Peter Gabriel: Secret World - Live [Blu-ray]

What a great concert this is. I love all the songs and the whole concept is wonderful to see. If you like Peter Gabriel, buy this DVD. You won't be disappointed.

This film was shot on 16mm film which limits the ability to enhance the film. That said, compared to the older DVD this is a very nice improvement. The band looks good, the crowds are more easily discerned and the color is better. Glad the rescanned the original and produced this Blu Ray.

I got the VHS of this concert a couple of years ago. The DVD is a vast improvement in almost every way.For me, this tour was one of the best PG concerts I've ever seen. The "Growing Up" tour was incredible, but I think this show had better showmanship and activity--and also a bit of a better selection of songs.Really, who is a better showman out there than Peter Gabriel? I don't think any other act--with the possible exception of Pink Floyd/Roger Waters or *possibly* Tool--approaches a concert as theater to the extent that PG does. It isn't just the songs, it is an artistic push for mood, costume, lighting, and *story*. On this tour, Peter and band use two stages (one male, one female) connected by a catwalk and moving sidewalks.The extras are also great with a "making of" doc that has Peter deconstructing the show and the sets. Rather than pure self-promotion, this segment really gives you a feel for all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into creating this show. There's also a really great remix of "Steam", a pretty neat timelapse of setting up and striking the show, as well as previewing "Growing Up".My one complaint about this DVD is that it is pretty clear at least some of Peter's vocals were re-recorded in studio. There's no breathing (PG spends about a third of the concert in motion), no mic fades, and the audio doesn't always match up with the video. This is pretty typical of PG who apparently did the same for the VHS version, the Secret World CD and Peter Gabriel Plays Live CDs (he said as much in the "Plays Live" liner notes). For me it is maddening. I've seen PG live 6 times now (soon to be 7 or 8 as the Growing Up 2003 tour shapes up) and I have never heard a missed note or a crack. Even if such a thing should show up, it's a LIVE performance, isn't it? The perfectionist leanings that PG has are admirable, but I believe this goes to far and takes away from his live recordings.Most people don't seem to mind this, but I wanted to point it out.To those of you complaining about the video compared to the VHS version, I have both and I've watched them closely: The VHS is full-screen and cuts off the edges. The DVD is not a cropping. The picture in the DVD is a little darker, but a whole lot sharper. I'm no expert but I believe that when the VHS edit was mastered, it was "sweetened" to make it look more like video: a little more colorful and brighter but a little more distorted. This looks more like film.As for the audio, you can't compare the two: the VHS comes nowhere near the quality of the DVD. I can't compare it to the LD version, but the DVD mix is much more discrete and allows for a better feel for the full range of percussion--though Tony Levin fans might want to turn the bass up a bit; I think the low range was de-emphasized a bit to keep it from taking over.Overall, this is an excellent DVD and well worth buying even if you've already bought the VHS. If only more acts put as much effort into their live performances as Peter does.Enjoy!

Nearly twenty years after the fact, I have finally, and happily, discovered this show. Peter Gabriel's album "Us" had not impressed me as much as his previous work, and noting how heavily the Secret World tour drew from that album, I had dismissed it out of hand. That was one of the biggest mistakes I could have made, and the power of this performance has made me favorably re-evaluate the album!For many years I have held the Talking Heads movie "Stop Making Sense" as the gold standard of live performance rock movies, but now "Secret World Live" has knocked it from the throne. Seldom do concept, direction, stagecraft, performance and enthusiasm combine like they do here. At three minutes into the disc, when the camera cut to Paula Cole on that bare, round second stage, I knew that something very special was captured here, and by the time that "Shaking the Tree" was over, I knew that this was a tour de force, worthy of multiple viewings.The absence of many of Gabriel's earlier hit songs only serves to draw his later more introspective work into a cohesive whole. The play list is just about right.As for disc quality, I'm talking here about the new release of 2012, on Blu-ray or DVD, so just ignore all of the negative comments about quality in reviews prior to this release. This is the new stuff. I don't care how awful the earlier DVD was, and I will never watch it anyway. It's sad how reviews of totally different products and releases are lumped into the same pile here.The show was recorded on 16mm film, and an amount of graininess is present, more in some shots than others, but the new transfer is very good, and the sound quality is wonderful. I've scrutinized this performance many times now, and most of the synchronization problems others have noted seem to have been worked out; the few I detect I will attribute to the show being a compilation of performances on two separate nights. Hey, Amazon: how about editing your editorial review for this product? That review is ten years old, and now inaccurate. And as for comments about pre-recorded or programmed music tracks and video, isn't it obvious? Just part of the show, folks.This disc belongs in your collection. The Blu-ray disc is fantastic, and I have bought DVD copies for my friends.

