A feature-length documentary on the Beatles-Cirque du Soleil show will be released on DVD on Oct. 21.
"All Together Now" will be sold exclusively at Best Buy and at the Love Boutique at the Mirage in Las Vegas.  In addition, Apple Corps Ltd./Cirque du Soleil will partner with the Bigger Picture to distribute the documentary in digital theaters across the U.S. beginning Oct. 20.
Documentary details the story behind the partnership between the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil that resulted in the creation and 2006 launch of the stage production "Love," which I gave a mixed review to when it opened despite loving the mashups in the music. Pic received its U.S. premiere at the Silverdocs Festival in Washington D.C.
The trailer can be seen here.

Give Arthur Lee credit for keeping his stories straight. The late legendary leader of Love was a voracious storyteller, the sort of man who could tell you three different tales in three days – all of them plausible – and ultimately only repeat the one that most closely resembled the truth.
It dawned on me while watching “Love Story,” a film Chris Hall and Mike Kerry that makes its DVD debut on July 29. Here was Arthur tooling around L.A. talking about walking from Dorsey High to the Capitol Records tower to deliver a demo tape; Bryan Maclean providing an anecdote about the Ben Frank’s diner; and orchestrator David Angel talking about Lee’s ability to verbalize how strings should sound despite his ignorance regarding musical notation. And then there’s the issue about the band members being underage when they signed their contracts and the day the session musicians showed up at a studio to replace the band.
The stories all align with anecdotes Lee gave me when I profiled him for LA Weekly and then wrote liner notes for Rhino’s Love boxed set. For a guy whose mind was allegedly messed up by copious drug use, when he stayed focused he had a remarkable ability to deliver specific details, often quite colorfully.
The Love DVD is part of a July deluge of documentaries on fascinating rock n’ rollers: Kerri O’Kane’s “The Gits” comes out July 8 on the heels of a theatrical release in several cities; the Joe Strummer film “The Future is Unwritten” is released the same day; and "CSNY: Deja Vu" hits theaters July 25.
All four films admirably cover their subjects; while “Love” and “Future” are purely musical, “Gits” chronicles a band and examines the murder of singer Mia Zapata and “Déjà Vu” weighs heavily toward anti-Iraq War efforts in the U.S., a number of which involve Neil Young and Stephen Stills.
The Love and the Gits movies concern possibilities more than celebrate achievement. Conversely, the Strummer and CSNY movies explore the adverse effects of success, from the sense of loss and isolation as fame creeps in and the expectations of fans.  Strummer is a mess once the Clash conquer America; he gets worse in the years after the band imploded. CSNY evolves, during a tour that finds many of its performances critically maligned, from a confused and bloated lot to a band unified around a concept and a leader. The reviews get better as the band takes greater control of the material and the message.
The eras covered tap recent history without slipping into the “Behind the Music” formula. The “redemption” chapter of “BTMs” would have some shifting definitions in these four pics. Lee’s incarceration in the 1990s is not mentioned so his return to the concert stage to celebrate “Forever Changes” is not as dramatic as it could have been. Zapata’s bandmates and family get a taste of closure when her murder is sentenced but the coda is not celebratory. The Strummer doc is remarkably invigorating — the sadness is his death at 50. By the end of “Déjà Vu,” on the other hand, the first three letters in CSNY are not in Young’s ballpark musically, a gap that does not close enough between the film’s beginning and conclusion.
All four of the films concerned eras of interest that have occurred during my lifetime. Naturally, I wish I had been a L.A. teenager in Love’s heyday; “Déjà Vu” and “Future is Unwritten” touch nerves that fuse the musical and the political as well provide nostalgia trips to my teen years; the Gits emerged at a time when those of us obsessed with rock ‘n’ roll were turning over every stone to find the next great American band. Each of them are inspiring in their own way: Artists who blaze their own paths wind up being the leaders who become memorialized. And it can still be done today.

Album list is getting too numerous due to a week's vacation. Concert list, however, is now at 63/179 in my quest to hit 100 concerts/300 acts.

LA Opera's production of  Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"will be aired on Thirteen/WNET's "Great Performances" on Dec. 17 and released on hi-def DVD a day later by EuroArts Music International.
Production, which received a rave in Daily Variety, features the Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone. John Doyle, whose London and Broadway stagings of "Sweeney Todd" and "Company" garnered considerable praise, directs. 
Additionally, Decca will be releasing a DVD of the company's September 2006 production of "La Traviata" starring Renée Fleming.

A day after word got out that "Nirvana: MTV Unplugged" will make its DVD debut Nov. 20, Universal Music Enterprises announced that it would release the Oasis documentary tour film "Lord Don’t Slow Me Down" on Nov. 6.
The two-DVD Oasis set will feature stereo and surround sound; audio commentary from Noel, Liam, Andy and Gem; a Noel Gallagher Q&A session with fans alongside out-takes from the film; and a film of a concert at City of Manchester Stadium on July 2, 2005. Bonus disc also features footage and pictures sent in by fans who attended the concert.

The Bob Dylan at Newport concert DVD, "The Other Side of the Mirror,"  now has a release date of Oct. 30. For people who pre-order the Dylan box set, the DVD will show up earlier.

It's near impossible to keep track of Jimi Hendrix live albums, but if you have to have one, "Live at Monterey" is the winner. Some of us never tire of the way he says "Bob Dylan,"  jokingly refers to Dylan's grandmother being in the front row or has a field day with "Like a Rolling Stone."
Experience Hendrix/Geffen/UMe will release the Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey on DVD, CD and  LP on Oct. 16.
Here's the trivia:
Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival on June 18, 1967.
Paul McCartney was on the festival board and insisted that Hendrix be invited.
Rolling Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones introduced the band.
Hendrix played on the last day of the three-day fest, following the Grateful Dead and preceding the fest closer the Mamas and the Papas.
D.A. Pennebaker and his crew shot the show on 16mm;  Wally Heider recorded it on eight track.
Beyond the performance of the band’s set, The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey offers numerous bonus features.
One DVD bonus features is called A Second Look, which  allows the viewer to switch between multiple, previously unseen camera angles.
DVD will include "American Landing," a new documentary that includes previously unreleased interviews with Mitchell,Redding and Hendrix, plus "Music, Love and Flowers," a look at the Monterey International Pop Festival with co-founder Lou Adler.
Simon and Schuster’s Atria will release the book "Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience" this fall. Book is authored by Janie Hendrix and John McDermott.

One of the most impressive music documentaries to come down the pike in some time, "Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story" will be released on DVD on Oct. 2.
Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville's finely assembled pic, which aired this summer on PBS’ Great Performances, features performances by Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave and Booker T & the MGs, Staple Singers, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd and others. Doc impressively charts the rise of the Memphis soul sound during the Civil Rights Era.
DVD package also adds bonus content featuring footage from the Stax Reunion rehearsal at SXSW 2007 in Austin, Texas, featuring Floyd, William Bell and Booker T & the MGs.