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(More customer reviews)So, Finally it's here, the 5th official live video release from Phil's 6th worldtour as a solo artist (previous releases count the Passadena 1982 video, the Dallas 1985 video, the Berlin 1990 video/2DVD, and the Paris 1997 video/DVD). As such, one cannot quite keep from comparing this release to these former releases, when one wants to make an evaluation of the DVD. This being said, I shall emphasize that if your relatively new into Phil's music, or simply haven't bought the older releases for one reason or another, this is an excellent show, featuring a wide range of his greatest and best loved hits, and giving a very fine overview of how Phil is on stage. Furthermore, you'll have a large amount of extra features thrown in as an added value.
- THE TRACK LISTING -
Perhaps the greatest pro of this release is, that it features the FULL concert. A full 24 tracks are we treated with, which can only be described as generous. The only other complete release so far was the 1990 Serious Hits In Berlin (re-released in 2xDVD last year), and it is always a great frustration to the fans, when one of their favorite songs are cut away in the editing.
Furthermore, the set-list of this tour is quite well-balanced, featuring practically all the greatest, old as well as new - In The Air Tonight, Susudio, One More Night, Dance Into The Light, Another Day In Paradise, Can't Hurry Love, Can't Stop Loving You, and I could go on and on. Of course, a few tracks that I'd love to have seen here are missing - not one track from the Both Sides album - according to Phil his best, and I agree - is included, the title track would have fitted in perfectly; his most recent hit-single from the Brother Bear soundtrack, Look Through My Eyes, is omitted, this soundtrack being represented instead by the ballad No Way Out - which is in fact not a bad treat. I should have loved to have had the piano version of Do You Remember?, as performed on the '97 tour, but of course the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Instead, we are treated with several very pleasant surprises: An absolutely amazing gospel-version of True Colours, far superior to his '98 remake; a lovely version of Come With Me from his recent Testify album, again drawing on his amazing 5-piece of back-up vocalists; an impressive rendition of the gospel-like No Way Out, again using the full power of this vocal potential; and nearly last but not least, another track from the Testify album, It's Not Too Late, another of my favorites, and again presented in a wonderfull new version.
- THE PERFORMANCE -
The performance is, overall, great without being superb. Phil is in good vocal shape, but not as amazing as on the Live And Loose In Paris release from '97. The musicians play amazing, and overall this will probably rank second - after the 97 Paris concert, that was probably Phil's best ever - amongst his live releases. The arrangement is excellent, the upbeat songs are perfomed spotlessly, and the real power of the shw comes with the amazing vocal arrangement on several of the ballads, as mentioned above - True Colours, Come With Me, No Way Out and It's Not Too Late.
Generally, the on-scene performance is pretty dynamic and goes well along with the music - still, the scene doesn't quite give the same space for playing and entertainment as did the circular in-the-round stage used on the '97 tour. The lighting is ok, but I was not impressed - again, comparing with the amazing work on the '97 show, this was a minor let-down.
- SOUND AND FILMING -
The sound is virtually perfect, at least I can't find anything to complain on here. The sound of the music is much more pleasant than on the Berlin '90 show, which was perhaps the greatest weeknes of that show in my oppinion. The filming is excellent as well, the picture quality is great, and I don't miss the multi-camera angles option, which is even included on a few tracks.
- EXTRA FEATURES -
All the videos for the featured songs are included - a generous treat for the fans. Ok, most of the videos are quite mediocre, but still, Phil could've released a seperate video-DVD and ripped the fans of another 20 £. Of course, this is no guarantee that such a release will not come, as the videos of songs not played in the concert are not included. Of course, that should've been nice ... we're talking another 5 or 10 videos here I think.
Some old live-footage is included here, but frankly, this is nothing to go for. The Live Aid Against All Odds performance and the Secret Policeman's Ball In The Air Tonight performance are both in pretty lousy quality, mainly of interest for the serious fans. The 'wild card' features a 20-minutes performance with the Big Band, which never was my taste, so I can hardly appreciate this piece. Instead, there are loads of rare footage not included, that would've been obvious to include: The fantastic Policeman's Ball performance of The Roof Is Leaking, the very rare 1997 performance of The Same Moon with Laura Pausini (not sure whether this was a radio or TV show, this might not have been filmed), the 2002 TV performance of Wake Up Call, and I could go on. Perhaps one day, on future releases, these gems will se the light of day.
Still, these features, and also several documentaries, TV-specials and a gallery, are much more that what've been included on earlier releases, and with a full 224 minutes of extra material (yes, that's nealy 4 hours!), and a 133 minutes live-show, this can only be described as an extremely generous release, and defenitely woth bying, die-hard fan or newcommer.
Overall Rating: 9/10
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Phil Collins: Finally - The First Farewell Tour (2005)
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