Review of Peter Gabriel: Play

Introduction

Peter Gabriel first came to public attention as part of the Charterhouse public school band Genesis. With a penchant for theatrics, live performances became real multi-media events with Gabriel using an ever-increasing multitude of costumes, props and make-up in order to frame the songs. Leaving the band in 1975, Gabriel has since forged a hugely successful solo career spanning nearly thirty years and shows no sign of stopping. The lust for theatrics he showed in his live performances has not abated with ever-elaborate stage shows and he also used this to good effect in his promo videos which were often very striking and also groundbreaking.

Here then is a retrospective of his promo videos to date. With new surround sound mixes by Daniel Lanois and Richard Chappell plus new visuals for some of the promos, here then is Peter Gabriel in the medium where he is arguably more well-known than most.

Video

Pictures are generally sharp, so age is shown on some of the older promos but nothing that would spoil the viewing experience. Where this collection is let down a bit is that there is occasional black screen where music either comes in or fades out. I suspect this is just a timing issue between the visuals and the new mixes, but it can be a little annoying.

I`m not entirely sure where to put my complaint about the artwork for this package so here seems a logical place to put it. The artwork that is consistent for the packaging, menus and video introductions is coloured lines of plastecine. This works well within the menus where you have some movement and a semblance of artwork. For the cover, however, it just looks plain awful. Gabriel is a music legend and a retrospective of his work demands better cover art than that provided.

Audio

The new mixes in 5.1 work really well, and Gabriel has probably never sounded so good. Also available are soundtracks in DTS and DD 2.0.

Features

A nice 24 page booklet with an introduction from the man himself explaining the idea behind this collection. The remainder of the booklet contains stills from each video together with the associated credits.

Modern Love video - not sure why this wasn`t included in the main feature rather than as an extra. It does show it`s age, but then that`s presumably the point of a retrospective.

The Nest That Sailed The Sky video - stunning visuals that I presume are from the OVO Millennium Show in the London Dome.

Growing Up Live, A Family Portrait - trailer for a film by Anna Gabriel, filmed on the road and looking quite interesting as a behind the scenes look at a Gabriel world tour.

Growing Up Live - trailer for the live DVD for the Growing Up tour, looks like it was a stunning concert experience.

Secret World Live - trailer for the live DVD from the tour of the same name.

Introductions - can be switched on or off, provide sleeves and video introductions to each track. Not every track has an introduction, and those that do have a mixture of old and new interview footage and some behind-the-scenes footage.

Conclusion

I`ve been a long-time fan of Peter Gabriel, since I first heard Games Without Frontiers back in 1980. I`ve dropped off a bit since he started playing around with World music, which isn`t my style, but still play his early stuff now and again. This DVD is a great chance to not only relive some memories but catch a glimpse of some of his more recent stuff in one go. It`s a very enjoyable experience.

Purists may not like this as much as me though. The tampering with original work doesn`t stop with the new surround mixes, there are actually new images in Games Without Frontiers and totally new videos for Solsbury Hill, In Your Eyes and Washing Of The Water. Not having seen any of the original videos for these tracks, I don`t mind so much although I really imagined Solsbury Hill to be a much simpler video than the new cut turns out to be.

Gabriel is now thought of as one of an elite band of British music`s elder statemen, and his image and music tends to convey that. I do find his latest stuff to be a little on the tepid side, completely unlike his 80`s back catalogue, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.

I would recommend this to anyone vaguely familiar with the work of Peter Gabriel and I can see this in a lot of people`s stockings this Christmas.