Hayley Westenra: Live from New Zealand

[Dave]

Well Keith's put up a release date in the scrolling News bar above, 4th April. Do I win a prize for spotting that? Is this *the* release date that we've all been waiting for? Is it the same everywhere?

I need to know more! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[HWI]

Hi Dave,

It looks to me as though it is going to be a staggered release - as was the album.

The information I have so far is that it will be released in japan first, and then in selected countries from April. I think the 4th April date may be NZ only. I have put out feelers and am waiting for a reply.

Cheers,
Keith.

[Joe]

The DVD would certainly be worth the wait...I'm thinking about purchasing Hayley's book and the DVD together from amazon.co.uk at the end of April. Too bad I won't be able to get them both by 29th April when I see Hayley in Allentown.

[Dave]

The UK DVD Release date is now listed as 11th April 2005, at Crotchet Classical.

Full Details:

CATALOGUE NR: 0743085
RECORD LABEL: Universal
FORMAT: DVD Video
PRICE: £ 16.99 including VAT, or £ 14.46 excluding VAT
RELEASE DATE: 11-Apr-2005 [UK!]

TITLE: Live in New Zealand

TRACKS:

Pokarekare Ana.
River Of Dreams.
In Trutina.
Across The Universe Of Time.
May It Be.
Beat Of Your Heart.
Aria - Cantilena.
Who Painted The Moon Black?
How Many Stars.
Ave Maria.
Down To The River.
Amazing Grace.
Benedictus.
Mary Did You Know?
Both Sides Now.
Never Say Goodbye.
Wuthering Heights.
Hine e Hine.
'Land of the Rings' featurette.

ARTISTS: Hayley Westenra

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: Dolby Digital 5.1 PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0
Recorded: Aug-2004

This looks like a pretty good track line-up to me, Susan, is it the same as your copy??? . I think the price is right, £17 list price for a UK music DVD is nicely competitive and some retailers may discount it.

Technical details: Universal are, as usual, being technically annoying by releasing it in the UK as NTSC format (they often do this GRRR!!!) It should play fine on all modern DVD players and TVs in the UK though, but it WILL NOT display on very old UK/PAL TVs. Video quality will obviously be slightly lower than a PAL version would have been as PAL is a higher quality format. There may have been conversion problems though (don't ask!). On the plus side, NTSC Region 0 means every copy should play on nearly all TVs in any Country of the World.

Let the countdown begin![/color] i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[Dave]

Well Amazon UK now have the DVD for pre-order and say the same release date as Crotchet - 11th April. Better still is their price, £12.74 (25% off)

They don't agree on the technical details though, Amazon say it's a PAL release, encoded Region 2. This would effectively prevent US fans from being able to order it (if the US release is delayed) as most US DVD players and TVs cannot display PAL - not to mention the Region encoding.

We shall have to wait a while to find out who is correct, Crotchet or Amazon.

[Dave]

More DVD release dates (Oh OK, let's list 'em all i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif )

Japan - 23rd March (HMV etc.)
NZ - 4th April (various sources)
Australia - 4th April (HMV etc.)
Germany - 4th April (Amazon.de).
UK - 11th April (Crotchet, Amazon.co.uk, although now gone from Amazon!)
US - 3rd May (Amazon.com).

They all seem to be saying now the DVDs will be region encoded... no doubt to stop us importing from Countries with early release dates

[Richard]

Greetings to all Hayley fans in the UK.

Hayley's DVD can now be pre-ordered at HMV, price £16.99, but the computer doesn't give any details of the system or region code. Judging by the clips on the eCard, we are in for a treat when it is released in the UK on 11th April.

Only 19 days to go!

This web site has more countdowns than Carol Vorderman! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Bye for now,

Richard

[roger]

There are now just 8 days left until the UK release of the DVD. With that in mind, I enquired this morning at my local branch of MVC to ensure they would have it in stock on Day 1. Having had to spell WESTENRA twice, I was then kept waiting for several minutes before they could find it on their computer. Eventually I was told that they would, indeed, have ONE copy….

“One?”, I asked in disbelief. “One what? Lorry load?”

