#30 Brest, Hall de Penfeld, 28.10.1983 (In memory of Mike K. & Michael B.)

Last nights on tours are usually "messy": there's a lot of accounting to be cleared, many knots to untie and everybody's tired. Yet, at the same time, there's a tangible, diffused feeling of elation at having accomplished it all. A feeling which is usually behind some of the most disruptive happenings on stage on those final nights.

One example: on the last European show of 1993 a small scale replica of the Statue Of Liberty made it's unannounced and inexplicable way onto the walkway between the round and square stages of the Secret World tour, to much delight and laughter of Peter and the band - except for L.Shankar, who had been tied up by the roadies and took quite a while to get back on stage when it was time for his introduction by PG...

Oh well...

Back to 10 years before Paris and the Zenith, the scene was already set in France, this time in its top North-Western corner, Brest, 'capital' of Brittany. It was a late autumn night, October 28th, and as previously said, the atmosphere was at the same time hot and relaxed, providing a perfect combination for a great performance.

We had travelled from Nantes by train – one of the very few I could afford on the whole tour, as I usually hitchhiked –, and we happened to share the space with some of The Call and their crew. The band had supported Peter during the summer of 1983 US dates, then joined him again for the last leg of the tour in continental Europe.

Onto the last night... 

As he always did with the support acts, Peter came on stage wearing make up but in "civilian" clothes and hat, jokingly introduced them talking in French making fun of Michael Been.

    PG: Merci, bonsoir! J'essaie a parler un peu français

    MB: What did ya say?

    PG: I said you're shit, Michael!

The real words with which PG described The Call’s songs were "chanson tres interessant pour moi... lors musique vien du coeur" – "interesting songs, and music which comes from the heart”. 

That has stayed with me ever since: there was such a heartfelt, truthful passion in their performance and in Michael Been’s delivery that in my experience very few other bands ever got close to it.

I can’t remember exactly on which song, but it must have been close to the end of their set when Peter suddenly reappeared on stage: this time he was in full concert mode, dressed in white, wearing the monkey make-up and also... carrying a large plant or a small tree of some sort: he was not alone, as the other members of his band did the same and caused havoc on stage, depositing the large vases here and there while The Call kept on playing - amazing pros!!

In the end, the French audience was very appreciative and even asked for an encore, which Michael and the rest of the guys happily delivered (not the "Delivered" song, but "Notified").

The surprise incursion was later reciprocated when all of The Call re-entered the stage during PG’s set: this time they were also all made-up in monkey attire, but were also wearing towels made to look like giant diapers! They emerged from the top of the stage and jumped up and down throwing bananas all over the place... 

Yep, you guessed right: it happened during “Shock The Monkey”, and it was PG’s turn to try and keep on going with the chorus while everybody was laughing real hard!

What else can I say?

The music, the friends, the whole package: that night is burned into my memory cells as one when I experienced the most fun in my life... notwithstanding the totally anti-climactic after show, as we found out most of our luggage and properties had gone, stolen from the friends car we had left them in!

«I'll remember it»

This is not an ode to Sinead O'Connor. 

Though I love her music a lot – Troy... OMFG!, and her multiple collaborations with the likes of Afro Celt Sound System or Jah Wobble and the Invaders Of The Heart... – her death has brought back and refreshed memories of the few occasions when she crossed my concert going path. Minor episodes and no earth shattering stories, but I have always held them in a very soft spot in my heart. 

The first night I crossed paths with Sinead was in Dublin, on May 28th, 1993 (#101), when she unexpectedly (to me) appeared on the "round stage" to accompany Peter for Come Talk To Me. Powerful, to say the least.    

At the next 2 shows on the Secret World Tour (May 31st and June 1st in London, Earls Court - #102 and #103) it happened again: this time I was ready, if nothing because both nights, before getting up on stage, she stood exactly where I was standing, at the corner of the 'square stage' and the runway that went to the round one, looking nervous, shoeless, and literally vibrating with anticipation. And on the first night I distinctly remember smiling at her and her smiling back.

My god how beautiful she was!

