Bridging the Gap – Top Album Challenge No. 5/10

No top album list without this one! There have been a few live concerts in my life which made it to the top of the list at least for a few years: Sting’s Tuscany piece “… all this time”, recorded at 9/11, the “Concert for George” Harrison, of course, and this one: Peter Gabriel’s live tour for the “Us” album, in which he – according to sources – worked up several personal problems like his failed marriage or the relationship with his daughter. The stage concept for the life show underpinned the conceptual approach to the album’s music by presenting the band on 2 stages – a circular and a square one – linked together by a conveyor belt and constructed to be set up in the middle of the respective venue. Gabriel had developed the concept together with Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage (and I am never able to tell that bit without mentioning the Canadian film drama “Jesus of Montreal” where Lepage had one of his first ever cinema appearances; the film is really worth a watch).

I saw the show in 1993 when it stopped by in Wels, Upper Austria, unfortunately omitting the original stage concept, which I discovered only afterwards – the more I loved it! Best piece in it? “Secret World” (never heard a stronger version of it than this one; maybe because of the rotating vidiwall used to underpin the song’s motif).

Youtube luckily features the full original concert film in 4 parts and in reasonable quality. Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISiUTTmdj8E