Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Blu-ray Movie Review

"So". . .is this Blu-ray worth checking out?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 27, 2012

1993 probably doesn’t seem like that long ago (at least for those of us who have spent at least as much time before that year as after). But aside from the easily calculable numerical passage of nineteen years, Peter Gabriel Secret World Live, which was recorded in 1993, bears testament to at least one charming relic of how much times have changed in these relatively few years: the audience here shows its appreciation by lighting little butane cigarette lighters! It’s almost quaint in a way, at least for those who are more accustomed to seeing thousands of cellphones lit up in the darkness of an oversized arena, either taking movies of their favorite star or flashing appreciative lights in a high tech version of what used to cause occasional singed fingers in days of yore. But Peter Gabriel Secret World Live is quaint for any number of reasons. We’ve become so used to these over the top, gargantuan, slickly produced rock star concerts that the decidedly lo-fi charms of this tour (as “high tech” as it was in its day) can actually provoke mild amusement, if not outright laughter. Now don’t get me wrong: I love Peter Gabriel’s music with a passion, but even I couldn’t help but snicker just a little during Secret World Live’s opener, a version of “Come Talk To Me” that sees Peter emerge from one of those, well, quaint red British phone booths and then attempt to pull the phone cord out to reach Paula Cole, Gabriel’s main back up singer for the concert. It’s actually kind of funny to see Gabriel “struggling” to get to Cole (even if it is a manufactured “struggle”), and that’s just the first of several weirdly old fashioned yet undeniably charming moments that dot this concert, which was filmed over two nights in November 1993 in Modena, Italy.

It’s probably odd to think of it now, but Peter Gabriel was still relatively new to the rock superstar game when Secret World Live was filmed. He had of course released So, the album that would spawn the huge MTV hit “Sledgehammer” (still the number one most played video in the entire history of MTV), with its famously loony stop motion animation (done partly by Aardman of Wallace and Gromit fame). And many other Gabriel songs like “In Your Eyes” had become significant hits. But some at least may have still been thinking of Gabriel as “that ex-Genesis guy”. The Secret World Live Tour really helped firmly establish Gabriel as a solo artist of formidable accomplishments in his own right.

The tour was state of the art in its day, with a huge thrust stage with a moving walkway (kind of like what you see in airports), but, again, it looks frightfully quaint to modern day sensibilities. Add to that the lack of bells and whistles here (despite the occasional gimmick like the huge dome that floats over the band and occasionally rises or falls, as well as some projections that dot the concert), not to mention some patently odd choreography, and those not prone to be bowled over by Gabriel’s music may actually be rolling their eyes at the silliness of it all. (There are a couple of just flat out weird choreographic moments. Gabriel does a herky-jerky stop-action dance to the intro of “Sledgehammer” and Gabriel and his backup singers do a totally bizarre jumping routine during “In My Eyes”.)

Still, it’s the music that’s most important in a concert and Gabriel and his band sound fantastic throughout the performance. Backing Gabriel up are Manu Katche on drums, Tony Levin on bass and vocals, David Rhodes on guitar and vocals, Jean Claude Naimro on keyboards and vocals, Shankar on violin and vocals, Levon Minassian on Doudouk and the aforementioned Paula Cole on vocals. Special guests Papa Wemba and Molokai join in on “In Your Eyes”. If you can get past the truly weird "dance" moves forced on these exceptional players, there's a wealth of gorgeous music here to enjoy, and the band members obviously enjoy a very real rapport with each other.

Peter Gabriel Secret World Live features the following songs:

• 01. Come Talk To Me
• 02. Steam
• 03. Across the River
• 04. Slow Marimbas
• 05. Shaking the Tree
• 06. Blood of Eden
• 07. San Jacinto
• 08. Kiss That Frog
• 09. Washing of the Water
• 10. Solsbury Hill
• 11. Digging in the Dirt
• 12. Sledgehammer
• 13. Secret World
• 14. Don’t Give Up
• 15. In Your Eyes

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Peter Gabriel Secret World Live is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision (a division of Eagle Rock Entertainment) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The liner notes for this release contain the following information:

The original 16mm film negatives were repaired/cleaned and scanned (at super 2K) to a file sequence for mastering and restoration. The 2K sequence is the resolution we view in cinemas, and as such, the concert is now available in high definition without comprosmise. Once scanned, the footage was digitally restored and graded (by award winning colourist Ray King) to allow fans to view the concert as never been seen before.

The one salient piece of information in that quote is 16mm. No matter how much restoration and digital tweaking is done to particular source elements, there's only so much information available in the source elements themselves, and let's face it, 16mm isn't exactly a reference quality format (even if some 16mm material pops relatively well in high definition). So fans must come to this outing with appropriate expectations. Those expectations should include foreknowledge that a lot of this concert is incredibly soft, to the point where midrange shots are little more than fuzzy blurs of color. Close-ups do reasonably well, but even those lack the level of fine object detail that we've come to expect from more recent contemporary concert footage. Colors are also decently robust and contrast is at acceptable levels, but this is certainly not going to set any videophile's heart on fire, no matter how much laudable restoration was done to get it to this condition.

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Peter Gabriel Secret World Live features both a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. While fidelity is exceptional on both of these offerings, what may strike some listeners as at least a little surprising is how sparse, even spacious, these arrangements are. Much like the general performance ethos here, there's nothing that assaults the listener, no huge effects, no massed instruments, just carefully layered lines and (especially) percussion, aspects that would come to define Gabriel's increasing importance in World Music. The 5.1 mix nicely separates the players and keeps the crowd noises anchored to the rear channels, where they hardly ever intrude to the point of distraction. The mix itself is very well handled, with Gabriel's slightly raspy vocals out front, followed by Cole's ethereal contributions and then backed up by the stellar instrumentalists.

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Red Rain (1080i; 6:20)


• Behind the Scenes (SD; 15:13) is actually called Peter Gabriel's Secret World and contains some snippets of concert performances along with interviews with Peter talking about the tour.


• Timelapse (SD; 3:12) is a cool little video of the stage being assembled, accompanied by a nice "Quiet Remix" of "Steam".


• Quiet Steam Gallery (1080i; 6:25)


• The Rhythm of the Heat (1080i; 6:01) is taken from the Blu-ray of New Blood: Live in London. This new Peter Gabriel Blu-ray isn't due for another couple of months, and this preview looks like it's going to be a stellar release.

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Peter Gabriel Secret World Live is a little bit like a video time machine back to a relatively recent but nonetheless distant age. It's amazing how much live concerts have changed in the less than two decades since the Secret World Live Tour occurred, and younger audiences may actually laugh out loud at this fairly simple production. The music itself is wonderful, a nice overview of what were then some of Gabriel's biggest hits as well as a smattering of other tunes, and Gabriel's all-star back up band is unbeatable. The Blu-ray is a hit or miss proposition. Though the original 16mm negative was evidently used as the source element for this restoration, there's only so much that could be done with it, and anyone who has never seen an older concert video may be shocked at just how soft and non-detailed this is. Luckily the lossless soundtracks help to make up for that, and there are some decent supplementary features on hand here as well. Recommended.