name	WALL•E
director	Andrew Stanton
producer	Jim Morris
screenplay	Andrew StantonJim Reardon
story	Andrew StantonPete Docter
starring	Ben BurttElissa KnightJeff GarlinFred WillardJohn RatzenbergerKathy NajimySigourney WeaverMacInTalk
music	Thomas Newman
cinematography	Jeremy LaskyDanielle Feinberg
editing	Stephen Schaffer
studio	Pixar
distributor	Walt Disney Pictures
released
runtime	98 minutes
country
language	English
budget	$180 million
gross	$521,311,860 }}

''WALL-E'', promoted with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'', is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity.

After directing ''Finding Nemo'', Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film largely set in space. Most of the characters do not have actual human voices, but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds, designed by Ben Burtt, that resemble voices. In addition, it is the first animated feature by Pixar to have segments featuring live-action characters.

Walt Disney Pictures released it in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008. The film grossed $23.2 million on its opening day, and $63.1 million during its opening weekend in 3,992 theaters, ranking #1 at the box office. This ranks as the fifth highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film. Following Pixar tradition, ''WALL-E'' was paired with a short film, ''Presto'', for its theatrical release.

''WALL-E'' has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews among critics, scoring an approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $521.3 million worldwide, won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards. ''WALL-E'' ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade".

Plot

The film is set in 2805, with Earth an abandoned planet covered in trash, the result of decades of mass consumerism facilitated by the megacorporation Buy-n-Large (BnL). Giving up on restoring the ecosystem, BnL evacuated Earth's population in fully automated starliners, leaving behind an army of trash compactor robots called "WALL-E" (Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth Class) to clean up for an intended five-year period. By 2110, however, the air on Earth became too toxic to sustain life, forcing humanity to remain in space. At the start of the film, only one WALL-E unit remains active and has developed sentience, collecting various knickknacks from the trash in addition to his regular duties, and has befriended a cockroach.

One day, WALL-E discovers a seedling plant growing among the trash and brings it home to his storage truck. Later, a spaceship lands and deploys EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), an advanced robot sent from the BnL starliner, known as the ''Axiom'' with the directive to search for signs of vegetation on Earth. WALL-E falls in love with the initially cold and hostile EVE, who gradually softens and befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his truck to show her the plant, she automatically stores it, goes into standby mode and sends a retrieval signal for her ship, which returns to collect her while WALL-E clings to its hull as it returns to the ''Axiom''.

On the ''Axiom'', the ship's human passengers have suffered from severe bone loss and become morbidly obese after centuries of living in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems. The ship's captain does little, leaving control of the ''Axiom'' to its robotic autopilot, Auto. WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the ''Axiom'' where the captain learns that by scanning EVE's plant sample with the ship's holo-detector as a sign of Earth being habitable again, the ''Axiom'' will make a hyperjump back to Earth so its passengers can recolonize. However, Auto orders the captain's robotic assistant GO-4 to steal the plant as part of a secret directive to keep humanity away from Earth as life was incorrectly deemed unsustainable.

With the plant now missing, EVE is considered defective and taken to the repair ward along with WALL-E for cleanup. WALL-E mistakes EVE's inspection for torture and breaks free, and tries to save her. He accidentally releases a horde of malfunctioning robots, getting himself and EVE designated as rogue robots. Angry with WALL-E's disruptions, EVE brings him to the escape pod bay to send him home. There they witness GO-4 place the missing plant inside a pod and setting the pod to self-destruct, in order to get rid of it. WALL-E enters the pod before it launches, retrieves the plant, and escapes unharmed before the pod explodes. He then reconciles with EVE, celebrating with a dance outside the ''Axiom''.

The plant is brought to the captain, who surveys EVE's recordings of the damaged Earth and realizes that mankind must return to restore it. However, Auto reveals his "no return" directive and stages a mutiny, and zaps WALL-E, disabling him. EVE realizes the only parts for repairing WALL-E are in his truck on Earth, so she helps him get the plant to the holo-detector to activate the ''Axiom''s hyperjump. The captain opens the holo-detector while fighting with Auto, but Auto crushes WALL-E by closing the holo-detector on him. The Captain discovers Auto's shut down switch and presses it, disabling Auto and releasing control of the ship. EVE places the plant in the holo-detector, freeing WALL-E, though he is now severely damaged. The ''Axiom'' then returns to Earth.

EVE brings WALL-E's body back to his home where she successfully repairs and reactivates him. Unfortunately, WALL-E's memory is erased and he reverts to his original programming. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell "kiss", causing an electric spark that reboots WALL-E's memory and personality. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots of the ''Axiom'' begin to restore Earth's environment. Drawings during the end credits show them doing just that, as more and more plants sprout up on earth, and the humans have become thinner and healthier from working physically.

Cast and characters

Ben Burtt produced the voice of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class), the title character and the main protagonist. WALL-E is a sentient robot, and is the only one shown to still be functioning on Earth. He is a small compactor box with all-terrain treads, three-fingered shovel hands, binocular eyes, and retractable solar cells for power. He is very curious, lonely and kind-hearted, always putting others before himself. He collects trinkets, like a cage full of rubber ducks, a Rubik's Cube and a golden trophy. He also has a pet cockroach named Hal and loves music.

