WOMAD comes to Wiltshire

THE WOMAD music festival will be coming home to north Wiltshire next year, 25 years after it was conceived here.Musician Peter Gabriel came up with the idea for the festival - The World of Music, Arts and Dance - in 1980 at his Real World studios in Box.

The first WOMAD event was held two years later in Somerset and since then it has travelled across the country, and has spent the last 17 years in Reading, Berkshire. The organisers have decided the festival has outgrown the Reading site and have decided to try and bring it back to the place it was created.

The organisers are not disclosing the location of the new festival site but the Chippenham News understands that Charlton Park, near Malmesbury, has been approached to host the event. The three-day music event is the UK's biggest festival of international music and regularly draws crowds of up to 40,000 people to the Reading area It is expected to take place from July 27-29 next year.

Organisers at WOMAD's head office at Gabriel's studios in Box say the festival had outgrown the Reading site and they were delighted to have found a new home in Wiltshire near to their headquarters.They added that they were proud of their achievements at Reading but felt they needed to move in order to protect its long-term future and audience appeal.

North Wiltshire District Council has held a meeting with the organisers to discuss the proposed move to Charlton Park next summer. A spokesman said: "We have had a preliminary discussion with the organisers and understand it could involve up to 45,000 people in attendance."An event safety group meeting has been organised for later this month and we anticipate a premises licence application later in this year."If this goes ahead it will be the largest event ever to be held in north Wiltshire."

Leader of the council Carol O'Gorman said: "It is wonderful news for north Wiltshire."This will encourage people to come and stay and share north Wiltshire with us and will help our economy and bring people in."I can't wait for it to go ahead." She deflected claims that the festival would be a nightmare for health and safety and would bring traffic problems, adding: "We have got a brilliant team at North Wilts, an expert team of officers, who will be looking in to that and will sort it out."We have to be up for it, and we will be."

Rock star's global festival heads for village

Villagers in Charlton, near Malmesbury, have been left stunned at the news that Peter Gabriel's giant world music festival could be moving to Charlton Park next year. Womad is described as the UK's biggest festival of international music and attracts crowds of up to 45,000. It has been based in Reading for the last 17 years, but has outgrown its Rivermead venue. Held over a three-day weekend in July, Womad this year featured 80 artists from 40 countries.
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Independent financial adviser Brian Pickering, of St John's Way, said he doubted the village could cope. "It's rather startling," he said. "All we've got here is a pub, two bus stops and a telephone box. "I don't think we will be able to cope with that many people. You also don't know whether it would cause any security problems for the village."

Colin Legge, of Bullocks Horn, also doubted the village could cope with so many people at once.
But Margaret Langley, 58, of Park Street, who lives near the entrance to the park, said she would welcome the festival.

"It sounds like quite an impressive event and it's only for one weekend," she said."It's got to be good for the village to have an event like that, so it doesn't worry me."If it gets too noisy I'll just have to close the windows. Mrs Langley added she would be interested to go and watch the festival. Reuben Waller, general manager of the Horse and Groom Inn, The Street, said it could be beneficial."We will have three or four rooms for visitors by the time the festival comes," he said."I cannot imagine too many traders will be unhappy and, even if they are, it's only for a weekend."The Rev Richard East, of St John the Baptist Church, said everyone should make the most of the festival."It sounds fine by me and we will have to make plans to embrace it," he said.

It's enough to make you cry

The duduk, with its mournful tones, is a rising Hollywood star.

If red is the color of passion and chocolate the food of love, then the duduk has surreptitiously become the sound of sadness. Most of us can't name the instrument, but we've heard it so often that if we were paying attention, it might almost border on cliché. Almost.

The duduk (pronounced doo-dook), is an ancient instrument from the Caucasus that looks a bit like a recorder. No longer than a forearm and with a range of just an octave, it sounds like a voice crying or wind howling across a mountaintop, its tone fleshy and pulpy, deep and haunting. Anyone who has watched a tear-jerker has probably heard the duduk's mournful echoes. Peter Gabriel's score in "The Last Temptation of Christ" introduced us to it almost 20 years ago — music on which Djivan Gasparian, the duduk's best-known ambassador, played.

Like a Hollywood star, the instrument then took a sabbatical, showing up only in an occasional film or a pilot that never made it. In the last 10 years, however, it has made a very steady showing and is now an expected guest at all the right parties.

Its evocative sound surfaces again Friday night when the new season of Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" begins, featuring a soundtrack adorned with what its composer, Bear McCreary, calls "a simple wooden pipe [that] emotes generations of sadness." A duduk solo, with text sung in Armenian, is featured in a McCreary song that follows the first episode's main title Friday.

