Customer Reviews

Peter Gabriel - Play: The Videos

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't buy a lot of music video compilations in the 90's but for Peter Gabriel I made an exception. Why? Because his stuff is always groundbreaking. Like the Taking Heads video compilation, Gabriel's "Play" has stunning videos that matched the stunning music. Since Gabriel fans have to wait so long between music releases (that's not a complaint just the truth), it's nice to have a bunch of DVD releases back-to-back to keep us happy.

The picture quality is exceptionally good and the 5.1 mix is similar to that for the SACD re-releass (although I wish that they'd release all of those in hybrid format so I could play them in my car). All of my favs are here although some are curiously missing such as the alternate version of "Don't Give Up" plus we get a number of marvelous videos from his more recent albums and singles. I've always loved the song "Lovetown" and loved the moody, interesting video for "Growing Up".

We do get a brief 16 minute piece that covers the making of the videos as an extra. I do like having the option of the introductions to the various tunes, though. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" really wouldn't have fit on here as its really Genesis material. I'm hoping that he'll issue the famous "Rockpalast" performance separately or that Genesis will put out a companion DVD to their boxed set about the years with Gabriel. I also miss the video Gabriel shot with Laurie Anderson for "Excellent Birds" (which has aired only once to the best of my knowledge). It was quirky and fun and I always liked Laurie's slightly different mix of the same song (which Gabriel went back and changed signficantly compared to the version on "So"). I also would have liked to have had the video from the Amnesty International HBO special with Gabriel's rearrangement of "Biko" (which has never appeared anywhere else in any form to the best of my knoweldge)."Digging in the Dirt" I like quite a bit as well.

The "Modern Love" video is a flashback to seeing him when he toured just after leaving Genesis. It's fun to compare this early video to later ones.

If you're a Gabriel fan and don't have any of this (or even if you have the CV video from years before), you'll enjoy this. Pick it up and turn it up really loud. Even if the TV is off, you'll enjoy having this "greatest hits" compilation of his best video bits over the years. Man he has been prolific when it comes to videos (compared to other performers).

Even if you don't turn on your TV, it's the equivalent of two CDs' worth (141 minutes) of DD/DTS 5.1 remixes of PG's "greatest hits." Worth the price right there.

If you do turn on the TV you'll see a collection of innovative and entertaining videos, many of which can only be called "art."

If you're a PG fan it's a no-brainer. Even for casual listeners who just want a sampler, and even for people who want to show off their home theater systems with great-sounding surround music and eye-popping visuals, this is a great buy.

The following paragraph is copied & pasted from the website "thedigitalbits.com", which contains the first bit of information I heard about this DVD:

"The disc will feature 23 music videos, with fully restored video and new 5.1 mixes by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois in both Dolby Digital and 96khz/24bit DTS (a Dolby 2.0 Stereo mix is also included). Each video will have a short introduction featuring behind-the-scenes footage and/or Gabriel interview footage over the years. There's also an option to allow you to create a custom play list of up to 18 tracks, which can be viewed once or looped to repeat. The DVD will include 3 bonus videos in addition to the main 23, also in 5.1 sound. Finally, you'll get trailers for the DVD releases of Growing Up Live, A Family Portrait (a documentary look behind the scenes on the Growing Up Live tour directed by Anna Gabriel - available through the website) and Secret World Live. The specific list of videos on the DVD includes Father, Son, Sledgehammer, Blood of Eden, Games Without Frontiers, I Don't Remember, Big Time, Lovetown, Red Rain, In Your Eyes, Don't Give Up, The Barry Williams Show, Washing of the Water, Biko, Kiss That Frog, Mercy Street, Growing Up, Shaking the Tree, Shock the Monkey, Steam, The Drop, Zaar, Solsbury Hill and Digging in the Dirt. The bonus videos will include Games Without Frontiers (recorded live in 2004), Modern Love and The Nest That Sailed the Sky."

Wow!!! A collection of 23 music videos by one of my favorite musicians with extras and documentaries??? Count me in! Peter Gabriel's music, certainly, is amazing and fun to listen to. But his music videos as well have been revolutionary and influential. "Sledgehammer", alone, is enough to warrant the purchase of this DVD. I can't wait!

Finally - the collection that Gabriel fans have been waiting for, with many of PG's videos in one place!