No. Apparently they will only be stocking one copy which I shall buy at 9.00.01…. or earlier if I can bash the door down! From then on, the casual browser will not be tempted to buy it because there will be no further copies to display. Considering that very branch once told me they had sold many hundreds of copies of “Pure” (significantly more than they would expect to sell of any debut album), it seems a little short-sighted on their part not to stock more.

I shall enquire at other local stores over the next few days.

Roger

[Dave]

Roger, this is a great pity. It sounds like MVC are being very cautious about this one, maybe they got their fingers burnt with the Pure Special Edition? Or it could be because Woollies (who own them) are about to sell them and they want to keep stocks low? Decca could perhaps persuade them to take more copies if they were going to do a lot of advertising, so maybe they are not? We shall find out this week or next.

Pure did so well partly because the big Supermarkets all stocked it but I don't think this will happen with the DVD, hardly any music DVDs are ever stocked by them. But there are another 3,000 record shops in the UK so if they all on average stock one copy of the DVD and sell them, it's enough to get it into the top 3 of the Music DVD chart in most weeks. That would hopefully persuade the record shops to order another copy each , but we need Decca/Universal to bring out the big stick, really.

Amazon UK aren't even listing the DVD at the moment, they did do a few weeks ago then quietly removed it

Either way, I think we do need to do some phoning around this week... I will join you, and HMV will be high on my list!

[roger]

I have now enquired at my local branch of W H Smith who tell me they don't reckon to stock music DVDs!

Silverscreen tell me their stock is ordered by their Head Office and they will not know what has been ordered until Thursday!

Sainsburys told me they won't know until Friday but they sounded a little more hopeful.

I agree with you, Dave. I think we need to do all we can to encourage some of these stores to supply what would surely be a highly popular DVD - if only people knew about it.

Roger

[Dave]

Roger, I've also now phoned a few local record shops. Here's what they told me:

HMV Winchester (a small one) "We don't know if/how many, please phone back Saturday..." I suggested politely that they make sure some are actually ordered.

MVC Fareham (a fair size): "We have one on order, Head Office will decide if we get more later on" - so that's probably a standard thing for MVC.

HMV Portsmouth (big one): "We will definitely have some in stock... but cannot confirm they are actually here until Friday or Saturday".

HMV Southampton (big one): "We will definitely get loads of them, maybe 150, but we cannot confirm they are actually here until Saturday and cannot sell any before release date. The record Company probably won't do any advertising until the end of this week..."

I am pretty certain the "150" was a gross exaggeration, by the way - it sounds like the number they might order for a new DVD movie, to me.

So it looks a more hopeful, but I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the week to find out what's really happening. By the way, half of them had to ask me to spell "Westenra.... but the other half didn't! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[Richard]

Hello Dave and Roger!

I'm going to do my bit next week. I'll check the stock situation in HMV and Virgin stores in London and report back.

Less than a week to go, and I haven't bought a DVD player yet! Don't worry, I'm going to buy the DVD, then I'm bound to want to watch it!

I'm so old fashioned I still run round my 78s with a pin! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Bye for now,

Richard

[Joe]

Hi all,
Great job on phoning up or calling round your local record shops. I'd be gob-smacked if I went to an assistant in a shop about the DVD and being told they only had the one copy coming in. Sounds like your best best is HMV. Sainsburys also sound reliable; maybe Tescos will have some as well.

I hope amazon will still have it available for fans in the USA on 3rd May.

Good luck Richard on buying your soon-to-be-needed DVD player!!!

[emmettb]

Hi All,

Trying to get a copy of the dvd here is pretty tough, the only chance is with HMV or Virgin and they mostly will order a copy from the UK if you need one.

I ordered it from Presto Classical Online so hopefully it will be coming through my letter box next week.

I will also keep an eye out to see if there is any other stores selling it here.

Richard, still no dvd player yet, how did you survive? lol


Emmett.

[Richard]

Thank you Emmett, I'm surviving very well and leading an active life on the Forum! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

I'm going to buy Hayley's DVD first, then when I get my DVD player I'll have something to play on it!

(I know there's a Russell Watson DVD which features Hayley, but I've already got that one on VHS. I'll probably replace it with a DVD eventually.)

I'll let everybody know the stock situation in London early next week, so fingers and everything else crossed!

Bye for now,

Richard