Lemur

Peter Gabriel's song "Shock the Monkey" was originally titled "Shock the Lemur".

Some of you are probably wondering how we've been limiting ourselves to a single picture of an animal per day here on the site. Well, we've been trying to control ourselves, but those days of restraint are over.

Today we present to you belgianchocolate's photostream on Flickr. Her photos of the fauna in Madagascar are just incredible and in no way related to the piss poor CGI movie of the same name.

The picture above is a lemur, a primate that lives only on the island of Madagascar.

Bonus Lemur trivia: Peter Gabriel's song "Shock the Monkey" was originally titled "Shock the Lemur".

Theatre Review: More Trouble in the UK

Our search for fine British plays continued on the North Side where we took in a timely neighborhood drama and a comic slice of life.

Osama the Hero, Dog & Pony Theatre

“We do what we’re told, told to do.” – Peter Gabriel

A community on edge from a terrorist threat and a fear mongering media goes ballistic when a bomb detonates in Mark’s (Brian Rickel) garage, killing his wife. Gary (Jarrett Sleeper), an awkward high schooler suspended for calling Bin Laden a hero to his followers, is kidnapped by Mark’s neighbors Louise and Frances (Lois Atkins and David Gray), who tie him to a chair and then, along with Mark and his friend Mandy (Kim Purdy), force him to confess or face their wrath. As Sleeper plays the scene, we truly believed he was innocent and no one else cared to believe him.

What followed was some of the most disturbingly well-staged violence we’ve seen in a long time, a moment where playwright Dennis Kelly and director Krissy Vanderwarker pinpoint the psychology of misdirected rage in the name of national and international security.

Too bad Kelly structures the rest of the play in more static monologues, confessionals, and petty squabbles, staged claustrophobically by Vanderwarker. We reach the climactic struggle familiar with the characters but not terribly invested in anyone. Louise’s stubborn ethical relativism and Mark’s arrested development and frightening pathos were excellently played. They, and these issues, deserve to be part of something bigger.

Satire: Fruitcake Wishes and Sledge Hammer! Dreams

Walking around Sea World one day, I saw a woman in the worst getup ever. Black shirt, hot pink lycra/spandex capris, and black heels. I was suddenly struck with a horrifying clichéd '80s flashback. Ugh. Shudder. From there, I was transported instantly to a recurring dream I've had for almost twenty years.

You see, I have this nasty problem. Whenever I hear Peter Gabriel, I'm sucked into this whirling vortex of every kind of terror involving David Rasche sex. Tell me you've seen those three words (David Rasche sex) together before. Please. Please?

Sledge!It's always the same scenario. I'm lying in bed. As I begin to drift off into a sweet sleep, I become aware of a presence in the room. My eyes open and I see David Rasche, naked, carrying his gun. He slides into bed next to me..."put your mind at rest," he whispers. I sit bolt upright. He says, "you could have a steam train, if you'd just lay down your tracks. You could have an aeroplane flying, if you bring your blue sky back." I'm so tired that it sounds rather sweet, lyrical even. I can't really protest.

He sets the gun off to the side, leans in close to me, nuzzles up to my ear and says, "you could have a big dipper going up and down, all around the bends. You could have a bumper car, bumping this amusement never ends."

My mind reels. Somehow, his movements are sensuous and the sound of him speaking is as smooth as can be. Thus, he becomes that big dipper, going up and down, and around my bends.

He continues to sing to me, in Peter Gabriel's voice, "show me round your fruitcage, 'cos I will be your honey bee. Open up your fruitcage where the fruit is as sweet as can be." So I open up my fruitcage and let him go to work on the sweet nectar the little honey bee's craving.

I'm getting into the delicious sensations that he's dishing out. I've forgotten the '80s haircut and the silly tie he has on. Yeah. He was naked except for that tie.

Getting more and more turned on, I feel my excitement building. "I've been feeding the rhythm - going to feel that power, build in you. Come on, come on, help me do...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been feeding the rhythm I've been feeding the rhythm - it's what we're doing, doing all day and night..." he croons.