(The picture on the left, by Pete Still Photography, is from one of those two nights)

A couple of months later, on the afternoon of August 7th, the day before PG was due to play there for a "minor" Womad event which went by the name of World In The Park, I was wondering round Bath's Royal Victoria Park. And to my surprise Peter was also hanging around there in the company of Sinead and another guy I didn't know.

I had already met Peter quite a few times, but mostly at soundchecks or at some busy press conference and never in such an amazingly relaxed atmosphere!

It was the most natural thing to strike up a conversation while walking up to a stall where Peter got some beverage for him and Sinead and then we all sat down in the middle of the field for a chat. 

I remember discussing things like film scores (why Blood Of Eden was left out of Wim Wender's Until the end of the world film soundtrack cd), cover versions or adaptations of his music (I specifically mentioned seeing a classical chamber orchestra in Milan which played With This Love from Passion, and the Momix show from that album - which I had not seen but was eager to...), the last time he played his "hometown" of Bath («You probably remember that better than I do» Peter joked... and he was actually right!!). 

All the while Sinead was there, very quietly enjoying a few joints with the other guy. In hindsight I can only regret not exchanging more than a few initial pleasantries with her and I can understand she was probably bored senseless and totally uninterested in the PG centered chat.

After a while we noticed some sort of commotion in a close but different area of the Park: a balloon had just landed! Peter asked Sinead if she wanted to have a go and try a flight, so I just said my goodbyes and watched them head towards the other field - wether they actually went for that flight or not I have no idea!

Last but not least, at the end of August, that same year, Peter headlined the Womad in St.Austell (AUg. 30th - #105), not playing inside the Coliseum like in 1988, but the main open air stage.

Once again I had no clue about Sinead's presence on stage, but she actually started the show with a wonderful acappella song that you can hear in the clip below. No video, unfortunately, and just a crappy far away picture. But an extraordinary heartfelt rendition of a classic hymn (or so I believe).

I'll die

But I will rise 

And I will return

The Phoenix from the flame

I have learned

I will rise

And you'll see me return

Being what I am

There is no other Troy

For me to burn

Thank you Sinead. Your fire will keep burning.

#182 - 21/05/2023 Milano, Forum [multicam video]

Peter Gabriel
21/05/2023 - Milano, Forum

"Four Kinds Of Horses"

VIDEOS (thanks to:)

Claudia Patrone

iPhonealex66

Joy2050
Roger
Stefano
Tony Faby 91

AUDIO

db-rdwm

EDITING
the intruder

PS: words coming soon ;-)

#1. It was 40 years ago... today

pix only... words are here

Advert

Trip Reservation

Ticket

Stage design

Moi et mon Teddy Bear

On The Air

Moribund the Burgermeister

 

Perspective

Waiting for the Big One

Mother of Violence

'Cig' Mc Ginnis

The Lamb lies down on Broadway

The bootleg

The review & interview (Ciao 2001)

Happy Birthday Mr. Gabriel!

A Different PoV

And, happy melodist, unwearied, 

         For ever piping songs for ever new; 

More happy love! more happy, happy love! 

         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, 

                For ever panting, and for ever young; 

 (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian urn)

It all happened over 30 years ago, at the end of the This Way Up Tour. The 12 months between November 1986 and October 1987, when Peter and the band travelled all over Europe and the USA, have already been quite well described on the special book issued on the occasion of the official So album re-release, together with the companion audio and video sets previously known as P.O.V. (you can read about it here).

There is nothing of great significance I could add to what better wordsmiths than I have already said and told. And I don’t feel any need to bore anybody to death with loads and loads of very personal memories: suffice it to say I have witnessed in person 50 of the European tour dates – all that took place bar 6, which I sadly missed being busy with my journalist exams in Milan –, sharing travels, accomodations, stories and experiences with a bunch of fabulous friends all across France, Italy, Germany, UK, Belgium, Sweden, Holland, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and, finally, Greece.

But to stay with the title of the old VHS release, I wished to briefly add my very own – a fan’s – Point Of View about those last 5 nights, which are some of my most cherished memories, still incredibly alive and vivid in my mind. And in my heart.

