PG hits?

Last night Pete and I were at the O2 in London to see Peter Gabriel in concert.  PG is one of my all times favourite artists (I recommended track that you are unlikely to know on this blog posting) - he is a musical genius in my book and has produced some outstanding and innovative music.

Last night was clearly an experiment.  He has just released an album of cover versions called Scratch My Back (and the covered artists will be returning the complement).  Rather than opt for a normal band, he has used full orchestral arrangements... no drums, no guitars.  The experiment did not work.

The evening did not start well.  Ticket holders had received an email stating that "Peter Gabriel will be on stage at 7.30pm".  This seemed a bit early, but we took our seats at 7.15 and waited... and waited.  At 7.45, Peter appears and explains the concept of the evening and then introduces a support act!   Thankfully she only sang 3 songs.

The first half of the show was the Scratch My Back album in its entirety.  Most of the songs are very slow and I was praying for something up tempo and it didn't come.  The light show, complete with stunning animation and the overall sound were perfect, but the music itself seemed completely out of place.  Perhaps it could have worked at the Royal Albert Hall, but I was bored - something I thought I would never be at a Peter Gabriel show.

Then there was an atmosphere killing interval and then some of his own music, also in the same style.  He chose some obscure tracks, again many that were too slow.  The audience only perked up when they played Solsbury Hill.  A disappointing evening with many people around us looking confused and not "concert happy".

Anyway... here are some pictures I took yesterday.