In 1978 the band played the Wembley Arena for a record eight appearances. The opening night (a charity Gala event) was filmed in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the band were introduced by US actor Tony Curtis.[1]
The stage was a huge flying saucer with hydraulic lifts, the 'roof' would open up to reveal the band. The concert was one of the first examples of lasers used at a live rock concert. Due to the nature of the sound acoustics on the huge metal and fiberglass flying saucer shaped stage, the band had difficulty hearing their monitors and keeping time, so backing tapes were used that only the band were supposed to hear. The original TV broadcast edit in mono sound was poorly mixed from the concert and used some of the backing tapes used by the band pushed high in the mix which appeared to make the band look like they were lip-synching.[2]
The Out of the Blue Tour or Big Night tour as it was known in the United States, became the highest-grossing concert tour of 1978, with the North American leg of the tour breaking many attendance and sales records. This concert, along with The Face the Music Tour 1976, were released as live compact discs in 1998.
Video releases
It has also been released previously on VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc in 1980, VHS again in '89, then in '98 as a DVD and VHS coupled with their music video album produced for the Discovery album (for which the band never toured). As previously mentioned, the sound quality of the Wembley concert contained in some of these early releases is relatively poor, and elevates the prominence of the studio backing tapes on many tracks. In 2006, the concert master tapes were obtained and properly remixed, hence restoring the sound originally intended for the video and presented in DTS sound, at last resembling the sound that was heard by the audience. However, due to "bleed-through" some tracks like "Standin' in the Rain", "Night in the City" and "Turn To Stone", the pre-recorded backing tapes are still present, but much better subdued. A new DVD release of the concert has been scheduled with bonus material and new packaging according to the ftmusic website. A Blu-ray of the concert was released in March 2015 and featured bonus footage of various performances from other concerts.
Full concert song list
1978 Out of the Blue Tour Oslo
Below is the entire set from the concert. Tracks 5–7, 11, 13, 17, and 21 from that night have never been released on video or compact disc, the rest have appeared on the DVD.
