This was a great project to work on. It came out on DVD in 2005 through the auspices of the bands original manager, who was able to clear the rights to the original American TV broadcast from 1974. Most of the technical work was then done in Australia, but the package came out in most countries except America. The concert was fairly legendary as the guitarist secured huge publicity for the band by using his guitar to destroy one of the TV cameras at the end of the show, after rigging a spare amp with explosive charges. So I felt the sleeve had to show a still from this climax of the concert and was able to secure some prints from a photographer who had been at the show. These were all black and white but I wanted a little more impact so added colour using Photoshop filters. I would have preferred it to had just the plain title, name and band list at the top but for sales EMI insisted on adding some promotional blurb as well. I then used four more live photos on the back (see below) and matched the colouring, and laid a lith shot of the audience under the cover information. It never ceased to amaze me just how much technical information label insisted on adding to any dvd release, partly because of the crazy way the globe was carved up into different formats and standards.
I also got to have fun designing the menus for this release and some of the other extras, and also wrote the dvd commentary, although preferred to get a professional radio voice in to record it.
The release was fairly good although it could have been better as some restoration was not done, and there were problems using US format video to master from. Inside I was able to to a basic fold over inlay with loads of info and memorabilia. Not matter how careful you are with any design, there is always something to screw it up, in this case the mad censors sticker on the back – both Australia and Germany whacked these on. Germany had a really clever scheme where you paid their censor to view the film and then award you a mandatory sticker, though as far as I know they never actually bothered to look at it. And you had no real say over where this went.
The film had been issued several years before on VHS but by a different label, I also did that package which I will try and dig out.
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