Marillion
BBC Sight and Sound Broadcast
Goldiggers Club, Chippenham,
March 12, 1984

Title: The Blade Within the Voice(NTSC)
Catalog: Duley Digital - DD-M840312-D
Media: 1 DVD
Video Source: 1st gen PAL VHS -> PAL DVD -> NTSC Reauthored DVD
Audio Source: BBC FM Broadcast

The title for this release is taken from the lyrics to "Assassing". The reason for this title should become readily apparent when you watch Fish's interaction with the MC at the start of the show.

The video source for this release is a 1st generation video. Unfortunately, the audio was in mono, and while not bad, it was definitely lacking somewhat in fidelity. Fortunately, this show was also broadcast on BBC Radio 1 FM, and I had a copy of that broadcast in very nice quality. This release screamed for a marriage of the TV video with the FM audio. As is usually the case when attempting to combine 2 analog sources, speed was an issue. Analog tapes players don't all play at exactly the same speed, and analoq tapes don't play at a perfectly constant speed through the entire tape. In this case,
the FM broadcast audio was running at a slightly different speed than the video, and the speed difference changed as the show progressed. Therefore I was unable to apply a constant speed change, and had to tackle it a track at a time. The speed difference ranged from about a half % to a quarter %. While this kind of speed difference would be unnoticable for an audio release, even the smallest difference becomes readily apparent in a video, when words don't match lips, or
the sound of drum being hit does not coincide with the sight of the stick hitting the drum. It becomes very unpleasant to watch, for me at least)

Anyway, I was very pleased with the final result. I think that the audio and video sync looks pretty much perfect.

This DVD includes a short promo/preview for the show that aired on the Old Grey Whistle Test the night before, as well as a BBC promo of the show.

I did not have FM audio for the OGWT footage, so the original audio from the video was used. There is a short segment between two songs where I was missing the FM audio, so I revert to the original audio for that as well, so as not to miss anything. It is during these couple sections when you hear the original audio that you can appreciate what an improvement the FM audio made to the release.

Only a small portion of the show was broadcast, therefore the setlist for this release is short, yet sweet.

1. Assassing
2. Script For a Jester's Tear
3. Incubus
4. Fugazi

I truly hope that Marillion and the BBC work together to see the entire concert footage for this show released on DVD someday. In the meantime, this short snippet will have to do.

Duley