*Burtt is also credited for the voice of M-O (Microbe Obliterator), as well as most of the other robots. M-O is a tiny, obsessive compulsive maintenance robot who keeps the ship clean. When M-O meets WALL-E and sees how filthy he is, he deviates from his normal routine and follows WALL-E, cleaning up behind him. When he follows WALL-E to the garbage bay, he saves WALL-E and EVE from being sucked into the vacuum of space.

Elissa Knight as EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek robot probe whose is tasked to locate vegetation on Earth and verify habitability. She has a white, egg-shaped body, and blue LED eyes. EVE moves using antigravity technology and is equipped with scanners, specimen storage and a plasma cannon in her arm (which she is quick to use). Initially, she is only concerned with her mission, and does not display any emotions. However, she learns to express herself when interacting with WALL-E, such as giggling when amused by his antics.

Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea, the commander and lone officer on the ''Axiom''. His duties as captain are boring daily routines, with the ship's autopilot handling all true command functions. Meeting WALL-E, however, sparks his interest in Earth and he becomes engrossed in researching his home planet, paving the way for his retaking control of the ship back from the Autopilot.

Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, historical CEO of the Buy-n-Large Corporation, shown only in videos recorded around the time of the ''Axiom''s initial launch. Constantly optimistic, Forthright proposed the evacuation plans, then to clean up and recolonize the planet. However, the corporation gave up after realizing how toxic Earth had become. Forthright is the only live action character with a speaking role, the first in any Pixar film.

MacInTalk, the text-to-speech program for the Apple Macintosh, was used for the voice of Auto, the autopilot artificial intelligence built into the ship. Unlike other robots in the film, Auto is not influenced by WALL-E, instead following directive A113 to the letter, preventing anyone from deviating from it. He is the main antagonist of the film. The robot's design is a homage to HAL 9000 from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', featuring a HAL-style red "eye" in the center of his body.

John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy as John and Mary, respectively. John and Mary both live on the ''Axiom'' and are so dependent on their personal video screens and automatic services that they are oblivious to their surroundings, for instance not noticing that the ship features a giant swimming pool. However, they are brought out of their trances after separate encounters with WALL-E, eventually meeting face-to-face for the first time.

Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the ''Axiom''s computer. Stanton joked about the role with Weaver, saying, "You realize you get to be "Mother" now?" referring to the name of the ship's computer in the film ''Alien'', which also starred Weaver.

Production

Writing

''M-O just finishes cleaning the floor.''''Wally is fascinated.''''Impishly makes another mark.''''M-O compulsively cleans it. Can’t resist.''M-O (bleeps): [Look, it stays clean. You got that?]''Wally wipes the bottom of his tread on M-O’s face.''''M-O loses it.''''Scrubs his own face.''|source=Stanton wrote the screenplay to focus on the visualsand as a guide to what the sound effects needed to convey}} Andrew Stanton conceived ''WALL-E'' during a lunch with fellow writers John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft in 1994. ''Toy Story'' was nearing completion and the writers brainstormed ideas for their next projects – ''A Bug's Life'', ''Monsters, Inc.'', and ''Finding Nemo'' – at this lunch. Stanton asked, "What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?" Having struggled for many years with making the characters in ''Toy Story'' appealing, Stanton found his simple ''Robinson Crusoe''-esque idea of a lonely robot on a deserted planet very strong. Stanton made WALL-E a waste collector as the idea was instantly understandable, and because it was a low-status menial job that made him sympathetic. Stanton also liked the imagery of stacked cubes of garbage. He did not find the idea dark because having a planet covered in garbage was for him a childish imagining of disaster.

Stanton and Pete Docter developed the film under the title of ''Trash Planet'' for two months in 1995, but they did not know how to develop the story and Docter chose to direct ''Monsters, Inc.'' instead. Stanton came up with the idea of WALL-E finding a plant, because his life as the sole inhabitant on a deserted world reminded Stanton of a plant growing among pavements. Before they turned their attention to other projects, Stanton and Lasseter thought about having WALL-E fall in love, as it was the necessary progression away from loneliness. Stanton started writing ''WALL-E'' again in 2002 while completing ''Finding Nemo''. Stanton formatted his script in a manner reminiscent of Dan O'Bannon's ''Alien''. O'Bannon wrote his script in a manner Stanton found reminded him of ''haiku'', where visual descriptions were done in continuous lines of a few words. Stanton wrote his robot dialogue conventionally, but placed them in brackets. In late 2003, Stanton and a few others created a story reel of the first twenty minutes of the film. Lasseter and Steve Jobs were impressed and officially began development, though Jobs stated he did not like the title, originally spelled "''W.A.L.-E.''"

While the first act of ''WALL-E'' "fell out of the sky" for Stanton, he had originally wanted aliens to plant EVE to explore Earth and the rest of the film was very different. When WALL-E comes to the ''Axiom'', he incites a ''Spartacus''-style rebellion by the robots against the remnants of the human race, which were cruel alien Gels (completely devolved, gelantinous, boneless, legless, see-through, green creatures that resemble Jell-O). James Hicks, a physiologist, mentioned to Stanton the concept of atrophy and the effects prolonged weightlessness would have on humans living in space for an inordinately extended time period. Therefore, this was the inspiration of the humans degenerating into the alien Gels, and their ancestry would have been revealed in a ''Planet of the Apes''-style ending. The Gels also spoke a made-up gibberish language, but Stanton scrapped this idea because he thought it would be too complicated for the audience to understand and they could easily be driven off from the storyline. The Gels had a royal family, who host a dance in a castle on a lake in the back of the ship, and the ''Axiom'' curled up into a ball when returning to Earth in this incarnation of the story. Stanton decided this was too bizarre and unengaging, and conceived humanity as "big babies". Stanton developed the metaphorical theme of the humans learning to stand again and "grow[ing] up", wanting WALL-E and EVE's relationship to inspire humanity because he felt very few films explore how utopian societies come to exist. The process of depicting the descendants of humanity as the way they appear in the movie was very slow. Stanton first decided to put a nose and ears on the Gels so the audience could recognize them. Eventually, fingers, legs, clothes, and other characteristics were added until they arrived at the concept of being fetus-like to allow the audience to see themselves in the characters.

