PETER GABRIEL - BEST INTERVIEW

Peter Gabriel

From an artistic perspective, Peter Gabriel has never stayed in one place very long. A relentless innovator and inquisitive musical explorer, Gabriel has constantly pushed forward whether experimenting with technology or scouring the most remote corners of the globe for inspiration.

Gabriel made a bold first impression as the eccentric leader and highly theatrical lead singer of the British progressive rock band Genesis in the early Seventies. However, when Genesis reached new creative heights in 1974 with their ambitious concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel left the band to pursue his own creative muse. Between 1977 and 1982 he released four highly individualistic solo albums that blended electronics, ambient atmospheres and African and Latin rhythms in a truly unique and innovative manner that still inspires musicians today. These albums delivered a consistent string of hits like "Solsbury Hill," "Games Without Frontiers," and "Shock the Monkey."

Gabriel's 1986 album So was a massive commercial success that produced six hit singles, including "Big Time," "Sledgehammer," and "In Your Eyes." With So Gabriel managed to find that rare, elusive balance between accessibility and innovation, enjoying status as both a pop star and critically acclaimed savant. But instead of rushing out another collection of hits as his next move, Gabriel went in almost the opposite direction, writing and recording Passion, his masterful score to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ that introduced his fans to the genius of artists like Youssou N'Dour, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Baaba Maal, and L. Shankar. The album was the first product to emerge from Gabriel's Real World Studios, a revolutionary state-of-the-art facility located near Bath, England, that he built to work at his own pace and bring together musicians from all over the globe to collaborate. Shortly after the release of Passion, Gabriel founded Real World Records to give world music artists greater exposure—a pursuit that began when he founded the WOMAD musical festival in 1980.

By 1992 when Gabriel released Us, the true follow-up to So, his music and focus became increasingly inward looking. It took Gabriel 10 years to follow that album up with Up, a dark, psychologically challenging effort that digs deeply into subject matter like birth, death, and grief. Gabriel's latest projects—Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours—manage to look inwards and outwards at the same time. The first album features Gabriel's orchestral interpretations of songs by a variety of artists like David Bowie, Paul Simon, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and Bon Iver. In return, the artists covered by Gabriel will be recording their own interpretations of Peter Gabriel's work on I'll Scratch Yours.

Peter recently took a break from his New Blood tour where he's performing with a full orchestra (and no guitars or drums) to stop by Guitar Center for a truly momentous Sessions event, which provided attendees a rare one-on-one opportunity to delve into the motivations and revelations of a true modern musical mastermind.

Guitar Center: Scratch My Back, is a collection of covers. Is that the focus of these concerts or have you also arranged your own songs for orchestra?

Peter Gabriel: The covers were going to be the focus, and then we realized that only gave us an hour of material. I thought we should try other stuff that people know. We've been having a lot of fun with that. Over the last couple of days (arranger/engineer) John (Metcalfe) and I worked on an arrangement for "Red Rain," which has just been included. "Rhythm of the Heat" ends with this big African drum thing, and I asked John if we could try transcribing the drum parts for orchestral instruments. I'm very excited by that and want to do more of that. The first half of the show is the new album performed without interruption from start to finish. We take a short break and then we do some of my stuff. Ane Brun, a wonderful Norwegian singer who is doing background vocals, does a little bit as well.

GC: How did you choose the songs for Scratch My Back?

PG: We went through an awful lot of them. It was partly things that I loved or cared about, but I also tried to mix it up a little bit. Melanie, my younger daughter, introduced me to Bon Iver. Dicky (Richard Chappell), my engineer, pushed a few things like Arcade Fire. I was aware of the band, but I hadn't really listened properly to them before and fell in love with their music. I felt like some of the songs were things that I could live inside and do my own thing with.

The other challenge was getting the I'll Scratch Yours parts, so it had to be living artists that were willing to play or at least entertain the concept of swapping tracks. It was "You do one of my songs, and I'll do one of yours." The only exception to that was Bowie, who was very clear that he didn't want to play. Fortunately Brian Eno is the co-writer of "Heroes" and I know Brian very well. Brian said he would do a cover version of one of my songs, so that way I managed to get around my own stupid rules.

GC: Did you get feedback from each artist that you covered?

PG: I didn't hear from everyone. I never heard from Tom Yorke, but rumor is that he really didn't like it. [laughter] Bowie didn't give much of an indication, either, but Brian was very positive. Everyone else was very positive. You can't win them all. That's part of what adds interest to this project. You don't know if people are going to like the way you do their stuff, and you sit there with excitement and anticipation when the email comes and someone else has done another version of your track.

GC: What were the challenges in interpreting those songs? And what was the most challenging song to arrange for orchestra?

PG: John did the lion's share of the arrangements. His genius shaped them. Sometimes I would throw in a lot of notes or rhythms or ideas and encourage him. The Arcade Fire track—"My Body is a Cage"—was smaller and polite, and we pushed it out because the idea was to go the whole way wherever possible. "Listening Wind" probably went through the most incarnations. "Mirrorball" was the toughest one for me to sing. But it was an evolving process. Some songs fell out fairly effortlessly and others had to be worked hard.

GC: The original version of Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" is very uplifting, but you strip it down so it becomes sparse and heavy, which exposes the lyrics in a very different way.

PG: We squeezed all the joy and African music right out of it to reveal another miserable white person's lyric. [laughter] I think it has some of the most extraordinary lyrics written in the last 20 years. A lot of people said they hadn't really taken in how good that lyric was until they heard it stripped back. It's wonderful the way he moves around constellations to various details and medical discoveries. There's even this sort of terrorism element. Love, sex, terrorism and death seem to be recurrent themes with that, although it certainly wasn't planned that way.

GC: How did it feel to concentrate on the work of other artists instead of your own music?

PG: I've learned a lot from doing other people's songs. A lot of musicians start by playing covers because that's the only way they'll get paid. At this point in my life I'm exploring it because I'm interested as a songwriter. It allows me to move beyond my own boundaries and that I find interesting. I have a real passion for songwriting. When I wasn't trying to be a drummer as a young man I was trying to learn about songs. I still have that passion. I want to put a songwriting festival together where you might have the Sherman Brothers singing Mary Poppins or their classic Disney Jungle Book songs alongside Nine Inch Nails. It would all come together as songwriting to expose young musicians to a craft that is common to all musical genres and encourage them to delve into it.

GC: What inspired you to open Real World Studios?

PG: I was never able to make records quickly. Having paid enough recording costs to purchase several studios, it suddenly occurred to me that I should get some setup that allowed me to spend whatever time I wanted recording. We built Real World the way that I'd always wanted a recording studio to be. Most studios at that time were cellars with disco lights. That wasn't an environment I found very easy or comfortable to work in.

We built what I think may still be the world's largest control room so we could put a lot of musicians in the control room together rather than in the live room or a recording booth. From the word go the musicians were part of the process, although that can make life difficult for the engineer sometimes. But there's a general sense that it's a good space. We have good acousticians who control the environment. It has lots of windows that fill the studio with natural daylight. The studio is on the edge of a river, so we pointed the control room out at the water so we're looking at swans or an occasional otter rather than an irate drummer. We were getting musicians in from all over the world, so we tried to make them feel comfortable and even get the food right. Although it's in the countryside it's located by the main London to Bristol railway line. Trains often shoot through at high volume, so it cost a lot more than I anticipated to soundproof the studio.