He moves away from my "fruitcage" and stands beside the bed. I ask where he's going. He merely points to the door. I ask, "Will you be coming back? How will I be able to find you?" And he sings, "all you do is call me. I'll be anything you need."

"But, what do I call you?" I ask."Sledge Hammer!" he replies. And he's gone.

I'm left with a quivering body, horny and aching for more. I am lost in a world of turquoise, neon pink, and lots of tall hair. I can still hear his words. I seek satisfaction, as he's left me hungering for more..."oh won't you show for me and I will show for you. Show for me, I will show for you." Oh, I'll show him!

Twenty years of this, people. Anything that evokes a massive '80s flashback brings this all rushing back to me.

I want to be your sledgehammer why don't you call my name oh let me be your sledgehammer this will be my testimony I want to be your sledgehammer why don't you call my name you'd better call the sledgehammer

There's no denying the terrible love/hate relationship I have with those memories. There are days when I pray for 42 episodes of sitcom fulfillment. I have been known to crave a ration of Rasche.

You know, my birthday is coming up soon. Maybe two seasons of some comedic cop video is in order.

My therapist really loves that new car of his.

"Crooked Teeth" video is a Peter Gabriel homage

Death Cab for Cutie weathers their major label transition with grace

(...)

It sounds fine! So, the "Crooked Teeth" video is a Peter Gabriel homage [after his video for "Sledgehammer"]. Who in the band is the big prog fan?

Chris [Walla, guitarist/keyboardist] is the biggest prog fan. He's like a library of prog bands. I didn't realize in the world how many members of King Crimson have been all over the place. He's always, "That's a Robert Fripp thing." [But] I'll give a lot of credit to Ace Norton, the guy who directed the video. He came up with the concept, put it all together. We just sort of read the treatment and we were like, "That's great! Let's totally do that."

This video is part of Directions. What was the genesis of that project for you guys?

It was an idea that I actually had with one of my friends, Aaron, who I had grown up with. We came up with this idea and brought it back to the band, and said, "Hey, would you guys be into this if we could get it together?" and everybody seemed pretty excited about it. There's actually thirteen total videos. Eleven for the record and then we made two videos for two B-sides. [For] all thirteen videos we ended up hand-picking the director and treatment we really liked. We are so incredibly proud and happy of how the videos have come out and how the project has taken shape.

Death in the desert

Here is another example of our steady march of progressive degradation in Iraq.

by Allen L Roland

http://www.opednews.com

"The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency:" George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Here is a short must see 5 minute flash presentation written by Chris Floyd with haunting music by Peter Gabriel & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and brilliant flashwork by Richard Kastelein ~ which records a recent criminal and inhumane act of murder committed by the United States military on March 15th, 2006 ~ just another example of our steady march of progressive degradation in Iraq....

This comes on top of a report in the online edition of Time magazine that U.S. Marines went on a rampage in the village of Haditha and deliberately slaughtered 15 unarmed Iraqis in their homes. The Iraqis were still in their bed clothes, and 10 of the 15 were women and children.

The Marines turned in a false report that the civilians were killed by an insurgent bomb. But the evidence of wanton carnage was too powerful. Pressed by Time's collection of evidence, U.S. military officials in Baghdad opened an investigation. Time reports that "according to military officials, the inquiry acknowledged that, contrary to the military's initial report, the 15 civilians killed on Nov. 19 died at the hands of the Marines, not the insurgents.

The military announced last week that the matter has been handed over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which will rightfully conduct a criminal investigation.

Please watch this moving and powerful video presentation ~

Allen L Roland

Click here to view : http://isahaqi.chris-floyd.com/

Peter Gabriel to end humand rights abuses in Burma

Legendary Musician and Activist Peter Gabriel to visit Washington, DC to Urge UN Security Council Resolution, End to Human Rights Abuses in Burma

For Immediate Release: March 23rd, 2006
Contact: Jeremy Woodrum, (202) 223-0300 or Matisee Bustos (718) 783-2000 ext. 306

(New York and Washington, DC) -- Legendary musician and activist Peter Gabriel will visit the U.S. Senate on April 4th to host a film screening and discussion on the need for continued support in ending egregious human rights abuses in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, where more than a million people have been forcibly displaced and the “modern-day slavery” of forced labor prevails.

