Secret World Live (Blu-ray)

This is a great concert film. Shot on 16mm film (as per PG's web site) this film has been transferred from those negatives. The sound is nothing short of phenomenal. The show it's self mostly drawn from his then current album Us. The set does go back to great tracks like San Jacinto and Solsbury Hill from his earlier records. His band as always is top notch. Tony Levin is here on bass and Manu Katchie (not sure if that is spelt right) on drums for what would be his last tour with Gabriel. In fact it would be ten and a bit years after this before we got a new album from Gabriel (not counting Ovo). He has a then almost unknown Paula Cole on backing vocals and David Rhodes on guitar.
As for the grain/bad picture argument. This was shot on film but as I said 16mm so as with Monterey Pop or the recently released Hendrix plays Berkeley you have to expect a little bit of grain. Yes some directors do use grain to give the film a look. Like David Mallet using it on David Gilmour's "Remember That Night" so it could be either here. The 16mm used here I am sure is a lot better then the film used in the late 60's. I am just glad it was not shot on Video like so many other concert films of that period are. The transfer is much better then the laser disc, VHS or the DVD. Looks great on a HD TV.
This would easily go down as one of my top 10 Favorite concert films and I do have a very large collection (around the 300 mark) to compare it to. I am really happy to see this finally come out. Up till now on Blu ray there has only been New Blood with an orchestra. Which depending on witch fans you talk to either worked or didn't do anything for them at all. Now if they could get around to releasing POV from the So tour that would be great. With the So back to front tour starting in September and So being rereleased in a number of versions plus a classic album feature on it maybe we will see it in Septembet. This should keep me more then happy until then.
If you are not familiar with Mr. Gabriel's work you should check it out. In my opinion he is one of the great music visionaries of our time. Along with Trent Reznor, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Tom Waits to just name check a few, I am not guaranteeing you will like it but if you love music it will at least keep you interested. If I could suggest two CD's I would say Gabriel 3 (the one were his face looks like a melting painting on the front) and Passion (The Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack) would be a good place for the brave at heart to start. If you like his more main stream stuff pick up So or Us which are brilliant records as well!

Probably one of the slickest concert movies in the 90s and a precursor to the slick concert he did from the Growing Up tour and after. Upgraded and cleaned up picture with the same resolution as movie theaters ["super2K"]. Released in stereo and DTS 5.1 [too bad not Master audio]. Really, with the exception of the cleaned up picture and the addition of Red Rain [which was on the CD release when the concert wsas originally released], there is no real additions to the Blu-ray. The original DVD had a nearly 8 minute teaser of the Growing Up 2002-3 tour. It has been replaced by The Rhythm of the Heat off the New Blood London 2011 concert release -no idea why except to promote that release.

Oddly that there is no record label intros on the Blu-ray. Goes straight into the menu - which is boring compared to the original DVD release.

As the concert was filmed over 2 nights in Modena, Italy it is too bad that no additional footage was included. After all this is under 105 minutes - less than a typical PG concert.

I'm a huge fan, have all the CDs, DVDs, etc. blah blah blah. BUT, this concert BARELY sounds live. In fact, when they're not inbetween songs, it COMPLETELY doesn't sound live. And what's with the pedestrian synching? Watch Manu Katche's drumming to see what I mean -- the sounds he makes come a half beat AFTER you see him hit his drums. The same problem can be seen with various mouths not matched up to the words being sung. I've read the other reviews and I can tell you (with my musicians ears, mind you) that I don't have a sense disorder and I have a stellar TV. After this recording, it was brought back into the studio and simply OVER-remixed, OVER-edited, and OVER-produced. If I wasn't such a huge fan of the songs and the artist, I'd call this DVD "awful."