This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (February 2012)

Stereogum (Stereogum.com) was one of the first MP3 blogs. It was created by Scott Lapatine in January 2002 with a focus on independent and alternative music news, downloads, videos, and gossip. Stereogum has received several awards and citations, including the 2008 Plug Award for best music blog, Blender's Powergeek 25, and Entertainment Weekly's Best Music Websites. In 2010 Stereogum was named an Official Honoree of the Webby Awards in the music category and won the Omma Award for Web Site Excellence in the Entertainment/Music category.

Recent[link]

In late 2006, Stereogum received an influx of capital through Bob Pittman's private investment entity The Pilot Group. In November 2007, it was purchased by BUZZMedia. April 2008 saw the launch of Videogum, a sister site focused on television, movies, and Web videos.

Music releases[link]

In July 2007, Stereogum released OKX, a tenth anniversary tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer. Cover songs were solicited from fourteen indie rock artists including Doveman, Vampire Weekend, John Vanderslice, David Bazan, Cold War Kids, My Brightest Diamond, Marissa Nadler, Chris Funk of The Decemberists, and Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. The album can be heard free of charge at http://www.stereogum.com/okx.

Other free Stereogum compilation albums include: Drive XV, a tribute to R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People (featuring Rogue Wave, Meat Puppets, Sara Quin, and Dr. Dog). Enjoyed, a tribute to Björk's Post (featuring Liars, Edward Droste, Dirty Projectors, Final Fantasy, Atlas Sound, Stroked, a tribute to The Strokes's Is This It (featuring Real Estate, Owen Pallett, Peter Bjorn & John, and The Morning Benders); and MySplice Vols 1-4:, an annual mashup collaboration with team9.

External links[link]

• Stereogum website

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Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo in 2010 at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest
Background information
Birth name	Rivers Cuomo
Born	(1970-06-13) June 13, 1970 (age 42) New York City, New York, U.S.
Origin	Pomfret, Connecticut, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, power pop, pop punk, indie rock progressive metal (Prior to Weezer)
Occupations	Musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums, bass, piano, harmonica, clarinet
Years active	1984–present
Associated acts	Weezer, Avant Garde, Zoom, Homie, Goat Punishment, Sixty Wrong Sausages, Miranda Cosgrove, B.o.B, Simple Plan, All Time Low
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Warmoth Fat Strat Gibson SG Gibson Les Paul Fender Stratocaster Gibson Explorer

Rivers Cuomo (/ˈkwoʊmoʊ/; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Weezer. Raised in an Ashram in Connecticut, Cuomo moved to Los Angeles at age 19, where he participated in a number of rock bands before founding Weezer in 1992. With Weezer, he has released nine studio albums.

In addition to fronting Weezer, Cuomo has also worked as a solo artist. In December 2007, he released his debut album, Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, which featured home demos that Cuomo recorded from 1992 to 2007. He released his second solo artist album, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, in November 2008. Alone III: The Pinkerton Years was released in December 2011.^[1]

Childhood and youth[link]

Rivers Cuomo was born in a Manhattan hospital to parents of Italian^[2] and German/English descent, and raised on an ashram - run by the late yoga master Sri Swami Satchidananda in Pomfret, Connecticut.^[3] His mother, Beverly, was inspired to name her son "Rivers" because he was born between the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan. Her appreciation of the sound of running water further reinforced her desire for this name. His father, Frank Cuomo, was a musician who played drums on the album Odyssey of Iska by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter.^[4][5]

During his early childhood Cuomo attended a private school on an ashram farm where his parents raised him and his brother Leaves.^[6] Cuomo's parents moved to nearby Storrs, Connecticut when the ashram (known as Yogaville) was relocated to a plot of land along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.^[7] Cuomo attended E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut under the name Peter Kitts,^[8] but reverted to his original name once he began attending Santa Monica College.^[9] Cuomo went on to attend the Berklee College of Music and Harvard University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, after attending classes on and off from 1995 to 2006.^[10][11] In high school, Cuomo played the role of Johnny Casino in the stage production of Grease. ^[12][13]

