Singer and songwriter, born in Surrey, SE England, UK. He co-founded the rock group Genesis, but left to pursue a solo career in 1975. His LP Peter Gabriel (1977), the first of four such named albums, was a number 7 hit in the UK. Renowned for the visual effects which accompany his videos, a collection of video hits was released as CV (1988), topping the UK music video chart. In 1982 he inaugurated the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival; and he later wrote the score for the controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and music for the inaugural Greenwich Millennium Dome celebration. Other albums include Us (1992) and Up (2002).
| Peter Gabriel | ||
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Peter Gabriel, as photographed by Bob Gruen |
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| Background information | ||
| Born | February 13, 1950 | |
| Origin | Chobham, Surrey, England | |
| Genre(s) |
Pop Rock Art rock Progressive rock World music |
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| Occupation(s) | musician, record producer | |
| Instrument(s) | singing, guitar, piano, flute, drums, electronics | |
| Years active | 1967 – Present | |
| Label(s) | Geffen | |
| Website | petergabriel.com | |
Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician.
Genesis
Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 while a pupil at Charterhouse School with bandmates Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart.
A lover of soul music, Gabriel was influenced by many different sources in his way of singing, mainly Nina Simone, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum and Cat Stevens.
Genesis quickly became one of the most talked-about bands in the UK and eventually 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.
Among Gabriel's many famous costumes (which he developed partly as way of overcoming his stage fright) were "The Flower" (worn for "Supper's Ready", from Foxtrot), "Magog" (also worn for "Supper's Ready", from Foxtrot), "Britannia" (worn for "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight," from Selling England by the Pound), "The Old Man" (worn for "The Musical Box", from Nursery Cryme), "Rael" (worn throughout most of the performance of the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), and "The Slipperman" (worn during "The Colony of Slippermen," also from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway).
Backing vocals in Genesis during Gabriel's tenure in the band 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 left the band in 1975.
Gabriel's departure from Genesis (which stunned fans of the group and left many commentators wondering if they could survive) was the result of a number of factors. 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. 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.
The breaking point came with the difficult pregnancy and birth of Gabriel's first child, Anna. When he opted to stay with his sick daughter and wife rather than go record and tour, the resentment from the rest of the band led Gabriel to conclude that he had to leave, a decision he recorded in the song "Solsbury Hill".
Solo career
Gabriel famously refused to title any of his first four solo albums (they were all labeled peter gabriel using the same typeface, but different cover art), since he wanted them to be considered like issues of a magazine instead of individual works;
The "untitled era"
Gabriel recorded his first solo album in 1976 and 1977 with producer Bob Ezrin, simply titled Peter Gabriel. Although mainly happy with the album, Peter Gabriel felt that the track "Here Comes the Flood" was over-produced. The stripped-down version is on Gabriel's greatest hits albums Shaking the Tree (1990) and Hit (2002).
Gabriel worked with guitarist Robert Fripp (of King Crimson fame) as producer of his second solo LP, in 1978.
Gabriel's third album, released in 1980, arose as a collaboration with Steve Lillywhite, who also produced early albums by U2. It was notable for the hit singles "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko," for Gabriel's new interest in world music (especially for percussion), and for its bold production, which made extensive use of recording tricks and sound effects. Gabriel's third album is generally credited as the first LP to use the now-famous "gated drum" sound, invented by engineer Hugh Padgham and Gabriel's old Genesis band-mate Phil Collins. Gabriel had requested that his drummers use no cymbals in the album's sessions, and when he heard the result from Collins and Padgham, he asked Collins to play a simple pattern for several minutes, then built "Intruder" on it.
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 (the aforementioned Security), on which Gabriel took more production responsibility.
Gabriel toured extensively for each of his albums, continuing the dramatic shows he began with Genesis, often involving elaborate stage props and acrobatics which had him suspended from gantries, distorting his face with Fresnel lenses and mirrors, and wearing unusual makeup. "Games Without Frontiers" from his third album and "Shock the Monkey" from his fourth), Gabriel achieved his greatest popularity with songs from the 1986 So album, highlights being the '60s-tinged pop and suggestiveness of "Sledgehammer" (a #1 smash in the US, knocking Genesis's "Invisible Touch" out of the top spot), ""Big Time", the tear-jerking ballad "Don't Give Up" with Kate Bush about the devastation of unemployment and the love song "In Your Eyes." Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" was accompanied by a visually stunning music video, which was a collaboration with director Stephen R.