GC: The studio's unconventional setup allows musicians to interact easily. Since you often host so many musicians from different countries who may not speak the same languages, it seems to encourage them to communicate through music.

PG: We've had these wonderful recording weeks where we would hijack a lot of the musicians from the WOMAD festival and bring in songwriters, poets, and producers. It was like a big dating agency for creative people from around the world. We kept a café going 24 hours and encouraged people to explore interesting ideas or noises and get together. It was effectively a bring-your-own studio party. Unfortunately we never found a way to make it pay for itself, so that concept died recently.

GC: Some of your songs are densely layered. Do you have all of those pieces in mind before you record or do they reveal themselves as the process unfolds? Do you prefer to record tracks live with a group of musicians or individually on a track-by-track basis?

PG: I think there are two forms of creative energy. One is "energy A," which is an analytical energy where you layer things up track by track, then zoom in and work on little details. The other is "energy Zed," which is a Zen-like performance energy that is spontaneous and improvised and produces a different animal. Both are useful and important. The smart process involves harvesting performances then analyzing them and layering them up. Initially you might just look at rhythm, then maybe you look at melody, then harmony, then timbre. Each time you put down a layer of performance you slow it down and analyze it. Musicians need to be aware of how they work. Sometimes you just need to flip it and do it the other way and see what happens. Working backwards is an exploratory process. I love diversions and I keep on following them, which makes the process a lot longer.
FROM:http://gc.guitarcenter.com/interview/peter-gabriel/

A TALK WITH PETER GABRIEL

Sept. 29, 2002 -- The 1970s saw the advent of what became known as "progressive rock" music. The decade also produced some pretty pretentious stuff: seemingly endless drum solos, pseudo-classical keyboards, pseudo-poetic lyrics sung by high-pitched singers. But a few individuals had a profound effect on the genre then, and now. Peter Gabriel, for instance. In the early incarnation of the group Genesis, his compositions, textured sounds, and onstage flamboyance turned the rock show into a sophisticated multimedia event.

In 1974, the ambitious two-record concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway marked the creative zenith of Peter Gabriel's work with Genesis. Phil Collins would soon take over, because for Gabriel, it was time to move on.

Gabriel's solo career received much critical acclaim. Commercially, however, his output was spotty. By the mid-'80s he had success with "Shock The Monkey", but it was the No. 1 hit "Sledgehammer" that made him a superstar.

Gabriel was never satisfied with simple rock stardom, so he formed his own corporation. Real World is devoted to bridging the gap between high technology and multi-ethnic art. Musicians from remote parts of the world have spent time at his luxurious studio complex in Wiltshire, England. Human rights also became a personal crusade for Gabriel. His anti-apartheid song "Biko" became one of the biggest protest anthems of the 1980s.

It's been 10 years since Peter Gabriel recorded a studio album. Up was released this past week on Real World Records. True to form, Up is a global production, recorded in Senegal, France, and aboard a boat on the Amazon.

Gabriel sat down last week with Liane Hansen for Weekend Edition Sunday to talk about what he's been doing for the past 10 years, about the new album, and about jamming with apes.
FROM:http://www.npr.org/programs/wesun/features/2002/gabriel/index.html

