SPOILERS - Talk About The Box Set

[Axian]

I got mine yesterday and watched it all last night.

The remasters are amazing quality, absolutely brilliant. The Live cd was astonishing and way better than tribute, again the audio quality was amazing. The palladium footage was brilliant although suffers the same problem as the diary footage i.e not focusing on randy much. The cameraman even goes out of his way to keep rudy in the footage with ozzy while leaving randy out early on which was fustrating. Luckily randy moves around a lot and gets himself back in the shot for us. It truly was brilliant to see a ozz show live and everyone on the stage. At the end you see ozzy give a bow with randy and the guys. Even though randy runs off pretty quick after messing with randys hair it still is an amazing moment seeing randy come towards the camera and bow after the gig. If i remember correctly the only full solos you hear are crowley solo 1, revelation mother earth solo, flying high again, steal away the night (just cuts off at end ), no bone movies and paranoid. With flying high again you only see randy doing the tapping. You see randy playing all off revelation solo in shot and same with paranoid solo. You dont see randy during the no bone movies solo but you can hear it all. I wish the cameraman would have zoomed in on randy more.

Randy Rhoads 1.13 solo is amazing

The dvd is great with a great poignant moment at the end

Ok to sum it up, I absolutely love it, the packaging, sound quality, new randy footage, live cd its just brilliant and glad i purchased it, I hope this helps some people decided if they want to buy it or not.

Sorry I had to write this in a rush and Ive only seen the footage once

[cableguyxx]

I think someone else mentioned it, but this release seems to be every bit as much about Randy as it is about Ozzy. Yes, Bob & Lee are not included, other than the original playing is back on it. I'm not saying one party is more responsible than another, but there is no doubt in my mind that IF Bob/Lee/The Osbournes would have put egos/money aside, this would have been THE BEST box set in the history of box sets

[Axian]

I think someone else mentioned it, but this release seems to be every bit as much about Randy as it is about Ozzy. Yes, Bob & Lee are not included, other than the original playing is back on it. I'm not saying one party is more responsible than another, but there is no doubt in my mind that IF Bob/Lee/The Osbournes would have put egos/money aside, this would have been THE BEST box set in the history of box sets

yeh the polka dots on the box kind of signify this I believe, still amazing collectors item for randy fans though.

[Whipper]

Well, I certainly think it worth each and every penny, and then some!!! Hell, I paid $70 just for the japanese tribute book last year! The hard cover coffee table book in this boxset is just beautiful. Several shots that we've seen before, but several I had not, presented in chronological order. There is no text at all, except for credits and lyrics at the back of the book.

It is all packaged so beautifully, brilliantly designed! The vinyl albums, while not practical for most of us, are a nice nostalgic touch I thought - it was bitter sweet feeling holding that DOAM sleeve in my hands again, that is exactly the same as the original. I like the idea of the CDs being inside the albums like that, very cool. The live CD is just fantastic!!!!! It sounds awesome, much better than Tribute I find. It's a bit soon to tell, but I think I still like the spotlight solo and Children of the Grave solo better musically on Tribute though, but these versions are really cool, as are a lot of the fills in this show. I'd sure like to know where it was, it doesn't say anywhere where this show was.

The DVD, I would've paid the full boxset price just for that alone after all the scratching around we've done over the years for the few little nuggets we've gathered so far! I really enjoyed the documentary. It was great hearing some isolated tracks in the studio and some never-before-heard soloing!!! I sure hope they have something planned for next March with that material!!

The Palladium footage was quite good for 30 year old hand held 8mm footage!!! Compared with the Chicago footage, it was like watching new HD footage!! Clearly the guy shooting was really an Ozzy fan, as that's who he was mostly focused on, but he shot mostly wider shots, so Randy was usually in sight. It's too bad he didn't zoom in more, and frame up Randy more, because the clarity and detail was quite surprising when he was zoomed in.

Here's what is said in the photo book about this footage:
On May 2, 1981, Ozzy played his first New York dates as a solo artist, performing two shows (8pm & 11:30pm) at the Palladium. Film student, George De Sota attended the early show with his Minolta super 8mm (with sound) camera in hand. As the house lights dimmed, George rushed towards the stage. Planting his elbows firmly on the stage, he began filming. He proceeded to film 10 three-minute-and-twenty-second film reels. As each reel ended, George would load another. These reels have never been seen and have been transferred for the first time in the spring of 2010. All 10 reels are presented here in their entirety.

So as you may have guessed by now, there is no song in all its entirety, as none of them are shorter than 3.5 minutes. And yes, some solos get cut short because of this, but usually towards the end of them more if they do get cut. And no, there is no spotlight solo, but we had no reason to expect it because we knew it was the first set, and there wasn't a spotlight solo in the first set. The highlight for me was the first solo of Mr. Crowley - Randy is fairly well framed for the whole solo. George reloads another film reel during the bridge and the next reel starts into the second solo, but he also stops the camera too. He does that a few times during the show. I just loved seeing the "band bow" at the end of the show... what a sight after seeing just photos of it all these years, with Rudy giving Randy a head-rub.

The Albuquerque footage is top quality! The news segment by KRQE-TV is on the disk, followed by the raw footage of Into/Over The Mountain and Mr. Crowley that was used for b-roll in the news segment. It's one pro video camera on the stage on Rudy's side. The cameraman is clueless who's doing the guitar solos - for the OTM solo, he swings the camera over onto Rudy for the whole solo. For the first solo of Mr. Crowley, he swings the camera up close onto Tommy for much of it. He finally figures it out for the second solo, although Ozzy's gut gets in the way. Still phenomenal footage to witness nevertheless!