Gabriel played a prominent role in supporting Amnesty International at this time, appearing on the 1986 U.S. A Conspiracy of Hope Tour (where "Shock the Monkey"'s percussive echoing around stadiums was a highlight) and on the 1988 worldwide Human Rights Now!
In 1989, Gabriel released Passion, the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's movie The Last Temptation of Christ. Following this, Gabriel recorded Us in 1992 (also co-produced with Daniel Lanois), an album in which he deals with the pain of his life problems of the previous years, his failed first marriage, and the distance with his first daughter.
Gabriel's introspection within the context of the album Us continues in "Digging in the Dirt", an extended metaphor which Gabriel uses to describe his process of trying to unearth the things inside of him that cause him trouble. Accompanied by a graphic and disturbing video featuring footage of Gabriel covered in worms, this song also made reference to the way media coverage seems to wallow in the foibles and mistakes of high visibility artists.
In 2000, Gabriel followed Us with the music to OVO, a soundtrack for the Millennium Dome Show in London, and Long Walk Home, the music from the Australian movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, early in 2002. The album also shows Gabriel's continued freedom from the typical requirements for airplay of songs: aside from the ending piano ballad "The Drop," no song on Up is shorter than six minutes, and many go through several distinct movements, with great dynamics in sound and theme.
Musicians and collaborators
While the gaps between his studio album releases have become longer and longer (six years between So and Us, ten between Us and Up), Gabriel has continued to work with a relatively stable crew of musicians and recording engineers. Bass and Stick player Tony Levin, for example, has appeared on every Peter Gabriel studio album and tour since 1976 and guitar player David Rhodes has been Gabriel’s guitarist of choice since 1979, both in the studio and on the road.
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.
He also collaborated with Laurie Anderson on two versions of her composition "Excellent Birds" - one for her 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 began to sound somewhat strange, almost dreamlike.
Unusually, 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.
Gabriel has also appeared on Robbie Robertson's self-titled album, and co-wrote two Tom Robinson singles.
Gabriel also appeared on Joni Mitchell's 1998 album, Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, on the track "My Secret Place."
WOMAD and other projects
Gabriel has been interested in world music for many years, with the first musical evidence appearing on his third album.
Gabriel's song "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" from So refers to Milgram's experiment, and in particular the 37 out of 40 subjects who showed complete obedience in one particular experiment.
Additionally, Gabriel is also co-founder (with Brian Eno) of a musicians union called Mudda, short for "magnificent union of digitally downloading artists."
In 1976, Gabriel covered the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever" for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.
In June 2005, Gabriel and broadcast industry entrepreneur David Engelke purchased Solid State Logic, a leading manufacturer of mixing consoles and digital audio workstations.
Recent work
Recently, Peter Gabriel has been working with video game companies Cyan Worlds and Ubisoft to aid in the sound production of their latest video games. The song, in a different mix, features the Blind Boys of Alabama (who also collaborated with Gabriel on the song "Sky Blue") and was on a press release copy of Up, but deleted before the album's actual release.
Gabriel played on stage with Cat Stevens 33 years after having played on Stevens' Mona Bone Jakon album.
Also in 2004, Gabriel performed a cover version of "The Book of Love," a song by The Magnetic Fields, on the soundtrack to the film Shall We Dance?.
Peter Gabriel has two daughters from his marriage to first wife Jill: Melanie and Anna. Melanie was a backing vocalist during Gabriel's 2002 Growing Up tour, and Anna filmed a documentary of that same tour, called Growing Up On Tour: A Family Portrait, currently available on DVD.
A new double DVD set, Peter Gabriel Live &
FIFA, the international football governing body, asked Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno to organize an opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany, planned to take place a couple of days before the actual start of the tournament's matches.
Gabriel's song "Big Time" is the official theme song of World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania 22.
Gabriel performed John Lennon's "Imagine" at the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy on February 10, 2006.
Cingular Wireless has aired commercials featuring Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill."
Gabriel is currently recording a new studio album, which will be his first new album release since UP in 2002.
Gabriel's song "Digging in the Dirt" is now being used for promotional videos for the new FX show starring Courteney Cox called "Dirt"
Another project which Peter is involved in takes another interesting slant on digital music.
According to a link posted on the Genesis official forum, Peter Gabriel will join Banks, Collins & This makes sense due to Gabriel's previous statements that he could not re-unite with the band due to prior commitments that would keep him busy for up to 6 months
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