Yeah, I know this is a little late coming, but here goes anyhow.
Secret World Live was recorded from two nights shows that were performed on 16 and 17 November 1993 at Palasport Nuovo, in Modena, Italy. Gabriel must have a thing for Italy because he filmed 2003's Growing Up Live there as well. There is one thing I know for sure, Italians love prog-rock, and they love Peter Gabriel. These shows were part of Gabriel's tour in support of his recently released Us album, and the set list relies heavily on its songs. This DVD was finally released almost ten years after the release of the original VHS version, so fans had much to be excited about with the thought of a digitally re-mixed and re-mastered DVD to replace their worn out VHS tapes. Well, don't get your panties in a bunch, because all didn't work out as hoped.
The visually dazzling stage production, and emotionally charged musical performances certainly live up to the hype and praise that has been bestowed on this tour, but the overall production of this DVD is a big disappointment. Although I haven't seen the VHS version, something obviously went horribly wrong during the video transfer to DVD. The picture is a grainy, blocky, over-compressed mess. To top it off, the proudly advertised "anamorphic widescreen" transfer is apparently just the original 4:3, full-frame picture with black bars slapped on the top and bottom to give it a cinematic appearance. To be fair, I will get to some of the good things about this DVD, before I continue on with the audio problems.
The show kicks off impressively with the camera panning over the darkened crowd in the direction of a darkened stage which reveals Gabriel singing "Come Talk to Me" from within a barely-lit, British-style telephone booth. After a couple of verses in this manner, the rest of the band kicks in as they are being raised up onto the stage from an area underneath. The giant video screen also starts to simultaneously rotate completely around vertically - a feet you will see several more times during the show. "Come Talk to Me" is one of the stronger songs from the Us album, and Manu Katche's brilliant drumming makes this performance a dazzling show opener.
The stage actually consists of two main stages, one being a square main stage that is centered by the giant revolving video screen, and a round stage that extends out towards the center of the arena, and is connected to the main stage by a large catwalk. Each song performance includes some type of visual effect, interactive set piece, dance routine, or theme. One of the props was a tree that was featured prominently during "Shaking The Tree" and "Blood Of Eden". I laughed my ass off during Gabriel's interview when he compared seeing the rather small tree for the first time, after expecting something huge, to when Spinal Tap was presented with their Stonehenge prop. The tree wasn't THAT bad, however, and it added nicely to the ambience of the performances.
Article comments
1 - Mark Jochim
Very nice review; and don't worry about it being "late" (I just read a Blogcritics review of a film first released in 1961).
I enjoy this DVD much more than [i]Growing Up Live[/i] because it was a much more cohesive show (although that one's great, too). As for the heaviness of the [i]Us[/i] and [i]So[/i] material, that was mainly the decision to promote those albums at the time. His shows during that period definitely included more of the older songs such as "Shock The Monkey" and "Games Without Frontiers" (which were both released on his earlier concert video, [i]POV[/i]. "Biko" was a less frequently-played song on that tour and "D.I.Y." wasn't played at all (I think the last time it was performed live was in 1983). I'm not sure why "Red Rain" was left off, though, but I think the songs included do flow perfectly and I don't miss anything left on the cutting-room floor.
2 - Mark Jochim
Oh, yes. Peter hasn't done any of his Genesis material during his solo shows since 1978 (he used to perform "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and "Back In NYC") -- unless you count the 'Six Of The Best' reunion show at Milton Keynes in Oct. 1982. For that matter, Phil Collins never performs Genesis songs in his solo shows (well, "Behind The Lines", but he re-recorded that for his first solo LP), nor does Mike + The Mechanics. They all like to keep the solo material and band material separate and feel that if they don't have the rest of the guys playing with them it would be cheating the songs and their history.
Only Steve Hackett plays plenty of Genesis material during his solo shows and has re-recorded a number of the earlier band songs as well (check out his 'Genesis Revisted' 2-CD set for most of them).
3 - Paul Roy
Mark,
Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford never did any Genesis songs with their other bands, but atleast they still got together AS Genesis every so often until finally breaking up a few years ago (or did they?). When Steve Hackett performed a few Genesis classics on his Once Above A Time DVD they were incredible. I'd just like to hear Gabriel do some because alot up us were never fortunate enough to see the Gabriel-era Genesis live.