Gabriel plans to press for U.S. leadership in passing a UN Security Council resolution on Burma. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the authors of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, will host the event. The event, on Tuesday, April 4th at 3:00 pm in room SC-4 of the U.S. Capitol Building, is sponsored by WITNESS, the nonprofit human rights organization founded by Gabriel, and the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The event is open to the public.

“It is long overdue for the UN Security Council to respond to the deepening crisis in Burma," said Gabriel, "we need people of conscience to act now."

Gabriel will introduce the video “Always on the Run: Internally Displaced People in Karen State,” produced by WITNESS’ partner organization Burma Issues, as well as recent footage and testimony showing the increasingly desperate situation inside eastern Burma. Representatives from WITNESS and U.S. Campaign for Burma will be available to answer questions on the situation.

“Always on the Run" captures the fears and hopes of people caught in one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises—forcible displacement in eastern Burma. Over the past decade, Burma's dictator Than Shwe has destroyed 2,700 villages in a brutal anti-insurgency campaign that has left over half a million people homeless in the country's eastern jungles and forced millions to flee the country. Child mortality and malnutrition rates in eastern Burma are now comparable to those among internally displaced persons in the horn of Africa.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights and General Assembly have passed 28 consecutive resolutions condemning the atrocities. Instead of honoring these nonbinding UN resolutions, soldiers of Than Shwe's military regime continue the onslaught—in the past few weeks thousands more persons have fled their homes in fear to hide in the jungle, or cross into neighboring Thailand.

Concerned about the situation in the country and its impact on regional peace and security, the UN Security Council considered Burma for the first time in history in an informal briefing on December 16th, 2005. South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav Havel have launched a global campaign for the Security Council to go further and pass a formal resolution demanding change.

The video offer insight into just one of the reasons UN Security Council action is merited. Reports make clear that the ruling military junta has engaged in a deliberate policy to repress the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient; and that it also conducts a scorched earth policy against ethnic minorities that includes the destruction of food storage, production sources and even entire villages.

Additionally, the military junta (considered one of the world’s most brutal military regimes) has forcibly recruited 70,000 child soldiers—more than any other country in the world—forced millions into what the International Labor Organization calls “modern slavery,” and locked up over 1,100 political prisoners. ##

Death Cab For Cutie ‘Crooked Teeth’

Death Cab For Cutie release their new single ‘Crooked Teeth’ on 10th April 2006 through Atlantic Records.

'Crooked Teeth' will be available on 7 Inch Vinyl (In the form of two limited editions) and on CD. The single is taken from their recent album ‘Plans’, the Seattle quartet’s fifth album, recorded over 28 wintry days in early 2005 and released in August of last year.

The video has an unusual and innovative style not much seen since it was used in Peter Gabriel's famous 'Sledgehammer' video.

To view the video for 'Crooked Teeth' simply click the links below:

Windows Media Player - Broadband / Dial-up

Real Player - Broadband / Dial-up

Peter Gabriel to push for UN talks on Burma

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

March 24, 2006

Well-known singer and activist Peter Gabriel will host the screening of a film and a discussion on Burma at the United States senate on April 4.

The event, organised by WITNESS, a nonprofit human rights group founded by Gabriel, and the US Campaign for Burma, will also be hosted by senators Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell.

According to a statement released by USCB Gabriel plans to use the event to press US politicians to support the passing of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Burma.

“It is long overdue for the UN Security Council to respond to the deepening crisis in Burma,” said Gabriel in the statement.

“We need people of conscience to act now.”

The video to be screened at the event, ‘Always on the Run: Internally Displaced People in Karen State’ produced by WITNESS’ partner organisation Burma Issues, details the experiences of people forcibly displaced by the Burmese military.

Peter Gabriel Uses Sony Oxford Plug-Ins for Olympic Performance

Peter Gabriel performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy in February using Sony Oxford plug-ins. According to engineer Dickie Chappell, Gabriel wanted the same vocal sound that they had achieved while recording backing tracks in the studio. For the performance, Gabriel’s voice was processed live through Sony’s Oxford EQ, Dynamics and Reverb plug-ins, which ran in real time on a laptop and Digidesign Digi 002.