In a later version of the film, Auto comes to the docking bay to retrieve EVE's plant. The film would have its first cutaway to the captain, but Stanton moved that as he found it too early to begin moving away from WALL-E's point-of-view. As a homage to ''Get Smart'', Auto takes the plant and goes into the bowels of the ship into a room resembling a brain where he watches videos of Buy n Large's scheme to clean-up the Earth falling apart through the years. Stanton removed this to keep some mystery as to why the plant is taken from EVE. The captain appears to be unintelligent, but Stanton wanted him to just be unchallenged; otherwise he would have been unempathetic. One example of how unintelligent the captain was depicted initially is that he was seen to wear his hat upside-down, only to fix it before he challenges Auto. In the finished film, he merely wears it casually atop his head, tightening it when he assumes real command of the ''Axiom''.

Originally, EVE would have been electrocuted by Auto, and then be quickly saved from ejection at the hands of the WALL-A robots by WALL-E. He would have then revived her by replacing her power unit with a cigarette lighter he brought from Earth. Stanton reversed this following a 2007 test screening, as he wanted to show EVE replacing her directive of bringing the plant to the captain with repairing WALL-E, and it made WALL-E even more heroic if he held the holo-detector open despite being badly hurt. Stanton also moved the moment where WALL-E reveals his plant (which he had snatched from the self-destructing escape pod) from producing it from a closet to immediately after his escape, as it made EVE happier and gave them stronger motivation to dance around the ship. Stanton felt half the audience at the screening believed the humans would be unable to cope with living on Earth and died out after the film's end. Jim Capobianco, director of the short film ''Your Friend the Rat'', created an end credits animation that continued the story – and stylized in different artistic movements throughout history – to clarify an optimistic tone.

Design

WALL-E was the most complex Pixar production since ''Monsters, Inc.'' because of the world and the history that had to be conveyed. Whereas most Pixar films have up to 75,000 storyboards, ''WALL-E'' required 125,000. Production designer Ralph Eggleston wanted the lighting of the first act on Earth to be romantic, while the second act on the ''Axiom'' to be cold and sterile. During the third act, the romantic lighting is slowly introduced into the ''Axiom'' environment. Pixar studied Chernobyl and the city of Sofia to create the ruined world; art director Anthony Christov was from Bulgaria and recalled Sofia used to have problems storing its garbage. Eggleston bleached out the whites on Earth to make WALL-E feel vulnerable. The overexposed light makes the location look more vast. Because of the haziness, the cubes making up the towers of garbage had to be very large, otherwise they would have lost shape (in turn, this helped save rendering time). The dull tans of Earth subtly become soft pinks and blues when EVE arrives. When WALL-E shows EVE all his collected items, all the lights he has collected light up to give an inviting atmosphere, like a Christmas tree. Eggleston tried to avoid the colors yellow and green so WALL-E – who was made yellow to emulate a tractor – would not blend into the deserted Earth, and to make the plant more prominent. Stanton also wanted the lighting to look realistic and evoke the science fiction films of his youth. He felt Pixar had captured the physics of being underwater with ''Finding Nemo'', so for ''WALL-E'' he wanted to push that for air. It was while rewatching some of his favorite science fiction films he realized Pixar's films lacked the look of 70 mm film and its barrel distortion, lens flare and racking focus. Producer Jim Morris invited Roger Deakins and Dennis Muren to advise on lighting and atmosphere. Muren spent several months with Pixar, while Deakins hosted one talk and was requested to stay on for another two weeks. Stanton said Muren's experience came from integrating computer animation into live-action settings, while Deakins helped them understand not to overly complicate their camerawork and lighting. 1970s Panavision cameras were used to help the animators understand and replicate handheld imperfections like unfocused backgrounds in digital environments. The first lighting test consisted of building a three-dimensional replica of WALL-E, filming it with a 70 mm camera, and then trying to replicate that in the computer. Stanton cited the shallow lens work of Gus Van Sant's films as an influence, as it created intimacy in each close-up. Stanton chose angles for the virtual cameras that a live-action filmmaker would choose if filming on a set.

Stanton wanted the ''Axiom''s interior to resemble Shanghai and Dubai. Eggleston studied 1960s NASA paintings and the original concept art for Tomorrowland for the ''Axiom'', to reflect that era's sense of optimism. Stanton remarked "We are all probably very similar in our backgrounds here [at Pixar] in that we all miss the Tomorrowland that was promised us from the heyday of Disneyland," and wanted a "jet pack" feel. Pixar also studied the Disney Cruise Line and visited Las Vegas, which was helpful in understanding artificial lighting. Eggleston based his ''Axiom'' designs on the futuristic architecture of Santiago Calatrava. Eggleston divided the inside of the ship into three sections; the rear's economy class has a basic gray concrete texture with graphics keeping to the red, blue and white of the BnL logo. The coach class with living/shopping spaces has 'S' shapes as people are always looking for "what's around the corner". Stanton intended to have many colorful signs, but he realized this would overwhelm the audience and went with Eggleston's original idea of a small number of larger signs. The premier class is a large Zen-like spa with colors limited to turquoise, cream and tan, and leads on to the captain's warm carpeted and wooded quarters and the sleek dark bridge. In keeping with the artificial ''Axiom'', camera movements were modeled after those of the steadicam.