First of all, as the website states, The Making Of P.O.V. did happen “over three nights”: to be precise, on Monday the 5^th of October, Tuesday the 6^th and Thursday the 8^th. I saw the first from the front row, but then I decided to tape the remaining two shows and sat a few rows in front of the mixing desk to get perfect sound and views. Those recordings, including a few “Extras” J, make up the first 8 discs (all audio-only) of the whole package that the most avidly oriented fans and collectors can now find on the Genesis Movement Torrent Site .

But from my very own “fan P.O.V.”, the real essence of that week were the 2 special filming nights which happened on Wednesday the 7^th and Friday the 9^th. Nights like no others, that’s for sure (which on the Movement site are also available as dvds).

Doors opened – for free… – at 7.00 pm, and the proceedings started soon after, as soon as the sun was down. The Lycavitos Theatre is situated in the middle of a park on the top of a hill with amazing views of the whole Greek capital and nobody to disturb in the neighborood. This means there was no curfew, and the only “limit” was due to the sun rising again in the morning at about 5.30/6.00 am. All in all, then, the audience was treated to just about 10 hours of “performances”.

During those long hours, since I knew a friend was filming, I had no need to tape or record. I was thus free to stand in the front once more. The stage was quite high and I had to hang onto it most of the time to keep my head above it, and at the end of the night I ended up with an actual piece of the stage in my hands!!

As the following videos clearly testify, it was slow going: some songs had to be repeated to catch different angles with different cameras set-ups, while the usual technical hold ups caused real long waits before everything was ready for every shoot. That’s especially true for the second night, when almost nothing seemed to go according to plan: at the very beginning Peter announced a mini-set of 6 songs to be played back to back, which never materialized because of one single spotlight was not behaving correctly! And it took at least a couple of hours to get it fixed… while the planned setlist was changed, and scrapped, again and again.

But that doesn’t mean the audience had a chance of getting bored!! The pauses between filming were filled up by Peter and the band playing a whole bunch of songs as crowd pleasers, accepting requests, trying out numbers that were not in the usual tour setlist, or improvising a few ‘grooves’ for numbers that would then be performed “for real”.

On to some brief technical notes…

The video wa shot on a Sony Video 8 camera by a close friend. He made frequent pauses in filming, as he only had 3 batteries which should have lasted about one hour each, and all in all I believe he did a fantastic job capturing the best of those 2 nights. Then there was humidity, as those Greek nights were a wet nightmare, rather than a dream! This meant a sudden death for the third battery on the first night, which means he could obviously film but a fraction of what was played: I’d say he managed to cover about 4 hours per night, with the other 5 or 6 sadly unrecorded and unaccounted for.

Because of humidity, the Video 8 cassettes also suffered a lot: most of the problems like stuttering, dropouts, tracking issues, etc., were on the original masters (now sadly lost) which were transferred (at the time) to my VHS copies. I digitized those about 8 years ago, and since I started working on this project in 2010 I have been constantly trying to tweak and improve both audio and video. The many works and re-works, tests and experiments have inflated the *PG ATHENS* folder on my Mac to over 800 GigaBytes! But it was time to put it to rest and accept that, as you will see, the overall final quality is still very far from perfect.. Still, for a 30 years old collection of private tapes I reckon it still makes for a more than pleasurable viewing and listening experience.

I hope you’ll enjoy it…

the.intruder

february 13^th, 2018

#182 (again) - Bologna, Unipol Arena, 21.11.2014

By "popular" demand, here's No Self Control from my favourite show on the tour...

#183 - Dublin, 3 Arena, 10.12.2014

Peter Gabriel
Dublin, 3 Arena
10.12.2014

Final show of the "Back to Front Tour" which for the past 2 years celebrated the 25th anniversary of So, the album which gave Peter fame and fortune.

A tour write-up and a few personal musings will follow after Xmas...

- - - - -


DUBLIN
3 ARENA
10.12.2014

Setlist
What Lies Ahead
Come Talk to Me
Shock the Monkey
Family Snapshot
Digging in the Dirt
Secret World
Darkness
No Self Control
Solsbury Hill
Why Don't You Show Yourself
Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don't Give Up
That Voice Again
Mercy Street
Big Time
We Do What We're Told
This Is the Picture**
In Your Eyes

Encores
The Tower That Ate People
Biko

#182 - Bologna, Unipol Arena, 21.11.2014

Though not at the top of his voice – Torino the day before was pretty bad, and it evidently got even worse with the cancellation of the Lyon date –, but what a wonderful and amazing show Bologna was!