“I plugged into the monitor insert,” Chappell says, “and this was sent to the broadcast and front of house. I was worried about it initially, because if I’d lost the input on my laptop, the whole chain out to the world would have been lost. But it was stable and sounded great. All the sound departments were just fine using the feed from my laptop, and Peter was very happy having the studio mix sound in the stadium and for TV.”

Rosanna Arquette Interviews Ex-Lover Peter Gabriel

Rosanna Arquette Interviews Ex-Lover Peter Gabriel, Other Musicians for New Film

Former lovers Peter Gabriel and Rosanna Arquette sat down for an awkward chat as the actress filmed her new documentary "All We Are Saying." Filmmaker Arquette interviewed rock superstars like Gabriel, Patti Smith, Sting and Chrissie Hynde, among others, about their musical inspirations and life away from touring.

But it's her chat about Gabriel's happy home life that stands out as the film's most awkward moment - he famously dated the star in the 1980s and penned his hit “In Your Eyes” as a tribute to the actress.

Talking about combining his career as a rock star with his personal life at his home in Box, near Bath, he tells Arquette, "I try to get balance by integrating enough normal life in there but there is that energy there and there are those temptations but I think the older you get... I had my sort of middle period when I was doing my running around - you may be aware of that. I'm a bit more settled now."

As Gabriel uncomfortably rocks in his chair, Arquette states, "I'm glad you're settled, I am. I'm happy for you... You seem good. It's good."

World of sound probed

A tiny camera films inside a clarinetist’s mouth. Badges resembling large Hershey kisses measure the volume that surrounds musicians. A research scientist shows video of Bonobo apes making music with rock musician Peter Gabriel. This is not your typical research facility. There are no chemistry labs, no test tubes, no white coats. But inside UNCG’s School of Music, the world of sound is being probed as never before. (...)

* * *

The institute plans to probe questions from the practical to the esoteric. Among them:

• How deep in our evolutionary history is music embedded?

• How can we protect musicians from noise-induced hearing loss? Does a gene protect some while making others more susceptible?

• How can music be used to manage pain and heal injury?

That work partners with researchers across campus, county lines and the country, from Wake Forest University to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa. “Maybe, through research, we can find answers to questions that have vexed us for years,” Deal says. Ultimately, Deal predicts that its projects can advance the role of music on multiple fronts, such as improving how students learn to play an instrument, teaching people more about music in all of nature and enhancing people’s lives “in ways we didn’t imagine.”(...)

* * *

In a third-floor office, research scientist Patricia Gray works on one of the institute’s largest projects, biomusic — the music of nature. Thanks to technology, scientists now can hear, record and analyze sounds of birds, insects, mice, elephants — even a single cell. It’s work that helped Gray and other experts secure a $2.7 million National Science Foundation grant for a traveling exhibit on the subject.

So, who’s that in her desk photo?

It’s Kanzi, a Bonobo ape and one of her favorite research subjects. Bonobos and humans share a common ancestor dating back 100,000 years. Studying music-making in our closest primate cousins, Gray says, “has the promise of helping us understand the evolution of music.” She shows video of Kanzi jamming on a synthesizer, as rock musician Peter Gabriel plays in an adjoining room. Amazingly, Kanzi synchronizes his beat with Gabriel’s.

“The more we find out what they already instinctively know about music, the more it implies how deep in our evolutionary history music is embedded,” Gray says. “Think about people downloading their own music and carrying it with them. Perhaps this is part of our DNA, and other species’ DNA, to have our favorite musical sounds with us.” (...)

By Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane
Staff Writer

Genesis eye comeback

Genesis are set to reform to record a new album and go on tour, according to reports.

Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins are reportedly planning to make the announcement at a press conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Gabriel left Genesis in 1976 and has since had a successful solo career.

Genesis' last studio album, 'Calling All Stations', was released in September 1997, reaching number two in the album chart.

A new album from a reformed Genesis would surely prove a hit with the band's legion of fans.

