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Peter Gabriel Biography |
Peter Gabriel — born February 13, 1950 in Cobham (Surrey, England) — is an English musician. He first came to fame as a member of the progressive rock group Genesis, which he founded as a student at Charterhouse School with bandmates Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford.
Genesis quickly become one of the most talked-about bands in the UK club circuit, 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. During "The Knife", a popular live song from the Trespass album, Gabriel would perform a stunt that, two decades later, became extremely common: stage diving. On one occasion he broke a leg leaping into the crowd, but managed to climb back up onto the stage and finish the performance.
Gabriel has had a long and successful career after leaving the band in 1975, with his position as lead singer then filled by drummer Phil Collins.
His first solo success came with the single "Solsbury Hill," an autobiographical piece expressing his thoughts on leaving Genesis. Although early on he achieved critical success and some commercial success (e.g. "Games Without Frontiers" from his third album and "Shock the Monkey" from his fourth), Gabriel achieved his greatest popularity with songs from the 1986 So album.
Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" was accompanied by a visually stunning music video, which was a collaboration with director Stephen Johnson, Aardman Animation, 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.
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 WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) movement. He created the Real World Studios to facilitate the creation of such music by various artists, and he has worked to educate Western culture about the work of such musicians as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'dour. He has also recently been interested in multimedia projects, creating the Xplora and Eve CD-ROMs. He has a long-standing interest in human rights, and launched the Witness program to supply video cameras to human rights activists to expose abuses.
Gabriel's song "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" from So refers to Milgram's experiment, and in particular the 37 out of 40 subjects who showed complete obedience in one particular experiment.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications sent out of a list of 150 songs that were recommended to be pulled from airplay. "When You're Falling", a collaboration between Gabriel and Afro Celt Sound System, was on the list.
It has been reported that he has bipolar disorder.
Discography
1977 Peter Gabriel I (wet car cover)
1978 Peter Gabriel II (scratch cover)
1980 Peter Gabriel III (melting face cover)
1982 Peter Gabriel IV (known as Security in the USA)
1983 Peter Gabriel Plays Live (live)
1985 Music by Peter Gabriel from the Film "Birdy"
1986 So
1989 Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
1990 Shaking the Tree (best of 1976-1990) (compilation)
1992 Us
1992 Revisited (best of 1976-1992) (compilation)
1994 Secret World Live (live 1993)
2000 Ovo
2002 Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence
2002 Up
2003 Hit (compilation) |
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