The duduk's rising star owes a debt to the half-million Armenians that call Los Angeles home. This large Armenian community — the largest in the world outside of Armenia — has provided a steady base of musicians, teachers, instrument makers and, not least of all, fans that helped the duduk transition from ethnic enclave to mainstream culture.

On a trip to Los Angeles to visit his two daughters and their families — as well as to record the scores for "Syriana" and "The Da Vinci Code" — Gasparian, now 76, still seemed surprised by his fame as a master of a once-obscure instrument. "Many years ago, a Russian journalist asked me if I had made the duduk famous or if the duduk had made me famous," Gasparian says. "I still don't have an answer."

How and why did a simple shepherd's flute move from an ethnic curiosity to a staple in the Hollywood composer's arsenal? "I don't think there's anything that sounds as close to the human voice, and there's nothing as compelling to the human ear as the human voice," explains Jon Ehrlich, whose credits include now-defunct TV shows "Invasion" and "The Agency," and who composed a piece for the duduk for his own wedding.

It's a great dramatic tool for composers, Ehrlich points out. "With the duduk, you're pointing to a moment you want to keep alive, making a static moment breathe and be alive," he says.

"Battlestar Galactica" composer McCreary attributes the duduk's rise to "a current trend in films and television to branch away from the traditional orchestral score, which opens the door for unusual instruments and non-Western musical influences."

His roots led him to the instrument. "I first introduced the sound of the duduk mainly as background color in my orchestration, simply as a way to represent my Armenian heritage," says McCreary, who first heard the duduk while researching and writing an opera based on his grandmother's exodus from Turkey after the 1915 Armenian genocide. "I was instantly struck by the haunting, vocal quality.

"However, as the scoring process for 'Galactica' went on, I found it more useful than I had originally imagined, and the producers responded to the intimacy and power of the sound. It was not long before a mournful duduk wailed over the main title."

Although the show last season saw some changes, the duduk remained. "Set against the heavy percussion in the 'Battlestar Galactica' score, the duduk has an even more powerful impact," McCreary says. "During the most dramatic scenes, a melodic instrument will always resonate more with viewers."There is the danger, of course, of going to the well too often. "It seems like composers are getting tired of the duduk or at least they're afraid it will get overused," says Chris Bleth, Gasparian's first American student and a professional duduk player who has worked with Ehrlich and McCreary. "I get asked, 'What's like the duduk but isn't?' "
Yet the duduk's sound is so ephemeral it has yet to be synthesized successfully.

"The depth of perception — the stirring mournfulness that comes from so many years of suffering — at some level we can all relate to that," says Pedro Eustache, a woodwind musician and ethnic instrument disciple who played the duduk in scores for "The Passion of the Christ" and "Munich," among others. But, he adds, "I will not let movies define the duduk. The duduk is the antidote to desensitization."

"It's slowly become part of the musical landscape," Ehrlich says of the instrument. "That's staying power."

THE BUSINESS OF CHANGING THE WORLD

Twenty Global Leaders Discuss Integrated Philanthropy in Marc Benioff's Latest Book - THE BUSINESS OF CHANGING THE WORLD

Michael Dell, Craig Barrett, Michael Milken, Steve Case as Well as Musician Peter Gabriel and World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab Discuss the Value of Integrated Philanthropy

(...)With the mission to educate corporations of all sizes on the potential to give back, Benioff gathered together twenty outstanding global leaders, including Michael Dell and Kevin Rollins of Dell, Craig Barrett from Intel , Steve Case, founder of AOL, Revolution, and The Case Foundation, musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel, Alan Hassenfeld of Hasbro , Steve Burd of Safeway , Jim Donald of Starbucks , John Morgridge of Cisco , Michael Milken of The Milken Institute, Mike Eskew of UPS , Phil Marineau of Levi Strauss, Akinobu Kanasugi of NEC , Jeffrey Swartz of Timberland , Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, Jean-Pierre Garnier of GlaxoSmithKline , Larry Fish of Citizens Financial Group, Marilyn Carlson Nelson of the Carlson Companies, and Laura Scher of Working Assets. Charles H. Moore of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy contributed the forward to the book, rounding out the group of leaders. (...)

Digital music awards honours MySpace influence

(...)The 2006 BT Digital Music Awards didn't showcase an industry "coming of age" as The Guardian has it. Digital music's pubescence is long behind it as far as the public is concerned. It's more like a confused late-20 something now, torn between settling down, getting fat, and going to dinner parties with rich buddies, and its heritage as an agitator, grinding the cutting edge. A sharpness was detectable at times last night, thankfully.

Accepting an award for pioneering online music, Peter Gabriel alluded to the continuing conciousness struggle. He said there was still ample opportunity for artists to assume control of their own careers, which is precisely what the music business is scrambling to stymie. The biggest cheers from the assembled crowd of record company and marketing suits went up whenever an artist or campaign was mentioned which had pulled a fast one on the public. Ex-Bedales public schoolgirl Lily Allen's internet-spearheaded coronation as an "edgy" yet ubiquitous pop princess amused them immensely. (...)

