Gas Tank
Hello there everyone! Well, they are finally ready. The Rick Wakeman Gas Tank VCDs are ready to roll. Details are as follows:
The Program:
Gas Tank was a 6 episode series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK in 1983. Hosted by Wakeman, it featured Rick Wakeman and Tony Ashton fronting a house band that backed various musical guests, as well as performing some of their own material. Wakeman and Ashton also interviewed some of the guests with varying degrees of success depending how much they had drunk. The set was designed to duplicate the feel of watching a pub band, hence the audience sat on couches, or at little tables, and the interviews were conducted at the bar, and Tony Ashton was often legless..... Each episode lasts around 50 mins. Guests include Steve Hackett, John Entwistle, Rick Parfitt, Ronnie Scott, Maggie Bell, Suzi Quatro, Eric Burdon, Steve Harley, Frankie Miller, Ian Paice, Alvin Lee, Andy Fairweather-Lowe, The Cimarons, Godley and Creme, Phil Lynott, Chris Farlowe, The Strawbs, Donovan and Howie Casey. It's fun show, with a frequently silly sense of humour from Wakeman and Ashton, but on top of that there are some great performances and interesting combinations of artists who normally don't work together (Steve Hackett playing harmonica behind Suzi Quatro, anyone?). It's also nice to have for the Strawbs reunion with Wakeman, although they unfortunately only do one track. Who fans should like this, as John Entwistle really lets rip on "Get America"!
The Transfer:
Apparently some, if not all of this series was issued on Laserdisc in Japan under the name "Great Rock House". Unfortunately, I don't have this, or know of anyone who has. I can't even find much information on this, except for the occasional mention of them existing. For this transfer to VCD, we took the program from a second generation video copy of the original broadcast, which unfortunately includes two transmission faults from the original broadcast. Apart from these two brief interruptions, picture and sound are very good. This is probably the best we can do until the laserdiscs turn up! Also, the existence of the laserdiscs mean that this qualifies as an "out-of-print" item. I've got a moderator's permission to trade this here, but please don't offer it through Prog_CDR, where OOP stuff is frowned upon! Finally, if this stuff ever gets reissued, please buy the official one. I'm sure going to!
The discs themselves are each in a 50 minute file. - tracks are not divided up.
Just to make it interesting, I'll also throw on the art disc a file with a few other Wakeman clips, including various clips from Australia tv during the 1985 tour. It's a 27 minute mpeg, with the following tracks:
Catherine parr ( Live - from the "Eco Rock" video);
Glory Boys film clip (jumps a lot unfortunately.....seriously, a lot! Crap clip anyway, shot in Australia in 1985);
Interview - "Sounds" Australia 1985 ( Australian Saturday morning tv show - features a bit of the clip for "I'm So Straight I'm A Weirdo" - unbelievable!);
Interview - Midday With Ray Martin - Australia 1985 ( intro missing, and ariel problems means that this jumps a lot!);
Interview - news report - Australia 1985 ( include a few seconds of live footage from the tour);
Rockit Awards - Yup, Australia 1985 ( Rockit was another Saturday morning rock show, which on this occasion held some ultra-budget awards, and roped in Rick to read some nominations in front of an audience of , ooh I dunno, ten?) (Ignore this bit....)
Okay, quality varies on this file, but it's a freebie on the art disc, so what the heck........
Artwork comes in two versions: art made for a double DVD case, and art for a standard cd-size case. Art for the labels is included too. If you want colour photocopies of the art, please tell me which size you want.
Doug (2002-07-18)