Rock Music career[link]

Weezer[link]

After a series of musical projects in Los Angeles, Cuomo formed Weezer on February 14, 1992, with members from Sixty Wrong Sausages, including drummer Patrick Wilson. The original Weezer line-up included Cuomo on vocals and guitar, Wilson on drums, Matt Sharp on bass, and Jason Cropper who at first played exclusively on acoustic guitar. Weezer signed with DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, on June 25, 1993. They began recording Weezer (also known as The Blue Album) in August 1993 at Electric Lady Studios in New York with producer Ric Ocasek. "Weezer" was Rivers' childhood nickname, given to him by his father when he was a toddler, although it wasn't because he had asthma.^[14]

Throughout 2002 Cuomo frequently posted on Weezer message boards as 'Ace' to discuss music with fans. He once had a website called the 'Catalog of Riffs' ('COR') in which he shared old demos of songs as well as scans of many personal items (letters, schedules, records).^[15][16] Since 2003 he has kept a MySpace page in which he has posted many blog entries including his original admission essay and two subsequent readmission essays to Harvard. Additionally he uses his MySpace blog as a clearinghouse for clarifications, corrections, and addenda to interviews and press reports about him. (This has included responding to misinformation on his Wikipedia entry.)^[17]

Starting on the Foozer tour in late 2005, Cuomo would invite fans onto the stage to play "Undone – The Sweater Song" on acoustic guitar. After the performance, fans were allowed to keep the guitars they played. In 2008, coinciding with the release of Weezer's new album, The Red Album, Weezer announced a "Hootenanny Tour" in which radio stations would audition fans to play songs live with Weezer. This "hootenanny" style performance was replicated for the band's "Troublemaker" video and on their 2008 Troublemaker Tour. On November 25, 2008, Cuomo invited a small group of guests to a jam session at Fingerprints Records in Long Beach, CA. This marked the release of Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. Fans chose the songs and played the instruments while Cuomo sang.^[18]

Other projects[link]

Cuomo performing in 2009

One of Cuomo's earliest music projects was a progressive metal band known as Avant Garde.^[19] Cuomo played under the name Peter Kitts, Kitts being the surname of his stepfather. The band played several shows in Connecticut. He moved with the band to Los Angeles in March 1989.^[20] In late 1989 Avant Garde changed its name to Zoom though the band dissolved in the late spring of 1990.^[21][22] Before Weezer, Cuomo worked as a roadie for King Size on their Guatemala tour.^[15] During a Weezer hiatus, Cuomo formed a musical project called Homie, consisting of what he called "goofball songs" or his "country band". An album was planned, but only one studio recording, a song titled "American Girls", has been released. Cuomo has contributed to recordings by various other musicians (Crazy Town, Cold, Mark Ronson). He also briefly managed the band AM Radio in 2002 and 2003.

In early 2004 he made a surprise appearance onstage with ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp at his California State University, Fullerton show to play two old Weezer favorites ("Say It Ain't So" and "Undone"), a rare Weezer demo that they worked on together ("Mrs. Young"), and a new song they wrote together, "Time Song." Also, Sharp announced that they might work on a collaborative record together. But later that year, Sharp announced on his website that although they had come up with "15 or 16 new song ideas, some good, some not so good" for their new album, their "special brand of dysfunctionality" may keep them from finishing the project.^[23]

Cuomo is a big fan of soccer. He can be seen playing in the "Photograph" video, and even planned his band's 2002 "World Cup Tour" around World Cup games. In 2006 he wrote a song titled "My Day Is Coming" in tribute to the U.S. men's soccer team,^[24] and followed it up for 2010 by writing "Represent", which he considers to be an "unofficial" anthem for the U.S. team. The latter song was released as a Weezer single on June 11, the day before Team USA's World Cup opener against England.^[25]