Peter Gabriel awarded the 'Pioneer' Award by the BT Digital Music Awards

"The event is called the BT Digital Music Awards, which is taking place this year on October 3rd at the Roundhouse. It's the first music awards show to go into the Roundhouse since it's been refurbished and we're really looking forward to hosting a show with live music in there.The Digital Music Awards is in its sixth year now, and celebrates UK music artists, projects and services across digital platforms. The awards are either voted for by professional panels, or the public, or a combination of both. Last year's event at the Hammersmith Palais featured live performances from Magic Numbers, Turin Brakes, Roots Manuva, The Crimea, Mew and Goldie Lookin' Chain in collaboration with the Philharmonia. A specially-commissioned TV programme was then aired on Channel 4 the following night, which included pre-recorded features on digital music, interviews with more artists as well as the live performances and interviews from the awards show. Since "digital" is such big news these days, we felt it was important to give an award this year to remind people of some of the early work that was done to get us to where we are now. We want to call this the Pioneer Award and we'd like the very first one to go to Peter" A specially-commissioned TV programme has been made for Channel 4. This will be going out twice. Once on the 7th October, which will be a 15 minute round up of the awards and will feature Peter. The full programme goes out on the 21st October - currently at 11.30/midnight, but check listings in case this changes The Digital Music Awards site Channel 4

Undiscovered Countries

(cliquez sur l'image / click on the picture)
Durée : 5'52"
Titre : More Than This
Artiste : Peter Gabriel
Format : XviD
Taille : 81.4 Mo
Créateurs : WalterScott



Clip en hommage à deux figures de la culture nippone, Kenji Miyazawa, auteur pour enfant et poète, et Osamu Tezuka, qu'il n'est plus besoin de présenter. Les sources : Phoenix (Hi no Tori) concernant Tezuka, Night on the Galactic Railroad et Spring & Chaos (deux films avec des chats si vous voulez les reconnaître dans ce clip) concernant Miyazawa. Ce clip a gagné dans les catégories Best Dramatic, Best Sentimental et Grand Prix à l'AWA 2006 Pro contest, le concours Pro de la convention Anime Weekend Atlanta de cette année. Envoutant, c'est le mot qui décrit peut-être le mieux cette video. La chanson de Peter Gabriel combinée aux images de ces différents animes plutôt méconnus vous convie à un voyage chargé d'émotions. Superbe.

Postcards from East Oceanside: Greatest Hits

PAULA COLE

Postcards from East Oceanside: Greatest Hits

Paula Cole’s ‘Postcards from East Oceanside: Greatest Hits’ offers a delightful taste of her music career which has spanned the past decade.

Following in the footsteps of Kate Bush and Tori Amos, the starkly autobiographical elements of some Cole songs are tempered by her more "pop" orientated songs like ‘I Don’t Want to Wait’.

After graduating from the esteemed Berklee College of Music in 1990, the Massachusetts born singer/songwriter landed the job of backing vocalist on Peter Gabriel's Secret World tour of '93 and '94.

Coming off the road she released her debut album for Imago Records, ‘Harbinger’, which is represented by four tracks on the 'Greatest Hits' collection: most notably the more autobiographical tracks ‘I Am So Ordinary’ and ‘Bethlehem’ which deal with adolescent alienation and ‘Happy Home’ which examines the façade of family felicity.

Imago Records went out of business and Cole signed with Warner Brothers for her second album, ‘This Fire’ (1996), which won her a Grammy Award for the best new artist. The hits ‘Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?’ and the (hugely overplayed) theme song‘Dawson’s Creek’ ‘I Don’t Want to Wait’ propelled Cole into mainstream stardom.

Unsurprisingly the album they came from is the most represented on the collection. The six tracks featured here also include ‘Greatest Hits’‘Me’, which is in many ways similar to ‘I Am So Ordinary’; the more upbeat ‘Feelin’ Love’; the love song ‘Carmen’; and the hauntingly beautiful duet with Peter Gabriel ‘Hush, Hush, Hush’, which was written for a friend who died of Aids.

Cole’s third album, ‘Amen’ (1999) took on a slightly more esoteric note, with songs like the title track and ‘God is Watching’ questioning the destruction of earth and the violence of mankind. Both are featured here as well as the more pop orientated ‘I Believe in Love’.

‘Greatest Hits’ also includes Cole’s cover of Johnny Mercer’s ‘Autumn Leaves’ from the soundtrack of the movie ‘Midnight Garden of Good and Evil’. This jazzy track adds further depth to the collection and highlights Cole’s versatility as a singer.

