HALL & OATES

Directed by Conor McAnally. Produced by Bart Peters.

In May 2008, the most successful duo of all time, Hall & Oates, returned to the scene of their first ever Los Angeles gig at the legendary Troubadour.

Blaze TV was tasked with shooting the show in high definition for broadcast on RAVE HD and for The Shout! Factory on DVD and Blu-Ray. Blaze's innovative approach to production and technical challenges resulted in getting 10 HD cameras into the tiny venue without any seat kills. It was the first major, remotely-controlled, high definition multi-camera concert shoot in the United States. World Premiere on RAVE HD Thanksgiving 2008.

"From a purely technical point of view, Live at the Troubadour looks spectacular. Multiple cameras provide terrific shots, all from a variety of different angles, allowing one not only to follow Daryl and John's performances, but the rest of the musicians contributing to the show as well. Occasionally, the cameras also zoom over the excited, but not too huge, crowd in order to capture the terrific atmosphere on and off Troubadour's stage." --excerpt from a review on Blu-Ray.com

LEGENDARY ALBUMS LIVE

A series of programs in which artists play a legendary album from first song to last in the exact order in which it was recorded. Other elements of the show include archive material to set the scene, keynote interviews with band members, interviews with fans and other music professionals, and an encore made up of cover songs or material that did not make the album.

Legendary Albums Live: Heart

Dreamboat Annie, Heart's first and biggest album, played end to end for the first time live in front of an audience of invited fans at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Show contains major interviews with Ann and Nancy Wilson, and an encore of rockin’ Led Zepplin covers.

SXSW LIVE

Blaze Television is the official partner of the South By South West music conference in Austin,Texas founded in 1986. A joint venture company was formed by Blaze and SXSW called South By Television and this company has exclusive multi-camera filming rights to the event.

In 2008, over 1700 bands played the festival in more than 70 venues throughout the city. South by Television’s coverage is focused on two venues created specifically for High Definition television filming - The Lone Star Lounge and the Bat Bar both located in Exhibition Hall 3 at the Austin Convention Centre.

For the past two years DIRECTV has broadcast live coverage for eight hours a day on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the festival, which takes place in March during Spring Break every year. The complex live coverage includes eight 40-minute concerts from a wide variety of bands, live interviews and introductions from a specially constructed presentation studio on 6th Street in downtown Austin, back stage interviews and multi-camera roving reports from other venues.

The coverage is also available on www.crackle.com between March and December each year. In 2007, crackle clocked up over 80 million video views for the SXSW material.

The footage is being made available through digital cinema and mobile phones. A “Best of SXSW Live 2007” DVD is available through Shout! Factory and another is planned for the 2008 coverage.

London-based distributor NBD TV is handling international distribution of the 48 shows from 2007 and 2008.

Danielle Davies, NBD TV
151 Wardour Street
London W1F 8WE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 8021
http://www.nbdtv.com/

For further information about SXSW go to www.sxsw.com.

ROCK & A HARD PLACE

Conor McAnally created the Rock & A Hard Place game show based on 20 years of working with musicians during which he had concluded that:

• Musicians are very competitive but rarely get a chance to go head to head with each other.
• It is very interesting to discover what different members of a band know and are interested in.
• Although musicians are as self centered as any performers, they are not selfish and almost all of them do work for charity.

Therefore, Rock & A Hard Place is a music and general knowledge gameshow in which bands compete head to head to win money for their favourite charities. Hosted by Meat Loaf, the first series of 10 shows were taped in 2007 and premiered in January of 2008 on DIRECTV.

The first season featured the following matchups:

• Grandmaster Flash V the Pussycat Dolls
• 38 Special V Eddie Money
• The Pointer Sisters V Sheila E.
• American Idol Special
• Circus Diablo V Halifax
• Tiffany V Berlin
• Warrant V the Orchestra
• Lonestar V Stars of Track and Field With Chris Slade (AC/DC)
• Scrap Metal V Big City Rock
• Cece Peniston V Thelma Houston

The second season is being taped in April 2008 for transmission later in the year on DIRECTV. The second season features:

• Jeffrey Osborne V Tony Orlando
• Guitarists V Drummers
• Starship V Everclear
• Sisqo V Jimmie Van Zant Band
• Ray Parker Jr. V Sha Na Na
• Quiet Riot V Air Supply
• Color Me Badd V Pop Divas
• ? V War
• Banarama V Right Said Fred Davis Leif Garrett V Bay City Rollers
• Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam V Da Brat
• Toto V a Flock of Seagulls

COUNTRY CONCERT

www.countryconcert.com

The Country Concert at Hickory Hills, Ohio goes into its 28th year from July 10-13, 2008. Up to 90,000 people attend the five days of the festival and it has achieved an enviable reputation for booking terrific talent. Blaze will film 10 of the acts for the DIRECTV 101 Concert Series.