The use of live action was a stepping stone for Pixar, as Stanton was planning to make ''John Carter of Mars'' his next project. Storyboarder Derek Thompson noted introducing live action meant they had to make the rest of the film look even more realistic. Eggleston added that if the historical humans had been animated and slightly caricaturized, then the audience would not have recognized how serious their devolution was. Stanton cast Fred Willard as the historical Buy n Large CEO because "He's the most friendly and insincere car salesman I could think of." The CEO says "stay the course," which Stanton used because he thought it was funny. Industrial Light & Magic did the visual effects for these shots.

Animation

''WALL-E'' went undeveloped during the 1990s partly because Stanton and Pixar were not confident enough yet to have a feature length film with a main character that behaved like Luxo Jr. or R2-D2. Stanton explained there are two types of robots in cinema: "human[s] with metal skin", like the Tin Man, or "machine[s] with function" like Luxo and R2. He found the latter idea "powerful" because it allowed the audience to project personalities onto the characters, as they do with babies and pets: "You're compelled ... you almost can't stop yourself from finishing the sentence 'Oh, I think it likes me! I think it's hungry! I think it wants to go for a walk!'" He added, "We wanted the audience to believe they were witnessing a machine that has come to life." The animators visited recycling stations to study machinery, and also met robot designers, visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study robots, watched a recording of a Mars rover, and borrowed a bomb detecting robot from the San Francisco Police Department. Simplicity was preferred in their performances as giving them too many movements would make them feel human.

Stanton wanted WALL-E to be a box and EVE to be like an egg. WALL-E's eyes were inspired by a pair of binoculars Stanton was given when watching the Oakland Athletics play against the Boston Red Sox. He "missed the entire inning" because he was distracted by them. The director was reminded of Buster Keaton and decided the robot would not need a nose or mouth. Stanton added a zoom lens to make WALL-E more sympathetic. Ralph Eggleston noted this feature gave the animators more to work with and gave the robot a child-like quality. Pixar's studies of trash compactors during their visits to recycling stations inspired his body. His tank treads were inspired by a wheelchair someone had developed that used treads instead of wheels. The animators wanted him to have elbows, but realized this was unrealistic because he is only designed to pull garbage into his body. His arms also looked very flimsy when they did a test of him waving. Animation director Angus MacLane suggested they attach his arms to a track on the sides of his body to move them around, based on the inkjet printers his father designed. This arm design contributed to creating the character's posture, so if they wanted him to be nervous, they would lower them. Stanton was unaware of the similarities between WALL-E and Johnny 5 from ''Short Circuit'' until others pointed it out to him.

Stanton wanted EVE to be at the higher end of technology, and asked iPod designer Jonathan Ive to inspect her design. He was very impressed. Her eyes are modelled on Lite-Brite toys, but Pixar chose not to make them overly expressive as it would be too easy to have her eyes turn into hearts to express love or something similar. Her limited design meant the animators had to treat her like a drawing, relying on posing her body to express emotion. They also found her similar to a manatee or a narwhal because her floating body resembled an underwater creature. Auto was a conscious homage to HAL 9000 from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', and the usage of ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' for the showdown between the captain and Auto furthers that. The manner in which he hangs from a wall gives him a threatening feel, like a spider. Originally, Auto was designed entirely differently, resembling EVE, but masculine and authoritative; the Steward robots were also more aggressive Patrol-bots. The majority of the robot cast were formed with the Build-a-bot program, where different heads, arms and treads were combined together in over a hundred variations. The humans were modelled on sea lions due to their blubbery bodies, as well as babies. The filmmakers noticed baby fat is a lot tighter than adult fat and copied that texture for the film's humans.

To animate their robots, Pixar watched a Keaton and a Chaplin film every day for almost a year, and occasionally a Harold Lloyd picture. Afterwards, the filmmakers knew all emotions could be conveyed silently. Stanton cited Keaton's "great stone face" as giving them perseverance in animating a character with an unchanging expression. As he rewatched these, Stanton felt that filmmakers – since the advent of sound – relied on dialogue too much to convey exposition. The filmmakers dubbed the cockroach WALL-E keeps as a pet "Hal", in reference to silent film producer Hal Roach (as well as being an additional reference to HAL 9000). They also watched ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''The Black Stallion'' and ''Never Cry Wolf'', films that had sound but were not reliant on dialogue. Stanton acknowledged ''Silent Running'' as an influence because its silent robots were a forerunner to the likes of R2-D2, and that the "hopeless romantic" Woody Allen also inspired WALL-E.

Sound

Producer Jim Morris recommended Ben Burtt as sound designer for ''WALL-E'' because Stanton kept using R2-D2 as the benchmark for the robots. Burtt had completed ''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' and told his wife he would no longer work on films with robots, but found ''WALL-E'' and its substitution of voices with sound "fresh and exciting". He recorded 2500 sounds for the film, which was twice the average number for a ''Star Wars'' film, and a record in his career. Burtt began work in 2005, and experimented with filtering his voice for two years. Burtt described the robot voices as "like a toddler [...] universal language of intonation. 'Oh', 'Hm?', 'Huh!', you know?"