So do the two previously unreleased tracks — ‘Tomorrow I Will Be Yours’ and the title track ‘Postcards from East Oceanside’. The former, which harks back to the autobiographical/narrative style of ‘Harbinger’, tells the story of lost childhood love and the intimacy of this ‘personal’ account is Cole at her best.

She lets you in to share her misery and inadequacies and takes you with her as she soars to great heights. Her strong voice has an amazing range and each song is carefully crafted and polished.
‘Postcards from East Oceanside’ isn't quite as accomplished. With Cole exploring the innocence of girlhood, the high-pitched whispery vocal does little to mask the fact that it's probably the least noteworthy track on the album.

So if you already own her first three albums, ‘Postcards from East Oceanside: Greatest Hits’ is probably not worth getting, but if not, it offers a comprehensive taste of everything that is great about Paula Cole.

Rebekah Kendal
Tue, 03 Oct 2006

WOMAD to move to new site

from Berkshire to Wiltshire

WOMAD WOMAD 2007

WOMAD - a World Of Music, Arts, and Dance - is to move to a new home in 2007, after being based at Rivermead, Reading since 1990.

WOMAD is intensely proud of its achievement at Rivermead together with Reading Borough Council and appreciates the support and endorsement of both the Council and the people of Reading. They feel honoured to have experienced a unique, creative and truly valuable partnership with Reading Borough Council during our years of working together.

However, after seventeenth festivals at Rivermead, it's felt that WOMAD has now outgrown the available land, and so a decision has been made to move to protect the long-term future and audience appeal.

Audience feedback after WOMAD Rivermead in 2005 included strong criticism of the site as a whole, and a feeling of overcrowding in particular. In order to alleviate these problems, WOMAD implemented substantial changes to the festival site in 2006, but despite these improvements a perception of overcrowding remains.

As a result, the WOMAD festival team felt there was no alternative than to seek a new venue in which to present the WOMAD Festival in future years. Thomas Brooman - Managing and Artistic Director, WOMAD - said "We are keen to express our sincere goodwill towards Reading Borough Council and our support for every element of our working partnership in producing the WOMAD Festival each year at Rivermead."

A new site has already been found in Wiltshire. Full details of the new festival site will be announced on Wednesday 1st November, and tickets for the 2007 festival - taking place from Friday 27th until Sunday 29th July - will be put on sale on that date.

Ali Farka Touré : L'HOMMAGE AU GUITAR-HERO

Ali Farka Touré : L'HOMMAGE AU GUITAR-HERO

l'Essor n°15799 du - 2006-10-02 08:00:00

Le comité préparatoire des journées d'hommage à Ali Farka Touré, prévues les 6, 7 et 8 mars 2007 à Bamako et Niafunké, est à pied d'oeuvre.

Il vient de rencontrer la presse à l'hôtel Nord-Sud pour lui exposer de l'état des préparatifs et les enjeux de cet événement désigné sous le vocable peulh "Jammal poï". Les anciens ministres Moustapha Dicko et Aminata Dramane Traoré sont les parrains du comité. La fête sera placée sous le haut patronage du président de la République, Amadou Toumani Touré.

Selon Temo Tamboura, le parcours d'Ali Farka Touré sera revisité au cours de ses journées d'hommage dont l'objectif est de sensibiliser l'opinion nationale et internationale sur la nécessité d'assurer la conservation des oeuvres léguées par le célèbre artiste. Ce patrimoine va répondre à des besoins d'exploitation universitaire, radiophonique et culturelle.

Le programme d'activités prévoit des conférences-débats, un méga concert organisé au stade Modibo Keita et animé par des stars de la musique malienne, africaine et mondiale. Les mélomanes devraient déguster le meilleur de Toumani Diabaté, Oumou Sangaré, Manu Dibango, Youssou Ndour, Alpha Blondy, du Bembeya Jazz, de Ry Cooder, Marcus James, Boni Wright et Peter Gabriel. Les plus hautes autorités rendront également hommage à la mémoire du virtuose disparu. Le voyage de recueillement à Niafunké sur la tombe de Ali Farka Touré bouclera les manifestations.

Le budget de l'organisation s'élève à plus 90 millions de Fcfa et sera constitué de dons et subventions. A cet effet, une opération de quête et de sponsoring est lancée et les fonds collectés seront déposés sur le compte bancaire de la Fondation Ali Farka.

Le défi est d'importance et la cause noble. Le guitariste a apporté une touche particulière à la "World music" en l'enrichissant de son style particulier. L'artiste a également laissé à la postérité, un héritage artistique riche de sept albums de notoriété internationale. Il a hissé la musique malienne sur la plus haute marche de la notoriété. Deux Grammy Awards music ont ainsi récompensé l'inspiration et la maestria d'Ali Farka à travers l'album "Timbuktu" en 1995. Le bluesman est sorti de scène en beauté. Le CD "In the heart of the moon" enregistré en duo avec Toumani Diabaté en 2005, berce les âmes et auréole le souvenir du disparu.