Proof, in case anybody is still searching for one, that a great concert can only stem from a great artist AND a great audience.

And coincidentally or not, there was "another Gabriel" in the audience that night, whom besides making his father proud I'm pretty sure helped the general mood too ;-)

- - - - -

BOLOGNA
UNIPOL ARENA
21.11.2014

Setlist
What Lies Ahead
Come Talk to Me
Shock the Monkey
Family Snapshot
Digging in the Dirt
Secret World
The Family and the Fishing Net
No Self Control
Solsbury Hill
Why Don't You Show Yourself
Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don't Give Up
That Voice Again
Mercy Street
Big Time
We Do What We're Told
This Is the Picture**
In Your Eyes

Encores
The Tower That Ate People
Biko

#180 - Munchen, Olympiahalle, 30.04.2014

Digging In The Dirt



The Family And The Fishing Net



Though the videos have been on my YouTube channel since May, I never had the time to finish a proper write up of the show, so this was post-poned at least a dozen times...
Now, after 2 further show in Torino and Bologna, it's finally time to let go and forget about it, with a view to a few more complete musings on the whole tour after the last show in Dublin will be over (by the way, if anybody does have standing tickets for that date please, please get in touch!)

- - - - -

MÜNCHEN
OLYMPIAHALLE
APRIL 30th, 2014


Setlist
OBUT [Daddy Long Legs]
Come Talk To Me
Shock The Monkey
Family Snapshot
Digging In The Dirt
Secret World
The Family And The Fishing Net
No Self Control
Solsbury Hill
Why Don't You Show Yourself
Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don't Give Up
That Voice Again
Mercy Street
Big Time
We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)
In Your Eyes

Encores
The Tower That Ate People
Biko

# 71/72/73+174/175 – Another P.O.V.

SO... Here's just a little taster, call it teaser if you want, of quite an ambitious project. Not time to give any details yet: watch this space and all will soon(ish) be revealed :-)

#94 - Marino (Roma), Palaghiaccio, 18.5.1993

I chose this specific track to upload as the Secret World Live official dvd is getting a second release in July. Apparently, this will correct and improve the awful digitization job that characterized the first issue, and will also restore the track Red Rain to its original place in the setlist: although it appeared on the cd, it was nowhere to be found in the original VHS release and it the subsequent dvd.
Unfortunately, none of the official releases featured - or will feature - the show finale, which could be very different from date to date.

Here, from the same tour but from the earlier leg, is a brilliant and emotional version of Here Comes The Flood filmed in Rome, or to be more precise in Marino, at the Palaghiaccio, on May 18th, 1993.

I think the smile on Peter's face all through the song says it all about what a great show that had been!
Also, a fun thing to notice is how Peter used to only sing the first half of Flood and let it hang out there... But check the video at 2'50": although the song was virtually finished another smile and another chord bring it to its 'natural' completion :-)

#177 - Stuttgart, SchleyerHalle, 11.05.2012

#176 Munchen, Olympiahalle, 2.5.2012

Another year, another show. This is in itself amazing!
We're talking PG here, the man that used to tour once or twice per decade at the most!
Not complaining, though... :-)

The show in Munich was the first in a new series of New Blood dates across Germany, and as all 'firsts' it had is highs and lows (though mostly highs), which is especially true when you are dealing with a full orchestra where only a handful are 'stable' musicians and the rest keep varying. I'm sure that in the ten days between now and Stuttgart (which I hope will be my next show...) the amalgam of the players will have vastly improved, making it all tighter and without the few 'loose ends' that one could notice in Munich.
Again, that is not to say that the show was anything less than great!

Peter's voice sounded relaxed and in good shape. Tom Crowley keeps doing an amazing job on piano (but so do all the others on their respective instruments!).
Melanie was back and she was accompanied by a new (to me) second vocalist, Rosie Doonan, with a great stage presence and very good voice.

