Real World Studios’s Big Room plays host to an intimate set from Peter Gabriel.

PLAYING AT HOME

A nice souvenir of Peter Gabriel and his band recorded live on PG’s home turf, in The Big Room at Real World Studios on 23 November, 2003. Not something you always associate with PG – a surprisingly intimate concert, the evidence in the polite ripples of applause at the end of each number from members of Gabriel’s Full Moon Club, that took place during a short run of live shows in November 2003.

For the performance Peter is joined by his touring band from this period – the ever present Tony Levin (bass) amd David Rhodes (guitar) plus Ged Lynch (drums), Richard Evans (guitar, whistle, mandolin), Rachel Z (keyboard and backing vox) and Melanie Gabriel (backing vox).

GROWING UP PLUS

The 14-song set draws on material from both the Growing Up Live tour of 2002/2003 – Gabriel’s first in 10 years that accompanied the release of his album UP – and the subsequent Still Growing Up Live tour that ran through much of 2004. Much of these tours has been previously available in on themusic.com. The fanbase is used to live documents including the excellent Growing Up Live 3LP set that’s the cherry on the icing on the cake.

The So, Us and Up periods feature heavily along with a nod/choice selection, from the PG3 and PG4 albums – Shock The Monkey, San Jacinto and Games Without Frontiers given a twenty year overhaul and polish . Sequenced to spotlight the more intimate and subtle aspects of the PG legacy initially, the industrial slam of Darkness that follows a sublime Mercy Street gives announces a disturbing wake up call.

The ante is definitively dialled up with the darkness that follows – Digging In The Dirt and and a monstrous The Tower That Ate People that both lulls and lashes. Churning, claustrophobic and intense, the masterful dynamics of the band take both by the scruff of the neck before the chilling delivery of the prophetic “man feed machine, machine feed man” lines.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

The intimacy of The Big Room doesn’t detract from creating a vast sound that reaches a peak in the slow build of Signal To Noise. The almighty climax just missing the huge tunnel appearing from the ceiling that was part of the arena shows. Surprisingly the obvious local landmark and debut hit single from ‘7, Solsbury Hill, fails to make the teamsheet but the highpoint comes at the business end of the set with the ‘S’ sequence: San Jacinto, Shock The Monkey, Signal To Noise and Secret World. The latter pairing providing a quarter hours worth of the ‘worth the ticket price alone’.

A complete contrast to Father, Son a touching stripped back reminiscence that often provides the final bookend of solo PG if Here Comes The flood has opened the show in similar fashion. A grand little recording, with the ’82 WOMAD set still to come, to keep us warm while we await the drip feed of the i/o follow up with o/i.

Here’s a funky little Burn You Up, Burn You Down:

Peter Gabriel: Website

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