Genesis to Re-issue Back Catalogue

Hot on the heels of announcing their ‘Turn it on Again’ tour, newly re-formed Genesis are going to release their entire back catalogue.

March 2006 will see the release of A Trick of the Tail, Wind & Wuthering, ...And Then There Were Three, Duke and Abacab and in July 2007, Genesis, Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance and Calling All Stations will hit the shops.

Planned for late 2007 or early 2008 are the recordings featuring Peter Gabriel including Trepass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

All the releases will packaged with a CD and DVD with full track lists and any extra goodies to be confirmed.

MP rocks on for mobiles scheme

MP Oliver Heald with Peter Gabriel

MP Oliver Heald teamed up with one of his boyhood heroes, rock legend Peter Gabriel, to support a mobile phone recycling campaign.

Both Mr Heald, the MP for North East Herts, and the former Genesis star have been appealing for people to donate their unwanted mobiles to help African countries.

Every hour, 1,712 mobile phones are upgraded in the UK after about 18 months of use - despite having a lifespan of approximately 10 years.

Mr Heald said: "If each mobile phone-user in the UK were to throw away their handsets we'd be land filling about £650,000 worth of silver each year.

"Sending our unwanted mobile phones to developing counties can not only help protect our environment from hazardous waste and toxic chemicals, but can help people in developing countries to do business, keep in touch, and more importantly in emergency cases where the nearest hospital is 90 miles away, people can call for help, making the difference between life and death."

Mr Heald, pictured above with Peter Gabriel, said wider access to communications in Africa was an important element in tackling poverty.

"Having a phone means having a voice and that is the best way to help people out of poverty. It is important that we in the UK help them to help themselves."

"I had all the Genesis albums in my youth. Peter Gabriel is one of the great stars of rock music.

"If in doubt, listen"

Artist has his finger on 'signs for peace'

Exhibit opens this weekend

Fingerprints are both unique and universal: Everybody has a set, and everybody has their own set.

Touching on that, a Danish artist has produced a collection of works using the prints of famous folks -- some he obtained from public records -- to create what he calls "signs for peace.''

Opening this weekend at Chicago's Peace Museum, a modest space inside the Gold Dome Building in Garfield Park, Claus Miller's exhibit includes stylized art made from the enlarged imprints of such peacemakers as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lennon and Albert Einstein...

'If in doubt, listen'

Singer Peter Gabriel sent Miller a fingerprint with the line, "If in doubt, listen.''

"I looked for the key-word 'listen' in every Gabriel song and when I found it, I reproduced the digital sound wave, enlarged it, put colors on it, turning it, at last, into a wonderful thunderbolt connected to [his] fingerprint,'' Miller said...

Réunion de Genesis: Hackett est amer

Steve Hackett, le guitariste original de Genesis, s'exprime enfin sur la réunion du groupe. Une réunion qu'il ne cautionne pas.

Turn It On Again
Trois ex-membres du groupe qui fut jadis à l'avant-garde du rock prog ont en effet récemment annoncé qu'ils allaient reformer Genesis pour ce que l'on pourrait appeler une TMABL: une tournée mondiale à but lucratif, baptisée 'Turn It On Again' Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford et Tony Banks ont bien évidemment contacté leurs deux anciens collègues Peter Gabriel et Steve Hackett, les deux têtes pensantes du Genesis original, pour leur demander de les rejoindre. Pour Peter Gabriel, la réponse était claire: s'il a quitté Genesis en 1975, ce n'est pas pour y revenir. Sa carrière solo est plus importante. Steve Hackett avait lui aussi discrètement décliné l'offre

Ce sera un Genesis "à leur façon"
Restait à connaître les motivations de Mr Hackett. Il ne les a pas vraiment données, mais a laissé comprendre toute son amertume sur l'évolution du groupe dans un communiqué: « On s'est très vite approché de moi pour discuter de la possibilité d'un groupe à cinq qui aurait inclus Peter Gabriel et votre serviteur mais puisque Peter s'est écarté du projet, les autres trois ont cru trouver du sens dans une éloge à la marque « à leur propre manière »... »

A lire entre les lignes: la machine à fric, très peu pour Steve Hackett...

Détails sur la tournée
Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford et Tony Banks ont donné mardi les détails sur la tournée Turn It On Again. Genesis ne passera pas par la Belgique. Il faudra se rendre à Paris au Parc des Princes le 30 juin 2007 ou le 1er juillet à Amsterdam au Holland Arena pour les voir au plus près de chez nous. Le détail de la tournée se trouve sur le site officiel de Genesis ici.

