Peter Gabriel

PG is high on my list of longtime faves who I've never seen perform. Pretty psyched about it, regardless of what the new album is like.

I've mentioned before that I did see him on that dual tour with Sting in 2016 or so, and he was still pretty good! They both were, honestly.

I've seen him 5 times, I think (an amnesty show in 88/89, twice on the Us tour, again at a festival after Us, and then not again until the Back to Front So tour). I still kick myself for not going to the Growing Up shows and the Sting tour; don't regret, per se, skipping the orchestral ones though, as I find those albums a dire slog.

Miami was the last stop on his Secret World tour and it remains a top fiver.

yeah those shows blew my mind. the video release doesn't really capture how great they were.

The Growing Up and Secret World tours were as cool looking as any concert I have ever seen. I have a feeling we won't get anything so elaborate again, the guy needs to refill his coffers. Then again, while I didn't see it, as I understand it the So Redux tour, while relatively subdued, visually, was still pretty striking.

The most I know is The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Sledgehammer, and the end credits for WALL-E.

the Back to Front tour was very stripped down, yeah, I think the idea was to have it visually compliment the original So tour (everyone dressed in black and white). There were projections, but no elaborate staging.

I have a feeling this tour might be more elaborate though. that said, peter is old and I don't expect him to ride a bike around the stage (and obv he's not going to fall backward into the audience again...I actually can't recall if he did this on the Secret World tour but I think no? He did it at the Amnesty show I saw)

As long as there are white oxford cloth shorts and ethnic waistcoats, I'm in.

collarless shirts!

*shirts duh

I saw him on the Still Growing Up tour - the tour following the Growing Up tour, which I think was basically the same but with some setlist changes, not sure if there were other changes. Maybe riding segways on Games Without Frontiers? Anyway, it was visually the most impressive concert I've ever been to. The hamster ball was obviously a highlight, as was Peter and Melanie walking upside down on the inner ring of the circular stage during the second half of Downside Up.

I saw him once more afterwards, on the next tour in 2007 where the idea was that they would fill the setlist with songs that they hadn't played on the previous tours (some big ones like Sledgehammer, Solsbury Hill, In Your Eyes were repeated nonetheless), which meant for an awesome set including songs such as Rhythm Of The Heat, On The Air, Intruder, Family Snapshot, Mother Of Violence. There were no props or anything for that show, but the setlist (and the nice location - stage in a park) made it really special.

While liking the material, I skipped the New Blood and Back To Front tours, but am very excited to see him next year. I got tickets for some seats in the back of the arena, which still came at 135 euro's a piece... possibly twice as much as those Growing Up tour tickets were back then, so I'd say they should be able to afford some more hamster balls, but I'm also not sure if Peter is still able to bounce around as he used to.

I'm expecting the return of the Slipperman costume at those prices.

Slipperman costume currently on loan to The Musical Box.

OK, I'll settle for a convincing impersonation of a teenage Puerto Rican gang member.

He'd get cancelled!

Just the fox mask please

Singing flower or stay home.

Singing flower or stay home.

https://i0.wp.com/musicalbrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/flower02.jpg

Just came back from a screening of the new King Crimson documentary, where Tony Levin appeared for a Q&A. He mentioned that he'll be joining Peter Gabriel's tour next year AND that it will indeed come to the U.S. as well as NYC (though dates have not been announced yet). He also mentioned that he plays on the upcoming album, enough that he knows what the music's like (this was in the context of an earlier answer where he mentioned that he's been recording more for what sounded like unknown indie artists, thanks to his ability to record on his own home set-up which means clients don't need to fly him anywhere or book studio time). However, he has no idea when the album will be released.

Idk about this, kinda weak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIDu6a9COmg

not a great sign that the music he's been working on for 20 years sounds so by-numbers

maybe there is a different mix? this is pretty boring, especially given the players.

PG completing a circle by sounding like Big Big Train

Also reminds me slightly of "It's Raining Men"

it... sounds like a PG song!

When the drums come in at 34" the keyboard bit really reminds me of 'This is the Picture'

I quite liked his contribution to last year's Leonard Cohen tribute on Blue Note, even if his LC impression is a bit over the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-e__5L9Kt0

Makes me wish he played with different musicians more often.

New one's goofy but I like the unabashed progginess of the concept. Peter Gabriel in 2023 earnestly bellowing PAN-OP-TI-COM is like Neil Peart never died.

PG completing a circle by sounding like Big Big Train

ha, you are correct...and I find them unbelivably boring and dull. his voice saves this for me but only just. weird choice for a single.

xpost lol! I'm digging it. Kind of Steve Kilbeyish lyrics.

not a great song but it does sound like vintage gabriel, fwiw

the acoustic guitars are a bit of a throwback

yeah. I think it's nice just to hear him again. after 20 years away though I was kinda expecting something a bit...I dunno...fresher

Is this album going to have an equivalent of "The Barry Williams Show", where he takes on a hot-button topic from a previous decade?

not to be all "well actually," but everybody's running around saying that this is the first self-composed shit he's put out since Up, but he put out singles as such here and there, most recently two songs in 2016, one concerning Muhammad Ali, "I"m Amazing," that I remember thinking was good when I heard it…

Got a horrible feeling some of those singles will reappear on the album

I don't think they will, he already put them out on that flotsam and jetsam compilation.

Gabriel isn’t one to put one-off songs into studio LP’s proper.

I really like this, although the mixing is odd

PG says in the Full Moon Club update that "we're finally starting out with a new record of new songs and slightly used... items." :/ That might include a couple of songs that were premiered on the So Back to Front tour (which I can't say as I remember).

Based on what he says in the video it sounds like they're releasing a song every month in the running order of the album. This invites the suspicion that he's still tinkering with it.

is this more old-guy-diddling-around-on-synths stuff

Would you prefer old socks

"old socks" would be my two-word review of Up.

is this more old-guy-diddling-around-on-synths stuff

not really, I would probably like that more tbh

Just posted via Bandcamp:

Hi there,

If there’s anyone out there who actually wants to do a deep dive into the music from i/o and how it was created we’re resurrecting the Full Moon Club here as a membership club with a subscription for the price of a cup of coffee every month.

We’ll put some other versions of every song in here, whether it’s another mix, maybe a demo, or perhaps more than one demo just showing how the thing got created or what some of the ideas that influenced the lyrics might be.
This will be for the hardcore, we’ll be doing these full moon releases so just look up at the sky and check out when the moon’s getting bigger and you'll know there's something new coming your way.

Along with the full moon club we’re going to try and learn, so we’d appreciate some feedback as to what might be of interest for you… we may put in extra tracks or some other live stuff, I don’t know... tell us what you’re interested in and we’ll see if we can rustle it together.

A few of you may well have bought Panopticom, so there are few extras already available here that will hopefully make up for that including an extended Full Moon Club video where we start to deep dive into the making of Panopticom.

I hope a few of you stick with me for the ride.

Peter.

Plus actual link -- 3 pounds a month:

https://petergabriel.bandcamp.com/subscribe

Peter is now writing and recording, and working on a plan to create a streaming service for digital medicine and an Interspecies Internet.

Hi there

I'm on my way I'm making it

finally able to talk to squirrels via my pgabphone