Multi-award winning British artist Peter Gabriel has earned a worldwide reputation for his innovative work as a musician, writer, video maker and philanthropist. He brings his Scratch My Back experience to select venues with the New Blood Tour: Peter Gabriel and orchestra, no drums, no guitars.
About Scratch My Back
On March 2, 2010, Peter Gabriel released his Scratch My Back album project, available everywhere music is sold. The album, the first part of a series of song exchanges in which Gabriel and other leading artists reinterpret each other’s songs, features interpretations of songs originally by Radiohead, David Bowie, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Bon Iver and many more.
To help craft his recording of the album’s eclectic array of cult favorites and classic tracks, Gabriel enlisted former Durutti Column member, composer/arranger John Metcalfe, and the expertise of producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Lou Reed’s Berlin), and engineer, mixer and producer Tchad Blake (Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits).
Gabriel describes this as a very personal record with twelve songs performed only with orchestral instruments and voice. He made the choice not to include guitar or drums, and his concert at the Hollywood Bowl follows suit. The album’s richly diverse sounds open with an utterly transformed version of David Bowie's Heroes and include the sparse romance of Lou Reed’s The Power of the Heart, the powerful musical journey of Elbow’s Mirrorball, an epic arrangement of Arcade Fire’s My Body Is A Cage and a soaring version of Bon Iver's Flume.
Gabriel and his collaborators recorded the album at George Martin’s Air Lyndhurst Studios and the Real World Temple with further editing and mixing at his Real World Studio in Wiltshire. The first public hearing of the album came when Peter Gabriel opened his set at last summer’s WOMAD festival with a performance of Paul Simon’s The Boy In The Bubble.
About Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel first came to international prominence with the success of Genesis, a band that he co-founded while still at school. Since leaving Genesis in 1975, his recording career has included seven studio albums, film soundtracks for Birdy, The Last Temptation of Christ and Rabbit Proof Fence as well as live and compilation albums. His wider musical career has included multiple Grammy Awards and the creation of the now global WOMAD festival.
A leading philanthropist, Peter Gabriel co-founded the human rights organization WITNESS in 1989. In 2007, Nelson Mandela launched the The Elders, which was founded by Peter Gabriel and Sir Richard Branson. In 2006, Peter Gabriel was awarded the prestigious Man of Peace title by The Nobel Peace Laureates. He has also engaged in a wide variety of tech-based businesses throughout a variety of creative industries.
For more information on Peter Gabriel and his new album, please visit www.PeterGabriel.com