During production Burtt had the opportunity to look at the items used by Jimmy MacDonald, Disney's in-house sound designer for many of their classic films. Burtt used many of MacDonald's items on ''WALL-E''. Because Burtt was not simply adding sound effects in post-production, the animators were always evaluating his new creations and ideas, which Burtt found an unusual experience. He worked in sync with the animators, returning their animation after adding the sounds to give them more ideas. Burtt would choose scientifically-accurate sounds for each character, but if he could not find one that worked, he would choose a dramatic if unrealistic noise. Burtt would find hundreds of sounds by looking at concept art of characters, before he and Stanton pared it down to a distinct few for each robot.

Burtt saw a hand-cranked electrical generator while watching ''Island in the Sky'', and bought an identical, unpacked device from 1950 on eBay to use for WALL-E moving around. Burtt also used an automobile self starter for when WALL-E goes fast, and the sound of cars being wrecked at a demolition derby provided for WALL-E's compressing trash in his body. The Macintosh computer chime was used to signify when WALL-E has fully recharged his battery. For EVE, Burtt wanted her humming to have a musical quality. Burtt was only able to provide neutral or masculine voices, so Pixar employee Elissa Knight was asked to provide her voice for Burtt to electronically modify. Stanton deemed the sound effect good enough to properly cast her in the role. Burtt recorded a flying radio-controlled jet plane for EVE's flying, and for her plasma cannon, Burtt hit a slinky hung from a ladder with a timpani stick. He described it as a "cousin" to the blaster noise from ''Star Wars''.

MacInTalk was used because Stanton "wanted Auto to be the epitome of a robot, cold, zeros & ones, calculating, and soulless [and] Stephen Hawking's kind of voice I thought was perfect." Additional sounds for the character were meant to give him a clockwork feel, to show he is always thinking and calculating.

Burtt had visited Niagara Falls in 1987 and used his recordings from his trip for the sounds of wind. He ran around a hall with a canvas bag up to record the sandstorm though. For the scene where WALL-E runs from falling shopping carts, Burtt and his daughter went to a supermarket and placed a recorder in their cart. They crashed it around the parking lot and then let it tumble down a hill. To create Hal (WALL-E's pet cockroach)'s skittering, he recorded the clicking caused by taking apart and reassembling handcuffs.

Music

Thomas Newman recollaborated with Stanton on ''WALL-E'' since the two got along well on ''Nemo'', which gave Newman the Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature. He began writing the score in 2005, in the hope that starting this task early would make him more involved with the finished film. But, Newman remarked that animation is so dependent on scheduling he should have begun work earlier on when Stanton and Reardon were writing the script. EVE's theme was arranged for the first time in October 2007. Her theme when played as she first flies around Earth originally used more orchestral elements, and Newman was encouraged to make it sound more feminine. Newman said Stanton had thought up of many ideas for how he wanted the music to sound, and he generally followed them as he found scoring a partially silent film difficult. Stanton wanted the whole score to be orchestral, but Newman felt limited by this idea especially in scenes aboard the ''Axiom'', and used electronics too.

Stanton originally wanted to juxtapose the opening shots of space with 1930s French swing music, but he saw ''The Triplets of Belleville'' (2003) and did not want to appear as if he were copying it. Stanton then thought about the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from ''Hello, Dolly!'', since he had portrayed the sidekick Barnaby Tucker in a 1980 high school production. Stanton found that the song was about two naive young men looking for love, which was similar to WALL-E's own hope for companionship. Jim Reardon suggested WALL-E find the film on video, and Stanton included "It Only Takes a Moment" and the clip of the actors holding hands, because he wanted a visual way to show how WALL-E understands love and conveys it to EVE. ''Hello Dolly!'' composer Jerry Herman allowed the songs to be used without knowing what for; when he saw the film, he found its incorporation into the story "genius". Coincidentally, Newman's uncle Lionel worked on ''Hello, Dolly!''

Newman travelled to London to compose the end credits song "Down to Earth" with Peter Gabriel, who was one of Stanton's favorite musicians. Afterwards, Newman rescored some of the film to include the song's composition, so it would not sound intrusive when played. Louis Armstrong's rendition of "La Vie en rose" was used for a montage where WALL-E does not get EVE's attention on Earth. The script also specified using Bing Crosby's "Stardust" for when the two robots dance around the ''Axiom'', but Newman asked if he could score the scene himself. A similar switch occurred for the sequence in which WALL-E attempts to wake EVE up through various means; originally, the montage would play with the instrumental version of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", but Newman wanted to challenge himself and scored an original piece for the sequence.

Themes

Stanton describes the theme of the film as "irrational love defeats life's programming":

I realized the point I was trying to push with these two programmed robots was the desire for them to try and figure out what the point of living was...It took these really irrational acts of love to sort of discover them against how they were built...I realized that that's a perfect metaphor for real life. We all fall into our habits, our routines and our ruts, consciously or unconsciously to avoid living. To avoid having to do the messy part. To avoid having relationships with other people. of dealing with the person next to us. That's why we can all get on our cell phones and not have to deal with one another. I thought, 'That's a perfect amplification of the whole point of the movie.' I wanted to run with science in a way that would sort of logically project that.