Setlist-wise, we were treated to a couple of 'newish' songs: Secret World and Father Son. I know the former has been played only occasionally before (mostly in the US), and can't remember wether the latter ever was on the last tour. Both showed signs of absolute brilliancy, but they did not sound fully matured, and I expect them to improve daily till they reach perfection. Once in Stuttgart, of course... ;-)

Setlist

Heroes
Wallflower
Apres Moi
Intruder
San Jacinto
Secret World
Father Son
Signal To Noise
Downside Up
Digging in the Dirt
Mercy Street
The Rhythm Of The Heat 
Red Rain
Solsbury Hill
Biko

In Your Eyes
Don’t Give Up
The Nest That Sailed The Sky

#113 Paris, Bercy, 24.11.1993

I know, I know, it's been long time since the last post but as mentioned below the "success" of the In Your Eyes clip, now past the 170.000 mark, has really surprised me and left me undecided on how to put up something equally interesting.
I am currently working on a "slightly different" project, but it will take a while to finish it, so I thought I'd post something anyway and chose this clip from the penultimate show of 1993.

Besides Italy (and Glasgow, especially in the 80s...), the Parisian audiences have always been fantastic. That night in Bercy was no exception: my only regret is that the footage does not come from the following night performance, at the Zenith, where all sorts of (fun) things happened above and below the stage!

#130 Milano, Alcatraz, 16.9.2002

Don't have much time to write a proper review/memory of the gig, but here's a clip of Sledgehammer from the first of 2 "interesting & unusual" - but always excellent! - shows in Milan, at the small(ish) Alcatraz club.
The shows came out of the blue, were announced - and sold out in a matter of hours - even before the new album Up was out. (Incidentally, it's funny to think that it is STILL his latest 'normal' studio album :-).

The "newness" of it all was actually very evident from every point of view: the material performed, the presentation and the band's "tightness".

It was probably only the 4th or 5th show with a group of musicians which included the usual suspects (Tony Levin and David Rhodes) and a bunch of newcomers (Richard Evans, Ged Lynch, Rachel Z, Melanie) who did in fact become 'the' PG band for the next 10 years (with the single exception of Rachel, whose place was later taken by Angie Pollock).

Over the 2 shows Peter played almost every track on Up, and the accent was definitely more on the musical than the visual side.
Peter was wearing some weird looking monitoring headphones (instead of the in ear system favoured today), and looked like he had forgotten what to do on a stage... After all his last proper bit of touring went back to 8 years before, for the Secret World shows. Amazingly, the clip shown here is one of the only 3 moments during the concert that he left his position behind the piano and moved to the front of the stage to interact with the audience (the other two being the finale of Growing Up and the encore of In Your Eyes).

A final note to mention that the sound comes once again from an excellent recording by the Digital Brothers.

In Your Eyes@Hammersmith (multicam edit)

At last, here's the first in my intended series of edits form the New Blood shows I attended. To experiment, I chose the last song from the second night at Hammersmith, earlier this year, which features (as always) arranger extraordinaire John Metcalfe conducting the New Blood Orchestra, and an inspired performance from Sevara.

Sound comes from the soon to be legendary Digital Brothers tape from the night of the 24th (freely available on the genesis movement torrentsite).

Footage comes from 4 different video sources: YouTube users' goldmosh (from the 24th) and alistairburns (from the 23rd), and my own shots from both the 23rd and 24th.

Thanks to the click giving all musicians on stage their cues, syncing audio and video from different nights wasn't really hard at all... Continuity, on the other hand, sometimes is obviously far from perfect.

Finally, the title sequence has been done using YouTube user funkymanT's animation sequence.

Hope you'll enjoy it, but please do let me know what you think anyway...

Washing Of The Water@Hammersmith (24)

Here's a song from the second night...

Darkness@Hammersmith Odeon (23)

More to come on the 2 London shows during the weekend...
Stay tuned!

Wallflower@Verona

#33, #62 & #93 - Ciao mamma!

#33 - 10.6.1987 Milano, Palatrussardi
#62 - 19/9/1987 Locarno, Piazza Grande
#93 - 17/5/1993 Milano, Forum

Here's remembering the shows we saw together
(and everything else!)

Not my video, just a substitute for words and a way of simply saying:
...thank you...