Expensive, but the version to own

When Peter Gabriel's back catalog was finally remastered in 2002 (a long overdue development), four tracks were removed from "Plays Live" in order to fit it onto a single disc--The Rhythm of the Heat, Not One of Us, Intruder, and On the Air. "Plays Live" is now "Plays Live Highlights."

To get the unabridged version, you have to go hunting in used CD stores for the original CD release, which doesn't sound too good. To get the unabridged version in remastered form, you have to order this expensive import from Japan.

Is it worth it? Well, casual fans will be fine sticking to 1994's excellent "Secret World Live." "Plays Live" is a solid set, but it predates "So," so only early hits are present here, and the quality of the recording isn't quite as good. So "Plays Live" is really only for serious fans. But, if you're a serious fan, there's really no point in buying the abridged version, particularly since the four missing tracks are not the weakest ones, they're just the least known songs. Removing them was simply a marketing decision, and a poor one.

Great live album (buy together with Secret World)

If you want to know about Peter Gabriel and don't want to spend a lot of money, the best start is this "Plays Live" album. Better in the 2-CD edition. And you should buy it together with "Secret World Live", to get the full advantage.

With this two double CD set you will get more than buying the newest compilation "Hit". You can find in here a lot of songs you cannot miss from his four first recordings, as "On the air", "Humdrum", "D.I.Y.", "No self control".

I like Peter Gabriel's sound live. And this recording is very good even being almost 20 years old. Secret World sounds a little better and has the rest of the essential songs of PG, but I thik in this case two songs ("Secret World" and "In your Eyes") are too much for half of a disc.

Two excellent songs will be out of this four CD set: "Games without frontiers" and "Big Time" (it should be lovely to listen this track live), but the fact is that all songs in "Plays Live" are enough variety and quality to start knowing PG's first recordings.

Car: Solsbury Hill, Humdrum. (I should have included Here comes the Flood, too).

Scratch: On the Air, D.I.Y. (It is not my favourite album, but both songs are O.K.).

Melt: Intruder, No Self Control, I Don't Remember, Family Snapshot, Biko, Not One of Us. (Very good representation for a great album).

Security: The Rhythm of the Heat, San Jacinto, I Have the Touch, The Family and the Fishing Net, Shock the Monkey. (More than half of the original recording!).

PG's been an extraordinary artist in live performance. What about a DVD with his first solo appearances?

Great live album butchered by editing.

Do yourself a favor-- spend the cash and get the unedited Japanese version. "Plays Live" was originally 85 minutes too long, slightly too much for a single CD. The choice to chop four songs ("The Rhythm of the Heat", "Not One of Us", "Intruder" and "On the Air") is really quite irritating, in particular because "The Rhythm of the Heat" and "Intruder" are two of my favorite cuts from this one.



Having said that, let me talk a bit about the music-- its a really great great record, like I said, a good bookend to Gabriel's first four albums-- the set is pretty evenly spread between "3" and "Security", with a few songs from the first two albums. The performance is top notch, on the highlights disc, "San Jacinto", "No Self Control", and "Biko" are my favorite cuts, but the whole thing is really quite good.



The Gabriel band of the era, David Rhodes, Tony Levin, Larry Fast and Jerry Marrotta, by this point were incredibly tight and superbly replicate the studio material, but shake things up enough to keep things interesting.



Still, if you can get the Japanese release, go that route, I think you'll be happier.

If you dont

If you dont like synths your probably not going to like Plays Live or Peter Gabriel (they are a major trademark of his sound and its sound) but unlike many keyboardists who play alot of keyboards and work with other keyboardists Gabriel plays impressivly and without making his music syrupy and sappy but rather good rock. This album features some very good synth heavy songs all performed well not just by Gabriel on synthezizer and piano but by his backing band as well (on mainly nonsynths). Theres no ommisions here. All the best songs from Gabriels solo works up to this point are here and even better in mainly elongated versions plus an additional single I Go Swimming all written by Gabriel (beat that Phil Collins!). This is probably Gabriels best live album.