M. KONATÉ

Genesis Will Reform Next Year For Tour

But without Peter Gabriel...

Genesis’ long-mooted reunion will go ahead next year – but without original member Peter Gabriel.

Gabriel had said he would rejoin the band for the first time in decades for a reunion tour – but his schedule wouldn’t allow anything to happen until 2008.

In now appears Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks – who had a string of hits in the eighties - will now go ahead without him, undertaking a money-spinning tour of America and Europe themselves.

According to a report in the Sunday Mirror, Collins is particularly keen to get on with it after kicking his feels following his split from his third wife earlier this year.

Realworld News

1-Oct-2006

I can't take any more! So that's it for entries in the Shock The Monkey Remix Competition. We must apologize for our minimal Hot Picks in the final batch, there were many great mixes, but we just didn't have time to engage our ears and minds for long enough to filter the content - as you might have noticed these picks are pretty random, just an inital reaction as we listen for approval - it's your top ten lists that count (and the ratings for other non-competition packs on the site) Just to clarify, some of you have been playing fast and loose with the PG catalogue in your mixes, and we've let that slip through, but obviously we couldn't do this when other people's music was involved. Right up to this last night of submissions the music has been amazing, so thanks to everyone who's been involved - it looks like around 740 mixes of Shock The Monkey have made it into the competition (is this a record?) so please help us out by filling in your top ten (but only do it once! we're looking out for odd voting patterns) We've all got lot's of listening to do. If we've made and mistakes in what we have approved,denied and replaced, let us know and we'll get it sorted (but not tonight!) Hopefully the mixes will keep coming, and as we said in our last post, new Sample Packs are on their way (more on this later in the week) We'll keep you posted on developments in the run up to next Saturdays announcement of the winner in this little game. More to come, but from the early hours of October all we can say is keep mixing, keep the votes and comments flowing and thanks for the music! Listen vote and comment at realworldremixed.com

We love... Thomas Dolby

Some people have all the luck. You'll probably remember Thomas Dolby for two songs from the '80s that brought a smile to your lips: She Blinded Me With Science, and Hyperactive!

Along with a career as musician and producer of the likes of David Bowie, George Clinton, Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock, Def Leppard, the Thompson Twins and Stevie Wonder, he also married a Hollywood actress, Kathleen Beller, who is best remembered as Kirby Colby in Dynasty.

Not content with that, Dolby went on to found electronics company Beatnik, Inc. It, in turn, created the polyphonic ringtone, currently in use in more than 100 million mobile telephones across the world.

Dolby was born Thomas Morgan Robertson in 1958 in London, the son of professor of Greek history, and he spent his childhood living in Mediterranean countries like Greece, Italy and France.

He was nicknamed Dolby by friends after he began building his own synthesisers when he was 18 years old. However, when he released a song under the moniker Dolby's Cube, he incurred the wrath of Dolby Laboratories, which sued him for using its name. The case was settled when he agreed never to use the word other than with Thomas.

Riding on the crest of new electronic music that sprang up in the wake of the New Romantic movement, Dolby earned an eccentric boffin reputation for his music, not least for his first hit, She Blinded Me With Science, which featured the enormously popular TV scientist Magnus Pyke, shouting the song's title over a quirky synth melody.

The song was included on his debut album, The Golden Age of Wireless, released in 1982. Perversely, it sold far better in the US than at home (although that was second time round, after She Blinded Me With Science became a top five hit there), probably to Americans drawn by the Englishness of Dolby's music.

Those that didn't buy it missed out on a series of classic songs, like Airwaves, Windpower, Europa and the Pirate Twins, One of Our Submarines, and Cloudburst on Main Street.
He followed it up with The Flat Earth in 1984. In typical Dolby style, he wrong-footed everyone's expectations by releasing what was his biggest UK hit to date, Hyperactive! A frenetic, funny pop song that could well be frowned upon today with it's not-quite-respectful view of mental illness, it remains hugely popular, even if it wasn't the huge hit that everyone thinks it was.

Dolby became tied up in producing other people's work for most of the rest of the '80s, writing film scores (including, bizarrely, Howard the Duck). He was also the keyboard player on Def Leppard's 1983 Pyromania album, credited as Booker T Boffin, and performed the same job at Live Aid in 1985 in David Bowie's band.

His third album, Aliens Ate My Buick, came out in 1988, but was poorly received, despite containing the hits Airhead, Hot Sauce and May the Cube Be With You.