PETER GABRIEL INTERVIEW

Much has been written about Peter Gabriel during the years: A founding member and theatrical front man for the progressive art-rock group Genesis from 1967 through 1974, Gabriel has had a successful solo career for a quarter-century and has made a name for himself as a rock video pioneer, recording studio owner (Real World), world music label chief (also called Real World) and human rights advocate. Gabriel's fascination with the possibilities of technology, his broad musicality and his natural, ingrained spirit of altruism have made him a hero to forward-thinking artists the world over, inspiring others to think outside-the-box for the good of art and humanity.
For this “Mix Interview,” we eschewed the usual questions concerning Gabriel's recorded history and addressed his thoughts on a number of issues facing the music industry today: online music distribution, copyright protection, surround audio and his latest passion, an artistic co-op called MUDDA (www.mudda.org), which he has formed with Brian Eno. (Okay, he also plugs his latest concert video, Growing Up Live.) As always, he proved to be an articulate and passionate spokesperson for rank-and-file musicians and music fans.
One of the highlights of my DVD-viewing existence during the past few months has been experiencing your Growing Up Live release.
Oh, great! I appreciate that. I'm very happy you like it.
Not only is the music great, but also one of the things that really stands out is the cinematography. You could freeze-frame almost any moment and it would work as a well-composed photographic still.
We had some good cameramen, and Hamish Hamilton, who did the direction, is very talented.
“Darkness,” which is off of your last album (Up), is a potent meditation on the power of fear. As a recording, it is mesmerizing and disturbing, but in its live form, there is something special — almost an element of grace or vulnerability that is added — that happens in front of a packed house.
Yeah, that comes alive more. I think one of the things about writing in the studio is that the song hasn't matured, if you like, so quite often the vocals are early attempts. Whereas once you've taken it out on the road a bit, you learn more about a song. I've never really done it, but I know I would like to tour an album before I record it. [Laughs] One day, perhaps, I'll get around to doing it.
I think that you get the mood of a song stronger if you get it right that way. On the other hand, you put some songs out live and they don't catch flight. They just flop. It is hard to tell until they are out there.
There was one that we worked on in production called “My Head Sounds Like That.” We did it in a couple of shows where we were performing to smaller audiences without production and it was one of the stronger songs. Then, when we tried it in the production, it just didn't seem to hold people's attention, but it might have been the way we were doing it.
Have you thought about putting out Growing Up Live as a straight CD release?
We did think about it. Maybe that is something to look at later on.
In the meantime, you have made your concerts from last year's tour available to fans through the Internet in the form of the Encore Series.
Yeah, in the digital world, it is so much easier to put stuff out without a great deal of paraphernalia and fanfare.
Your involvement with music distribution and the Internet became a more formalized business endeavor with the creation of OD2 (On-Demand Distribution), which you formed with Charles Grimsdale.
When we started OD2 in 1999, we were really expecting to work more with independents and so on because the major labels were spending millions on their own Pressplay and equivalents online, which haven't been very successful. Over time, we ended up working with all five majors in Europe, and we're currently the Number One distributor in Europe. iTunes has announced that they are coming in, but they haven't yet started over here.
Concerning iTunes, the deals have mainly been done with the record companies. But the artists, with some exceptions, haven't been very well-represented. This is partly because the record companies have largely been copyright owners. That has also been true, to some extent, with OD2.
Apple is doing what they've been accusing Microsoft of doing for so many years: employing a closed system. We've asked whether we could have access to their digital rights management and so on, so we could sell to the Mac community. However, they have kick-started [downloading music on the Internet as a viable undertaking] and it has definitely helped. Even though we've been running a while, iTunes' success has definitely helped us, so I have some mixed feelings. But what worries me is that deals are being done now that are going to shape the future, and I think that the artist is not visible enough and the independent artist and label aren't visible enough.
So as OD2 increasingly did business with the majors, the idea of creating MUDDA as an empowered artistic collective or voice became a necessity.
OD2 was a business opportunity, but as a musician and minority-interest record company, it was also a chance of being involved in the distribution.
We are trying to change things and allow artists to be at the front of the food chain and become their own retailers and keep a big part of the margin. They can get paid directly as the money comes in and they can monitor it day-to-day totally transparent. That is a model that I would like to see adopted by the music business.
That model, in our dreams, would be a powerful representative of artists' opinions and needs, as well as a place where people could actually get the music. We wrote a little manifesto with just some ideas on how this digital revolution could transform music-making itself, and that is the part that people have generally ignored so far. They've been totally preoccupied with the business side of it, but not so much with how the new formats — or the freedom of formats — could change the nature of what exactly is created.
One thing that really appeals to me is this idea of music being a living thing that has an evolution that, in a way, enables the artist to sell a process rather than a piece of product. That is now possible. Those artists who are comfortable doing this can offer everything from the earliest demos to the first recordings and the different mixes, arrangements and live versions. People could really hear how a piece of music evolves rather than just the one moment that gets frozen in time and becomes the defining version and maybe a live version. In classical music and jazz, there is obviously a longer history of different interpretations of pieces of music. The whole thing could be made available and we think that the artist's Website is the ideal place to do that.
Is this an enterprise that you are trying to staff?
Yeah. [Laughs] It has a staff of one. We have a guy named Jon Webster, who used to run Virgin in the UK, so he's a gamekeeper-turned-poacher, I guess. He was the guy who thought up the Mercury Music Prize, which featured new and lesser-known bands and artists from many different genres that's not industry-owned, if you like. The industry does have some influence on who gets other awards. With the Mercury Prize, they don't. Jon comes from the business, but his heart is still very much in the music. Currently, we have about 12 major names that have said they want to be a part of MUDDA.
I think another thing is that we don't really want exclusivity. We accept that it is in the artist's interest to be on sale in every place where they sell music. Right now, we are just putting our fingers out there and saying we think that this would be a good initiative — that it should be an artist-owned cooperative — so that artists feel that they can trust it. If we get enough support, we can grow it and make it open to everyone, which is the long-term aim.
The issue on protection and compensation of intellectual and creative property has increasingly been a daunting undertaking.
I'm a bit cynical that it ever will be addressed properly. I think it is healthy to get some sort of copyright protection. But some of it has gone on forever.
People go on and on about the copyright issue, and that is central to what is going on now. Someone sent me an article from the Register this morning about this person named Fisher who has proposed an extra $6 per month on every broadband user's bill that would supply enough revenue to pay all the money that is earned from records and films. Maybe then you could get it all free — with free exchange. I think it is a very interesting idea and in the macro version of it, I can see a lot of good arguments.
Nevertheless, I have observed for over 30 years how these blanket payments get made. As an individual artist and as someone who works with world musicians, for instance, I know that, historically, minority interest artists and all young artists are at the bottom of the food chain. I think it is the weak and the young and the minorities that you need to look after to get a healthy creative environment — to get a lot of choices, a lot of different styles of music, a lot experimental stuff that everyone else feeds off.
I think this is best served by an old-fashioned idea, which is copyright. So I'm not saying that you couldn't overcome these problems in other ways, but, currently, there is no evidence that I have seen that these big commercial interests will adequately protect the rights of the less powerful. Older, more established artists are going to find ways to survive very comfortably, I'm sure, as we have — whether it is through film or through live [performance] or any of the different ways that we can sort of try and exploit any of the channels open to us.
Your catalog was released on SACD last year. When we received the releases, a number of us convened at Georgetown Mastering in Nashville to listen to them. The first thing that inspired remarks was that the SACDs weren't backward-compatible.
Yeah. You can only play them on an SACD player, which is, I think, a space issue as far as I understand. I would prefer that you could play them on anything.
You can format SACD to have another layer that can play CD. That is easily doable. I was curious as to why that happened. The Rolling Stones CDs came out before yours and they were able to play on both CD and SACD units.
I think it is because most of the manufacturers want to persuade you to buy their thing, or maybe it is the record companies who want you to buy the catalog again. I don't know. It's silly, isn't it?
Do you have a preference for DVD-Audio or SACD personally?
When we did the blind tests, SACD came out a little ahead for us, but they are both worthwhile improvements over what we have at the moment. To an average listener, there may be small differences, but as you know, when you spend so much time in the studio trying to get things to sound right — anything that allows people in on all of that work and the effort that you put in you appreciate. Another one of those blind tests that we did recently was some of this watermarking that they do. They put it into the high frequencies and you are supposed to not hear it. EMI had put out all of their records with this stuff all over it, and on 90 percent of the occasions, we could hear it very clearly.
What are your thoughts on 5.1?
I love 5.1. Sometimes you can't squeeze everything in comfortably into a stereo picture. There is a lot more space in a 5.1 environment.
Have you considered doing 5.1 on your catalog albums?
Yeah. We started doing that now. We've done So and Up and we are going to gradually do them all. But most companies, I'm disappointed to say, are just throwing these out to people who sort of rush them through without a lot of love and attention. It is a crying shame.
In the spirit of care and love, are you planning on getting Steve Lillywhite or Daniel Lanois involved in the surround production of the albums they were involved in producing?
Kevin Killen had approached us and said that he would love to do So. So that was really the initiative behind that. We tried to reach Dan at the time and get his input, but whether some of the producers want to take the time to go backward, if you like, I don't know, but we can certainly ask. I would like to give people the opportunity.
There is an amazing lack of attention and vision at the labels to understand the power of surround.
Yeah. And the potential. In their eyes, it is like they want to have 5.1 for as few dollars as possible. Like most things in life, if you want to put love and attention into something, it will most likely have greater worth to people and mean more to them. That is certainly true with this 5.1 thing.
I really encourage people through this magazine to take some time and effort and get people who really care [to do] your 5.1s, and if you play with sound or enjoy sound as most of us do, then there are some wonderful things you can do with it and allow people inside the music in ways that they haven't been allowed before.

---

Rick Clark would like to thank Sujata Murthy, Amy Gardner, Annie Parsons and Jon Webster for their help in this article.

