Paul McCartney - Unplugged Deluxe [1991, Rock, Pop Rock, Folk Rock, DVD5]

Paul recorded the Unplugged TV show at the 'new' Limehouse Television Studios on the 25th January 1991. The original Limehouse, in London's Isle Of Dogs, was demolished in 1988 during the building of Canary Wharf. The studio relocated to Wembley (to the old Lee International Film Studios) in 1989 and the Limehouse name disappeared in 1992 when it's parent Company, Trilion, went out of business. The facility is now known as Fountain Studios. The subsequent 'highlights' album and CD from the recording, mixed by Geoff Emerick, were initially released in an edition of "less than a million worldwide" and then rereleased some years later. The show was a massive hit with critics and the fans and transformed MTV's 'Unplugged' format into a household name with Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Aerosmith, George Michael and Nirvana (amongst others) later recording sessions for the show.
The CD and album releases of 'The Official Bootleg Recording' featured only 17 tracks, not compiled in order of performance. The TV broadcast version was also 17 tracks but favoured 'Things We Said Today' over 'Hi Heel Sneakers' for inclusion. In addition to the album, a further three tracks: 'Mean Woman Blues', 'Midnight Special' & 'Things We Said Today' were officially released on the 1993 promotional CD for 'Biker Like An Icon' (beware of fakes if you seek this out for your collection). To date the only officially released video footage from the show are new cropped widescreen edits of 'I Lost My Little Girl', 'Every Night', 'And I Love Her' & 'That Would Be Something' on 2007's 'The McCartney Years' DVD set.
The show was recorded in under two and a half hours (including breaks) and, with a couple of small exceptions, the versions on the official releases and broadcast were done in one take.
The tracks that didn't make an official release are;
Intro (spoken)
Matchbox
The Fool
We Can Work It Out (takes 2 and 3)*
Ain't No Sunshine (take 2, and 52 seconds of take 1)**
*The version on the official releases is a composite edit of take 1 (count in only), take 4 (except the last chord) and take 3 (the last chord and audience reaction).
**The version on the official releases is take 1 with two 26-second segments removed.
With the exception of the full unedited take 1 of 'Ain't No Sunshine', stereo outtakes of all the omitted music (and most of the between-song chat) have surfaced on bootlegs, and in 2004 a video transfer of the complete performance (with a sub-standard, heavily compressed mono soundtrack) started to circulate. This Yellow Cow DVD features this complete performance footage with a new pristine, full-resolution stereo soundtrack. Only take 1 of 'Ain't No Sunshine' has been carefully patched with 52 seconds of mono sound, and some periods of chat between songs.
The bonus interview footage was shot as part of an 'Unplugged' promotional press junket at Westcliff-on-Sea, 19th July 1991, and was cut into the Japanese TV broadcast in five segments. Paul talks about the 'Unplugged' album release, bootlegs and bootlegging, and the short 1991 'acoustic' tour.
So, 18 years after the show took place we now have the full performance in glorious stereo brought to you from the nice people at Yellow Cow. If you haven't watched or listened to 'Unplugged' for a while give this DVD a spin! It was an important show on the McCartney timeline and, due to the intimate surroundings and simple delivery of the material, will undoubtedly be looked back on in years to come as a very special event.