Customer Reviews

Peter Gabriel - Still Growing Up - Live and Unwrapped

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

God, how I hate to give Gabriel only 4 STARS!! Well, here goes. I couldn't decide whether or not to buy this in the store when I first saw it, but I just received it as an early Christmas present. This 2 Disc set contains scattered performances from the 2004 European Tour, STILL GROWING UP LIVE. The venues for each song are different and each performance has a different feel. Some are small venues while others are bigger arena venues. Some performances are a little lackluster while others are genuinely breathtaking and contain that religious awe which confirms why you're a Gabriel fanatic in the first place. As everyone knows, "Genesis is Great, but Peter Gabriel is God." Gabriel only tours about once every ten years, so any time you can find a LIVE performance on DVD it's usually a must have. Everytime he comes to L.A. I spend at least 250.00 to 500.00 dollars to see him up-close. He's the only artist I'll spend that kind of money on. And if you're a Gabriel fanatic you know what I'm talking about. I actually got to touch him once when I was in the front row at The Forum in L.A. Yay! This was in the 80's when he would do LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME Live. SO (pun intended), is this worth having for the fanatic? The answer is a resounding YES.

The concert footage on Disc One is about 90 minutes long and contains seven new LIVE performances including:

COME TALK TO ME
SAN JACINTO
WHITE ASHES
THE TOWER THAT ATE PEOPLE
BURN YOU UP, BURN YOU DOWN
GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS
and BIKO.

Personally I think SECRET WORLD LIVE contains the superior version of COME TALK TO ME. And, SAN JACINTO for that matter. But, this version of SAN JACINTO contains Peter's backstory to a French audience on how this song was inspired by a Native American that he met while on tour. (Make sure you turn on the subtitles which allows you to understand Peter's French. The subtitles won't distract you from enjoying the music as they only appear when Peter is speaking to the audience.) SAN JACINTO is my favorite LIVE Gabriel tune and the performance here is stunning.

There are four reason's to buy these Discs if you're a fanatic. ONE is the performance here of SAN JACINTO. Always great LIVE.

TWO is the song WHITE ASHES, from the LIVE IMPORT OVO TOUR CD and a marvelous new addition to the dark side of Gabriel's repertoire.

THREE is the song THE TOWER THAT ATE PEOPLE, which is also from the IMPORT OVO CD. In my opinion this one performance alone makes this worth a purchase for the fanatic. It reminds me of a LIVE KING CRIMSON improv that might have appeared on THE PROJECKTS Discs. (Is Tony Levin a co-author here?) Although it's a structured song, it harkens back to Gabriel's dark RAEL persona from his LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY or early solo days. It's extremely rare, progressive, and one of the best tunes Gabriel has written in years. It blew me away!!

And the FOURTH reason is the extra track on Disc One: NO SELF CONTROL from the 1988 THIS WAY UP tour film P.O.V. THIS CUT IS AMAZING!! (Although, it's mixed with the video production of the same song which distracts somewhat from the LIVE performance.) In my opinion this is Gabriel's greatest tour video and it isn't available on DVD. (I still own a VCR just so I can play my VHS tape copy of this unbelievable concert performance.) Now I get to beg Peter. Please, please, Peter!! Release the entire P.O.V. concert on DVD!! I won't feel whole as a person or a fan unless you do!! (I hope he heard me.)

Disc Two is the same concert footage as Disc One, but with interviews and video inserts included. I wish they had just made a straight documentary out of this. It's a little bit of overkill. The music distracts from the commentary and vice versa. Disc Two also includes some studio and TV extras that will appeal to the hardcore fanatic.

The concert footage was shot in Widescreen by Hamish Hamilton with documentary footage shot by Anna Gabriel. There are some nice close-ups of Gabriel with some annoying edits and not enough shots of Tony Levin. Every Gabriel fan knows Tony Levin has played on every Gabriel tour and solo album since the 70's. He's a Gabriel mainstay and the best bassist in the world. He should have been featured more prominently here. Ah, that wonderful Chapman Stick has been shortchanged.

The sound is a mixed bag depending on where the individual concert takes were recorded. Some tracks sound GREAT while others sound GOOD. There is a DTS setting as well as a 5.1 surround setting. As you'd expect, the menus look and sound great. This one may only be for the hardcore fanatic. Everyone else should buy GROWING UP LIVE and SECRET WORLD LIVE.

