Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 21, 2016

Peter Gabriel needs to write a musical. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad. I was never overly impressed with Peter’s Genesis successor Phil Collins’ work in quasi-musicals like his song score to Disney’s Tarzan, finding at least some of those compositions hackneyed and predictable, even if they were admittedly gorgeously produced. But Gabriel just seems to have an inherently theatrical sensibility that I think might serve him well should he choose to craft a Broadway or West End spectacular. There are times throughout Growing Up Live that offer visual delights that could almost have come out of the latest Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, and by the time Peter is cycling around upside down or, later, tooling around inside a huge globe (kind of like the kind you can rent to “walk on water” in the ocean at some seaside resorts), it’s not inconceivable that some audience members might actually forget about how wonderful the actual music being performed is. In 2002 and 2003, following Gabriel’s immense success with both So (a success documented quite winningly in Peter Gabriel - Classic Albums: So) and its follow up Us, Gabriel launched a tour in support of what was then his new album Up. Up never quite attained the chart success of those two immediate predecessors, failing to produce any huge singles on the level of So’s “Sledgehammer” and “In Your Eyes”, or Us’ “Digging the Dirt” and “Steam”, it did provide Gabriel with the framework for one of his most audacious touring shows. This concert was filmed over twon ights at the FilaForum in Milan in May 2003, co-directed by Gabriel and Hamish Hamilton, and featuring a truly stupendous production design by Robert Lepage.

A perhaps infelicitous decision to utilize split screen imagery is utilized at the get go and then sporadically throughout the concert, attempting to give a “you are there” feeling but often instead only offering visual chaos, with brief looks at the stage crew preparing various elements (often crouching underneath the stage in wait) and the like. The main part of the concert is thankfully presented without this stylistic artifice, and there’s a nice panoramic sweep to the visuals, with Gabriel and band performing in the round and the camera darting and swooping hither and yon to capture it all.

Perhaps misleadingly given the splendors that are in store, Peter starts the show solo, simply walking on stage and walking up to a keyboard (what is that sheaf of paper he sets underneath what are presumably either lyrics or lead sheets?). However, soon enough Gabriel’s theatrical sensibility starts to kick in, and he’s joined not just by a gamut of other players but by an assortment of sometimes whimsical and in fact downright odd props. Chief among these is what kind of looks like a hot air balloon that descends from the flies in the middle of the round stage and which then becomes a metamorphosizing element.

Throughout all the visual bells and whistles (maybe that should be balls and whistles, but I digress), Gabriel and his band provide beautifully evocative soundscapes that show why it often takes Gabriel years to bring out new albums. There’s some luscious layering of both instrumental and vocal forces here, though there’s so much going on visually you might not realize it until the second or third viewing.

Peter’s set list for the “main” concert on this disc (see the supplements for lots more tracks) is:

1. Here Comes the Flood

2. Darkness

3. Red Rain

4. Secret World

5. Sky Blue

6. Downside Up

7. The Barry Williams Show

8. More Than This

9. Mercy Street

10. Digging in the Dirt

11. Growing Up

12. Animal Nation (featuring Dr. Hukwe Zawose and Charles Zawose)

13. Solsbury Hill

14. Sledgehammer

15. Signal to Noise (featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)

16. In Your Eyes

17. Father, Son

Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and Universal Music Group (along with Peter's own Real World) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The main concert looks splendid in high definition, with deep convincing blacks that still offer suitable gradations between Peter's own black smock and some of the shadowy backgrounds. There are a glut of extreme close-ups here where "busy" elements like the screens on the microphones resolve perfectly. Detail on fabrics of both outfits and props is also excellent. Some of the split screen imagery is simply too chaotic and even random seeming to provide much detail and I personally think the piece would have been stronger without it (see screenshot 7 for just one example of the sort of content included in these elements). Despite some pretty aggressive lighting schemes, there are no real problems with posterizing or banding, and fans should be very well pleased with the overall look of this transfer.

Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes, and you can't really go wrong with either of them. Perhaps surprisingly, there's no real difference in prioritization of vocals between the two, but the 5.1 mix obviously adds a whole new sonic dimension in terms of the low end, something that's especially evident in some of the tunes that feature ethnic percussion and the like. There's a really appealing spread to the layered instrumental forces in the 5.1 mix, but vocals are always clearly heard. Fidelity is spot on and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Growing Up on Tour - A Family Portrait (480i; 39:03) is a sweet look back with tons of candid footage that fans will find interesting.


• The Story of Growing Up (480i; 9:40) has some good interviews with Gabriel as it seeks to describe some of the meaning both in the tunes as well as the staging.


• Tony Levin's Tour Photos (480i; 5:05)


• Still Growing Up Unwrapped (480i; 1:16:49) is directed by Anna Gabriel (Peter's daughter) and is a kind of combination performance piece and background documentary.


• Studio Footage 2002

  Darkness (480i; 6:02)

  No Way Out (480i; 7:29)

  Growing Up (480i; 7:23)

• BBC Later. . .with Jools Holland

  Downside Up (480i; 6:14)

  Father, Son (480i; 4:15)

Disc Two

• Still Growing Up Live (480i; 1:27:04) is culled from 2004, when Gabriel took the tour to smaller venues and felt a different approach and playlist was in order. Video quality isn't fantastic, but audio, while lossy, sounds fine. This concert features the following tracks with Dolby 2.0, Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio options:

  1. The Feeling Begins

  2. Red Rain

  3. Secret World

  4. White Ashes

  5. Games Without Frontiers

  6. Burn You Up, Burn You Down

  7. The Tower That Ate People

  8. San Jacinto

  9. Digging in the Dirt

  10. Solsbury Hill

  11. Sledgehammer

  12. Come Talk To Me

  13. Biko

Peter Gabriel: Growing Up Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While it's disappointing that the supplements are offered in standard definition (one reason I didn't score them more highly), this is a really impressive package that will almost certainly delight Peter Gabriel fans. The main concert is a whirlwind of sonic and visual activity, and the bonus material is extremely interesting in its own right. The main concert offers superb technical merits, and Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live comes Highly recommended.