Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter and human rights activist. He was the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis.[1] After leaving the band in 1975, he launched a solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single. His fifth studio album, So (1986), is his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the US. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and, according to a report in 2011, it was MTV's most played music video of all time.[2]
This article is about the musician. For other uses, see Peter Gabriel (disambiguation).
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel
- Singer
- songwriter
- activist
- Vocals
- keyboards
- flute
1965–present
Gabriel has been a champion of world music for much of his career. He co-founded the WOMAD festival in 1982.[3] He has continued to focus on producing and promoting world music through his Real World Records label. He has pioneered digital distribution methods for music, co-founding OD2, one of the first online music download services.[4] Gabriel has also been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts. In 1980, he released the anti-apartheid single "Biko".[3] He has participated in several human-rights benefit concerts, including Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, and co-founded the Witness human rights organisation in 1992.[3] Gabriel developed The Elders with Richard Branson, which was launched by Nelson Mandela in 2007.[5]
Gabriel has won three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987,[6] six Grammy Awards,[7] thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, the first Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards,[8] the Q magazine Lifetime Achievement,[9] the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement,[10] and the Polar Music Prize.[11] He was made a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his "influence on generations of music makers".[12] In recognition of his many years of human rights activism, he received the Man of Peace award from the Nobel Peace Prize laureates in 2006,[13] and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008.[14] AllMusic described Gabriel as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians, as well as one of its most political".[15] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010,[16] and as a solo artist in 2014.[17] In March 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia in recognition of his achievements in music.
Early life[edit]
Peter Brian Gabriel was born on 13 February 1950 in Chobham, Surrey, England, son of Ralph Parton Gabriel (1912–2012) and Edith Irene (1921–2016), daughter of Colonel Edward Allen, chairman of the Civil Service Department Store on the Strand, London. Gabriel's father was an electrical engineer and dairy farm-owner from a long-established family of London timber importers and merchants, and his mother was from a musical family. Gabriel was raised at Deep Pool Farm, Coxhill, a Victorian manor just outside Chobham.[18][19] His great-great-great-uncle, Sir Thomas Gabriel, 1st Baronet, was Lord Mayor of London from 1866 to 1877.[20] Gabriel attended Cable House, a private primary school in Woking, Surrey, followed by St Andrews Preparatory School for Boys in Horsell, Surrey.[18] During his time at the latter, his teachers noticed his singing talent, but he opted for piano lessons from his mother and developed an interest in drumming. At age 10, he purchased a floor tom-tom.[21]
Gabriel remarked of his early influences, "Hymns played quite a large part. They were the closest I came to soul music before I discovered soul music. There are certain hymns that you can scream your lungs out on, and I used to love that. It was great when you used to get the old shivers down the back."[22] At age 12, Gabriel wrote his first song, "Sammy the Slug". Around this time, an aunt gave him money for professional singing lessons, but he used it to buy the Beatles' debut studio album Please Please Me (1963).[21] In September 1963, he started at Charterhouse, a public school in Godalming, Surrey.[23] There, he was a drummer and vocalist for his first band: the trad jazz outfit the Milords (or M'Lords). This was followed by a holiday band called the Spoken Word.[24]
In 1965, Gabriel formed Garden Wall with school friends Tony Banks on piano and Chris Stewart on drums. Banks had started at Charterhouse at the same time as Gabriel; the two were uninterested in school activities but bonded over music and started to write songs. At a final concert before they broke up, Gabriel, dressed in a kaftan and beads, showered the audience with petals he had picked from neighbouring gardens.[23]
Career[edit]
1967–1975: Genesis[edit]
In 1967, after Garden Wall had disbanded, Gabriel, Banks and Stewart were invited by fellow pupils Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford to work on a demo tape of songs. Gabriel and Banks contributed "She Is Beautiful", the first song they wrote together. The tape was sent to former Charterhouse pupil turned musician Jonathan King, who was immediately enthusiastic largely due to Gabriel's vocals. He signed the group and suggested a band name of Gabriel's Angels, but it was unpopular with the other members. They settled on King's other suggestion, Genesis. After King suggested they stick to more straightforward pop, Gabriel and Banks wrote "The Silent Sun" as a pastiche of the Bee Gees, one of King's favourite bands. It became Genesis's first single, released in 1968.[25] It was included on their debut studio album, From Genesis to Revelation (1968), which saw Gabriel play the flute.