Yes, like many, I cut my teeth as a teenager on early Genesis, and Gabriel has lived on musically with me to this day, through all his modified musical styles, and never tires.I love listening to his music, but seeing him perform in concert footage takes it to another level.As is to be expected with a professional musician who has been at the top of his game for so many years, he gives everything he does 110%.The choreographed moves Gabriel has, particularly with long time stalwarts Levin and Rhodes, makes me laugh. Very whimsical.The stage and set is (as ever) designed with lot's of moving walkways, reveals, pyrotechnics, imaginative lighting etc etc.His interpretation (intro's particularly) of his songs goes some way off the mark in his live performances at times, but nonetheless doesn't suffer for this.And the female vocalist Paula Cole is really very good indeed, especially on the song Don't Give Up.A great way to spend a couple of hours, well worthy of the 5 stars I award this.

"Secret World Live" is a fantastic live concert film originally released on video in 1994. That was the version I was familiar with. It first appeared on DVD in 2003 with re-mixed audio which was criticized for not having a great picture transfer (I never saw it myself). Now the film has been fully restored from the original 16mm negatives, re-scanned at 2K cinema resolution and the colour/contrast fully restored frame by frame. The result? As you might expect, a vastly improved image with much more visual information than was evident in the original VHS. The audio is also fantastically clear and much improved (better than the double CD, even), supposedly this uses the same audio as the previous 2003 version. There are some overdubs and re-mixing that are noticeably different to the original in places, but on the whole I was too busy being impressed with the picture quality to have any real issue with that. Of course, this is just the DVD, it has also been released on Blu Ray which I imagine looks even better than this!There is also a selection of bonus features, a short yet interesting documentary on the show and timelapse footage of setting up the stage/the concert/dismantling the stage which is amusing and gives you a glimpse of just how much work went into setting up this elaborate stage show night after night. You also get a photo montage of the tour set to the "quiet" remix of "Steam". These were included on the previous DVD release, however. The real bonus here is at last, the footage of "Red Rain" which wasn't on the previous versions of this film (like "San Jacinto" was never on the album), which makes it feel more complete. I'm not sure why they didn't integrate it into the main feature, but whatever. There's also a preview of the "New Blood" DVD. I am a huge Peter Gabriel fan and have always viewed this film as a high point of his career, and now it can finally be seen as it should be seen.

Was worried that the Blu-ray of this iconic concert would not match the sound and vision quality of the old VHS version that I bought after attending the concert in Glasgow in May 1993: no need to worry! The Blu-ray has more clarity and has certainly had its sound tweaked, but in a good way. Watching the Blu-ray at times was akin to seeing the concert with new eyes! It has been cleaned up so well that I could even spot audience members at the back of the hall finding their seats. Indeed, if they had been in an identity parade I would have been able to point them out!I swear I could also hear subtle sections of music that I had not noticed on my beloved VHS version! So, in conclusion you can rely on the Blu-ray, the inclusion of Red Rain is a bonus, oh yeah I can also recommend Peter's Growing Up Live DVD which complements Secret World and is all you will need for representation of his best live work.

Peter Gabriel is, I feel, much maligned and under appreciated as an artist in his own right but anyone with even a passing interest in his more well known hits will be blown away by this record of his live work. Not only is it a brilliant recreation of his music in the live environment, it features a large number of world class musicians. Though perhaps they're not familiar to everyone, they simply excel here.Additionally, the backing singers, particularly Paula Cole, she of 'Where have all the cowboys gone' fame, knocks it out of the park, no question. Apart from some rather dubious 'choreography', this concert is a must see, everyone clearly enjoying themselves, both the artists, musicians and of course the crowd! The quality of the performance is all the more remarkable given it was recorded in 1993, when musical technology wasn't anywhere near as sophisticated as today - no auto tune ! None needed here, this is how it should be done - todays 'artists' would do well to appraise themselves of this performance. Only criticism I have is of the picture quality for the concert, due perhaps due to low transfer resolution between the original recorded format and that shown here. That issue is the only reason for four and not five stars

Having followed Gabriel since his early days I bought and adored the VHS of this concert when I had a rubbish and small TV. Years later, when they made the DVD version I assumed they would have cleaned up the picture, frame by frame, as has become the trend. In this regard this is a big disappointment because the picture is very very snowy on a big screen. The sound is fantastic.So, Peter, if you are reading this, we all love you and I will buy it again if you can get the picture cleaned up, so that we can see the best ever Talk to me, the best ever Steam, the best ever Secret World etcetc until the end.