Now, where, oh where is P.O.V. on DVD!?!

b4 i say what i'm gonna say, i'd like to state for the record that i'm a big PG fan...have been since a teen. also, i attended both growing up live performances...what a treat!

of course what matters is content. disc 1 is live stuff. the performances, as expected, are great. disc 2 is what i can't figure out. disc 2 is the live performances on disc 1, but with a blend of documentary footage, interviews and way too much playing with mirrors! [it was kinda cool at first but became hokey fast] PG's daughter is responsible for the second disc so perhaps dad was a little less focused on quality control. if you have 'growing up live' & 'a family portrait,' you don't need this set, unless your a hard-core fan like myself. also, not that this is important, but the packaging was not nearly as visually appealing as the first growing up live and play dvd's. not much to look at.

in summary, i would have much more preferred him directing his energy to finish up I/O [the next album] or an in depth road documentary [a family portrait, part II?] without all the mirror effects. Gabriel is much too dignified for that.

Being a devoted PG fan, I have the Growing Up Live DVD, as well as Family Portrait, the documentary made by Anna Gabriel about that tour. I also saw the Growing Up and Still Growing Up tours four times during their three year journey around the world.

So, when I first heard about this new release, I couldn't imagine what more there was to show that I hadn't already seen. I was wrong.

Disc one is a fairly straightforward (for PG) rendering of the last leg of the tour, using footage from three performances to show what the summer 2004 festival shows looked like. Again, being PG, the soundtrack sounds fantastic and has doutbless been overdubbed, to provide the viewer/listener with the best quality possible.

Disc two is slightly different. We see some of the same footage from disc one, but with additional interview segments - most from PG himself, but there's also some commentary from the members of the band who spent so much time working on this music with him. It's interesting to see the material illuminated in such a way.

The real gem of disc two, however, is in the extras. We are supplied with footage shot of the band at Real World during the rehearsal period back in 2002. This footage includes familiar tour offerings such as Darkness and Growing Up, in slightly rougher formats than were played on the road. Also included is No Way Out - a song that was a standout on PG's last studio album, Up, but was played only a handful of times in concert. Seeing and hearing it rendered here, you'll wonder why it wasn't given more stage time.

Somehow, PG (and his daughter, Anna) have managed to illuminate yet a little more of the world of his music with this DVD. I highly recommend picking it up, even if you have Growing Up Live - this shines light into some slightly different spaces.

Enjoy! :o)

It may seem like overkill since it follows 2003's Growing Up DVD, but the latest live Gabriel release is a more than worthy addition that expands on the first and complements it. It's basically for existing fans, but SGU is a treat for anyone who wants more Peter. The guy's still got one of the greatest song catalogues around (is there anyone who doesn't love "In Your Eyes" or "Secret World"?) and he puts on a stage show like nobody else.

Disc 1 is the reason you want this set. Amid the usual greatness of a PG show it's got quite a few rarities & resurrected songs: "The Feeling Begins" (a doudouk solo without the percussion), "San Jacinto," "Games Without Frontiers," "Biko," "The Tower That Ate People," and the infectious "Burn You Up Burn You Down." The biggest treat is probably "White Ashes," transformed into an electronic and spine-tinglingly creepy version that now has lyrics. The main downside is that it's a montage from several shows & venues rather than one performance. One minute they're in a small town square, the next moment it's a big ampitheater.

Disc 2 basically repeats almost the same performances from disc 1, but intercut with different visuals and sporadic little monologues from Peter (and briefly the band) on all kinds of background things. What does he think about the human capacity for art? What are some of the songs about? How does technology influence music and vice-versa? This part doesn't beg for repeated viewings; it might have worked better as a separate documentary or even just a commentary track over the original video itself. Still, it's fascinating stuff (the visuals are nicely creative) and it makes the set more than 'just' another performance DVD.

Extras: a few more live songs from the tour, two tracks from Jools Holland's BBC program, rehearsals of some Up tunes, and an 80s performance of "No Self Control."

Verdict: Secret World Live is still Peter's greatest concert film, but if you also like Growing Up Live, this set will be worth it for the first disc alone. The second just makes it that little bit better.