After the commercial failure of From Genesis to Revelation, the band went their separate ways, and Gabriel continued his studies at Charterhouse.[26] In September 1969, Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford and Phillips decided to drop their plans and make Genesis a full-time working band. In early 1970, Gabriel played the flute on Mona Bone Jakon (1970) by Cat Stevens. The second studio album by Genesis, Trespass (1970), marked Gabriel expanding his musical output with the accordion, tambourine and bass drum, and incorporating his soul music influences. He wrote the lyrics to "The Knife" as a parody of a protest song. The album sold little and at one point, Gabriel secured a place at London School of Film Technique because Genesis "seemed to be dying."[27] Genesis recruited guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins.[28] Their next studio album, Nursery Cryme (1971), features Gabriel playing the oboe. Its opener, "The Musical Box", was their first song in which Gabriel incorporated a story and characters into the lyrics.
Artistry[edit]
Stylistically, Gabriel's music has been alternately described by music writers as progressive rock,[1] art rock,[103] art pop,[104] worldbeat,[105] post-progressive[106] and progressive soul.[107] According to Rolling Stone journalist Ryan Reed, Gabriel has developed in all as an "art-rock innovator, soul-pop craftsman, [and] 'world music' ambassador" over the course of his career,[108] while music scholar Gregg Akkermann argues that, despite his progressive rock origins, he has "managed to attract fans from across the spectrum: prog rock, alternative rock, world beat, blue-eyed soul, dance music, the college crowd, the teens, Americans and Europeans".[109] More broadly, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says Gabriel emerged during the 1980s as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians", as well as "an international pop star".[110]
Gabriel has worked with a relatively stable crew of musicians and recording engineers throughout his solo career. Bass and Stick player Tony Levin has performed on every Gabriel studio album and every live tour except for Scratch My Back (2010), the soundtracks Passion (1989) and Long Walk Home (2002), and the New Blood Tour. Guitarist David Rhodes has been Gabriel's guitarist of choice since 1979. Prior to So (1986), 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, Dave Gregory, Peter Hammill, Papa Wemba, Manu Katché, Bayete, Milton Nascimento, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland and OneRepublic.
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.[111]
He also collaborated with avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson on two versions of her composition "Excellent Birds"—one for her second album Mister Heartbreak (1984),[112] and another version called "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which appeared on cassette and CD versions of So.
Gabriel sang (along with Jim Kerr of Simple Minds) on "Everywhere I Go", from the Call's 1986 studio album, Reconciled. On Toni Childs' 1994 studio album, The Woman's Boat, Gabriel sang on the track, "I Met a Man".[113]
In 1998, Gabriel appeared on the soundtrack of Babe: Pig in the City as the lead vocalist 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.
In 1987, Gabriel appeared on Robbie Robertson's self-titled solo studio album, singing on "Fallen Angel"; co-wrote two Tom Robinson singles; and appeared on Joni Mitchell's 1988 studio album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, on the opening 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.[114] 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, who also worked on the OVO soundtrack with him. 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 (1995). In addition, Gabriel has appeared on Angelique Kidjo's 2007 studio 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."[115]
Gabriel collaborated with Arcade Fire on their 2022 studio album, We. He sang backing vocals on the track "Unconditional II (Race and Religion)".[116]
Political views[edit]
Gabriel has been described as one of rock's most political musicians by AllMusic.[15] In 1992, on the 20th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday tragedy, Gabriel joined several left-wing figures such as Peter Hain, Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn, Ken Loach, John Pilger and Adrian Mitchell in voicing his support for a demonstration in London calling for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.[146]
At the 1997 general election, he declared his support for the Labour Party, which won that election by a landslide after 18 years out of power, led by Tony Blair.[147] In 1998, he was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to Labour.[148] He subsequently distanced himself from the Labour government following Tony Blair's support for George W. Bush and Britain's involvement in the Iraq War, which he strongly opposed.[136] Gabriel later explained his decision for funding Labour, saying, "after all those years of Thatcher, that was the only time I've put money into a political party because I wanted to help get rid of the Tory government of that time."[149]
