One of my musical heroes, Peter Gabriel has been pushing the boundaries of musical recording and performance for over 20 years.
First in the band, Genesis he adorned himself with flowers, hats, costumes and anything to get peoples attention. Fortunately he also had powerful concepts and a unique voice that demanded open ears and hearts.
One other thing about Peter Gabriel is that he had the sense to work with brilliant musicians.
Tony Levine – Bass, Manu Katche – Drums – David Rodes – Guitar. Some truly innovative and highly skilled musicians that brought passion, flare and texture to his message.
Speaking of message Peter Gabriel also often touches on subject such as Politics, Love, Loss, Personal Freedom and Human Rights.
He is responsible for the founding or co-founding of the following organizations.
- REALWORLD – A fantastic world music record label with artists such as, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Geoffrey Oryema and Shila Chandra.
- WOMAD – World Of Music and Dance, shares the World music around the globe in a 3 day event of rich folk and indigenous music and arts performances.
- WITNESS – A global organization dedicated to revealing Human Rights violations by giving ordinary people video cameras to document and publicize events. Watch the videos now >>
The brilliant, the one and only Daniel Lanois.
I really follow the news quite closely, although in these days of the information age you can choose your source rather than just get it all from the television or from newspapers.
Peter Gabriel has been one of my biggest influences, not only musically but also in his sense of social awareness. In this talk from Ted.com he gives some insight into his childhood and also what brought him to care more about human rights.
I just found a whole lot of JPGs of some albums that I had recorded over the years as a sound engineer in Maleny. This is only a fraction of the albums that I have helped people to record and produce, not including the ones on the record label, all of which I was involved in.