Stanton noted many commentators placed emphasis on the environmental aspect of humanity's complacency in the film, because "that disconnection is going to be the cause, indirectly, of anything that happens in life that's bad for humanity or the planet". Stanton said that by taking away effort to work, the robots also take away humanity's need to put effort into relationships. Christian journalist Rod Dreher saw technology as the complicated villain of the film. The humans' artificial lifestyle on the ''Axiom'' has separated them from nature, making them "slaves of both technology and their own base appetites, and have lost what makes them human". Dreher contrasted the hardworking, dirt covered WALL-E with the sleek clean robots on the ship. However, it is the humans and not the robots who make themselves redundant, and during the end credits humans and robots are shown working alongside each other to renew the Earth. "''WALL-E'' is not a Luddite film," he said. "It doesn't demonize technology. It only argues that technology is properly used to help humans cultivate their true nature – that it must be subordinate to human flourishing, and help move that along."

Stanton, who is Christian, named EVE after the Biblical character because WALL-E's loneliness reminded him of Adam, before God created his wife. Dreher noted EVE's biblical namesake and saw her directive as an inversion of that story; EVE uses the plant to tell humanity to return to Earth and move away from the "false god" of BnL and the lazy lifestyle it offers. Dreher also noted this departure from classical Christian viewpoints, where Adam is ''cursed'' to labor, in that ''WALL-E'' argues hard work is what makes humans human. Dreher emphasized the false god parallels to BnL in a scene where a robot teaches infants "B is for Buy n Large, your very best friend", which he compared to modern corporations such as McDonald's creating brand loyalty in children. Megan Basham of ''World'' magazine felt the film criticizes the pursuit of leisure, whereas WALL-E in his stewardship learns to truly appreciate God's creation.

During writing, a Pixar employee noted to Jim Reardon that EVE was reminiscent of the dove with the olive branch from the story of Noah's Ark, and the story was reworked with EVE finding a plant to return humanity from its voyage. WALL-E himself has been compared to Prometheus, Sisyphus, and Butades: in an essay discussing WALL-E as representative of the artistic strive of Pixar itself, Hrag Vartanian compared WALL-E to Butades in a scene where the robot expresses his love for EVE by making a sculpture of her from spare parts. "The Ancient Greek tradition associates the birth of art with a Corinthian maiden who longing to preserve her lover’s shadow traces it on the wall before he departed for war. The myth reminds us that art was born out of longing and often means more for the creator than the muse. In the same way Stanton and his Pixar team have told us a deeply personal story about their love of cinema and their vision for animation through the prism of all types of relationships."

Reception

Release

Continuing a Pixar tradition, ''WALL-E'' was paired with a short film for its theatrical release, ''Presto''. The film was dedicated to Justin Wright (1981–2008), a Pixar animator who had worked on ''Ratatouille'' and died of a heart attack before ''WALL-E''s release.

Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) built animatronic WALL-Es to promote the picture, which made appearances at Disneyland Resort; the Franklin Institute; the Miami Science Museum; the Seattle Center; and the Tokyo International Film Festival. Due to safety concerns, the 318kg robots were always strictly controlled and WDI always needed to know exactly what they were required to interact with. For this reason, they generally refused to have their puppets meet and greet children at the theme parks in case a WALL-E trod on a child's foot. Those who wanted to take a photograph with the character had to make do with a cardboard cutout.

Very small quantities of merchandise were sold for ''WALL-E'', as ''Cars'' items were still popular, and many manufacturers were more interested in ''Speed Racer'', which was a successful line despite the film's failure at the box office. Thinkway, which created the ''WALL-E'' toys, had previously made ''Toy Story'' dolls when other toy producers had not shown an interest. Among Thinkway's items were a WALL-E that danced when connected to a music player, a toy that could be taken apart and reassembled, and a groundbreaking remote control toy of him and EVE that had motion sensors that allowed them to interact with players. There were even soft toys. The "Ultimate WALL-E" figures were not in stores until the film's home release in November 2008, at a retail price of almost $200, leading ''The Patriot-News'' to deem it an item for "hard-core fans and collectors only".

Box-office performance

''WALL-E'' grossed $223,808,164 in the USA and Canada and $297,503,696 overseas for a worldwide total of $521,311,860, marking it the ninth highest grossing film of 2008.

The film premiered at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 23, 2008.

In the USA and Canada, it opened in 3,992 theaters on June 27, 2008. During its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $63,087,526 which is currently the fifth-best opening weekend for a Pixar film and the fourth-best opening among films released in June. The movie earned $94.7 million in its first week and crossed the $200 million mark during its sixth weekend.

Countries where it grossed over $10 million are the following: Japan ($44,005,222), UK, Ireland and Malta ($41,215,600), France and the Maghreb region ($27,984,103), Germany ($24,130,400), Mexico ($17,679,805), Spain ($14,973,097), Australia ($14,165,390), Italy ($12,210,993) and Russia and the CIS ($11,694,482).

Home media

The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 18, 2008. The various editions included ''Presto'', a new short film ''BURN-E'', the Leslie Iwerks documentary film ''The Pixar Story'', shorts about the history of Buy n Large, the behind-the-scenes special features and a Digital Copy of the film that can be played through iTunes or Windows Media and compatible devices. It sold 9,042,054 DVD units ($142,633,974) in total becoming the second best-selling animated DVD among those released in 2008 in terms of units sold (behind ''Kung Fu Panda''), the best-selling animated feature in terms of sales revenue and the 3rd best-selling among all 2008 DVDs.