I haven't seen the DVD yet, but many of my British friends have (it came out in the UK a month before the US release). The word is that the new 5.1 sound mixes are spectacular, the menu options are wonderful and the picture is crystal clear and sharper than ever. Added to the excitement of seeing old favorites like "Sledgehammer" and "Games Without Frontiers" is the addition of rarities such as "Modern Love" (a song from PG's first solo album, with a video featuring him in the full bloom of his youth and beauty) all the way to "Father, Son" (a song from PG's relatively recent 'Ovo' album, with a video consisting of film shot by his daughter Anna, and featuring PG with both his 90-something year old father and his 4-year old son).

PG has been a proponent of combining audio and video since his early career. Genesis was known for their complex stage shows, and PG spent a great deal of time working on the visuals to accompany his solo work, all of which is to our lasting benefit. If you're on the fence, I strongly encourage you to get this DVD -- you will not be disappointed!

Excellent PG DVD with a brilliant, aggressive surround mix by Daniel Lanois et al. One caveat: my region 4 PAL DVD suffered from the problem outlined here (Peter Gabriel forums):

"Since the release of the PLAY DVD we have become aware of an issue affecting the DTS soundtrack on the latest generation of surround amplifiers.

PLAY is the first disc produced using a new DTS encoder and it seems that the version we used has set a flag within the DTS audio stream that can cause a 30db reduction in volume.

We have only experienced the issue on a Denon AVR-3805 amplifier (kindly lent to us by Denon UK), although it may be more widespread as new audio decoder chips reach the consumer market in other products. Reading through our DVD forum, our experience would tie in with the comments of people on the boards . A 30db volume reduction is very noticeable, so the DTS audio heard through these amplifiers is going to be both disappointing, and give a you big shock if you turn it up and then flip back to one of the other audio tracks, or navigate back to a menu.

Only the latest amplifiers are reading the 'Dialogue Normalization" setting in the DTS audio which is causing the volume reduction. Other amplifiers are simply ignoring this information, so during the product development and testing, and to most consumers the DTS was and still is the best sounding audio on the disc.

We are currently working with DTS, Warner Vision and Denon to find a solution, and will keep you posted."

At first I thought there was something wrong with my new Yamaha RX-V3800Bi receiver, but all the other DTS 96/24 discs were playing at normal volume.

I can verify that there is a newer edition available for regions 2,3,4,5 PAL which has the Dialogue Normalization flag error corrected, and it sounds great. As far as I know, the region 1 edition hasn't been fixed, so the only way you can experience DTS 96/24 from this disc is if you have onboard DTS 96/24 decoding and analogue outputs, or you have an older AV receiver that doesn't recognise the flag. Those who haven't experienced this problem are most likely only hearing the core DTS 48/24.

These are the only surround mixes of Peter Gabriel's studio work available apart from his "Up" SACD, and they bring a new dimension to the music. Excellent.

This is easily of the best music video collections to date. The wait has been worth it. It sounds great and looks great. The one I did notice that was missing was "Excellent Birds" with Laurie Anderson, and an alternate video to "Don't Give Up" (the one Kate Bush is in made it....by the way, when is SHE putting her videos out? Another video they could have put on the extras is "Here Comes The Flood" from her rarely seen Xmas special from 1979) but there are a lot of videos I'm pretty sure have never before been seen, "In Your Eyes" and "Solisbury Hill" were completely new to me. "Modern Love" in the extras section is pretty funny to see him right out of Genesis (who also have a video collection coming out, Peter's mentioned being on the Carpet Crawlers 99 video but unfortunately nowhere else... someone needs to put the 1973 concert film out already.

The only complaint I have is that his time in Genesis is not on video, and that more of his older concert footage from before "So" isn't on video as well, he did a "Rockpalast" show which has "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" on it, and the San Remo Festival concert in 82-83... and the Amnesty International shows in the late 80s, all of which show how great of a frontman he was with Genesis and how he kept an audience transfixed on him in concert.

Peter Gabriel on video, on CD, and especially in concert (whether it's a club or a stadium) will have you hooked. What's amazing to me is that he was able to leave Genesis' "prog rock" stigma and be welcome with open arms into "alternative rock", early involvement in music video, and have hit singles into the 80s and 90s as well, and STILL continue to put something new out that's quality. Even more astounding is why he's not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Genesis or solo for everything he's contributed to music, multimedia, and various causes.