I'm in awe. I'm still "absorbing" it all. I think that's why members mysteriously disappear after getting their boxsets, they're busy absorbing. This is simply a must-have for any serious Randy fan. It wasn't meant to be a tribute for him, but it sure came through that way! It just would've been so nice if Bob and Lee couldn't been part of it too, as they so rightfully deserved!

[Shockwave]

I am glad I did cancel my preorder now, due to get here on wednesday!

I am also glad we know were the 1/7/82 footage came from, at least we won't keep thinking there is more available since it was from a news segment.

I can't wait to get it!

[windingrhoads]

I got mine yesterday and watched it all last night.

The remasters are amazing quality, absolutely brilliant. The Live cd was astonishing and way better than tribute, again the audio quality was amazing. The palladium footage was brilliant although suffers the same problem as the diary footage i.e not focusing on randy much. The cameraman even goes out of his way to keep rudy in the footage with ozzy while leaving randy out early on which was fustrating. Luckily randy moves around a lot and gets himself back in the shot for us. It truly was brilliant to see a ozz show live and everyone on the stage. At the end you see ozzy give a bow with randy and the guys. Even though randy runs off pretty quick after messing with randys hair it still is an amazing moment seeing randy come towards the camera and bow after the gig. If i remember correctly the only full solos you hear are crowley solo 1, revelation mother earth solo, flying high again, steal away the night (just cuts off at end ), no bone movies and paranoid. With flying high again you only see randy doing the tapping. You see randy playing all off revelation solo in shot and same with paranoid solo. You dont see randy during the no bone movies solo but you can hear it all. I wish the cameraman would have zoomed in on randy more.

Randy Rhoads 1.13 solo is amazing

The dvd is great with a great poignant moment at the end

Ok to sum it up, I absolutely love it, the packaging, sound quality, new randy footage, live cd its just brilliant and glad i purchased it, I hope this helps some people decided if they want to buy it or not.

Sorry I had to write this in a rush and Ive only seen the footage once

Thank you very much for this info. I'm happy to hear you enjoy the audio quality of the remastered CD's. At the end of the day that is what I'm really looking for, amazing quality of these two classics. I've heard some people mention they found the audio over compressed, which made me nervous a bit. I own the 95 remaster editions and have to say I enjoy them very much, and most people still talk of those releases today, but I was told the original master tapes were not used for those, but this new release did use the original master tapes. Does anyone own both versions and have heard the new ones to be able to give a good comparison? Most times reissues are not that much different and the noticeable differences are very very small. I am hoping to hear big differences in these new remasters.

Did it sound compressed to you?

[RhoadsRockPhotographer]

I am also glad we know were the 1/7/82 footage came from, at least we won't keep thinking there is more available since it was from a news segment.

That fact has stopped certain people from endlessly speculating WHEN, exactly?

[estang74]

Thanks for all the reviews guys! I wish the Osbornes and Bob/Lee could put aside their differences(mostly Sharon) because the box set could have been amazing. Imagine some audio from writing these tunes followed by the AZ footage as a bonus feature ugh sigh.

So, I'm wondering if the NY footage is the same footage Wareagle's theatre friend had or could we possibly see some more footage for the Tribute anny?

[halo8th]

actually, there's been very little said as of now.......

[The Flying Dutchman]

Thnx everyone here for the detailed reviews, very much appreciated!
The box should be here this week, can't wait!

(about Rudy doing crazy and staying at one spot all the time: I was reading "Off the Rails" again at night this week while being in Egypt with no computer, Rudy said his movements on stage were restricted by $haron, for instance he was not allowed to go over Randy's site or standing in front of Ozzy, there was only a certain square he should stay in..... )

[halo8th]

Thnx everyone here for the detailed reviews, very much appreciated!
The box should be here this week, can't wait!

(about Rudy doing crazy and staying at one spot all the time: I was reading "Off the Rails" again at night this week while being in Egypt with no computer, Rudy said his movements on stage were restricted by $haron, for instance he was not allowed to go over Randy's site or standing in front of Ozzy, there was only a certain square he should stay in..... )

He was restricted to "not getting into Ozzy's front stage space" (as all Ozzy solo band members are instructed to do...), but Rudy's whole career with the many bands he's played with, he does the exact same thing. Stands on a spot....bobs head up and down.....licks fingers/bass every couple minutes. He's always played this way. I love the guy, his book was fantastic and i look at him as a nice guy, a really good guy.
But i can't stand watching the guy, i want to gouge both my eyes out with forks. On the flipside, watch Bob play during the '84 Salt Lake City show. He's obviously having alot of fun and he's much more interesting to watch play the bass.

[whoopiecat]

Agreed on bothe counts, Halo!

[Bongo Christ]

Having had the box set for 4 days now, I really can't sum up the experience in words any better than fans have already, it really is everything I'd hoped for. Thank you Ozzy, thank you Sharon.

One thing that grabbed me though was the cameramen at the Palladium and in New Mexico obviously weren't aware of Randy beforehand but sure as hell were the more they filmed!

[Glam Keef]

One thing that grabbed me though was the cameramen at the Palladium and in New Mexico obviously weren't aware of Randy beforehand but sure as hell were the more they filmed!

Oh yes indeed!

[whoopiecat]

Got my copy a short while ago from Newbury. Thanks to my buddy, I got his discount, which made the price $119. Looks like the regular non sale price is $139.99.
Video wise, it's more than I had yesterday, and finally, a cleaner official release of After Hours.
Audio wise, I'm very happy with the sonics of both albums and am pleased the original performances have been restored!
Sure there is more out there, but I'll count this as a victory for the fans, as well as for the legacies of the four men involved.
For now, I'll spend more time wanting what I have, as opposed to having what I want!
Hey Tito, it's being worked on as of now!

~T.