Reviews

''WALL-E'' was met with near universal acclaim. ''Rotten Tomatoes'' reported that 96% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 200 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. At ''Metacritic'', which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 94, based on 39 reviews. indieWire named ''WALL-E'' the 3rd best film of the year, based on their annual survey of 100 film critics, while Movie City News shows that ''WALL-E'' appeared in 162 different top ten lists, out of 286 different critics lists surveyed, the most mentions on a top ten list of any film released in 2008.

Richard Corliss of ''Time'' named ''WALL-E'' as his favorite film of 2008 (and later of the decade), noting the film succeeded in "connect[ing] with a huge audience" despite the main characters' lack of speech and "emotional signifiers like a mouth, eyebrows, shoulders [and] elbows". It "evoke[d] the splendor of the movie past" and he also compared WALL-E and EVE's relationship to the chemistry of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Other critics who named ''WALL-E'' as their favorite film of 2008 included Tom Charity of CNN, Michael Phillips of the ''Chicago Tribune'', Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'', A. O. Scott of ''The New York Times'', Christopher Orr of ''The New Republic'', Ty Burr and Wesley Morris of ''The Boston Globe'', Joe Morgenstern of ''The Wall Street Journal'', and Anthony Lane of ''The New Yorker''.

Todd McCarthy of ''Variety'' called the film "Pixar's ninth consecutive wonder", saying it was imaginative yet straightforward. He said it pushed the boundaries of animation by balancing esoteric ideas with more immediately accessible ones, and that the main difference between the film and other science fiction projects rooted in an apocalypse was its optimism. Kirk Honeycutt of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' declared that ''WALL-E'' surpassed the achievements of Pixar's previous eight features and probably their most original film to date. He said it had the "heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films. Honeycutt said the film's definitive stroke of brilliance was in using a mix of archive film footage and computer graphics to trigger WALL-E's romantic leanings. He praised Burtt's sound design, saying "If there is such a thing as an aural sleight of hand, this is it."

Roger Ebert writing in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' found ''WALL-E'' "an enthralling animated film, a visual wonderment, and a decent science-fiction story". Ebert said the scarcity of dialogue would allow it to "cross language barriers" in a manner appropriate to the global theme, and noted it would appeal to adults and children. He praised the animation, saying the color palette was "bright and cheerful [...] and a little bit realistic", and that Pixar managed to generate a "curious" regard for the WALL-E, comparing his "rusty and hard-working and plucky" design favorably to more obvious attempts at creating "lovable" lead characters. He said ''WALL-E'' was concerned with ideas rather than spectacle, saying it would trigger stimulating "little thoughts for the younger viewers." He named it as one of his twenty favorite films of 2008 and argued it was "the best science-fiction movie in years".

The film was interpreted as tackling a topical, ecologically-minded agenda, though McCarthy said it did so with a lightness of touch that granted the viewer the ability to accept or ignore the message. Kyle Smith of the ''New York Post'', wrote that by depicting future humans as "a flabby mass of peabrained idiots who are literally too fat to walk", ''WALL-E'' was darker and more cynical than any major Disney feature film he could recall. He compared the humans to the patrons of Disney's Parks and Resorts, adding, "I'm also not sure I've ever seen a major corporation spend so much money to issue an insult to its customers." Maura Judkis of ''U.S. News & World Report'' questioned whether this depiction of "frighteningly obese humans" would resonate with children and make them prefer to "play outside rather than in front of the computer, to avoid a similar fate". The interpretation led to criticism of the film by conservative commentators such as Fox News' Glenn Beck, and contributors to ''National Review Online'' including Shannen W. Coffin and Jonah Goldberg (although he admitted it was a "fascinating" and occasionally "brilliant" production).

A few notable critics have argued that the film is vastly overrated, claiming it failed to "live up to such blinding, high-wattage enthusiasm", and that there were "chasms of boredom watching it", in particular "the second and third acts spiraled into the expected". Other labels include "unimaginative", "surprisingly trite", "preachy" and "too long".

Child reviews sent into CBBC were mixed, some citing boredom and an inadequate storyline.

Patrick J. Ford of ''The American Conservative'' said ''WALL-E'''s conservative critics missed lessons in the film that he felt appealed to traditional conservatism. He argued that the mass consumerism in the film was not shown to be a product of big business, but of too close a tie between big business and big government: "The government unilaterally provided its citizens with everything they needed, and this lack of variety led to Earth's downfall." Responding to Coffin's claim that the film points out the "evils of mankind", Ford argued the only evils depicted were those that resulted from "losing touch with our own humanity" and that fundamental conservative representations such as the farm, the family unit, and "wholesome" entertainment were in the end held aloft by the human characters. He concluded, "By steering conservative families away from ''WALL-E'', these commentators are doing their readers a great disservice."

Director Terry Gilliam praised the film as "'A stunning bit of work. The scenes on what was left of planet Earth are just so beautiful: one of the great silent movies. And the most stunning artwork! It says more about ecology and society than any live action film – all the people on their loungers floating around, brilliant stuff. Their social comment was so smart and right on the button."

