P.O.V.

"P.O.V."= "Point of View". This video was filmed during several concerts that Peter Gabriel and his band played in Athens, Greece, between 5 and 9 October 1987. The first time that I watched this video was in a T.V. broadcast in my country, in a goverment`s cultural T.V. channel, in September 1993, some days before Peter Gabriel`s concerts in my city. I also watched this video, but in edited form, in another T.V. channel`s broadcast in 1994. It seems for me that this last broadcasted version was a specially edited version for T.V., as it was a version of 60 minutes, but with the final credits being shown over the images of "Lay Your Hands of Me", in a different form than in the complete version. I recorded both broadcasts in videocassettes. I can`t say if the 60 minutes version was also available for buying in record/video shops. My comments are about the full version of 90 minutes. It is a very good concert video, directed by Martin Scorsese, which not only includes the images from the Athens concerts, but Scorsese and Gabriel also filmed some video scenes on which Gabriel appears singing or "acting" the songs. These videos were edited and shown with the concert images, without really affecting the concet images, and sometimes illustrating the content of the lyrics. Some examples of these successful uses of these videos for illustrating lyrics are :"Games Without Frontiers", "No Self Control", "Mercy Street".In my opinion, Gabriel is one of the artists who does a very good use of images to illustrate lyrics, and I also think that his videos are among the best I have seen. Seeing Gabriel in concert is really very interesting. I went to one of the concerts that he played here in my city in September 1993. Despite that he is not one of my favourite musicians (sometimes I have to be really in the mood to hear his albums or to watch his videos), seeing this "P.O.V." video and being in the 1993 concert were for me very good experiences. Gabriel sings with feeling in concert and he really moves the listener with some songs. In this "P.O.V." video, particularly in "Mercy Street", I can see that Gabriel is a very good artist, singing with great feeling. It seems that this video is out of print, and it has not been relased on the DVD format.

P.O.V. (Point of View)

This is a very nice Peter Gabriel`s video, it is different to Secret World for example, i think the songs chosen here are darker than Secret World, i mean, here you can find "Shock the Monkey" or "Sledhammer" which are both "happy" songs, but the most of them "San Jacinto", "Biko", "Mercy Streer" are songs with a sadder mood, a darker style. This video was done before 1990, in fact, before "Passion", so the most of the songs here are early Gabriel`s songs.

It starts with "This is the Picture", a nice start, the five members of the band, in front of people all in a row playing and making some movements , while Gabriel is present them. David Rhodes( like always), David Sancious,Manu Katche and his exquisite durms playing, Mr. Tony Levin (who?), and of course Peter Gabriel, its a particular and nice beggining of the "concert/video", immediately after that presentation and at the end of "This is the Picture" "san Jacinto", the first of the dark songs, and dark images too, one very particular and great idea of this video, is that we can see of course images of a concert, but at the same time images refering to the song, "San Jacinto" for example is completely a image of Gabriel performing; but then "Shock the Monkey", showing us images of monkeys and things like that, this is the first happy song, and returning ot the point, it is great to watch images about lyrics, i like it so much.

"Games Without Frontiers", "No Self Control" and "Mercy Street ", again with a sad mood, and that kind of songs which make you reflex about things around you and inside you, again, here we can watch images about lyrics, and then Peter Gabriel acting ,crapping, screaming and making a great exhibition.

"SledgeHammer", is the return to happy songs, this is specially good , and its the one that everybody loves and everybody sing and shake their hips and shoulders, great song, and then , maybe the main part of the video, first "Solsbury Hill", we know that song, it was his first single, so everybody loves it, and of course everybody got excited when its first tunes were played, and after this , again a darker mood with "lay your Hands on Me", it is so emotional, a great songs, with excellent lyrics, i said that this is the main part of the concert, because of the songs, and because here is when Peter decided to give a real sense to the lyrics, and yes, he fell down , but not in the ground, but in the audience, hundreds of hands touching him and carry him, it was so excited im sure, it happens while Rhodes and Levin are singing the chorus.

"Dont Give Up", i miss Kate`s voice here, anyway it was a good performance, after this song, they played "In Your Eyes", that beautiful song, which is characterized besides of its beauty, for having african musicians, here the prescence of Youssou N`Dour gives it an extra point, maybe because i love his voice, but it has an angel inside. Finishing this video "Biko", refering to Steven Biko of course, i dont like so much this ending, because this song is to remember him, and it has again a dark and sad and melancholic mood, but anyway its good.

So after all, i really enjoy this video, is really good ( i wont compare it with "Secret World" because both are so different), if you like Peter Gabriel, try this video, i reccomend it to you, i like it and it could be a good addition for you.

4 Stars

Peter may be sporting a way too '80's hairstyle, but he has an excellent set of musicians in the band:Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Manu Katche, David Sancious. One of the great things about Peter is that he has always been about both the music and the show when performing live and Gabriel delivers. The mixing of background images with footage and band shots are very well done. The versions of the songs that were done in a way that don't exactly duplicate the studio versions. Always to be treasured in a live performance.

Still only available on old used VHS, sadly. Needs to be released on DVD. The sound quality is good. No need to remix.