In March 2008, Cuomo started a video series on YouTube called "Let's Write a Sawng."^[26] Cuomo wrote a song in collaboration with YouTube users' suggestions. The end result was "Turning Up The Radio" which appeared on "Death to False Metal".^[27] Additionally, Cuomo has had cameos in a number of music videos. These include Crystal Method's "Murder" and the video for The Warlocks' "Cocaine Blues." Cuomo also makes a guest appearance on Sugar Ray's "Boardwalk", the first single on their latest album, Music for Cougars. Cuomo featured on the song "Magic", on B.o.B's debut album B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray which was released in April 2010. In a May interview with HitQuarters, producer-songwriter Lucas Secon confirmed that he had recently worked with Cuomo on both a Steve Aoki single and "some Weezer stuff."^[28]

As of January 2011, Cuomo has been recording a Japanese album with Scott Murphy of Allister.^[29] He also collaborated with Japanese singer Hitomi for her first indie album Spirit, even making a duet with her. Cuomo is featured on the new Simple Plan song "Can't Keep My Hands Off You" and Miranda Cosgrove's song, "High Maintenance".

Personal life[link]

On June 18, 2006, Cuomo married Kyoko Ito, whom he had known since March 1997. He proposed to her in Tokyo shortly before Christmas of 2005.^[30] The wedding was held at a secluded beach on Paradise Cove in Malibu and was attended by over a hundred people, including six of the seven members who played in Weezer (Mikey Welsh being the only no show) as well as notables Kevin Ridel and Rick Rubin.^[31] The couple have a daughter, Mia, who was born in May 2007.

Cuomo was born with his left leg 44 mm (1³⁄₄ in) shorter than his right leg. After the success of The Blue Album, Cuomo underwent a procedure to correct the condition. This involved the surgical breaking of the bone in his leg, followed by several months of wearing a steel brace which required self-administered "stretching" of the leg four times daily; Cuomo likened the ordeal to "crucifying [his] leg."^[32] An x-ray of the leg is part of the album art for "The Good Life" single, and the experience inspired him to write the song. Cuomo can be seen wearing the brace on an episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, which can be found on their DVD Video Capture Device.

On December 6, 2009, Cuomo was in his tour bus driving to Boston from Toronto with his family and assistants when the bus hit an icy road in Glen, New York and crashed. He suffered cracked ribs and internal bleeding. Due to this accident, Weezer canceled the rest of the 2009 tour dates, planning to reschedule them the following year.^[33] The band made their return to the stage on January 20, 2010, performing at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Cuomo is a vegetarian.^[34]

Other interests[link]

Cuomo practices Vipassana meditation and is a student of S.N. Goenka.^[35] As of mid-2009 he also teaches children's meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka.^[36] Cuomo recently helped acquire music rights and provided financial support to a documentary titled The Dhamma Brothers about Vipassana meditation being instituted in an Alabama state prison.^[37]

His favorite soccer player is Landon Donovan. He supports the U.S. Men's National team, Los Angeles Galaxy and English side Sheffield Wednesday.^[38] In early 2008 he played in the Mia & Nomar Celebrity Soccer Challenge and scored a goal in the game. His video for "Lover in the Snow" off of his Alone album dealt with this game and his love of soccer.^[25] He was also a celebrity backer for "Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story"^[39] In August 2009, Cuomo also participated in the Athletes for Africa 5v5 Charity Soccer Tournament in Toronto, Canada alongside actor Michael Cera. During Weezer's performance at Leeds Festival 2010, Rivers would go to the side of the stage and play football (kicking the ball against a goal and/or a wall), at the beginning and end of the band's set.