Along with a final album, Astronauts and Heretics, in 1992, Dolby became increasingly involved in scoring music for cinema, and also founded a music software company called Headspace. He moved from that to founding Beatnik, Inc. After relinquishing his position as CEO, he founded Retro Ringtones in 2002, and has continued to create hundreds of digital polyphonic ring tones, including the polyphonic version of the Nokia signature theme.

After a 25-year break from solo performing, Dolby returned to the road with a surprise gig in San Francisco at the start of this year. He is currently touring the US.

Essential Thomas Dolby

While hard to find in many record shops today, much of Thomas Dolby's work can be downloaded over the internet.

Here's a few of our favourites.

From The Golden Age of Wireless:

Airwaves: Beautiful atmospheric tune featuring guitars and strings, and proving that Dolby's music is as much European as English;
She Blinded Me With Science: Reportedly hated by Dolby, but one of the funniest and most original pop songs ever written;

One of Our Submarines: Excellent and well-timed use of samples give this a wonderful Cold War era feel;
Cloudburst on Main Street: Like a memory of a happy, sun-filled, childhood holiday, somewhere in Britain;

From The Flat Earth:

Dissidents: Another Iron Curtain evocation;

Screen Kiss: Beautiful love song with disturbing lyrics about Tinseltown;

I Scare Myself: Surprising soft jazz disguises a dark heart, and the trademark humour's not far away, either;

Hyperactive!: You all love it - a headlong rush through an outsider's battle with an authority that fails to understand him

Sep 25 2006

Duncan Higgitt, Western Mail

Top Ten Songs by Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel's 30-year solo career has produced a wealth of extraordinary music.

Whether writing for a studio album, or for film, Gabriel is consistent in intensity and talent.

Gabriel's love songs can be every bit as poignant as his political pieces.

In nearly 30 years since becoming a solo artist, Peter Gabriel has released some of the most riveting music of a generation. Whether writing songs about relationships, politics, philosophy, or composing music for movie soundtracks, there is intensity to Peter Gabriel’s music that is consistent, and his compositions are inspiring.

What follows is my list of the top ten greatest songs by Peter Gabriel as a solo artist. Although he released some amazing work with Genesis, it is on his own that he really released his true genius. The most challenging thing about compiling this list was determining what to leave off it.

10. “In Your Eyes”
It is an extraordinary occasion when massive airplay cannot cause a song to become tired. “In Your Eyes,” from Peter Gabriel’s 1986 monster hit album So is one of those rarest of love songs. It is a beautiful and stirring song to listen to. It is radio friendly, but not dumbed down. The song is a simple masterpiece. “In your eyes, I see the doorway to a thousand churches.”

9. “The Tower that Ate People”
Peter Gabriel took some time off just before the turn of the millennium to compose a stage show that was performed New Year’s Eve 1999 at the Millennium Dome in London. The show was entitled OVO. The track “the Tower that Ate People” is a gritty song throughout, but progresses through some melodic moments that take the listener by surprise.

8. “Solsbury Hill”
Always one to do things his own way, artistically, Peter Gabriel named each of his first three solo albums Peter Gabriel. For clarity’s sake, they have become commonly known as [1], [2], and [3]. His 1977 first solo release, [1], included the single “Solsbury Hill,” a song that, nearly thirty years after its release, is as current and significant as it was when it was released.

7. “Here Comes the Flood”
Another track from [1], “Here Comes the Flood” is a simple, sad, melodic piece that is atypically sparse in production. A collaboration with Robert Fripp, an even more pared down version of the song can be heard on Fripp’s album Exposure. Both versions are beautiful.

6. “Washing of the Water”
1992’s Us, an album about loss and sadness recorded after Peter Gabriel’s break up with longtime partner Rosanna Arquette, is a work of art that offers several tracks of profound emotional intensity. “Washing of the Water” is a somber song that gains power as it progresses, while never increasing in tempo.

5. “Sky Blue”
In 2002, Peter Gabriel released his long awaited follow up to Us, entitled Up. The track “Sky Blue” is one of the most amazing pieces in Gabriel’s catalog, in my opinion. A song about continuous travel, he enlisted the amazing voices of the Blind Boys of Alabama for the song, and it is one that should not be missed.

4. “Family Snapshot”
A song that evokes the stories of John Hinckley, Jr. and Mark David Chapman, “Family Snapshot,” from Peter Gabriel’s third eponymous album from 1980 is a forceful song from the viewpoint of a messed up kid with family problems who is on a hunt to shoot the president. “The governor’s car is not far behind. He’s not the one I’ve got in mind.” The narrative of the song coupled with the force of the music portrays a mind slipping into insanity and violence to chilling effect.

3. “Biko”
Also from his third album, “Biko” is a much-lauded tribute to South African political activist Stephen Biko. It is a stirring song, dense in its production, and was an effective tool for raising awareness about Apartheid to a younger generation in the 1980s.

