When The Movie-Box boxset was released in 2009, Three Sides Live was a part of the set. It was the first time the concert film was available on DVD. Before that the double album Three Sides Live had been remixed as part of the Live boxset.
The concert film's contents weren't changed, but a few audio-only songs in 5.1 were added as bonus material. Somewhat surprisingly, the concert film from 1982 has now been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray.
The film has been completely restored for the HD release on Blu-ray and includes the “Intercuts”, i. e. the backstage and interview sequences from the original. The familiar audio-only tracks of the Movie-Box release from 2009 are included as bonus material. In Germany, DVD and Blu-ray have been released on 31 October 2014.
Box, Appearance and Menu
The Blu-ray has a standard case with blue frame, the cover is the same as the album's but different from the old VHS release. Thus, it's consistent with the familiar design of The Movie Box. The Blu-ray menu itself is modest but completely adequate for its purpose here.
Concert Film
The contents itself remain unchanged. It's more of a tour documentary than a pure concert film. This type of documentary usually contains snippets from interviews and rehearsals and was especially in the 80s popular. At one point, Peter Gabriel had also released one such film, POV, which - unlike Three Sides Live - was later completely reworked with additional songs and re-released as a pure concert film on DVD and Blu-ray (under the title Live In Athens). Three Sides Live is a bit older, so even though the film benefits greatly from its transformation into HD for the Blu-ray, it's nowhere near the quantum leap of Live In Athens. It's reasonable to assume that the base material didn't offer quite the same foundation to work from as with Gabriel's concert film. Still, there are obvious improvements especially during the concert sequences.
Some wished for a completely redone film, but this faithfully reproduced and restored version also has its charms. It's often the impressive stage effects that come to mind considering When In Rome or The Way We Walk Live, but here we can watch a group of musicians in North America, who are slowly becoming an arena band. Phil Collins has just gotten a taste of success with Face Value. He is in is early 30s and reveals things like, "whenever we have a day off, we just do a club show". Mike Rutherford calmly smokes his cigarette while Tony Banks explains the group dynamics in his usual stiff manner. Genesis has just released Abacab, probably their most daring album. And on stage, we see a dynamic band, whose youth is almost palpable. It may be a little strange for some of the fans to watch their ageing heroes as athletic young men mixing strange bits like Who Dunnit with an In The Cage medley. While some of the backstage or interview parts are very interesting, fading in and out of songs is sometimes a little - and often very annoying. Man On The Corner of all things is butchered completely, being cut short to just under two minutes. Still, there's no denying that the film pieced together from Savoy Theater and Nassau Coliseum recordings is quite entertaining.
Tracklist:
Behind The Lines
Duchess
Misunderstanding
Dodo / Lurker
Abacab
No Reply At All
Who Dunnit?
In The Cage
- The Cinema Show
- The Colony Of Slippermen
Afterglow
Me & Sarah Jane
Man On The Corner
Turn It On Again
Bonus Tracks (Audio Only):
Behind The Lines
Duchess
Me & Sarah Jane
Man On The Corner
One For The Vine
The Fountain Of Salmacis
Follow You Follow Me
The bonus tracks all have a background picture, but are still in 5.1 surround sound. Considering that there's no complete concert film, that's at least some small compensation. The only thing that might feel like it's missing would be It/Watcher Of The Skies that was present on the Four Sides Live version of the album.
Résumé
The release may have been a little surprising, but it definitely makes sense. Though some are disappointed that the concert film wasn't completely redone or - to be more precise - that the songs weren't rearranged without the interview snippets, we can enjoy a film that nicely captures its time and can finally be bought separately. The review only covers the Blu-ray, but Three Sides Live is also available on DVD, of course. The contents of this release are identical to the one from Movie Box. Blu-ray lovers will notice improved image quality - though it's not a quantum leap, as mentioned above. Still, it's enjoyable overall and worth recommending to newcomers to the Genesis cosmos.
Author: Christian Gerhardts
English by Robin Morgenstern
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio, LPCM Stereo
Screen Format: 4:3
Running Time: 133 min
Region Code: free
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian
Package with live 2CD/DVD and new Stiltskin album. Available also as MP3 album.
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