In a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, he was asked of what kind of characters he played in Dungeons & Dragons; he said he preferred elven or half-elven split-class fighter-thieves.^[40]

Image[link]

Some of Cuomo's fashion trademarks include his horn-rimmed glasses and his lightning bolt guitar strap. He has sported a bowl cut, most notably in the music video for "Undone - The Sweater Song". Other notable fashion trends include sporting a life preserver-styled vest^[41] in early 2001, growing a thick beard in mid-2002^[42] and a brief suit-and-tie phase in summer 2002.^[43] Cuomo has also been seen with a short moustache in the video for "Pork and Beans" and on the Red Album cover. Cuomo has said that he grew the moustache in honor of his daughter and that his father wore one just like his when Cuomo was born. During Weezer's hiatus between the albums Pinkerton and Weezer (Green Album), Cuomo had braces on his teeth. They were evidently removed before the release of the Green Album.^[44]

Artistry[link]

Cuomo has cited a wide variety of musical influences throughout the years, from artists as diverse as Kiss, Nirvana, Lou Barlow, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian Wilson and Giacomo Puccini. He took it upon himself to become a student of rock and pop music when in the late 90s, Cuomo created "The Encyclopedia of Pop" for himself, a three-ring binder which broke down the mechanics of pop and rock songs featuring songs by Nirvana, Green Day and Oasis.^[45][46]

Cuomo has written and recorded over 801 tracks in his lifetime,^[47] either with Weezer, with earlier bands, or as self-recorded demos.^[48] Despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for The Blue Album,^[49][50][51] various songs from the scrapped Songs from the Black Hole project,^[52] over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout 1999^[53][54][55] (songs which he has described as ranging from "drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock")^[56] and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for Make Believe.^[57][58] Recently on Cuomo's MySpace he began satisfying fans' need to hear these unreleased demos "in the most legal way" he could by posting sheet music and lyrics for the Songs From the Black Hole tracks "She's Had A Girl", "Oh Jonas" and "Who You Callin' Bitch?" as well as the Blue Album-era demo "Getting Up and Leaving."

He almost never swears in any of his songs and often uses minced oaths such as "bee-yotch" instead of "bitch". He attributes this to The Beach Boys, saying "Weezer came up at a time when Jane's Addiction released Nothing's Shocking—everyone was trying to be controversial. We looked back to rock & roll's pre-drug days—to the clean images of the Beach Boys—that felt, ironically, rebellious."^[59] The word "fucking" does appear on Raditude's "Can't Stop Partying", but it is used by guest rapper Lil Wayne, not by Cuomo. He also uses the word "Goddamn" in the first verse of "The Sweater Song", the third verse of "Across the Sea", the opening of "El Scorcho", and the bridge in "Falling for You".

He has been known to use experimentation to inspire his writing, for example, fasting for a day and then writing a song, as he did on "Hold Me."^[60] Cuomo has familiarity with a wide array of musical instruments: besides the guitar, he is also skilled at the piano, and bass guitar (he frequently demoed songs on his own, a la the 1995 Fort Apache Studios Pinkerton demos, and can be seen playing the bass in the Weezer DVD Video Capture Device). Cuomo also plays clarinet (as heard on Alone and SFTBH track "Longtime Sunshine" and the .com-released demo "Clarinet Waltz"), drums (as heard on Alone, in concerts during "Photograph", two songs on the red album and some tracks on Hurley), trumpet (as heard on "Victory on the Hill" from "Alone II") and harmonica.

Instruments[link]

Guitars[link]

He is known to perform with customised Warmoth Stratocasters. Throughout his career he has frequently played Warmoth stratocasters that are covered in stickers.^[61] Cuomo also notably played Gibson V's^[62] and Explorers onstage in late 2001 and throughout parts of 2002. He could also briefly be seen using an Explorer in the music video for "Beverly Hills". His guitar is adorned with a sticker of the Thai word Farang, meaning "a white foreigner."^[63] The sticker is found on the SG that he keeps in E flat tuning; a second SG, usually tuned to E, does not have this sticker. Some of his guitars have been known to be adorned with many stickers given to him by fans.