FROM :http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_peter_gabriel/

© 2011 Penton Media Inc

PETER GABRIEL INTERVIEW - Don't hurry, be happy

Ask him why it has taken 10 years to make his new album, and Peter Gabriel admits he doesn't really know. "The time seems to have evaporated," he says, stroking the straggly white beard that makes him look as if he is auditioning for the part of Gandalf in the next instalment of Lord of the Rings. "I enjoy the process of making music more than being a travelling salesman for it. And when you make a record, you're spewing stuff out. You need to stop and step back from it in order to take stuff in." And that, he explains, makes recording a very laborious process indeed.
The new album, Up, is a characteristically challenging Gabriel record, full of thoughtful songs, complex arrangements and subtle world-music influences via contributions from artists as diverse as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Peter Green and Youssou N'Dour's band. But the Nusrat collaboration shows how long the album has been in the making: the poor chap has been dead five years.
Gabriel insists he hasn't spent the decade since his last album, Us, sunning himself on a beach. In June he married his partner Meabh: their month-long honeymoon in Sardinia (where Gabriel owns a house) was, he says, "the first time I've had that much time off in years". He further rebuts accusations of slackerdom by pointing out in a normal working day he arrives at his Real World studio complex by midday and seldom leaves before midnight.
So what has he been doing there? Well, when it came to choosing the songs for Up, he claims he had 130 "ideas" from which to select. In addition, there have been various "detours", as he calls them: from composing the music for the Millennium dome show to recording film soundtracks and high-profile collaborations.
Recording began in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, where Gabriel bought a house after befriending N'Dour in the 1980s. Then he transferred to a studio in the French Alps, where he divided his time between recording and learning to snowboard. Next, he took a trip down the Amazon in a floating studio.
As you might expect, Gabriel's modus operandi is less than efficient. "It's a messy, sprawling technique in which you chip away and spiral inwards until you find the centre. But it works for me," he says. He once described the process to George Martin and the former Beatles producer was "appalled" at the wastefulness of it all.
If it were not for pressure from Virgin, Gabriel says, he would probably still be tinkering with the album. Now that it is finished, however, he is sitting in a tiny room in the Real World complex, forced to play the salesman role he so dislikes.
The studio is located in tranquil, rural Wiltshire - tranquil, that is, when the high-speed trains aren't thundering by. "That was a smart idea, building a recording studio next to a railway track," he says as another express clatters past. As the din diminishes, the sound of a trumpet drifts through the window: someone is practising on the lawn.
Real World is used by musicians from all around the globe. Today Icelandic band Sigur Ros are mixing their new album in one studio, Alison Goldfrapp is rehearsing in another and the Cuban group Asere occupy a third. The traffic through the studio informs much of what Gabriel does: many of those who passed through while Up was being made - including the Blind Boys of Alabama, Billy Cobham and the Black Dyke Mills Band - found themselves contributing to the album. "It can be dangerous when people isolate themselves. So many bedroom tapes sound alienated and lonely," he says. "The studio exposes me to so much other music. There are always different musicians in here: it keeps me fresh and open."
Although one of the reasons he quit Genesis in 1975 was to escape the pressures of being in a group, Gabriel has become one of the world's most enthusiastic collaborators. Indeed, he was one of the first western musicians to develop an interest in world music. When he hears something he likes, his immediate reaction is to incorporate it into whatever he is doing. "Collaborations bring air into music and take you places you wouldn't otherwise go. There are advantages to being in a band and advantages to being a solo artist. Collaborations allow you the best of both worlds."
But despite the African and Asian contributions, Up remains largely a rock album. "I'd call it a songwriter's record rather than a world-music album," he says. "Although in the list of musicians and friends I have, there are many people from many cultures who add different moods and rhythms to what I do."
In turn, Gabriel embraces a range of worldwide human rights and environmental issues. His 1980 hit Biko was one of the first western pop songs to tackle apartheid. Twenty years ago he created the Womad festival to raise the profile of world music. In 1988 he joined forces with Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Tracy Chapman to help Amnesty International put together the Human Rights Now! tour, which first brought Youssou N'Dour to an international audience. Four years later he initiated the Witness programme, which aims to provide human-rights activists with video cameras and computers. He has also introduced many world-music artists to a wider audience via his Real World label.
"I think my name is now a double-edged sword," he says. "People are just as likely not to listen to something because of my involvement. You need people like Damon Albarn and 1 Giant Leap to take the music to a younger audience. I think what they're doing is very bold."
His public image suggests someone a little too serious for their own good. He admits he has a tendency to overanalyse. But he is also acutely aware of the importance of spontaneity. "To me, the best music integrates both. You milk the creative energy of performance, but you also have the control and capacity to hone and direct it in the studio."
He is enthusiastic about new technology, which he believes has opened up new vistas in music-making. "The ease with which you can try ideas is fantastic. When I started, music was what you could achieve and generate yourself. I think today it's more about what you can conceive, and that makes the possibilities endless."
He has come a long way since his days in Genesis, when he used to dress up on stage in outrageous costumes. Gabriel has long resisted the pleas of promoters and agents to put the band back together (although there was an impromptu reunion gig at his wedding in June). Recently he went to see a Genesis tribute band in Bristol with his daughters, Melanie and Anna. "The musicians worked really hard to reproduce it as accurately as possible. Some of it seemed naff to me now, some of it had a certain charm and some of it I was surprised still to feel some emotion from," he says.
What did his daughters make of it? "One of them turned to me and said, 'Dad, if you could make a living doing that, then there's hope for us all.'

FROM:

• The Guardian, Thursday 19 September 2002 11.56 BST Nigel Williams 
• WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK

JOIN PETER GABRIEL FANCLUB

I WANT TO CREATE A FANCLUB OF PETER GABRIEL
PLEASE HELP AND JOIN THE FANCLUB
LEAVE ME THE LINK WITH YOUR BLOGS TO CREATE A COMUNITY AND AFILIATE OUR BLOGS.
THANKS,
ALEXANDRA!!!

PETER GABRIEL - FULL DISCOGRAPHY - CLICK ON EVERY ALBUM TO LISTEN SONGS

Peter Gabriel 1

Car

Peter Gabriel 2

Scratch

Peter Gabriel 3

Melt

Peter Gabriel 4

Security

Plays Live

Birdy

So

Passion

Shaking the Tree

16 Golden Greats

Us

Secret World Live

OVO

Up

Long Walk Home

Hit

Scratch My Back

• Buy Scratch My Back
• Get the podcast's 1-3
• Read about Scratch My Back
• Discuss Scratch My Back

• New Blood dates
• Tour Diary (23-Jun-2011)
• Official Bootlegs
• Lunatic Tour Gallery

FROM : PETERGABRIEL.COM

New Blood Live in North America: June 2011

New Blood Live in North America: June 2011

Peter Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra are currently on tour in North America, performing music from his last album Scratch My Back and previewing tracks from his forthcoming studio album New Blood. Both New Blood, the album and Live In London, the DVD (in standard definition and 3D), will be released this autumn.
Find out what the New Blood tour in North America is all about.
Book tickets to the remaining live shows.

Peter's Full Moon Update: June

 

FROM:PETERGABRIEL.COM

PETER GABRIEL - BIOGRAPHY

Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is a British singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis.^[1] After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. In 2007 Gabriel was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.”^[2] Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Gabriel was born in Chobham, Surrey, England.^[3] His father, Ralph Parton Gabriel, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Edith Irene Allen,^[4] from a musical family, taught him to play the clarinet at an early age. He attended Cable House, a private primary (pre-prep) school in Woking, Surrey, St Andrews Prep School in Horsell, then Charterhouse School (Godalming) from 1963.

Genesis

Main article: Genesis (band)

Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse School pupils Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart. The name of the band was suggested by fellow Charterhouse alumnus, the pop music impresario Jonathan King, who produced their first album, From Genesis to Revelation.
Gabriel was influenced by many different sources in his way of singing, such as Family lead singer Roger Chapman. In 1970, he played the flute on Cat Stevens' album, Mona Bone Jakon.
Genesis drew some attention in England and eventually also in Italy, Belgium, Germany and other European countries, largely due to Gabriel's flamboyant stage presence, which involved numerous bizarre costume changes and comical, dreamlike stories told as the introduction to each song (originally Gabriel developed these stories solely to cover the time between songs that the rest of the band would take tuning their instruments and fixing technical glitches). The concerts made extensive use of black light with the normal stage lighting subdued or off. A backdrop of fluorescent white sheets and a comparatively sparse stage made the band into a set of silhouettes, with Gabriel's fluorescent costume and make-up providing the only other sources of light.

