Rating: Summary: Quite possibly one of the best in-concert films EVER! Review: When I first bought this video I watched it almost obsessively-- several times a week, usually. Now I watch it maybe once or twice a month, but it has not faded on me one bit. Filmed over the course of two nights in Modena, Italy, Gabriel and his crew have edited the film (and this is a FILM) so that the film crew is essentially invisible-- you never see a single cameraman onstage with the musicians. And speaking of the musicians, it is an incredible line-up and they are all in amazing form. Paula Cole, in particular, is a visual and auditory feast. The concert staging is spectacular, utilizing a basic repetoire of lights and moving stage elements to extraordinary effect. The sound quality is excellent. Anyone who has any affinity whatsoever for Gabriel's music should own this video-- believe me, you'll be doing yourself a great favor.
Rating: Summary: A Collection of some of PGs best live Review: I saw this show live when Peter was in New Zealand several years ago. This is the next best thing to actually being there. I find myself putting this video on instead of the originals as it has far more ambience. If you enjoy any of Peter Gabriels music, grab this video!
Rating: Summary: As sick as it sounds I watch this video at least once a week Review: Absolutely bar none the best concert I have ever seen. The stage show is creative yet never a distraction from the music. The musicians Peter uses are all top notch, especially Paula Cole and Shankar. If you even remotely like Peter's music then this is a must (and if you don't you need therapy). I guess to summarize, I am actually panicking that I can only get a VHS tape of this instead of DVD and that the tape will someday break.
Rating: Summary: hmmm.... Review: Peter Gabrial: Vocals, piano, harmonica, tamborine and paddle Tony Levin: Bass, piano, tamborine and vocals David Rhodes: Guitar and vocals Shankar: Violin, tamborine and vocals Paula Cole: Vocals Levon Minassen: Doudouk Jean Claude Naimo: Synthesizers, piano, organ and vocals Manu Catche: Drums, tamborine and vocals Whilst I dont have the DVD I have the video which has a fine transfer and no dubbing so this review is based mainly on that. This is very good. The band play well and Peter shows his abilities as a dancer and actor (the visuals in themselves are amazing). Peters vocals are as strong as ever and the compositions (all as always written or cowritten by Gabriel are all great. Forget Phil Collins Live, for the ultimate live music expieriance watch a Peter Gabriel concert.
Rating: Summary: Pitfalls of the DVD transfer didn't ruin the concert for me. Review: I was first introduced to Peter Gabriel's live shows on his 2002/2003 "Growing Up" tour, being too young to have caught him on his previous tours 10 years earlier. His concerts are fantastic, combining art, music, and theatrics (and often acrobatics). "Secret World Live" was his 1994 concert in support of his "Us" album, and is one of the finest concert films ever released. The DVD release is great, save for some technical problems. The highlight of the concert were "Come Talk To Me", which has Gabriel emerging from a phone booth and he inches towards backing vocalist Paula Cole, "Solsbury Hill" (a classic!), and "Shaking The Tree". Most, if not all, of the songs are book-ended by African vocals and tribal beats. It is beautiful how they meshed together the songs. With strong musicians (his longtime bassist Tony Levin especially) and backing vocals from Paula Cole (who has had some fleeting success in the mid-90s as a solo artist) and Shankar on violin and vocals makes the sound well rounded and pleasing to the ears. Gabriel himself is always an energetic and spirited presence, dressed like Han Solo and doing his odd dances and mimes throughout the show. While the concert is fantastic, the DVD release has a few problems with the picture and sound. The picture is grainy at times, which would be most noticeable to people with big screen, plasma, or projection television sets. While the DVD boasts "Re-Mixed and Re-Mastered", but it appears that the source material was a bit frayed. The picture is not horrible, but it could be much better, considering the capabilities of the DVD format. The sound is mostly well mastered, but there are times when the backing vocals are muted, making them almost indistinct. The bass also fades out on occasion, but this is less noticeable and therefore less of an inconvenience. These are not serious problems that would prevent me from recommending the DVD, but DVD purists would definitely find things to complaint about. The supplements are nothing spectacular. There is an insubstantial "Making Of" featurette, which is good for a one-off viewing. There is also a nice promo for Gabriel's ":Growing Up" tour, where he goes into detail about the setup of his new concerts, including the giant hamster bubble that anyone who has seen his recent concerts loves. My favorite supplement, though I don't know why, is the time-lapse of a concert in Berlin, Germany. Over the course if a minute, we see the stages being set up in an empty arena, the full concert, and everything being dismantled, packed up, and shipped out. It is a lot of fun. "Secret World Live" is a fantastic concert film that cannot be ruined, even by a sub-standard video transfer and iffy sound quality. It contains some of his best music during one of his best concerts. Highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Very impressed! Review: This dvd has excellent sound quality (DTS rocks!) The video quality is a 4 star rating. I highly recommended this for your dvd concert collection, especially if your big on sound quality as I am. Crank up first song "talk to me" and "don't give up"
Rating: Summary: Secret World Of Lip Synching Review: I purchased this DVD in good faith; Peter Gabriel performing his excellent songs live. Imagine my surprise and disapointment when after 2 songs I became suspicious that Peter was lip synching the entire concert! After a few more songs I was convinced. I myself am a musician and have played in many bands over the years. I have also been to many concerts and I know what a live show sounds like. The musicians are playing their instruments but over many different sequenced tracks; keyboards, percussion etc. The female back-up singer is singing but poor old Peter is simply prancing around mouthing the whole thing. He manages to actually address the crowd on two occasions (I assume). The lip synching is particularly noticeable on the end of "Solisbury Hill" where, if you look closely, Peter forgets to even open his mouth as he dances around with the band. Now, whilst the stage show and theaterics are well done, I can't help but feeling ripped off when something is packaged as live but in fact is not. Some people may disagree but I felt compelled to write to warn people who were considering buying this DVD that they may not be getting what they think are buying...
Rating: Summary: The VHS was better Review: I am a musician and my first choice in having any gig I wanted would be Peter Gabriel. I first bought the 2 CD set which I found astounding. Then, a couple of years later, I bought the VHS and was floored. I recently bought this DVD and was extremely disappointed. What I was hoping for was the exact same performance on DVD that was on my wornout VHS cassette. What I got was an approach of "more is always better". The DVD has been enhanced with guitar overdubs and remixing. The visual portion of the DVD isn't very good quality either. If I knew then what I know now, I would search for another copy of the VHS tape.
Rating: Summary: Awesome... Review: This is really an awesome concert. I downloaded a couple of songs from the usenet.. and was truly taken by the show. So I decided to by the DVD... and to my surprise.. the DTS sound makes it SOOOOOO much better. I would definitely recommend it to all PG fans.. btw, I am not a big PG fan.. but still love this DVD... cause it's a great concert.
Rating: Summary: If you're a newbie, it'll be the best you've ever seen... Review: Absolutely stunning concert performance here. I bought the VHS when it came out, and literally wore the tape out. Visually, the DVD *is* better - crisper, cleaner, just better. But the audio mix on the VHS tape is far superior to any of the DVD mixes. Tony Levin carries this band, and for some reason the mixes on the DVD do not reflect this fact. It is vaguely reminiscent of the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" DVD, where the songs are great, the video editing well done, and the audio is just wrong. If you're a casual listener, you will never know, and you will think that it sounds great. The more you know about audio, the more you are disappointed by how good this thing could have been, and wasn't.
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