30
Bido Lito! February 2015
Reviews
Peter Gabriel (Mike Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com)
You & I and Ruby still bending the minds of all
in attendance. Any fans of krautrock artists such
as Neu or Harmonia should already be familiar
with Silver Apples, them being considered
progenitors of the genre. Perhaps the younger
members of the audience do not know quite
how to react to some of the music, but each
and every crowd member cannot help but be
mesmerised. This is true psychedelia: beautiful,
strange and captivating.
Christopher Carr
PETER GABRIEL
Jennie Abrahamson
Echo Arena
Open entering the cavernous Echo Arena, as
someone who only has a cursory knowledge
of PETER GABRIEL’s classics, I am filled with
niggling, stadium-rock forebodings. This does
not seem a likely venue for a road to Damascus
experience.
The Arena is pretty much full and there is a
gentle but unmistakable buzz of anticipation
generated by the predominantly middle-aged
audience. My misgivings are not eased by a
pre-show announcement: “This concert will be
recorded from the soundboard; you can buy a
copy at www...” etc, etc.
Support act JENNIE ABRAHAMSON and Linnea
Olsson perform songs of Nordic mysticism: tales
of horses, lakes and snowfall. The combination
of glockenspiel, cello and their airy, fragile voices
bidolito
bidolito.co.uk
provides the perfect musical setting for such
musings.
Abrahamson and Olsson remain to provide
backing vocals and Gabriel outlines the concert
format: an acoustic hor’s d’ouvre, a main course
of new and familiar material, and, for dessert, his
most commercially successful album, So, in its
entirety.
A gentle piano, bass and cello opens What
Lies Ahead, and Gabriel’s voice is immediately
both familiar and somehow comforting. This is
a man who has been quietly producing cuttingedge recordings, video and live spectacle
for over four decades, not to mention his
championing of music from around the globe
via Real World Records and WOMAD, and his
dedicated contribution to humanitarian causes.
Even to a self-confessed doubter his place in
contemporary musical legend cannot be denied.
And he is in fine voice, effortlessly sounding as
he did on those aforementioned eighties hits.
The lights in the house stay up during the
first few numbers, which, without that twilight
anonymity that aids the bonding of individual
and performer, gives a slightly odd, exposed feel
to the proceedings. However, it quickly becomes
obvious that we are in the presence of some very
fine musicians indeed and, fittingly for such a
musical polymath, the acoustic section is varied:
Come Talk To Me features David Sanctious’
swirling accordion, Shock The Monkey highlights
David Rhodes’ acoustic riff, and, during the pianoled Family Snapshot, Gabriel’s plaintive tone
Snapshot
perfectly articulates the song’s raw emotion.
The house lights go down for the main
course, only stark white light penetrating
the darkness. Lights are mounted on several
hammer-headed booms, each one operated
by two technicians who push them around the
stage. The band’s utilitarian, black jumpsuits
and the manual operation of the lighting
evoke an Orwellian dystopia as filmed by Fritz
Lang, and Gabriel tackles issues of control,
authority, and alienation in songs such as
Secret World, Darkness and No Self Control. If
this all sounds very serious, Gabriel exhibits a
dry wit. “This song is about God, sex and drugs,”
he announces, prompting huge applause. “I’m
glad to see there are fans of all three in the
house.” The song in question, Why Don’t You
Show Yourself, again uses piano and cello
Yourself
over a sparse bassline, with Gabriel’s spoken
vocal contrasting perfectly with Abrahamson
and Olsson’s exquisite backing. There is also
a playful visual element to the proceedings
with Gabriel, Rhodes and bassist Tony Levin
spinning into a perfectly choreographed dance
routine, like a prog Temptations, during Secret
World, and Gabriel skipping down Salisbury
Hill like a five-year-old during a joyful version
of the hit.
So kicks off the dessert with the pounding
Red Rain, the stage drenched in red light and
drummer Manu Katche making full use of his kit
to drive the song along. The next two songs are
amongst Gabriel’s best known. Sledgehammer
is delivered to rapturous applause and packs
a slinky bassline from Tony Levin that has the
crowd on their feet. Don’t Give Up, the muchUp
anticipated Gabriel/Kate Bush tearjerker, sees
Jennie Abrahamson take centre stage to deliver
a poignant and sensitive interpretation of the
Bush vocal. Gabriel provides a nod to earlier
theatricality, temporarily exiting the stage,
suitcase in hand. The crowd are on their feet
giving Abrahamson wild, “you nailed it”, acclaim.
As with the main course, the So section
continues to deliver a pleasingly varied set of
musical styles and emotional content, not just
between songs but within them. Mercy Street
sees Gabriel perform the entire song lying on
his back, the encircling lighting booms gently
lowered above him as a haunting, ethereal vocal
sweeps over the crowd. Big Time delivers a funky
guitar sing-along before the lighting booms
stand erect, like gallows, as the doom-laden riff
of We Do What We’re Told threatens the rafters.
OK, this is very well performed rock music, and
it is in an arena, but there is something about
this performance that elevates it above its own
levels of technical excellence, an intelligence
and humanity that shine through in the lyrics of
Gabriel’s songs and in his alternately plaintive
and angry delivery.
He ends a short encore with Biko, a song
which tonight transcends its original focus on an
individual to become a universal tribute to the
oppressed and has the audience chanting along,
fists raised in solidarity. “As always,” concludes
Gabriel, “what happens next is up to you”, and
he walks off stage. A tour de force.
Glyn Akroyd