Costumes

Gabriel as "Britannia", or "The Moonlit Knight" 1974

In an Australian-aired television documentary (The Seven Ages of Rock), Steve Hackett recalled the first appearance of Gabriel 'in costume'. It was the dress-wearing, fox-headed entity immortalised on the cover of Foxtrot. Hackett and the rest of the band had no inkling that Gabriel was going to do this, and at the time Hackett worried that it would ruin the performance. However, it was a success, encouraging Gabriel to continue wearing costumes while singing.
Among Gabriel's many famous costumes, which he developed to visualise the musical ideas of the band as well as to gain press coverage, were "Batwings" for the band's usual opening number, "Watcher of the Skies".
Other costumes included "The Flower" and "Magog", which were both alternately worn for "Supper's Ready" from the album Foxtrot.
"Britannia" was worn for "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", and "The Reverend" was worn for "The Battle of Epping Forest" from Selling England by the Pound.
"The Old Man" was worn for "The Musical Box" from Nursery Cryme.
"The Slipperman" and "Rael" were worn during "The Colony of Slippermen", in which "Rael" was the protagonist of the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
The backing vocals during Gabriel's tenure in Genesis were usually handled by bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford, keyboardist/guitarist Tony Banks, and (most prominently) drummer Phil Collins, who, after a long search for a replacement, eventually became Genesis's lead singer---after Gabriel had left the band in 1975.

Departure

Gabriel's departure from Genesis—which stunned fans of the group and left many commentators wondering if the band could survive—was the result of a number of factors. His stature as the lead singer of the band, and the added attention garnered by his flamboyant stage persona, led to tensions within the band. Genesis had always operated more or less as a collective, and Gabriel's burgeoning public profile led to fears within the group that he was being unfairly singled out as the creative hub. The band had also begun to feel confined by the reputation (and fans' expectations) attached to their famously elaborate theatrical performances, believing that the visual element of their performances was receiving more attention than their actual music.
Tensions were heightened by the ambitious album and tour of the concept work The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a Gabriel-created concept piece which saw him taking on the lion's share of the lyric writing. During the writing and recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel was approached by director William Friedkin, allegedly because Friedkin had found Gabriel's short story in the liner notes to Genesis Live interesting. Gabriel's interest in a film project with Friedkin was another contributing factor in his decision to leave Genesis. The decision to quit the band was made before the tour supporting The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, but Gabriel stayed with the band until the conclusion of that tour. Although tensions were high, both Gabriel and the remaining members of Genesis have stated publicly that Gabriel left the band on good terms, supported by the fact that he officially left eight months after telling the band it was time for him to move on.
The breaking point came with the difficult pregnancy of Gabriel's wife, Jill, and the subsequent birth of their first child, Anna. When he opted to stay with his sick daughter and wife, rather than record and tour, the resentment from the rest of the band led Gabriel to conclude that he had to leave the group. "Solsbury Hill", Gabriel's début single as a solo artist, was written specifically about his departure from Genesis. The song also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978,^[5] reaching the Top 70, though it was recorded in 1976, and appeared on the 'Car' album in 1977. In 1982, Gabriel reunited with his former Genesis colleagues for the one-off concert, Six of the Best.

Solo career

Gabriel refused to title any of his first four solo albums, which were all labelled Peter Gabriel using the same typeface, but which featured different cover designs (by Hipgnosis); these designs are also notable for the fact that Gabriel's face is wholly or partially obscured in some way. They are usually differentiated by number in order of release (I, II, III, IV), or by sleeve design, with the first three solo albums often referred to as Car, Scratch and Melt respectively, in reference to their cover artwork. His fourth solo album, also called Peter Gabriel, was titled Security in the U.S. at the behest of Geffen Records.
After acquiescing to distinctive titles, Gabriel used a series of 2-letter words to title his next three albums: So, Us, and Up. His most recent greatest hits compilation is titled Hit; within the two-CD package, disc one is labelled "Hit" and disc two is labelled "Miss".

Peter Gabriel albums (1977–1985)

Gabriel performing, August 1978

Gabriel recorded his first self-titled solo album in 1976 and 1977 with producer Bob Ezrin. His first solo success came with the single "Solsbury Hill", an autobiographical piece expressing his thoughts on leaving Genesis. Although mainly happy with the music, Gabriel felt that the album, and especially the track "Here Comes the Flood" was over-produced. Sparser versions can be heard on Robert Fripp's Exposure, and on Gabriel's greatest hits compilation Shaking the Tree (1990).
Gabriel worked with guitarist Fripp as producer of his second solo LP, in 1978. This album was leaner, darker and more experimental, and yielded decent reviews, but no major hits.
Gabriel developed a new interest in world music (especially percussion), and for bold production, which made extensive use of recording tricks and sound effects. Gabriel's interest in music technology is considered by many people to be the spark of his success as it inspired his third album. The third album is often credited as the first LP to use the now-famous "gated drum" sound.^[6] Collins played drums on several tracks, including the opener, "Intruder", which featured the reverse-gated, cymbal-less drum kit sound which Collins would also use on his single "In the Air Tonight" and through the rest of the 1980s. Gabriel had requested that his drummers use no cymbals in the album's sessions, and when he heard the result he asked Collins to play a simple pattern for several minutes, then built "Intruder" around it. The album achieved some chart success with the songs "Games Without Frontiers" (#4 U.K, #48 U.S.), "I Don't Remember", and "Biko".
Arduous and occasionally damp recording sessions at his rural English estate in 1981 and 1982, with co-producer/engineer David Lord, resulted in Gabriel's fourth LP release, on which Gabriel took more production responsibility. It was one of the first commercial albums recorded entirely to digital tape (using a Sony mobile truck), and featured the early, extremely expensive, Fairlight CMI sampling computer, which had already made its first brief appearances on the previous album. Gabriel combined a variety of sampled and deconstructed sounds with world-beat percussion and other unusual instrumentation to create a radically new, emotionally charged soundscape. Furthermore, the sleeve art consisted of inscrutable, video-based imagery. Despite the album's peculiar sound, odd appearance, and often disturbing themes, it sold very well. This album featured his first Top 40 hit in the U.S., "Shock the Monkey", as well as the song "I Have the Touch". The music video for "Shock the Monkey", which featured Gabriel in white face paint and a caged macaque, held the #1 spot on "MTV" for 9 weeks. Geffen records forced Peter to give his fourth self-titled album a name in the US - Security - to mark his arrival on the label and to differentiate his fourth album from the other three.
Alternate versions of Gabriel's third and fourth albums were also released with German lyrics. Peter Gabriel 3 consisted of basically the same recording overdubbed with new vocals, while Security was also remixed and several tracks were extended or altered in slight ways.
Gabriel toured extensively for each of his albums. Initially, he pointedly eschewed the theatrics that had defined his tenure with Genesis. For his second solo tour, his entire band shaved their heads. By the time of Security he began involving elaborate stage props and acrobatics which had him suspended from gantries, distorting his face with Fresnel lenses and mirrors, and wearing unusual make-up. His 1982–83 tour included a section opening for David Bowie. Recordings of this tour were released as the double LP Plays Live.
The stage was set for Gabriel's critical and commercial breakout with his next studio release, which was in production for almost three years. During the recording and production of the album he also found time to develop the film soundtrack for Alan Parker's 1984 feature Birdy, which consisted of new material as well as remixed instrumental tracks from his previous studio album.