2. “It is Accomplished”
Peter Gabriel wrote and recorded the entire score to the 1989 film The Last Temptation of Christ. Entitled Passion by Gabriel, it is, in my opinion, one of the most effective, stunning movie soundtracks of all time. One of the last few tracks, entitled “It is Accomplished” is an instrumental that is clean and joyful, and wonderful to listen to.

1. “Secret World (Live)”
The studio version of “Secret World” is on Peter Gabriel’s Us. A beautiful, evocative, painful song in its original form, I have none-the-less chosen the live version from the 1994 Secret World Live CD as my pick for the number one song by Peter Gabriel. Gabriel is an amazing live performer, and the power and emotion of this live version of “Secret World” is absolutely staggering.

Can Witness, Global Voices Make Human Rights Video Go Viral?

There is an impulse when we see quirky videos we like on YouTube to email them on to friends or co-workers. When those catchy videos start accumulating viewers, marketers say it’s gone viral through word-of-mouth popularity. So what if you could take videos shot by citizens of human rights violations, such as police brutality or torture, and got them to go viral, bringing more attention to the crimes?

That’s the hope of a pilot Human Rights Video Hub run as a joint venture of Witness and the Global Voices international blog aggregator.

The two non-profit groups have the perfect experience to make such a project work. Witness was co-founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel in 1992, and has enabled people to videotape and publicize human rights abuses worldwide. And Global Voices has become a respected outlet in the blogosphere for its editors based around the world who aggregate and explain issues that bloggers are writing about in various countries. The site recently won the Grand Prize in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism.

While Witness was founded right after the infamous video of Rodney King being beaten by police, it’s only now that Gabriel’s vision for the non-profit can be realized with so many citizens having videocameras and videophones — and the global platform of the Internet to promote them. Gillian Caldwell (pictured here), the executive director of Witness, told me they had high hopes for the Video Hub helping to make the tools of video advocacy available to anyone in the world.

“[Gabriel’s] initial concept for Witness involved the establishment of a populist media-creation platform,” she said via email. “He wanted to put video cameras into the hands of as many human rights activists as possible in the hope that they would capture evidence of abuses and put their footage into the public sphere, provoking global response. Peter knew that moving images communicate with an immediacy matched by no other medium, and they inspire people to take action. Today, with the emerging possibilities of media creation and distribution demanding our fresh attention, it’s time to take the next step in Witness’ evolution.”

The Video Hub pilot just launched a couple weeks ago, and has two fascinating blog posts so far. One post explains how people are using cell phones to show police misconduct in Malaysia, while the other showcases a video of Chinese police beating people after a protest surrounding the possible murder of a young teacher in Ruian.

In both cases, Video Hub editor Sameer Padania (pictured here), who’s based in London, worked with Global Voices editors to help shape a deeper exploration of the issues surrounding the videos, which were both posted on YouTube. In fact, the Video Hub during its pilot phase will host no videos, instead relying on public video-sharing sites to do the hosting, and simply embedding the videos in Global Voices blog posts.

Giving Videos More Exposure

Rebecca MacKinnon (pictured below), a co-founder of Global Voices and former CNN correspondent in Asia, told me she is planning to move to Hong Kong in January to teach journalism at Hong Kong University. MacKinnon will continue to work on Global Voices, and will help oversee the Video Hub project. She told me Witness.org was paying Padania a part-time salary and that Global Voices would help publicize the content using word-of-mouth in the blogosphere. Plus, Global Voices managing editor Rachel Rawlins would check each post to make sure the content is appropriate and fits with the site’s overall mission.

“We have a certain approach to what gets posted and how things need to be posted so they get traction in the blogosphere,” MacKinnon said. “So we’re working with [Padania] so before his posts get published that he’s linking to [relevant content] that’s out there. He’s working with various regional editors who follow blogs in their region…For example, with the China post, he got a lot of help from our Chinese language editor John Kennedy who translates things out of the Chinese blogosphere. [Padania] coordinates with them, and our managing editor gets a final sign-off to make sure it’s appropriate for Global Voices and checks for grammatical errors and so forth.”

So far, the story on China has picked up the most traction online, with a post on China Daily News and on BBC’s Newsnight blog .

But one advisor on the Human Rights Video Hub project, Rik Panganiban, notes on his blog that there are issues with having people commenting publicly on the videos at YouTube:

You can already see on the YouTube page of the Malaysian video some potentially offensive and even re-victimizing messages emerging from the open comments feature that many online video hosting sites support. What is the useful purpose served for someone to risk beating, imprisonment and even death to film a human rights violation and then have random surfers post comments like “ur filming sux like shit!” and ” u had such a good chance…what a waste…sigh…your hand shaking or what??”

