Customer Ratings & Reviews

This 1981 show has finally been released . originally a pay-per-view special, they've done a great job restoring the picture and sound!

Any rolling stones fan will enjoy the band playing without an elaborate staging. Heard about Keith and fan good to see it

Who doesn't like the Rolling Stones. I bought this as a gift for my brother & he totally loved it.

This is an amazing example of restoration of sight and sound.....This truly is The Rolling Stones down and dirty, this DVD is really fun on Blu ray.

great concert best rockand roll band my favorite..

These vault releases are nice. Very affordable and a must for every Stones or music fan.

If you are an old school Rolling Stones fan then you will enjoy this concert from 1981

Never seen a rolling stones concert that let me down

Awesome Great DVD. Great sound and video. Nice as addition to my collection.

Say what you will about the Stones, they got it right on this release. And many thanks to the Stones for digging into their vault and giving this vintage performance an official release in the first place. While far too many legacy bands are letting their classic concert videos rot (for instance, The Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium, The Who 1970 Tanglewood, Pink Floyd 1981 Wall concert), the Stones are to be commended for their recent archival BluRays. To be sure, hardcore fans already have bootleg copies of these old concerts; however, the difference in quality is night and day between an official release and the watered down copies floating around all these years. The quality of this 1981 Hampton BluRay is simply fantastic. The video is sharp and clear. At times, when the stage lighting and camera angles are just right, the picture almost looks like HD quality. (I watched it on a 47" TV). The producers did an excellent job walking the fine line between carefully restoring the vintage footage without applying too much processing. To compare, the Stones’ 1972 Ladies and Gentlemen concert BluRay has some digital artifacts due to excessive video noise reduction. There are little to no visual artifacts on Hampton. The packaging states the screen ratio is 16:9, which was disturbing to read because the concert was originally shot in 4:3. Thankfully the producers did maintain the original 4:3 screen ratio. Too bad other artists have ruined their archival releases by cropping the picture and squeezing it into 16:9. That is not the case here. It’s also great to confirm the full concert is intact. I watched the official BluRay side-by-side with my old copy of the show to compare. There are roughly five minutes of pre-show backstage footage from the original broadcast that have been edited out of this official release, and sadly, Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner was also removed from the audio at the end of the concert. (I wonder how much the Hendrix estate would have charged to include that here?) Other than those edits this is the complete broadcast. We are treated to every frame of concert video from the moment the Stones hit the stage until they exit. The only video flaw I noticed was during Beast of Burden. The picture quality drops suddenly for roughly the last two minutes of the song. It appears the original master tape was damaged, so the producers filled in the lost footage from a back-up copy. The back-up copy isn’t too bad, but it lacks the clarity of the master. Fortunately this only lasts a few minutes and it is resolved by the time Mick introduces Waiting on a Friend. The audio has been newly remixed for this release and it never sounded better. The overall volume is relatively loud, but mercifully it has not been slammed to the wall by needless destructive brickwall limiting – which only degrades sound quality. I was able to enjoy the full concert without my ears feeling unduly fatigued by the end. You’ll hear things in the 5.1 mix you’ve never heard before (listen for one fan’s response in the left rear speaker when Mick thanks viewers from Los Angeles)! Whether you’re a Stones fan now or you were a fan back then, Hampton is well worth the price of admission. I’ll never see the Stones live in person again – their outrageous ticket prices will assure that – but I’ll be enjoying this Hampton video for many years to come. I hope the Stones will follow it with official concert videos from the Marquee Club 1971, Knebworth 1976 and Atlantic City 1989 to name a few.