So, Passion and Us (1986–1994)

Gabriel achieved his greatest popularity with songs from the 1986 So album, which produced three UK Top 20 hits ("Sledgehammer", "Big Time", and "Don't Give Up" — a duet with Kate Bush). The album also produced three Top 40 hits in the U.S., "Sledgehammer", "In Your Eyes" (featured in the John Cusack film Say Anything), and "Big Time" (Gabriel's most recent Top Ten hit), as well as the single "Red Rain". "Sledgehammer", peaked at #4 in the UK but was a #1 hit in the U.S., knocking Genesis' "Invisible Touch" off the top spot. The ballad "Don't Give Up" was about the devastation of unemployment. Gabriel co-produced So with Daniel Lanois, also known for his work with U2 and Brian Eno.
Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer", which dealt specifically with the themes of sex and sexual relations, was accompanied by a much-lauded music video, which was a collaboration with director Stephen R. Johnson, Aardman Animations, and the Brothers Quay. The video won numerous awards at the 1987 MTV Music Video Awards, and set a new standard for art in the music video industry. A follow-up video for the song "Big Time" also broke new ground in music video animation and special effects. The song is a story of "what happens to you when you become a little too successful", in Gabriel's words. The success of the album earned Peter Gabriel two awards at The Brit Awards in 1987: Best British Male Solo Artist and Best British Video for "Sledgehammer".^[7]
In 1989, Gabriel released Passion, the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's movie The Last Temptation of Christ. For this work he received his first Grammy Award, in the category of Best New Age Performance. He also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture.
Following this, Gabriel released Us in 1992 (also co-produced with Daniel Lanois), an album in which he explored the pain of recent personal problems; his failed first marriage, and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.
Gabriel's introspection within the context of the album Us can be seen in the first single release "Digging in the Dirt" directed by John Downer. Accompanied by a disturbing video featuring Gabriel covered in snails and various foliage, this song made reference to the psychotherapy which had taken up much of Gabriel's time since the previous album. Gabriel describes his struggle to get through to his daughter in "Come Talk To Me" directed by Matt Mahurin, which featured backing vocals by Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor also lent vocals to "Blood of Eden", directed by Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, the third single to be released from the album, and once again dealing with relationship struggles, this time going right back to Adam's rib for inspiration. The result was one of Gabriel's most personal albums. It met with less success than So, reaching #2 in the album chart on both sides of the Atlantic, and making modest chart impact with the singles "Digging in the Dirt" and the funkier "Steam", which evoked memories of "Sledgehammer". Gabriel followed the release of the album with a world tour (with Paula Cole or Joy Askew filling O'Connor's vocal role) and accompanying double CD and DVD Secret World Live in 1994.
Gabriel employed an innovative approach in the marketing of the Us album. Not wishing to feature only images of himself, he asked artist filmmakers Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson to coordinate a marketing campaign using contemporary artists. Artists such as Helen Chadwick, Rebecca Horn, Nils Udo, Andy Goldsworthy, David Mach and Yayoi Kusama collaborated to create original artworks for each of the 11 songs on the multi-million-selling CD. Coulson and Bruce documented the process on Hi-8 video. Bruce left Real World and Coulson continued with the campaign, using the documentary background material as the basis for a promotional EPK, the long-form video All About Us and the interactive CD-ROM Xplora1.
Gabriel won three more Grammy Awards, all in the Music Video category. He won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1993 and 1994 for the videos to "Digging in the Dirt" and "Steam" respectively. Gabriel also won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for his Secret World Live video.

OVO, Up, and Scratch My Back

After five years of not releasing any new music, Gabriel re-emerged with OVO, a soundtrack for the live Millennium Dome Show in London in 2000, and Long Walk Home, the music from the Australian movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, early in 2002. This soundtrack also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture.
In September 2002, Gabriel released Up, his first full-length studio album in a decade. Entirely self-produced, Up returned to some of the themes of his work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Three singles failed to make an impression on the charts—in part because almost every track exceeded six minutes in length, with multiple sections—but the album sold well globally, as Gabriel continued to draw from a loyal fan base from his almost forty years in the music business. Up was followed by a world tour featuring his daughter Melanie Gabriel on backing vocals, and two concert DVDs, Growing Up Live (2003) and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped (2004).
In 2008, Gabriel contributed to the WALL-E soundtrack with several new songs with Thomas Newman, including the film's closing song, "Down to Earth", for which they received the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song - Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
In 2010, Gabriel released Scratch My Back. The album is made up entirely of cover songs including material written by David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Neil Young, and more. The concept for the record is that Gabriel covers songs by various artists and those artists in turn will cover Gabriel songs to be released on a future follow-up album called I'll Scratch Yours. Scratch My Back features only orchestral instrumentation; there are no guitars, drums, or electronic elements that are usual attributes of Gabriel records. A very brief tour followed the album's release where Gabriel performed with a full orchestra and two female backup singers, his daughter Melanie Gabriel and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun.

Musicians and collaborators

Gabriel has worked with a relatively stable crew of musicians and recording engineers throughout his solo career. Bass and Stick player Tony Levin, for example, has appeared on every Gabriel studio album, although not the soundtracks Passion and Long Walk Home, and has performed on every Gabriel solo tour. Guitar player David Rhodes has been Gabriel’s guitarist of choice since 1979. Prior to So, Jerry Marotta was Gabriel's preferred drummer, both in the studio and on the road. (For the So and Us albums and tours Marotta was replaced by Manu Katché, who was then replaced by Ged Lynch on parts of the Up album and all of the subsequent tour). Gabriel is known for choosing top-flight collaborators, from co-producers such as Ezrin, Fripp, Lillywhite, and Lanois to musicians such as Natalie Merchant, Elizabeth Fraser, L. Shankar, Trent Reznor, Youssou N'Dour, Larry Fast, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sinéad O'Connor, Kate Bush, Ane Brun, Paula Cole, John Giblin, Peter Hammill, Papa Wemba, Manu Katché, Bayete, Phil Collins (as drummer), and Stewart Copeland.
Over the years, Gabriel has collaborated with singer Kate Bush several times; Bush provided backing vocals for Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" and "No Self Control" in 1980, and female lead vocal for "Don't Give Up" (a Top 10 hit in the UK) in 1986, and Gabriel appeared on her television special. Their duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day" was discussed for release as a single, but never appeared.
He also collaborated with Laurie Anderson on two versions of her composition "Excellent Birds" – one for her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, and a slightly different version called "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which appeared on cassette and CD versions of So. In 1987, when presenting Gabriel with an award for his music videos, Anderson related an occasion in which a recording session had gone late into the night and Gabriel's voice had begun to sound somewhat strange, almost dreamlike. It was discovered that he had fallen asleep in front of the microphone, but had continued to sing.
Gabriel sang (along with Jim Kerr of Simple Minds) on "Everywhere I Go", from The Call's 1986 release, Reconciled. On Toni Childs' 1994 CD, The Woman's Boat, Gabriel sang on the track, "I Met a Man".
In 1998, Gabriel appeared on the soundtrack of Babe: Pig in the City, not as a composer, but as the singer of the song "That'll Do", written by Randy Newman. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Gabriel and Newman performed it at the following year's Oscar telecast. He performed a similar soundtrack appearance for the 2004 film Shall We Dance?, singing a cover version of "The Book of Love" by The Magnetic Fields.
Gabriel has also appeared on Robbie Robertson's self-titled album, singing on "Fallen Angel"; co-written two Tom Robinson singles; and appeared on Joni Mitchell's 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, on the track "My Secret Place".
In 2001, Gabriel contributed lead vocals to the song "When You're Falling" on Afro Celt Sound System's Volume 3: Further in Time.^[8] In the summer of 2003, Gabriel performed in Ohio with a guest performance by Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan.
Gabriel collaborated on tracks with electronic musician BT. The tracks were never released, as the computers they were contained on were stolen from BT's home in California. He also sang the lyrics for Deep Forest on their theme song for the movie Strange Days. In addition, Gabriel has appeared on Angelique Kidjo's 2007 album Djin Djin, singing on the song "Salala".
Gabriel has recorded a cover of the Vampire Weekend single "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" with Hot Chip, where his name is mentioned several times in the chorus. He substitutes the original line "But this feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / This feels so unnatural/ Peter Gabriel too" with "It feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / and it feels so unnatural / to sing your own name."