Amplifiers[link]

He has been known to use a range of amplifiers. His first "big" amp was a Randall RG100ES solid state head (the amp is usually said to be rated only 120 watts RMS by several people, but is actually 150 watts RMS). He would soon get rid of this amp in favor of an original Mesa/Boogie Mark I amplifier, which was used to record all of the debut Weezer album. He wouldn't use the amp live. Instead, he relied on a Marshall JCM 900 SL-X. He would also eventually rid of the JCM 900 and use another Marshall amp head, the 6100LM 30th Anniversary amp, which he discovered on the set of The Late Show with David Letterman. This would be his main recording and touring amp until the Green album when it became strictly a touring amp until around 2001.

For recording the Green album, he relied on a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and a modified Marshall amp previously owned by Warren DeMartini of the metal band Ratt. A Vox AC30 was also used on several songs. He would continue to use the 6100, along with bringing back the JCM 900, for awhile until the band was forced to change up their rig due to budget and shipping restrictions. The entire band eventually got rid of using amps entirely, switching to a single rack that consisted of 2 Line 6 POD Pros and 1 Bass POD Pro. This would be the main gigging setup until later in the same year, when the band eventually went back to using real amps, starting with a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100. This would be their main amp until the Make Believe sessions, when a Diezel VH4 was brought in. This would be Rivers' main amp and is still used today.

Discography[link]

With Weezer

• Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994)
• Pinkerton (1996)
• Weezer (The Green Album) (2001)
• Maladroit (2002)
• Make Believe (2005)
• Weezer (The Red Album) (2008)
• Raditude (2009)
• Hurley (2010)
• Death to False Metal (2010)

Solo albums

• Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007)
• Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2008)
• Not Alone – Rivers Cuomo and Friends: Live at Fingerprints (2009)
• Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2011)
• ザ クマモトキッド (The Kumamoto Kid) (TBA)

Guest contributions

• Homie – "American Girls," from the Meet the Deedles soundtrack (1998): vocals, guitar, songwriting and melody^[64]
• The Rentals – "My Head Is in the Sun," from Seven More Minutes (1999): co-written with Matt Sharp, but does not appear on the track itself^[65]
• Crazy Town – "Hurt You So Bad," from Darkhorse (2002): guitar solo^[66]
• Cold – "Stupid Girl," from Year of the Spider (2003): vocals, songwriting^[67]
• Mark Ronson – "I Suck," from Here Comes the Fuzz (2003): vocals, guitar, production^[68]
• The Relationship – "Hand to Hold" (2007): co-written with Brian Bell, a reworked version of the early Make Believe era outtake "Private Message"^[69]
• Sugar Ray – "Love Is the Answer" (2009): written by and featuring Cuomo
• Adam Lambert - "Pick U Up" (2009): co-writer
• B.o.B - "Magic" from The Adventures of Bobby Ray (2010): vocals, co-writer
• Kevin Rudolf - "Must Be Dreamin'" from To the Sky (2010): vocals, co-writer
• Katy Perry - "Work It" (unreleased track) from Teenage Dream (2010): co-writer
• Miranda Cosgrove - "High Maintenance" from High Maintenance (2011): vocals, co-writer
• Simple Plan - "Can't Keep My Hands Off You" from Get Your Heart On! (2011): vocals
• All Time Low - "I Feel Like Dancin'" from Dirty Work (2011): co-writer
• Hitomi - "Rollin' wit da Homies" from Spirit (2011): vocals, co-writer
• Steve Aoki - "Earthquakey People" (2011): vocals

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rivers Cuomo

• Interview with The Harvard Crimson about his Harvard years
• Rivers Cuomo discography at MusicBrainz
• Rivers Cuomo at the Internet Movie Database
• Rivers Cuomo Archived MySpace Postings
• Rivers Cuomo on his creative career
• Biographical article in Shambhala Sun Magazine

Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel at the Wikipedia 10th anniversary party in London in January 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Peter Brian Gabriel
Born	(1950-02-13) 13 February 1950 (age 62) Chobham, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Progressive rock, art rock, experimental rock, pop rock, world music
Occupations	Musician Producer Humanitarian
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, flute, drums, piano, guitar, bass, harmonica, oboe
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Geffen (US & Canada), Real World, Virgin, Charisma, Atlantic (US & Canada), EMI (Brazil)
Associated acts	Genesis, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush
Website	www.petergabriel.com

Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis.^[1] After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.^[2]

More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.”^[3][4][5] Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Early life[link]

Peter Gabriel was born in Chobham, Surrey, England.^[6] His father, Ralph Parton Gabriel, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Edith Irene Allen,^[7] from a musical family, taught him to play the piano 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. He played drums in his first rock bands, and Mike Rutherford commented in 1985 that "Pete was - and still is, I think - a frustrated drummer."^[8]

Genesis[link]

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[link]

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

Early Genesis concerts were hampered by a bad PA system which made it difficult for audiences to understand what Gabriel was singing. According to Mike Rutherford, this drove Gabriel to find other ways to impress his personality on the audience, leading to his performing in various costumes.^[8]

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.

Departure[link]

Gabriel's departure from Genesis in 1975—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 left Genesis to pursue a film project with Friedkin, only to rejoin a week later.^[8] The decision to quit the band was made before the tour supporting The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, with Gabriel explaining his decision to the band while keeping it from the press until the conclusion of that tour. Bassist Mike Rutherford recalled that they all "could see it coming."^[8] Although tensions were high, both Gabriel and the remaining members of Genesis have stated publicly that Gabriel left the band on good terms.

The breaking point came with the difficult pregnancy of Gabriel's wife, Jill, and the subsequent birth of their first child, Anna-Marie. 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 debut single as a solo artist, was written specifically about his departure from Genesis. The song also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978,^[9] 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, in order to recoup debts that arose from his involvement in the staging of the first WOMAD concert.

Solo career[link]

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); in all of these designs, Gabriel's face is wholly or partially obscured in some way. The albums 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".

[edit] Peter Gabriel albums (1977–1985)

Gabriel performing, August 1978

Gabriel recorded his first self-titled solo album in 1976 and 1977 with producer Bob Ezrin. His first solo success came with the single "Solsbury Hill", an autobiographical piece expressing his thoughts on leaving Genesis. Although mainly happy with the music, Gabriel felt that the album, and especially the track "Here Comes the Flood" was over-produced. Sparser versions can be heard on Robert Fripp's Exposure, and on Gabriel's greatest hits compilation Shaking the Tree (1990).

Gabriel worked with guitarist Fripp as producer of his second solo LP, in 1978. This album was leaner, darker and more experimental, and yielded decent reviews, but no major hits.

Gabriel developed a new interest in world music (especially percussion), and for bold production, which made extensive use of recording tricks and sound effects. Gabriel's interest in music technology is considered by many people to be the spark of his success as it inspired his third album. The third album is often credited as the first LP to use the now-famous "gated drum" sound.^[10] Phil 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.), and "Biko".

Arduous and occasionally damp recording sessions at his rural English estate in 1981 and 1982 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.