Accolades

''WALL-E'' won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards, which it lost to Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight and Milk, respectively. Walt Disney Pictures also pushed for an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination, but it was not nominated, provoking controversy as to whether the Academy deliberately restricted ''WALL-E'' to the Best Animated Feature category, Peter Travers commented that "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for best picture it's Wall-E." Only three animated films, 1991's ''Beauty and the Beast'' and Pixar's next two films, 2009's ''Up'' and 2010's ''Toy Story 3'', have ever been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. A reflective Stanton stated he was not disappointed the film was restricted to the Best Animated Film nomination because he was overwhelmed by the film's positive reception, and eventually "The line [between live-action and animation] is just getting so blurry that I think with each proceeding year, it's going to be tougher and tougher to say what's an animated movie and what's not an animated movie."

''WALL-E'' made a healthy appearance at the various 2008 end-of-the-year awards circles, particularly in the Best Picture category, where animated films are often overlooked. It has won the award, or the equivalent of it, from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with ''Slumdog Millionaire''), the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Central Ohio Film Critics awards, the Online Film Critics Society, and most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award. It was named as one of 2008's ten best films by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008. It was nominated for several awards at the 2009 Annie Awards, including Best Feature Film, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Direction, Production design, Storyboarding and Voice acting (for Ben Burtt); but was beaten out by ''Kung Fu Panda'' in every category. It won Best Animated Feature at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards, and was also nominated there for Best Music and Sound. Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel won two Grammy Awards for "Down to Earth" and "Define Dancing". It won all three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories. It became the first animated film to win Best Editing for a Comedy or Musical from the American Cinema Editors. In 2009, Stanton, Reardon and Docter won Nebula Award, beating ''The Dark Knight'' and the ''Stargate Atlantis'' episode "The Shrine". It won Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Director at the Saturn Awards.

At the British National Movie Awards, which is voted for by the public, it won Best Family Film. It was also voted Best Feature Film at the British Academy Children's Awards. WALL-E was listed at #63 on ''Empire''s online poll of the 100 greatest movie characters, conducted in 2008. In early 2010, TIME ranks ''WALL-E'' #1 in "Best Movies of the Decade".

References

Further reading

External links

Category:2008 films Category:2000s romantic comedy films Category:2000s science fiction films Category:American children's fantasy films Category:American romantic comedy films Category:American satirical films Category:American science fiction films Category:Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners Category:Comedy science fiction films Category:Dystopian films Category:Environmental films Category:Solitude in fiction Category:Fictional robots Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Films set in the 29th century Category:Films with live action and animation Category:Pixar feature films Category:Post-apocalyptic films Category:Robot films Category:Films directed by Andrew Stanton Category:Hugo Award Winners for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Category:2000s adventure films

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Name	Peter Gabriel
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Peter Brian Gabriel
Born	February 13, 1950Chobham, SurreyEngland, United Kingdom
Instrumen	Vocals, keyboards, flute, drums, piano, guitar, bass, harmonica, oboe
genre	Progressive rock, experimental rock, pop rock, art rock, world music
occupation	MusicianproducerHumanitarian
Years active	1967–present
Label	Geffen (US & Canada)Real WorldVirginCharismaAtlantic (US & Canada)EMI (Brazil)
associated acts	Genesis, Phil Collins
website	}}

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. 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.” 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.

Early life

Gabriel was born in Chobham, Surrey, England. His father, Ralph Parton Gabriel, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Edith Irene Allen, 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

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

In an episode of the 2007 British documentary series ''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, 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 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. 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".

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, 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 (except ''Scratch My Back'' and the soundtracks ''Passion'' and ''Long Walk Home'') and has performed on every Gabriel solo tour (except The New Blood 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. 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, 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.

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 2000, Peter Gabriel collaborated with Zucchero, Anggun and others in charity for kids with AIDS. Erick Benzi have write words and music and Patrick Bruel, Stephan Eicher, Faudel, Lokua Kanza, Laam, Nourith, Axelle Red have accept to sing it.

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. 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.

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. He spoke of his support for Amnesty on NBC's ''Today Show'' in 1986.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

In 1998, Gabriel was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. 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. 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.

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.

In 2010, ''The Guardian'' described Gabriel as "a staunch advocate of proportional representation".

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.

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.

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.

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.

On 24 May 2007, he was honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for lifetime achievement.

Gabriel was a judge for the 6th and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.

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 2008 Academy Awards telecast because producers of the show were limiting his performance of "Down to Earth" from ''WALL-E'' to 65 seconds. John Legend and the Soweto Gospel Choir performed the song in his stead.

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'.

Discography

''Peter Gabriel 1 (Car)'' (1977)

''Peter Gabriel 2 (Scratch)'' (1978)

''Peter Gabriel 3 (Melt)'' (1980)

''Ein Deutsches Album'' (1980)

''Peter Gabriel 4 (Security)'' (1982)

''Deutsches Album'' (1982)

''Birdy'' (1983)

''So'' (1986)

''Us'' (1992)

''OVO'' (2000)

''Long Walk Home'' (2002)

''Up'' (2002)

''Scratch My Back'' (2010)

''New Blood'' (2011)

See also

List of best selling music artists

List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

References

External links

Audio interview at BBC Wiltshire

Peter Gabriel takes part in a panel at the Global Philanthropy Forum video

TED Talks: Peter Gabriel fights injustice with a videocamera at TED in 2006

Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Charisma Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English film score composers Category:English male singers Category:English rock keyboardists Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:Genesis (band) members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:International opponents of apartheid in South Africa Category:Old Carthusians Category:People from Chobham Category:Real World artists Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music

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