WOMAD and other projects

Gabriel has been interested in world music for many years, with the first musical evidence appearing on his third album. This influence has increased over time, and he is the driving force behind the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) movement. He created the Real World Studios and record label to facilitate the creation and distribution of such music by various artists, and he has worked to educate Western culture about the work of such musicians as Yungchen Lhamo, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'dour. He has a long-standing interest in human rights, and launched Witness,^[9] a nonprofit which trains human rights activists to use video and online technologies to expose human rights abuses. In 2006 his work with WITNESS and his long standing support of peace and human rights causes was recognised by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with the Man of Peace award.
In the 1990s, with Steve Nelson of Brilliant Media and director Michael Coulson, he developed advanced multimedia CD-ROM-based entertainment projects, creating the acclaimed Xplora (the world's largest selling music CD-ROM), and subsequently the EVE CD-ROM. EVE was a music and art adventure game directed by Michael Coulson and co-produced by the Starwave Corporation in Seattle; it won the prestigious Milia d'Or award Grand Prize at the Cannes in 1996 and featured themes and interactivity well in advance of its time. Xplora and EVE can no longer be played on modern PCs, due to changes to their operating systems.
In 1994, Gabriel starred in the Breck Eisner short film "Recon" as a detective who enters the minds of murder victims to find their killer's identity.
Gabriel helped pioneer a new realm of musical interaction in 2001, visiting Georgia State University's Language Research Center to participate in keyboard jam sessions with bonobo apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (This experience inspired the song "Animal Nation," which was performed on Gabriel's 2002 "Growing Up" tour and was featured on the Growing Up Live DVD and The Wild Thornberrys Movie soundtrack.) Gabriel's desire to bring attention to the intelligence of primates also took the form of ApeNet, a project that aimed to link great apes through the internet, enabling the first interspecies internet communication.^[10]
He was one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2), one of the first online music download services. Its technology is used by MSN Music UK and others, and has become the dominant music download technology platform for stores in Europe. OD2 was bought by US company Loudeye in June 2004 and subsequently by Finnish mobile giant Nokia in October 2006 for $60 million.
Additionally, Gabriel is also co-founder (with Brian Eno) of a musicians union called Mudda, short for "magnificent union of digitally downloading artists."
In 2003, Gabriel's song "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" was featured in Cyan Worlds' video game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. In 2004, Gabriel contributed another song ("Curtains") and contributed voice work on another game in the Myst franchise, Myst IV: Revelation.
During the latter part of 2004, Gabriel spent time in a village in eastern Nepal with musician Ram Sharan Nepali, learning esoteric vocal techniques. Gabriel subsequently invited Nepali to attend and perform at the Womad festival in Adelaide, Australia.
In June 2005, Gabriel and broadcast industry entrepreneur David Engelke purchased Solid State Logic, a leading manufacturer of mixing consoles and digital audio workstations.^[11] SSL is among the top 2 or 3 recording console manufacturers in the world of recording.
In May 2008, Gabriel's Real World Studios, in partnership with Bowers & Wilkins, started the Bowers & Wilkins Music Club - now known as Society of Sound - a subscription-based music retail site. Albums are currently available in either Apple Lossless or Flac format.^[12]

Activist for humanitarian causes

In 1986 he started what has become a longstanding association with Amnesty International, becoming a pioneering participant in all 28 of Amnesty's Human Rights Concerts — a series of music events and tours staged by the US Section of Amnesty International between 1986-1998. He performed during the six-concert A Conspiracy of Hope US tour in June 1986; the twenty-concert Human Rights Now! world tour in 1988; the Chile: Embrace Of Hope Concert in 1990 and at The Paris Concert For Amnesty International in 1998. He also performed in Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball benefit shows. ^[13] He spoke of his support for Amnesty on NBC's Today Show in 1986.^[14]
Inspired by the social activism he encountered in his work with Amnesty, in 1992 Gabriel co-founded WITNESS, a non-profit group that equips, trains and supports locally-based organizations worldwide to use video and the internet in human rights documentation and advocacy.
In 1995 he was one of the two winners of the North-South Prize in its inaugural year.^[15]

Peter Gabriel at WITNESS Gala 2007

In the late 1990s, Gabriel and entrepreneur Richard Branson discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts.
On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of a new group, Global Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. The present members of this group are Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus, and Aung San Suu Kyi (with an empty chair for her).^[16]
The Elders will be independently funded by a group of "Founders", including Branson and Gabriel.
Desmond Tutu serves as the chair of the Elders, who will use their collective skills to catalyse peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulate new approaches to global issues that are causing or may later cause immense human suffering, and share wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. They will work together over the next several months to consider carefully which specific issues they will confront.
In November 2007 Gabriel's non-profit group WITNESS launched The Hub, a participatory media site for human rights.
In September 2008 Gabriel was named as the recipient of Amnesty International’s 2008 Ambassador of Conscience Award. In the same month, he received Quadriga United We Care award of Werkstatt Deutschland along with Boris Tadić, Eckart Höfling and Wikipedia. The award was presented to him by Queen Silvia of Sweden.^[17]
Gabriel lent his support to the campaign to release Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery.^[18]

Politics

For the 1997 general election, Gabriel declared himself as a supporter for the Labour Party — who won that election by a landslide after 18 years out of power, led by Tony Blair.^[19]
In 1998, Gabriel was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party.^[20] In 2003, he revealed he had voted for Labour and admired what they had done for health and education but distanced himself from the Labour government over Tony Blair’s support for George W. Bush and Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War, which he strongly opposed, although he continued to believe Blair was a man of conscience.^[21] Quoted in The Mirror newspaper, he said:

This is a fundamental issue of life and death and I very much think the Prime Minister is in the wrong. I'm also sure George W. Bush is an affable bloke but he's highly dangerous and I wish America was in the hands of someone else. To put oil interests ahead of human life is appalling. War is always terrible but unjustified war is obscene and on present evidence that is what we are facing. People want peace and I think it's great that the Mirror is leading this campaign. I think the consequences of this war would be the biggest threat to world peace in my lifetime. Blair has got to get it right. To take action without UN backing would be inviting disaster by setting the Muslim world against the West. If we are taking a moral position why did we arm Iraq when they were killing the Kurds? If it's because of weapons of mass destruction why isn't North Korea higher on the list? Not that I'd support action there. And if it's a principle of what Iraq has done to its own people why do we bend over for China? I'm sure Bush believes he is removing a scourge but he has never done one thing in office against the interests of the oil lobby who paid for a large part of the election. I don't actually believe Tony Blair is focused on oil but if he knows more than we do I wish he would tell us because there's no justification so far for taking life. War with Iraq would be an aggressive, uncalled for action. It's good the Prime Minister is prepared to stick to his principles, going against public opinion, because you elect leaders in part for their conscience. I just think it's terrible that on this of all issues he is making a stand which separates him from the nation. I think Tony Blair is following his conscience but I believe he is misguided. It could cost him the next election and I think he's aware of that. I'd personally be sad if they lost because Labour has done a lot for health and education, but an unjust war would be enough to lose my vote. I'd like to see a reinforced UN weapons inspection team in Iraq and disarmament much more in line with the French and German proposals. There is a slogan which says: 'Peace is what happens when you respect the rights of others'. Iraqis have rights too.^[22]

In 2005, Gabriel gave a Green Party of England and Wales general election candidate special permission to record a cover of his song "Don't Give Up" for his campaign.^[23]
In 2010, The Guardian described Gabriel as "a staunch advocate of proportional representation".^[24]

Personal life

Gabriel has two daughters with his first wife Jill Moore: Anna-Marie (born 26 July 1974) and Melanie Gabriel (born 23 August 1976). Married on 17 March 1971, they divorced in 1987. Moore's father was Lord Moore of Wolvercote.
Anna-Marie is a filmmaker and Melanie is a musician. Anna-Marie filmed and directed the Growing Up On Tour: A Family Portrait and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped DVDs. Melanie has been a backing vocalist in her father's band since 2002.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gabriel lived with actress Rosanna Arquette but they never married.
Gabriel also has two sons with Meabh Flynn: Isaac Ralph (born 27 September 2001) and Luc (born 5 July 2008). Gabriel and Flynn have been married since 9 June 2002.
Gabriel has resided for many years in the county of Wiltshire in England, where he also runs his Real World Studios. He previously lived in the Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset. In 2010 he joined a campaign to stop an agricultural development at the valley, which had also inspired his first solo single "Solsbury Hill" in 1977.^[25]

Appearances: 2005–present

Gabriel actively coordinated and performed at the Eden Project Live 8 concert in July 2005. In his earliest days, Gabriel played flute on Cat Stevens's first album on the Island records label, Mona Bone Jakon as a "nervous session musician". Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, joined him on stage 33 years after that experience, in Johannesburg during Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert. The two performed the Stevens hit "Wild World".
A double DVD set, Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped, was released in October 2005.
FIFA asked Gabriel and Brian Eno to organise an opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany, planned to take place a couple of days before the start of the tournament. Gabriel had recently become a fan of the game and 2005 champions league winners Liverpool, and worked on songs for the show in Berlin's Olympic Stadium; however, the show was cancelled in January 2006 by FIFA after going over budget with an apparent lack of interest in the project. The official explanation was potential damage to the pitch.
Rumours of a possible reunion of the original Genesis line-up began circulating in 2004 after Phil Collins stated in an interview that he was open to the idea of sitting back behind the drums and "let Peter be the singer." The classic line-up has only reformed for a live performance once before, in 1982. However, the group did work together to create a new version of the 1974 song "The Carpet Crawlers", ultimately released on the Turn It on Again: The Hits album as "The Carpet Crawlers 1999". Gabriel later met with other Genesis band members, to discuss a possible reunion tour of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. He chose to opt out of a reunion tour, and his former bandmates, Collins, Banks, and Rutherford chose to tour as Genesis without him.
At the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Gabriel performed John Lennon's "Imagine" during the opening of the festivities on 10 February 2006.

• Cingular Wireless has aired commercials featuring Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill".
• Gabriel's song "Digging in the Dirt" was used for promotional videos for the FX show "Dirt"
• Gabriel is involved in The Filter, an add-on application for iTunes, Windows Media Player and some Nokia phones which can automatically generate playlists based on music you select.^[26]

In October 2006, Gabriel was given the first Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards, an award presented in recognition of his "profound and lasting influence on the development of digital music."
In November 2006, the Seventh World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome presented Gabriel with the Man of Peace award. The award, presented by former President of the USSR and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome, was an acknowledgement of Gabriel's extensive contribution and work on behalf of human rights and peace. The award was presented in the Giulio Cesare Hall of the Campidoglio in Rome. At the end of the year, he was awarded the Q Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by American musician Moby. In an interview published in the magazine to accompany the award, Gabriel's contribution to music was described as "vast and enduring."
Gabriel took on a project with the BBC World Service's competition "The Next Big Thing" to find the world's best young band. Gabriel is judging the final six young artists with William Orbit, Geoff Travis and Angelique Kidjo.
The Times reported on 21 January 2007, that Peter Gabriel had announced that he planned to release his next album in the U.S. without the aid of a record company. Gabriel, an early pioneer of digital music distribution, had raised £2 million towards recording and 'shipping' his next album, Big Blue Ball in a venture with investment boutique Ingenious Media. Gabriel is expected to earn double the money that he would through a conventional record deal. Commercial director Duncan Reid of Ingenious explains the business savvy of the deal, saying, "If you're paying a small distribution fee and covering your own marketing costs, you enjoy the lion's share of the proceeds of the album. Gabriel is expected to outsource CD production for worldwide release through Warner Bros. Records. The new album deal covers the North America territory, where Gabriel is currently out of contract.^[27]
The album Big Blue Ball was launched in America thanks to a venture capital trust initiative. Bosses at London-based firm Ingenious raised more than $4 million (GBP 2 million) to help promote the release in the United States. The venture capitalists, Gabriel and his Real World Limited partners, have created a new joint venture company, High Level Recordings Limited, to oversee the release of the album, which took place in 2008. Gabriel appeared on a nationwide tour for the album in 2009.^[28]
On 24 May 2007, he was honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for lifetime achievement.^[29]
Gabriel was a judge for the 6th and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.^[30]
He also appears in Strange Powers, the 2009 documentary by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara about Stephin Merritt and his band, the Magnetic Fields.
In February 2009, Gabriel announced that he would not be performing on the Academy Awards telecast because producers of the show were limiting his performance of "Down to Earth" from WALL-E to 65 seconds.
Gabriel's 2009 tour of Mexico and South America included visiting Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela. His first ever performance in Peru was held in Lima on 20 March 2009, during his second visit to the country. His concert in Mexico City, on 27 March 2009, attracted more than 38,000 fans.
On 25 July 2009, he played at WOMAD Charlton Park, his only European performance of the year, to promote Witness. The show included two tracks from the forthcoming "Scratch My Back" album: Paul Simon's 'The Boy in the Bubble' and The Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love'.^[31]