'Phil Collins: Live at Montreux 2004' Blu ray
(Phil Collins / Blu ray / NR / 2012 / Eagle Eye Media)
Overview: Phil Collins has made a number of appearances at Montreux over the years as a solo artist, with his big band or as a guest performer with the likes of Eric Clapton and Quincy Jones. The main show on this Blu-Ray was filmed in high definition at the 2004 festival and captures Phil performing all of his best known hits from his solo career.
Blu ray Verdict: 'Phil Collins: Live at Montreux 2004' is just perfect for all Collins fans to fall in love with. Sure there's nothing from his Genesis days, which is a great shame as I personally love most all that Collins-sung stuff, but with an extensive solo career behind him, he most certainly had plenty of his own hits to sing live this night.
Oh, and for the record, amazingly the bonus material is a performance by the Phil Collins Big Band at Montreux in 1996! I know, two for the price of one - how cool. Indeed, this is the first time any of Phil's big band material has been made available. Thus, this combination of all his classic songs coupled with the rarely seen big band material shows the breadth of musical genres Phil has covered in his career and makes for one incredible Blu ray musical presentation.
Collins kicks off the 2004 portion of the show with an 8-minute "Drums, Drums & More Drums," which he performs with various other band members, before going into "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven," "Against All Odds," "Don't Lose My Number," "You'll Be In My Heart," "One More Night," and both "Can't Stop Lovin' You" and "Hang In Long Enough."
Phil and his band really get into each song, so much so that they even get time to smile at one another. His catalog of hits continues ever onwards with the tender cover of the Cyndi Lauper song "True Colours," "Come With Me," "A Groovy Kind Of Love," his early classic "I Missed Again," "Another Day In Paradise," "No Way Out," the monster ballad "Separate Lives," and both his debut single "In The Air Tonight" and "Dance Into The Light."
Filmed in front of a French audience, Phil is quite fluent, as evidenced by his in-between banter. It's obvious Collins is simply trying to pump up the French-speaking crowd, for as much as his show is an incredible music ensemble, it's no balls out, loud rock show! He brings the Montreux show to a close with the Motown classic "You Can't Hurry Love," "Two Hearts," "Wear My Hat," "Easy Lover," "Sussudio," "It's Not Too Late," before some more bashes on the drums and the set-ending "Take Me Home."
The 'Phil Collins Big Band Live At Montreux 1996' portion of the Blu ray has a tracklistings that includes: "Two Hearts," "That's All," "In The Air Tonight," "Invisible Touch," "West Side," "Against All Odds," "Hand In Hand," "There'll Be Some Changes Made" (featuring Tony Bennett), "Milestones," "Los Endos," "Always," "Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me," and "Sussudio." This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs, and has been remastered into a crisp Blu ray production.
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