Optional introductions by Peter (from various years) you can turn on and off which is good, and subtitles. It's great to hear the songs in Surround as well as how well the videos have held up over the years. The price you get this for and what you get out of it makes an even bigger treat.

Yes, that's five stars for extra trippy mind candy! Turn off the sound and watch just video (and slow it down/speed it up)...or just listen to the music alone: mono perception is stimulating enough, but now combine the two for binocular melding. These creations are cool and freaky generally, but some like Sledgehammer, Big Time, Kiss That Frog, Steam, The Barry Williams Show, Solsbury Hill, Digging The Dirt (I could go on) are artistic, intelligent and powerful juggernauts - relentless and overwhelming! Many of these are quite sexy with the gorgeous females and some of the other less trippy videos are often heavy emotionally. It is funny to me how consistent his style has been over the years...although some might feel that detracts, he owns his trademark sound and no one else touches it (listen to Tony Levin's bass on many of these!). Some of the videos are from 25 years ago, but seem very forward thinking and advanced. of course some of the computer generated effects look a bit dated, but that is to be expected - they are still exceptional and ground-breaking for their time. It takes a good long while to get through this whole dvd, which we all know is a plus if the material flows. I want to point out that I am watching on a huge projected hd screen with dts surround. It does make all the difference with music and videos like this. The extras are also very entertaining with a couple of extra videos, trailers and family (of Peter's) get to know you segments. I was always something of a Genesis fan (though I focused more on Yes, King Crimson, Floyd, Gong, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, etc. back in the 70's), and Peter Gabriel's Genesis is my favorite since he was such a force in that great band (to put my view in perspective). Many songs later and glimpses of future Gabriel videos over the years confirmed in my mind that this guy is a scary (in a good way), maniacal human kaleidescope - and a fascinating one at that. One of the great musical forces of our time. Watch these videos closely and be in amazement...THIS IS MIND CANDY THAT DOESN"T FESTER AND ROT THE MENTAL TEETH! Thanks Peter for the many, many musical gifts of your long and incredible career. Enjoy without MTV in tow (a heavy and annoying burden these days), and watch at will with this well made dvd in your collection.

Peter Gabriel is an accomplished singer songwriter who made the transition to a successful solo career after a stint with Genesis. This recent DVD release is a video anthology including Solsbury Hill, Games without Frontiers, Shock the Monkey and Sledgehammer. The bonus for me was the inclusion of the video for IN YOUR EYES, a song which was a popular album track in UK and Australia but not a chosen single in those regions. In America it was released as a single. This was the first time I had seen the video for this beautifully crafted tune (and yes, my fav Gabriel track).
As pointed out by other reviewers, this DVD features reworkings of most of the songs. At first, this is a bit of a shock, but you do get used to it. I think the songs were remastered to take full advantage of surround sound. The good news, the DVD boasts a fab DTS soundtrack (crank it up!), as well as 5.1 and 2.0.

It was great to see the video for "Shock the Monkey" again as well as "Steam" and "Diggin' in the Dirt". In fact, there are plenty of videos on here which make it top value for your money.

Heaps of extras also complete a brilliant package, including the rare video for "Modern Love". All Gabriel fans should have this DVD in their collection.

I debated picking this DVD up for a month or so but went for it and am sure glad I did. The sound is superb and the video eyepoppingly great.

A nice feature is being able to watch the videos with or without 'introductions' which consists of a brief display of the album cover the song is from and usually a short interview or comment about the songs conception from PG. You can also program the DVD from the main menu to play selected cuts in the order you prefer.

It was nice seeing some old favorites as well as many videos that were new to me. 'Lovetown' is great and has been sticking in my mind for days.

The extras are good too... a live version of 'Games Without Frontiers', the vintage 'Modern Love' (which I had not seen before) and some trailers from PG's other DVDs.

All in all a great collection of timeless audio-visual art. The 5.1 or DTS audio portion alone of this collection is well worth the cost. Excellent entertainment value to be sure.

Great to see these Gabriel vids on DVD. Several songs, including Games Without Frontiers, are recompiled incorporating some different footage from the originals.
My only real complaints are technical. You can not scan tracks or advance to the next track once you're in play mode. The other is when playing with "Introductions On" in DTS mode, there is no sound with several of the intros.