First of all I bought this DVD last December and since that time I have read very few reviews that proclaim this DVD to be anything that special. I have to disagree! This DVD is a piece of art true to form of Peter's writing, performing and talents. I just can't believe that so many people who claim to be fans don't hesitate to shoot this work down in an effort to try and be overly critical. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I feel fortunate and blessed that Peter chose to release the second leg of the "Growing Up" tour on DVD. Peter is one of the greatest artists of our time. His performances are breathtaking (with OR without the extra special props and lighting) and often bring tears to the eye - tears of great joy and sadness. Not only is the concert footage incredible, but the interview footage and commentary about the songs and the tour are also very interesting. I would call this a necessary companion to the "Growing Up Live" DVD. This DVD also has perfect audio and visual. So I just can't see what all the complaining is about. If I could, I would rate this DVD with a thousand stars! It just doesn't get much better than this.

I am a big Gabriel fan and have enjoyed everything he has done, but I am really disappointed by this video. The first problem is that is not taken from just one show. Which would have been fine if each song was from a different show and it listed were the shows they were from. But, get this, each song is a mishmash of all sorts of concerts all edited together into EACH song. So basically he is lip-synching to the song-the audio is not edited, it is the same venue, but may be different shows for each audio track. So what you get is an edit where Peter is on one side of a rectangle stage and the next edit, he is somewhere else on a round stage. He is holding a microphone (edit) he is NOT holding a microphone but singing into his headset. Extremely anoying when you notice it and then that is all you can think about. Also some rather unflattering closeups of pores on skin and multitudes of out of focus camera work-on purpose, but badly done. With all the different shows filmed that director Hamilton must have had, he should have been able to come up with a good one concert version of each song. Then with all these shows, the concert is only 90 minutes. There were other songs performed on this tour-why not include those? And why the bonus concert song? Why not put it in the actual video?
The "documentary" on disc 2 is just a question mark. WHY WHY WHY? Gabriel let his daughter put together this item. After making a poor to below average documentary (Growing Up On Tour) last tour, I thought Peter would have said no to this. What we get is most of the concet again, strangely with some different shots and then some interview footage interspursed throughout and the film being shown on Peter's head. I had just watched the concert and did not want to see it again with talking over it. I tried fast forwarding through it with subtitles on, but the subtitles don't work when you scan throught it at 2X for some reason. I have other DVDs where the subtitles work in fast forward. I gave up after 45 minutes. Just a straight documentary would have been passable. I'm sure there must have been some interesting footage. At least have someone with documentary experience handle it. Trust me when they say family members make the worst employees. His other daughter gets to sing with him in concert and she has such a weak voice with no character at all. The last video she had more camera time than Tony Levin! While I'm at it, Peter needs to get a new drummer. This caveman Ged Lynch has no subtle finese needed for Peter's music. He just beats the crap out of the drums and all the songs loose any nuance the once had from Manu.
The extras are the best part of this DVD really! Now please release P.O.V. on DVD and don't mess up the original!

It's Peter Gabriel at his best with his band in performances that are much more intimate than the ones in the Growing Up Tour DVD. The package is great and colorful with a pink disc one that contains the performances alone with no interview footage and a a second green disc that amazingly contains the same, yes the same performances, but this time with interviews of Peter and members of the band. You can also see interesting artful and colorful Peter Gabriel closeups that work as backup to the same songs of disc one. Some songs performed are remindful of the Growing Up DVD like Red Rain, Secret World, Digging in the Dirt, Solsbury Hill ,Sledgehammer and In your Eyes (an extra)this time with another senegelase singer, but others are quite amazing with interesting textures such as White Ashes (which also works as background in the menu), The Tower that ate people and believe it or not Biko, which is played somehow differently than past performances with Richard Evans doing the Shankar violin with a particular whistle instrument and pounding drums from Ged Lynch that sounds quite singular in comparison with Manu Katché.

The extras also satisfy us the fans with the Real World Studio concert rehearsels of Darkness, No Way Out and Growing Up. You can't miss No Self Control of the POV concert which is included as an extra an reminds us how different Peter looked those days.

The sound and image quality is excellent and the editing of the films is also.

