he’s asked to demonstrate some flams and trips "You want me to play ‘em, at this time of day?...It’s very hard, just sittin’ here and doin’ it", and then launches into a mini solo.
The sound is adequate (good bootleg) for a video of this vintage but the camera/editing is trying to be hip and is painfully annoying. Sometimes it seems the cameras are trying to video Jack’s tonsils or capture every bead of sweat rolling off Ginger. There simply is not enough video of them playing their instruments. Tony Palmer must be from the school that fans are only interested in their faces rather than their fingers on the frets. All the songs start behind the commentary, however the edits emphasise the instrumental breaks rather than the vocals.
Except for White Room, it is principally from the second show. However there are many annoying edits that are inserted from the first show e.g. in Spoonful Ginger’s shirt changes from Indian to blue than back again!
It was recorded onto colour video and must have been transferred to 16mm film for later editing and adding of psychedelic effects. The video recording is the major limitation as it means that there is only one master recording not lots of film that can be reedited.
