Product Description

Anna Gabriel’s documentary film following her father on the Growing Up tour of 2002. With his eldest daughter filming, his second daughter singing and his new wife and baby joining him on the road, Gabriel juggles his lives as a musician and as a regular family man. The highs, the lows, the sublime, the ridiculous, the fathers, sisters, brothers, band members and road crew: Anna Gabriel's knowing eye reveals an inventive and intimate portrait of family life on tour. 40 minutes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32475 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 40 minutes

Customer Reviews

Well, thank God they're not the Osbournes
Given that much of his music is thematically focused on those places in the human psyche where we are most fragile, it is a relief that his family comes off as so, well, much like a normal family. He has surely paid a price for it, but it is actually very touching to see the daughters from his first marriage so adoringly supporting their father. Every father's dream...
They all negotiate the terrain of a younger second wife and new siblings with grace and genuine warmth, and Gabriel is such a Wally Cleaver at times, that it strikes you as intimately funny. The film is an intimate document, and maybe everyone was on best behaviour, but for all the odd bits in his songs, he and his brood are downright Englishy and charming. Given the sad disruption detailed in US of his first marriage, along with histrionics from Sinead O Connor and a joust or two with Rosanna Arquette, it's a miracle his girls would have anything to do with him, let alone go on tour. And while neither are quite the performer Paula Cole was, their presence alongside their Dad surely is a source of strength and great comfort for him. Maybe after all these dance hall episodes of r.d. laing's existential psychoanalysis, Gabriel felt the need to share some home movies so that the men with the nets weren't waiting at every portal.
It's all great to see how bloody normal they really are. Not every Brit is a variation of Richards-Jagger-Osbourne-Waters-Barrett. Yikes, imagine if we all were! Nor is everyone positively fabulous in that McCartney and Harrison sort of genuine bonhomie among their clans. How about that? they're just like us, after all.
I liked this film and while it offers nothing new on the Gbariel songbook, it has its own charm and honesty, and will buy Peter a little time until he turns out his next CD. That works...

Good Look at Gabriel on Tour, But Not Enough...
What is presented here is a 35 minute film of Gabriel & co. (shot by Gabriel's daughter Anna) preparing for the Growing Up tour from 2002/2003. The content is fairly interesting, but longtime Gabriel fans might come away a tad disappointed in that nothing that new or revelatory is present. It is fun tho' to see Gabriel having a good time with his band and family.

The most interesting part of this DVD is also the most frustrating. As part of the Special Features, there is an 11 minute section from when Gabriel went to the Newport Int'l Film Festival to promote this film. Within this feature, we get to see Gabriel performing songs on his own with just a piano. Very exciting stuff! BUT, we only get to see mere snippets of him sounding great on songs like "Washing of the Water," "That Voice Again," "Mercy Street," and "In Your Eyes." Why the *entire* performance/appearance was not included on this DVD is truly inexplicable. But even just seeing Gabriel perform in this fashion for just a few minutes is worth it. One hopes that he will eventually tour in this kind of fashion -- just him and a piano. The other special feature worth noting is a short "making of" for the video "The Barry Williams Show," as well as the entire video.

$20 might be a bit high for this DVD considering the entire content is less than an hour, but $10-$15 is reasonable. If I could, I'd give it 3 1/2 stars as opposed to 4.

Disappointing
While I have been an avowed PG worshipper for the last 15 years, and he and his family are obviously very likeable and kind folks indeed, this documentary clocks in at a paltry 40 minutes in length, and has something of a slapdash, superficial feel. It doesn't really deliver the depth and breadth of intimate moments promised in the description, unless you consider a few quick shots of his new family, and brief, disjointed shots of his family and band mugging and horsing around for the cameras, to be intimate and deep. Not that I expect or desire an invasion of PG's family privacy, but this is just a 40 minute string of semi-candid shots in hallways, backstage, and on airplanes, strung together in roughly chronological order. There is one moment toward the beginning in which a band member makes a comment that could be construed to be critical of PG, and then we see a clip of PG, obviously inserted later, in which he is rebutting/explaining the context of the comment, which leads me to believe that this doc was originally a lot more substantial. However, one gets the feeling that PG reviewed the doc carefully before it went out, and insisted on so many edits that he ended up gutting it. But that is merely speculation on my part. We may never know exactly why this turned out to be such a trifling bit of video. One thing is for certain: You should save your money and rent it from Netflix when it becomes available.