Video Advocacy

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an amazing conference called TED (for Technology, Entertainment and Design). You can read the complete description here in my Pogue's Posts entry, but here's a summary:


"It's four days of talks, each no longer than 18 minutes. The speakers are either famous, pioneers in their industries or just fascinating people--and often all three...They addressed climate crisis, the depletion of fossil fuels, African AIDS, third-world poverty, human-rights violations, the spiral of West-Islamic global hatred, lethal viruses, and other cheery subjects...The organizer of TED makes no bones about the fact that he wants this astonishing network of speakers and audience members to throw their expertise, brainpower and connections behind efforts to address the world's problems."

I wanted to share some of what I learned in this e-column, but I'm aware that some of this column's readers get cranky when the topic strays from consumer technology.

But one memorable talk involved BOTH consumer tech AND doing good in the world, which I thought I'd share with you. (I'll be back with gadget reviews next week.)

It was a talk by Peter Gabriel, the pop star. He didn't play or even mention music; instead, he described the progress of an outfit called Witness (witness.org), which he co-founded in 1992 for the purposes of what he calls "video advocacy."

What he means is helping native citizens film human-rights violations as they happen, so that the world can see what's really going on. It's much harder for wealthy countries to ignore the violence and oppression, Gabriel said, when they're watching a video of it.

So Witness sprouted up to supply camcorders and training to, so far, 200 human-rights groups ("partners") in 60 countries. It sounded like such a cool and important project that I decided to interview Gillian Caldwell, the group's executive director, for today's e-column.

DP: Strikes me that lots of the human-rights violations are in, well, hot, humid places that would be the enemy of camcorders. How have the cameras and tapes fared?

GC: Our team definitely has to keep climate in mind when they select the equipment packages, since some fare better in humid climates than others. As for the tapes, we try to get them shipped relatively quickly to our archivists, where they're catalogued, duplicated and stored in climate-controlled vaults for the production work.

DP: Isn't this technology new to, say, impoverished Africans? How do they know how to operate the camcorder, ship the tapes back, etc.?

GC: Most of the people we're training have never held a video camera before, so the relationship begins with an intensive, onsite training program that teaches them how to shoot, as well as what to shoot and why.

DP: Does every camcorder "seeding" bear fruit? Do you actually capture violence and stuff on film?

GC: Well, unlike, say, the Rodney King incident, our primary intention is not to capture human rights abuses in action, although that has on occasion happened. Instead, most of our footage highlights the aftermath.

For example, a reluctant Philippine government is now prosecuting the murderers of activists who were legally pursuing ancestral land claims--after footage taken of the attacks was broadcast nationwide in the Philippines and delivered to the Philippine president at the World Economic Forum. While Witness's partner did not actually capture the attack on tape (it took place early in the morning while everyone was sleeping), they were first on the scene of the attack, and captured irrefutable evidence.

DP: How do the people you supply with camcorders keep them from getting stolen, broken, lost, and so on?

GC: With the exception of some problems with theft in Nigeria, we've actually been pretty lucky. Our partners manage to maintain their equipment very well, and when the time comes for an upgrade, we provide it.

Power is a challenge; we generally provide extra battery packs. Some partners even have solar chargers for their equipment.

DP: At TED, Peter Gabriel mentioned a shift from camcorders to cameraphones?

GC: Staying ahead of the technology curve is a major challenge for us. Communications media have changed dramatically in the 14 years since Witness was founded. In the coming months, we will launch an initiative called the Witness Video Hub (www.witness.org/technology). Our hope is to let people around the world use cellphones and computers to upload media to a central Web site built to promote human rights.

We're facing an unprecedented frontier, with digital technology and the "participatory culture" it has inspired poised to explode. Witness needs to be at the forefront of this transition.

DP: Once the hub site goes up, how can you be sure that the filmed events are genuine?

GC: We're still thinking this through. Currently, we're committed to an open and participatory environment, allowing anyone anywhere to contribute footage. There may be a limited amount of material that we will be able to authenticate, but our goal is to not play a big role in this area. We don't want to serve as gatekeepers ourselves, but to allow for peer review to foster a sense of community responsibility and accountability.