[edit] So, Passion and Us (1986–1994)

	"Don't Give Up" noicon A 1986 duet with Kate Bush, "Don't Give Up" tells of the despair of a man who feels defeated by the economic system, and the support and wise counsel sung in the refrain.
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Gabriel achieved his greatest popularity with songs from the 1986 album So.^[11] The album charted at number 1 in the UK Album Chart, and number 2 on the Billboard 200 in the US.^[12][13] It is certified triple platinum in the UK, and five times platinum in the US.^[14][15] The album produced three UK Top 20 hits, "Sledgehammer", "Big Time", and "Don't Give Up" — a duet with Kate Bush.^[12] 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".^[13] "Sledgehammer", peaked at #1 in the U.S., knocking Genesis' "Invisible Touch" off the top spot, and #4 in the UK.^[13] 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.^[16] In 1990, Rolling Stone ranked So number #14 on its list of "Top 100 Albums of the Eighties".^[17]

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.^[2] The video set a new standard for art in the music video industry, and won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, a record which still stands as of 2011.^[2] "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of MTV, and in 1998 it was named the station's number one animated video of all time.^[2][18] 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".^[4] Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.^[19]

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.

[edit] OVO, Up, Scratch My Back and New Blood (1995–present)

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 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.

On 11 October 2011, Gabriel released New Blood, a collection of his earlier songs recorded with an orchestra. A special edition of the album features solely instrumental versions of some of the songs.

In Fall 2012, Gabriel will embark on the Back to Front Tour in which he will perform the entire So album to celebrate its 25th anniversary.^[20]

Musicians and collaborators[link]

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.^[21] 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[link]

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,^[22] 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.^[23]

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.^[24] 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.^[25]

Activist for humanitarian causes[link]

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.^[26] He spoke of his support for Amnesty on NBC's Today Show in 1986.^[27]

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, Gabriel and Cape Verdean human rights activist Vera Duarte were awarded the North-South Prize in its inaugural year.^[28][29]

Peter Gabriel at WITNESS Gala 2007

In the late 1990s, Gabriel and entrepreneur Richard Branson discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts.

On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of a new group, Global Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. The present members of this group are Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus, and Aung San Suu Kyi (with an empty chair for her).^[30]

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.^[31]

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.^[32]

Politics[link]

At the 1997 general election, Gabriel declared his support for the Labour Party, which won that election by a landslide after 18 years out of power, led by Tony Blair.^[33]

In 1998, Gabriel was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to Labour.^[34] 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.^[35] 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...There is a slogan which says: 'Peace is what happens when you respect the rights of others'. Iraqis have rights too.^[36]

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.^[37]

In 2010, The Guardian described Gabriel as "a staunch advocate of proportional representation".^[38]

In 2012, Gabriel condemned the use of his music by American talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh during a controversial segment in which Limbaugh vilified Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke. A statement on behalf of Gabriel read: "Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Fluke. It is obvious from anyone that knows Peter's work that he would never approve such a use. He has asked his representatives to make sure his music is withdrawn and especially from these unfair, aggressive and ignorant comments."^[39]

Personal life[link]

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.^[40]

Appearances: 2005–present[link]

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; however, the show was cancelled in January 2006 by FIFA.

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 Turin, Italy, Gabriel performed John Lennon's "Imagine" during the opening of the festivities on 10 February 2006.

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 Angélique 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.^[41]

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.^[42]

On 24 May 2007, he was honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for lifetime achievement.^[43]

Gabriel was a judge for the 6th and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.^[44]

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 then-forthcoming Scratch My Back: Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" and The Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love".^[45]

On 5 October 2011 at the Royal Festival Hall, London Gabriel appeared at the end of an interview of President Carter by Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, to lead the 2,500-strong audience in a rendition of happy birthday to mark the President turning 87.

On 9 November 2011 he appeared and performed on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman.

Discography[link]

• 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 (1985)
• So (1986)
• Passion (1989)
• Us (1992)
• OVO (2000)
• Long Walk Home (2002)
• Up (2002)
• Scratch My Back (2010)
• New Blood (2011)

See also[link]

• 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[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (October 2011)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Peter Gabriel

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• Official website
• Peter Gabriel at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Gabriel discography at MusicBrainz
• Peter Gabriel at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Peter Gabriel on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Peter Gabriel in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Peter Gabriel collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Audio interview at BBC Wiltshire
• Peter Gabriel takes part in a panel at the Global Philanthropy Forum video