Peter's November 06 update

Peter's November Full Moon Club update is now available: he gives us news of awards for peace and musical achievement, plans for an alternative world leadership, a visit to Portcullis House to support the 'Phones 4 Africa' appeal (I can't seem to find a website for this, only the details on sticking your old phone in and evelope and sending it free of charge to 'Freepost Foneback Vodafone Africa' - UK only), song-writing developments and WOMAD's move to Charlton Park.
Watch Peter's November update.
Information on WOMAD Charlton Park
Elmi Asha Hagi Amin - information on Worls Peple's Blog

Taïga Maya WOMAD Canarias 2006

Taïga Maya

Este proyecto musical está encabezado por Melanie, hija de Peter Gabriel, y el músico belga Thierry van Roy

Músicos de Reino Unido, Bélgica, México, Croacia, Ecuador y Venezuela conforman Taïga Maya, un proyecto tras el que se encuentran Thierry van Roy y Melanie Gabriel, hija del fundador de WOMAD, Peter Gabriel. Con un álbum en el mercado de título homónimo, el grupo Taïga Maya ha escogido WOMAD Canarias 2006 para su estreno en vivo en Europa. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria será el primer escenario en el que se escuche esta propuesta sonora, de carácter conceptual, nacida del imaginario encuentro entre los pueblos yakuta –de Siberia- y maya –del sur de México-.

Se trata de música de ficción, de una música posible que podría haber existido si la historia fuera como la imaginan Thierry y Melanie: estamos en el futuro, en el año 2044. En diciembre de 2012, un asterisco colisiona con la Tierra y provoca un cambio en el eje de rotación del planeta, de tal modo que el Polo Norte se sitúa en California y el Sur en Dubai. De nuevo es posible cruzar el Estrecho de Bering a pie. Buscando un territorio más propicio, los pueblos yakuta y maya fundan una ciudad llamada Bering Pueblo y recrean nuevos rituales de vida, así como una música común. Esa música es la que proyecta en sus conciertos Taïga Maya.

En su álbum, de título homónimo, las voces yakutas fueron grabadas a capella, mientras que la percusión maya se registró sin referencias externas. Aunque no está probado que existiera nunca la interacción entre yakutas y mayas y todo es puramente virtual, los sonidos que acercan Melanie y Thierry parecen verdaderos, surgidos de una experiencia histórica real.

Nacida en Londres en agosto de 1976, Melanie Gabriel ha acompañado a su padre en las giras realizadas durante los años 2002, 2003 y 2004 por Estados Unidos, Canadá y Europa. Fue precisamente en 2004 cuando ella se involucró en el proyecto ideado por Thierry van Roy. Ambos viajaron juntos a México y se adentraron en la cultura maya. Más tarde, ella escribió las letras y puso la voz para la música que Thierry había compuesto. Nacía así Taïga Maya.

Por su parte, Van Roy, que procede de Bélgica (Bruselas, 1957), es un músico versátil, un alquimista que viaja a lo largo del mundo explorando el pasado y el futuro y descubriendo y redescubriendo las melodías tradicionales a partir de los cuales crea una nueva música que nace de la mezcla de las diferentes culturas. Preocupado por la posible desaparición de los sonidos populares como consecuencia de la globalización, trabaja en su preservación.

Taïga Maya constituirá, sin duda, un descubrimiento y una sorpresa para los espectadores que se den cita en la XIIª edición de WOMAD Canarias 2006, que se celebra del 10 al 12 de noviembre en el parque de Santa Catalina de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Moby's heroes rule

Dance star Moby was terrified of meeting PETER GABRIEL at the Q Music Awards yesterday (30OCT06), in case the former Genesis frontman failed to live up to his expectations.

The Porcelain hitmaker presented Gabriel with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the star-studded ceremony in London's Grosvenor Hotel. Before the awards, Moby admitted, "I've only met him a couple of times in passing. "In general, I think it's good not to spend too much time with your heroes because you run the chance your heroes may be disappointing. "I'm sure he isn't. But it's happened to be a few times where there's a musician I just love and then you meet them and they sort of let you down."

Peter Gabriel on bald men

Peter Gabriel wins the Lifetime Achievement Award and notes his appreciation for fellow award winner Smokey Robinson. "Always accept gifts from bald men" he notes taking the award from the suitably hairless Moby.

Q Awards: The Q Lifetime Achievement Award

Chosen by Q magazine

Presented by Moby

Winner: Peter Gabriel

This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to the former frontman of prog-rock giants Genesis and pioneering solo artist Peter Gabriel. As the singer with Genesis from his late teens, Gabriel was an eccentric performer, submerging his personality in a wide array of characters and costume. On his departure in 1976, Gabriel embarked on an innovative solo career, issuing three albums all with no title between 1977 and 1980. Although he scored a hit with the first album's Solsbury Hill, it was the third which gave him the artistic and commercial success he needed. Instigating a unique drum sound - no cymbals! - the album featured the moving tribute to the murdered anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko and the chart hit Games Without Frontiers. But it was 1986's So that gave Gabriel his biggest success. The intricate and ground-breaking video for Sledgehammer made the album a worldwide hit, but since then Gabriel has concentrated on other projects - the successful WOMAD festival, the state-of-the-art Real World studios and a number of multimedia projects. Q pays tribute to Peter Gabriel today...

Q awards 2006

Lors de la soirée de remise des prix organisée à Londres par le plus grand magazine britannique de musique pop/rock, les mancuniens d'Oasis ont été couronnés en tant que meilleur groupe. Noël Gallagher, frère du bouillant chanteur Liam, et auteur de toutes les chansons du groupe, a décroché la palme de meilleur auteur/compositeur.

...Peter Gabriel a été couronné pour l'ensemble de sa carrière....