Tout pour la musique

Dur et intransigeant avec les apprenties stars, Manu Katché est un pur. Beaucoup trop pour accepter de jouer totalement le jeu avec les impératifs de la télévision.

A entendre ses coups de gueule à répétition sur la Nouvelle Star, Manu Katché peut agacer. Le célèbre batteur a affirmé régulièrement, à qui voulait bien l'entendre, lors de la saison précédente, que "le meilleur du pire", bêtisier des pires performances, était insupportable et que la musique est une chose beaucoup trop sérieuse pour supporter des guignols appâtés par le fameux quart d'heure de célébrité prédit par Andy Warohl.

Le titre même de l'émission ne trouve grâce à ses yeux. "Les stars, c'est la fascination du vide. Je préférerais parler d'artistes." Mais alors Manu, si le concept de cette émission de télé crochet est tellement critiquable, pourquoi faire partie du jury? Besoin de promo pour ses projets de jazz? Joint dernièrement au bout du fil, la position de Manu Katché est bien plus subtile et honorable.

Passionné jusqu'au bout de ses baguettes, cet auteur-compositeur et parfois interprète gère très bien ces contradictions. "Je participe à Nouvelle Star pour offrir mon expérience de musicien à des gens passionnés qui aimeraient faire de la musique leur métier. Le reste ne m'intéresse pas. Je sais que la télévision et les impératifs d'audience imposent ces à-côtés. Mais je ne les cautionne pas." Liberté de parole totale plutôt rare à la télévision. Un privilège dont Manu Katché est bien conscient: "Je suis totalement libre de dire ce que je pense. Je suis mon propre maître, ce qui n'est peut-être pas le cas de Dove Attia, rattaché à l'industrie du disque, qui peut-être doit mesurer ses propos."

Le système n'est pas la seule cible des critiques du bonhomme. Ses jugements à l'égard des apprenties stars sont souvent implacables. "Mais je me dois d'être sincère, rétorque le batteur. La moindre des choses est d'être honnête à leur égard. Si je fais partie du jury, c'est grâce à la caution artistique que j'y apporte. Ce serait vraiment injuste de pousser des jeunes à faire ce métier alors qu'ils ne sont pas bons."

Maisons de disques démissionnaires

Batteur d'envergure internationale, Manu Katché a collaboré avec Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel ou Sting entre autres pointures. Il n'hésite pas à s'engager pour des causes, dont celle de Youssou N'Dour contre la malaria. Il a également sorti fin 2005 un album, Neighbourhood. Certainement le premier album d'une longue série, que rien ne devrait venir contrarier. "Ce sera ma dernière participation à Nouvelle Star. Il faut absolument garder l'envie et la spontanéité, la curiosité et la disponibilité pour être jury. Je pense qu'après trois éditions, ma fraîcheur sera un peu entamée. Or, les candidats méritent une implication totale."

Certes. Mais ce travail de découverte ne serait-il pas celui des maisons de disques, trop frileuses aujourd'hui sur le développement de nouveaux artistes?

"C'est vrai. Il y a dix ans encore, elles employaient des chercheurs de talents qui arpentaient les petites salles de concert pour découvrir de nouveaux groupes. Aujourd'hui, c'est fini. Pour moi, il faudrait plutôt chercher là la crise des Majors et non toujours mettre en cause le téléchargement pirate."

Sarah Pernet

Nouvelle Star
M6
20h50

DAVID GILMOUR :- ON AN ISLAND

After being exposed to David Gilmour's 'On an Island' in its entirety, we can now confirm that it is the work of art we had hoped it would be.

It consists of a series of 10 beautifully understated songs that flow into each other exquisitely, providing the perfect foil for the return of this pioneering "rock" musician. Dave's guitar work is incomparably crystalline throughout the length of 'On an Island' and the actual solos that flow forth from his fingers are easily some of the best of his career. The production elements of this multi-layered recording are equally lush and you can be assured that the CD sounds outstanding on an appropriate hi-fi setup. Being totally worth the wait, 'On an Island' is a stunningly rousing album that "progressive" music enthusiasts will lap up with deep glee. Think Peter Gabriel, the Alan Parsons Project, some of Phil Manzanera's post Roxy Music stuff, Pink Floyd (of course) + Dave's other "solo" albums and you'll get the idea

-- it's an utterly essential release that we wholeheartedly recommend.

