PETER GABRIEL: “Secret World Live” (Real World)

Live albums, don’t you just love them! All too often they’re a handy way of meeting a contractual obligation: a quick run through the back catalogue and the hits do the job, and they’re recorded relatively cheaply. Occasionally, however, they do manage to capture the essence of what a performer or a band is all about, something that can easily get lost in the clinical studio process.

How often have you come away from some magic gig and wished you could hear it all again. Which is why of course there is such a thriving industry in live bootlegs. For instance, I certainly would love to have a recording of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s recent electric performance at the Warwick Hotel in Galway.

Into this category, though not quite in the same magic way, you can place Secret World Live, a double ‘in concert’ CD and cassette of Peter Gabriel’s most recent live show. Just how ‘live’ albums like this are is an ongoing subject of debate: here, the sleeve curiously explains that the album is ‘based on an original concept’ so there may have been an amount of ‘fixing and mixing’ involved.

However the calibre of the players on board – David Rhodes (guitar and vocals), Tony Levin (bass and vocals), Manu Katche (drums) and Jean Claude Naimro (keyboards and vocals) form the core of the band – suggests that there won’t have been too many bum notes on the night! Added to that, there are superb contributions from Shankar (violin and vocals), Levon Minassian (boudouk) and Paula Cole, who fulfils the role Sinéad O’Connor performed in Dublin on the duets.

The songs run from early material like ‘Salisbury Hill’ to the more recent songs from the Us album, while taking in the hits like ‘Don’t Give Up’ and ‘Sledgehammer’ along the way. Peter Gabriel’s distinctive voice is the focal point of the whole show: he manages to pack a powerful emotional punch without ever being emotive.

Do these versions achieve greater heights than the originals? There is certainly an additional quality in the sense of continuity given to material from different eras. As a record (no pun intended) of a very good show, it makes a good album. But it never delivers a whole new perspective on familiar material, the way the great, transcendent live albums can.

Or to put it another way, it’s not quite up there with the greats like Lizzy’s Live And Dangerous.

• Stephen Rapid