The Charge

Introduced May 1954. Played, abused, enjoyed, revered, recorded, coaxed, battered, idolized, set fire to, lusted after, copied, experimented with, and unbettered ever since.

The Case

You can't really do much better than the above statement. With that said, the musical instrument created by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares has remained virtually unchanged since its creation, and its presence in rock music is essential not only for its reliability and performance, but moments which transcend music, like Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his Strat on stage. To celebrate the Strat's 50th year as handyman to some of rock's greats, a mix of aficionados joined forces for a concert at London's Wembley Stadium. The play list (and responsible artists) are as follows:

• "Peggy Sue" (The Crickets, Albert Lee & Brian May)
• "Maybe Baby" (The Crickets, Albert Lee & Brian May)
• "I Fought the Law" (The Crickets, Albert Lee & Brian May)
• "Oh Boy" (The Crickets, Albert Lee & Brian May)
• "That'll Be The Day" (The Crickets, Albert Lee & Brian May)
• "The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Blunt" (Hank & Ben Marvin)
• "Sleepwalk" (Hank & Ben Marvin)
• "Apache" (Hank & Ben Marvin)
• "I'm On My Way" (Theresa Andersson)
• "Country Boy" (Albert Lee & Theresa Andersson)
• "How Long" (Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack)
• "All Along The Watchtower" (Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack)
• "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack)
• "I Can't Dance" (Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack)
• "Red House" (Gary Moore)
• "Angel" (Jamie Cullum)
• "Stronger Than Me" (Amy Winehouse)
• "Muddy Water Blues" (Paul Rodgers)
• "Drinking" (Paul Rodgers, Jasmine and Steve Rodgers)
• "Alright Now" (Paul Rodgers & Brian May)
• "Can't Get Enough" (Paul Rodgers & Joe Walsh)
• "Funk 49" (Joe Walsh)
• "Life's Been Good" (Joe Walsh)
• "Life in the Fast Lane" (Joe Walsh)
• "Rocky Mountain Way" (Joe Walsh)
• "6PM" (Phil Manzanera)
• "Marooned" (David Gilmour)
• "Coming Back to Life" (David Gilmour)
• "Sorrow" (David Gilmour)
• "Ooh La La" (Ronnie Wood)
• "Stay With Me" (All Star Band)

As far as the performances themselves, they're decent, but I would hardly call any of them extraordinary. Wood, The Stones guitarist, was off a couple of beats on "Ooh La La." Winehouse seems to be spouting drivel on many of her lyrics. Flash forward to 2008, when George Romero would get creeped out at the zombie version of Winehouse now. But when you have a product that Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler, Billy Corgan and countless others actively using, why can't someone make a call to these guys? Do we really need Mike Rutherford or Phil Manzanera? This concert was decent, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better.

Technically, Eagle Rock gives us this concert in 1.78:1 widescreen using the MPEG-4 AVC. I was quite impressed by it, as it gives us a lot of crowd shots, and detail and depth are such that you can point out individual T-shirts in the crowd, along with the usual British apathy. Blacks are deep for the most part and for a four-year old performance it looks like it was just on yesterday. The DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track is also solid, I did an "on the fly" comparison between this, the Dolby Digital and PCM sound options, and the lossless track had a slight more dynamic soundstage and clarity behind it. The total run time is just over two hours, which includes the concert, interviews, rehearsal footage, and four additional songs.

The Strat Pack is interesting to watch. And while it may sound good, I hardly think these guys kill on stage. Based on that criteria alone, I'd say maybe give this one a rental.

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