P is for Peter Gabriel

Trust me, I am well aware of the fact Peter Gabriel is an artist everyone knows of, unless they have been hiding under a rock since his days with Genesis. Therefore, I’m not going to waste anyone’s time giving you any kind of biographical information here. I would rather talk about the one chance I had to see him perform live, back on July 24, 1993. Yeah, 25 years ago!

Peter Gabriel was touring in support of the Us album, his sixth solo studio disc. Typical with any Peter Gabriel concert there was a LOT going on in terms of visuals, effects, multiple stages and stunning music. He put together one heck of band for this tour including Manu Catch (drums), Tony Levin (bass, vocals), David Rhodes (guitars, vocals), Jean Claude Naimro (keyboards, vocals), Shankar (violin, vocals), Levon Minassian (doudouk), Papa Wemba, Molokai and oh yeah, Paula Cole (vocals). Paula Cole replaced Sinead O’Connor who left the tour and that international exposure played a key part in the development of her career.

The concert began with Gabriel singing “Come Talk to Me”, the lead track from Us, from a phone booth on the stage for half the song before walking out of the booth pulling the phone cord with him. Suddenly the cord starting pulling him back toward the booth and at the end of the song he re-entered it. This was just the start of an unbelievable evening. Here are some other things I can remember:

• One big stage was connected to a circular stage by a massive runway.
• There was a moving walkway on that runway that was used many times during the concert, such as that scene I described with “Come Talk to Me”, an interlude where Gabriel “rode on a raft” to the circular stage and a really cool scene leading into an encore when each band member rode it one by one to a spot where Gabriel had placed a big suitcase and they climbed in. It was incredible watching that happen live.
• “Digging in the Dirt” was insane. Gabriel had a camera attached to the top of his head that was filming him as he crawled around a mound of “dirt” on the second stage.
• There was a huge video screen behind the main stage that Gabriel could actually spin during the show. The images projected were always relevant to the song being performed.
• I can’t believe I am saying this but Paula Cole singing Kate Bush’s part during “Don’t Give Up” was, in my opinion, better than the original. I was floored, it really was that good.
• “In Your Eyes” was the obvious show closer and was unbelievable as always. Seeing the band perform this on the smaller circular stage created a wonderful, intimate moment during a big arena show. What a way to end a fantastic evening!

For this post I went back quite a few years for the video. I first heard “The Rhythm of the Heat” as a result of the instrumental version used in the 1984 film “Birdy”. This soundtrack version was simply called “The Heat” and was one of several tracks Gabriel remade into instrumental form for the movie. The full vocal version may be his most intense song and this live video shows that well. He didn’t play “The Rhythm of the Heat” at the America West Arena show but thanks to the internet we have this. Enjoy. Cheers!