90 minutes de musique pour le Fifa Gala perdues ?

On ne peut recycler le gala d'ouverture de la coupe du monde

Vos amis Brian Eno et Peter Gabriel étaient aussi impliqués...

André Heller : Exact. Les deux avaient déjà composé et arrangé 90 minutes de musique. Ce n'est toutefois pas encore tout : Pour la scène il y aurait eu une innovation technique, à laquelle encore personne ne s'est osé avant nous - le terrain entier devait se transformer sur toute sa surface et devoiler un gigantesque écran d'ordinateur formé de LED, en interagissant avec jusqu'à 8000 figures avec des costumes de lumière commandés par ordinateur également. de cinq millions de petites images jusqu'à un énorme, tout était possible.

(traduit approximativement de l'allemand, le texte original ci-dessous)

Die WM-Eröffnung kann man nicht recyceln

(...)

Ihre Freunde Brian Eno und Peter Gabriel waren auch involviert...

Heller: Richtig. Die beiden haben bereits 90 Minuten Musik komponiert und arrangiert. Das ist aber noch nicht alles: Als Bühne gab es eine technische Innovation, an die sich noch niemand vor uns heran- gewagt hat – das ganze Spielfeld sollte sich in eine vom Computer ansteuerbare LED-Fläche verwandeln, darauf agierend bis zu 8000 Figuren mit ebenfalls computergesteuerten Lichtkostümen. Von fünf Millionen kleinen Bildern bis zu einem riesigen war alles möglich.

Tambourine Man

He used to earn pennies singing in Kolkata’s trains. Today Paris-based Baul singer Paban Das is cutting albums for Peter Gabriel’s label.

Trains running between Kolkata and north Bengal, after sauntering out of the metropolis, pick up speed around what can be broadly outlined as Baul territory: Bolpur, Santiniketan, Sainthia, Burdwan and Rampurhat. It is from around this region that Bauls—Bengal’s own hippies, its wandering minstrels—embark on the trains, sing their songs that philosophize about life and death and earn alms from passengers.

Forty four-year-old Paban Das Baul was among the luckier and more gifted singers. He could be heard above the rattle of the rails and his voice evoked enough admiration and sympathy from passengers to help him earn anything from a rupee to Rs 200, as a foreign lady once gave him in Santiniketan. ‘‘It was a big sum in those days. But such sums came along only once in a while, otherwise what I got barely helped me subsist,’’ recalls Das, who started singing for alms with his father after their family had to sell off their land and property.

These days, a simple Google search collates the distance the man has travelled with his music. From Morocco, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Mexico and France, to a fusion of jazz, rock, gospel, ambient electronica and club.

Notwithstanding the background soundscape, the only time Das felt he was not allowed to come into his own with his singing is on the collaborative album Tana Tani, which he released with UK-based State of Bengal member Sam Zaman. ‘‘They kept the vocal levels low and deliberately played up the background score. They wanted to create club music at the cost of Baul,’’ says the Paris-based musician who was in Kolkata recently.

In all this, there is an anomaly that has kept the singer-songwriter worried. The music of Bauls—riding the repute earned by Purna Das Baul in the West during the ’60s—has had high-profile endorsers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Das, a protégé‚ of Purna Das, has found recommendations from writers like Ruchir Joshi, who included him in his acclaimed documentary 11 Miles, and William Dalrymple.

In an article he wrote for The Guardian in the UK, Dalrymple is clearly besotted by ‘‘the celebrated Baul’’. His voice, Dalrymple wrote, was ‘‘deep and smoky, alternately urgent and sensuous’’.

Even musically, Das has collaborated with the likes of avant-garde musician and musicologist Sam Mills, which resulted in the critically approved album Real Sugar, and with French jazz prodigy Cheick Tidiane.

His long-running relationship with musician Peter Gabriel, whose label Real World has resulted in a number of albums; Das also performs at Gabriel’s music festival WOMAD.

None among his 11 albums, Das regrets, has been recorded in India or his home state, West Bengal. The couple of times Kolkata-based record companies have approached him, Das says, the terms set by them were so stiff that he had to walk away from the offer.