Greetings to everyone from Beautiful Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Paul

My one huge complaint about the Growing Up dvd was that it didn't show enough of Peter during crucial moments. He'd be doing this awesome emotional thing with his voice, and the camera would be on someone else!

Live and Unwrapped corrects this completely. There is less visual wizardry and more of Peter. No accusations of too much technology here - you can SEE him sing; you can SEE his face get all emotional. It is real live footage! YES! Thank you Peter for listening to our feedback!

This is a must-have for any serious fan. (Well, obviously ANYTHING Peter does is a must-have for serious fans.)

White Ashes alone makes it worth it, especially for the intense emotion at the end of the song. Melanie is great.

Tower is absolutely stunning - it totally ROCKS! (In fact, even my metalhead son said it was 'pretty good' which means it ROCKS coming from him!)

The studio footage alone makes it worth it. Burn You Up was really nice. And a most excellent Digging in the Dirt. And...and...excellent versions of all the songs.

I agree that Anna maybe went a little overboard with the mirrors on disk 2. It was fun for awhile, but got old. But no matter. I doubt that I would play disk 2 very often anyway, since what I am interested in is the live footage of disk 1.

I already PLAYed disk 1 5 times the first day I got it. It's that good! SO ignore all those whiney criticisms of disk 2 - this is worth buying anyway! Do NOT pass this UP because you already have Growing Up - this has much better closeup footage of The Master. (Do get all of his dvds, if you haven't already.)

I'm a little surprised by the other reviews that comment on the different tracks being from different performances. It's much worse than just that. The video from many tracks is cobbled together from footage taken from a number of different performances, *within*, not just between tracks. That is, from one second to the next as the video cuts, you have no idea whether the video is even going to wind up showing the same stage as it did seconds before (and often very obviously isn't).

As far as I'm concerned, when I buy a "live" concert DVD, I want the video to be the video of the performance that I am hearing. Isn't this one of the big advantages of DVD over live audio-only performances, which are often composed of the "best" tracks from a whole tour? OK, so they may be the best individual performances of each track, but if you want studio perfection, why not buy the studio album? You'd think that the pressures of video editing and wanting to make things look coherent would ensure that you're getting a single, coherent performance, warts and all. Just goes to show how wrong you can be. With this DVD set, not only do you have no idea whether you are seeing what you are hearing, but the editors seem to flaunt it, and it's patently obvious that much of the time you are definitely *not* seeing what you are hearing.

However much I might might love PG, it's hard to love this DVD. Frankly, it's better without the video, but if you're going to play it with the video off, why not just listen to a CD? If I had wanted a DVD with MTV-type video fakery I wouldn't have bought a DVD that said "live" on the spine.

I became a PG fan with "So", worked my way back to his earlier releases, and have patiently anticipated every release since then, through "Up" and "Us". PG is definitely adopting the video market this round, but I'm really disappointed with this offering.

Disc 1 contains tracks shot of various locales, although for the most part you can't figure out where the venues are located. Unfortunately, there's no intro or transition for each venue/track, and the DVD's liner notes do not contain any information as to the locations...although they are mentioned, you can't figure out where each one was shot. There's really nothing new here, most of the tracks were included in the original "Growing Up Live" DVD, and since Peter is a stickler for perfection, the tracks don't change all that much. Although there's less theatrics, the musical performances are just about the same.

The second DVD really doesn't have a purpose. It's the same footage, supplemented with some additional dialogue...very sparse...with images of the concert projected either on Peter's face or on cardboard screens he holds and moves around his person. Really nothing interesting comes out of it, and after watching half of it, I would just hit "forward search" on my remote until subtitles appeared on the screen, which indicated that Peter or somebody else was speaking.

There's some bonus footage. I enjoyed watching the studio footage of the band practicing for the 2002 tour, but it too gets stale fast.

This is not an essential PG piece, and I consider myself a die-hard fan. I probably would have preferred commentary on Disc 1, with some insight to what each of the bandmembers thought about each performance, venue, etc.

The concert footage contains really nothing new (except "White Ashes"), the second disc is a replay of disc 1 (and if you got nothing out of watching disc 1 the first time, well...you get my point!), and the added dialogue on disc 2 just wasn't worth the time. If you have "Growing Up Live" on DVD, you won't need this.