www.billnelson.com

Yup. I picked it up for £7 from HMV.

The packaging is a fold-out job with 3 discs. A bit flimsy, but this is not a Cherry Red release. There's a nice little booklet included with credits, a neat little bio/notes section and some nice pics by Martin B. There's one pic I haven't seen before of the Gentleman Rocketeers backstage pre-performance (you can tell it's 'pre' by the lack of sweat ).

The booklet notes (by Michael Heatley) were a surprise. As well as an almost song by song commentary, he mentions the events surrounding the concert, such as the effect the Tsunami had on Bill & Emiko's friends and family. He also mentions that the "sound quality is superb, thanks to Bill himself mixing the multi-track with John Spence..". I'm not sure if Heatley was a fan, but I think he may be now

The DVD disc is identical (apart from nicer labels) to the original that went on sale (and we had as guests). CD1 has the main set whilst CD2 has the solo set. The sound quality is as you'd expect. The Solo set being particularly good. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that the mix was credited solely to John Spence in the credits. Well that's the way it was on the original, so no change there.

It's a shame that there was the lack of communication between the company and Bill, which Bill wasn't pleased about because (with the addition of the booklet) this set is maybe what the original Metropolis set should have been.

Well, at least what the general public will see is of an acceptable quality, as most will have no idea of any controversy as we are privy to here. No additional money for Bill but if for nothing else, at least he can take some solace in the fact that a certain level of care and quality seems to have been taken. Not ideal, but a small sense of relief anyway.

Well, I'm sorry our host isn't receiving any $ from this new package. I showed my dvd to my sister and she loved it and wanted a copy. Needless to say it seems to be sold out everywhere or commands big bucks already, so I ordered one of these 2 cd/1 dvd sets from Amazon UK for her. It came today, and I have to say the packaging is pretty sweet, plus it's nice to have audio cds of both sets to listen to in the car or whatever. Also, on the back of the booklet, it lists similar editions for Caravan, Roy Harper, The Zombies, Van Der Graaf Generator, and John Lees/Barclay James Harvest. So, it looks like at least they didn't single Bill out for this treatment, they released these sets for all the artists that did these programs.

The only plus I can see of this is that maybe more people will be able to buy this <since the original dvd has vanished from sight> and maybe get inspired to buy more music from our host. That performance is so great it really should be seen by as many people as possible. Like I said, my sister had never even heard of Bill Nelson and she loved it!

I would like to get my hands on the DVD too. I have watched the performance of "Maid In Heaven" many times on you tube, and I think it is an incredible performance...to my ears better than any version ever delivered by BBD. That song was previously never one of my favorites, but now it is thanks to the Rocketeer version. It reaches live music perfection, and I think that performance is the epitomy of how the song was meant to sound. A classic. Great job Bill and the Rocketeers.

G

Now find a way to re release it, and get that freaking JTA out already!

Now available to listen to via Spotify

I'm confused about which emoticon to put here so

So Amazon send me an email about this new Live at Metropolis CD/DVD set. Follow the link, 5-star reviews "All killer, no filler", "The sound of the live show on the 2 cds is nothing less than first class", only £9.99, what's not to like?

Thinks: "funny I didn't see anything about this last time I was at the Dreamsville Inn - better check it out".

Aaargh - now my head hurts

To save any others reading 13 pages of posts, the consensus seems to be it's a pretty good package from an enjoyable event but Bill has been let down as it wasn't televised as agreed, he wasn't consulted about this release and he probably won't see any money from it.

As a subplot, there are strange happenings at www.billnelson.co.uk which tempoararily redirected to the HMV page selling this package but now seems to be occupied by an art blogger of that name. There is also an American senator at http://billnelson.senate.gov/ who may or may not have been linked to from the same address. Phew!

So what to do? Buy or boycott? How about a sort of sin bin fund, you know, donate £2 to Bill if you buy the CD?

An interesting idea.

From what Bill has said recently regarding the state of his recording equipment, it seems there may be a need for the creation of a Nelsonic fund in order to safeguard the future output of our favourite guitar player from Wakefield

Unfortunately, there are no spares for Bill’s set-up. When it eventually goes, Bill is going to be terribly unhappy. Unless he already has someone in mind who can make any needed work-around repairs, perhaps a world-wide search for a similar Mackie D8B unit replacement would be the best help we could be?