‘‘Recently one of the companies wanted to record my singing, but on the day of the recording I had a sore throat. When I told them that, they said that I’d have to pay for the entire recording cost and also for the accompanying musicians. There was no way I could pay that amount,’’ he rues.

There have been exceptions. The pioneer of the Asian Underground sound in the UK, tabla player Talvin Singh, when he teamed up with Das at the recent Jaipur Festival, mentions being floored by the intensity of the music. ‘‘We had one helluva concert that night,’’ says Singh, hours before a recent concert in Kolkata. ‘‘We also had a few Rajasthani folk musicians joining me and Paban Das and the whole atmosphere was electrifying.’’

It was a 1979 French documentary film on the Bauls of Bengal called Le Chant Des Fou (Songs of the Madmen), that led to Das getting invited to the country in 1980 by Radio France. His relationship with Paris has evolved since then. ‘‘Sometimes when I don’t have any concerts in France, I can earn my living by performing at public places,’’ he says.

By Shamik Bag

GABRIEL JUNIOR KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

Rocker PETER GABRIEL only sings songs his three-year-old son ISAAC likes - or the toddler complains.

The former GENESIS frontman is convinced his son's musical taste is already finely developed, as he communicates his preferences all the time.

He says : "(I sing) anything rhythmic because that amuses Isaac".

"He's very opinionated about his music... 'I don't like this song! Play this one again!'"

Thanks...Here's a Ball

Balls like this are consolation prizes for the performers; model Heidi Klum is notBalls like this are consolation prizes for the performers;

More than 12,000 volunteer performers signed up for the opening gala of the soccer World Cup and practiced for months. When the event was cancelled, authorities made sure to thank them for their troubles...with a ball.

It was supposed to be a mega event to open one of the globe's biggest sporting events, featuring stars like Peter Gabriel and Jesseye Norman. But then FIFA, world soccer's governing body, suddenly pulled the plug in January. The official reason, according to FIFA, was that the lavish opening ceremony to be held in Berlin's Olympic Stadium would damage the grass on the field before the first game on June 13 between Brazil and Croatia.

That left thousands of dancers and other performers who had answered calls to volunteer for the glitzy production planned by Austrian artist André Heller, out in the cold. They weren't out of a pay check, since they'd been volunteers anyway, but they'd wasted hours and hours of painstaking practice. FIFA promised recompense in some form or another.

A month and a half later, it's been decided. FIFA will mail out about 12,000 soccer balls to the spurned performers. It's claimed that grass is the reason the big show was nixed Now these aren't just any soccer balls; these are the official Adidas soccer balls of the World Cup, on which will be printed "vielen Dank!" ("Thanks a lot!").

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, there was much debate within FIFA as to what the redress would look like. Many preferred something cultural, such as special showings of the circus show "Afrika, Afrika," also produced by Heller.

"That solution seemed to us to be too complicated," Markus Siegler, a FIFA spokesman, told the paper. But he insists FIFA didn't get off on the cheap, although it might seem a soccer ball is pretty paltry payback for months of rehearsing for a show that never was to be. "Of course we negotiated a reduced price," he said. "But the gift still cost FIFA 200,000 euros."

BAND IS A HIT AT PETER GABRIEL'S STUDIOS

Education Reporter A SCHOOL band is celebrating the release of its third CD with the help of world famous musician Peter Gabriel.

Monkton Combe School Big Band has completed the disc, called Moving On, at Gabriel's Real World recording studio in Box.

More professional know-how came in the shape of producer and arranger Cy Payne, who is well known in the big band world.

The CD contains 15 tracks performed by the school's musicians, creating a classy and sophisticated sound.

Director of Music at the school Bernard Newman said: "I am thrilled with this third album - the sound is fantastic and I know that they all enjoyed the experience of working in a state of the art studio like Real World.

"We have sent complimentary copies to BBC Bristol so we are hoping that they may add some of the tracks to their play list."

As well as having a strong following here at home, the band but has recently toured both Canada and America.

Copies of the CD are available by calling the school on 01225 721129.