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.[150] In 2010, The Guardian described Gabriel as "a staunch advocate of proportional representation."[151] In 2013, he stated that he had become more interested in online petitioning organisations to effect change than traditional party politics.[136]
In 2012, Gabriel condemned the use of his music by the American conservative 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."[152]
In 2016, Gabriel supported the UK's continued membership of the European Union in the referendum on the issue.[153]
Gabriel has declared his support for the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In 2014, he contributed songs to a new compilation album to raise funds for humanitarian organisations aiding Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. Gabriel was quoted: "I am certain that Israelis and Palestinians will both benefit from a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. We have watched Palestinians suffer for too long, especially in Gaza. I am not, and never was, anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, but I oppose the policy of the Israeli government, oppose injustice and oppose the occupation ... I am proud to be one of the voices asking the Israeli government: 'Where is the two-state solution that you wanted so much?' and clearly say that enough is enough."[154] In 2019, Gabriel was among 50 artists who urged the BBC to ask for the Eurovision Song Contest to be moved out of Israel, citing human rights concerns.[155] In 2023, Gabriel signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Joe Biden calling for a ceasefire during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.[156]
Gabriel has been in support of the Armenian genocide recognition.[157] In October 2020, he posted a message on social media in support of Armenia and Artsakh in regards to the Nagorno-Karabakh war. He said, "The fighting that has now broken out between Azerbaijan and Armenia is really horrific and we need to lobby whoever we can to encourage a ceasefire, but hearing reports that President Erdoğan has now lined up 80,000 Turkish troops on the Armenian border is a terrifying prospect, full of the dark echoes of history."[158]
In popular culture[edit]
Gabriel's music featured prominently on the popular 1980s television show Miami Vice. The songs include "The Rhythm of the Heat" and "Biko" (from "Evan"), "Red Rain" (from "Stone's War"), "Mercy Street" (from "Killshot"), "Sledgehammer" (from "Better Living Through Chemistry"), "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" (from "Forgive Us Our Debts" and "Deliver Us from Evil") and "Don't Give Up" (from "Redemption in Blood"). With seven songs used total, Gabriel had the most music featured by a solo artist in the series, and he is the only artist to have had a song used in four of Vice's five seasons. Five of the nine tracks on his most popular album So (1986) were used in the series.
Gabriel's cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" was featured in the fourth season finale of Big Love, as well as the first season and the ending scene of Stranger Things season 3 and the ending credits of Lone Survivor. The song also features in 'Children of Mars', a 2020 episode of the web series Star Trek: Short Treks.
A series of spoof documentaries about the fictitious rock star Brian Pern were based loosely on Gabriel.[159]
In 2021, Northern Irish post-punk band Invaderband released their second studio album entitled 'Peter Gabriel'.[160] The sleeve was a painting of Gabriel by Luke Haines.
Personal life[edit]
Gabriel has married twice and has four children. In 1971, at age 21, he married Jill Moore, daughter of Baron Philip Moore.[161] They had two daughters,[136] one of whom, Anna-Marie, is a filmmaker who filmed and directed Gabriel's live DVDs Growing Up on Tour: A Family Portrait (2003), Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped (2005) and some of his music videos. Melanie is a musician who had been a backing vocalist in her father's band in 2002–2011. Both daughters appear in the final sequence of the video for their father's song "Sledgehammer".
Gabriel's marriage became increasingly strained, culminating in Moore's affair with David Lord, the co-producer of Gabriel's fourth studio album. After the couple divorced in 1987, Gabriel fell into a period of depression and attended therapy sessions for six years.
For a time after his divorce, Gabriel lived with American actress Rosanna Arquette.[161] In 2021, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor said that she maintained an on-and-off relationship with Gabriel in the wake of his divorce. She ended the relationship because of her frustration with his lack of commitment, which inspired her single "Thank You for Hearing Me".[162]
Gabriel married Meabh Flynn in 2002, with whom he has two sons.[67][161]
Gabriel has resided in Wiltshire for many years and runs Real World Studios from Box, Wiltshire. He previously lived in the Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset. In 2010, he joined a campaign to stop agricultural development in the valley, which had also inspired his first solo single, "Solsbury Hill", in 1977.[163]
Studio albums
Soundtracks