Even worse, you could have a debate rage in the comments section between government apologists and protestors, or between different factions on a particular political issue. At what point will this create more heat than light? This is perhaps an acceptable risk. A few hurtful words is still better than imprisonment or a beating. Still, people posting content on sites like You Tube need to be prepared for the potential backlash.

On that particular video, there’s even a comment on YouTube from someone named ggk21 who claims to have been at the scene and thinks the police had cause to fire shots in the air as the people there “really provoke police with threat.” That comment could plant seeds of doubt as to what the circumstances were surrounding the police’s conduct. Perhaps Padania will have to return to these videos and check out future leads as to what happened and debunk public comments when necessary.

For now, MacKinnon hopes that Global Voices can help give context to the range of videos you can find on YouTube, and help separate the wheat from chaff.

“We’re not creating a human rights YouTube thing,” she said. “That has a very tough set of issues, bandwidth and hosting costs of course. It’s very difficult to control an open system where anyone can upload video. You can get a lot of things that you wouldn’t want to be vouching for, and wouldn’t necessarily be human rights issues…If you go into YouTube on your own, you’ll find all kinds of things, but it’s hard to find anything in particular and you don’t have context about what you’re seeing. That’s what we’re trying to do with [the Video Hub], providing that curating function and providing context. The point here is giving people a platform to have their messages amplified.”

Witness’ Grand Plans

MacKinnon says the current Video Hub is an experiment, and that Global Voices will use the lessons learned to incorporate citizen-generated video reports — not necessarily related to human rights — into future projects, not as yet planned. The Video Hub’s editor, Sameer Padania, eventually would like to see people notify him of videos they’ve posted.

“At the moment, we’re still sizing up the territory with regard to the kinds of videos we are finding,” Padania told me via email. “At this early stage it’s unlikely we would come across wholly original footage that no one else had seen, but as we go along, and more people get to know about the site, that becomes more possible. At this stage, we’re unlikely to be dealing with a video where we would need to assist the person(s) involved directly. The planned full-scale Video Hub is more likely to face those sorts of issues, and over the course of the pilot, we’ll be modeling how we would need to act.”

The Video Hub producer from Witness, Tina Gongsakdi (pictured here), told me her group takes very seriously the issues of safety for the videographer and for all the people involved in these troubling situations.

“Recently we have seen many examples of sites that have had to hand over user information to certain government organizations,” she told me via email. “Internet users often overestimate the security of their personal information — if the information is out there, ultimately it can be traced to you. As part of our support to users, we are providing guidance on anonymity [and security] , and also an extensive chapter in our ‘Video for Change’ training book on how to assess risk in filming, and ensure informed consent. However, we recognize that in an online context we do not have the capacity to provide comprehensive protection to individuals who post, and we are trying to make this clear to potential users.”

Despite all the risks, Witness still has plans to take the Video Hub to the next level after a three-to-six month pilot phase and accept videos directly to its site. The group’s executive director Gillian Caldwell envisions a site that will become “the global online destination” for video content related to human rights violations, and provide tools and resources for activists and journalists to take action and become engaged in the issues.

“The Video Hub will be a forum for online communities and individuals to organize around video and create positive change,” Caldwell said. “Imagine a ‘Darfur genocide’ user group, featuring daily uploads from mobile devices from four anonymous humanitarian aid workers of ongoing brutality, with coordinated email blasts including embedded links to the video targeting a U.S. Congressional subcommittee considering appropriations for an increase in security forces.”

Caldwell foresees a video site that will have three tiers of filtering: 1) Video Hub staff will review videos for inappropriate material such as copyright infringements or pornography; 2) users will rate videos for production quality, urgency and importance, and can flag inappropriate material; 3) editors and selected members of the human rights community will spotlight select videos that have been fact-checked to verify what happened.

It’s a nice plan, and the potential is obvious for creating such a video hub that allows submissions from the public and includes editorial vetting and context, such as what Global Voices is helping with today. But there are certainly tough issues surrounding such a future hub that is more open to submissions. As advisor Panganiban spells out on his blog :

There are a number of thorny questions to address in transforming Witness’ work into an Internet environment, including a number of difficult security, content management and community development challenges. How do you protect the identities of people who upload video content to the site? How do you manage the potentially thousands of videos that could be sent to the site? Should people be allowed to comment on and rate the videos? How to deal with graphic violence and sexual content?…

It seems self-evident that Witness.org staff are never going to be in a position to process, review, contextualize and translate video content on human rights situations coming in from around the world. So their goal should be to focus on discrete issue areas — such as child soldiers — and regions — like Southeast Asia — and then seek out local partners to work with them to manage the video content. In this way, they can slowly see what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to incorporate wider and wider communities of activists, translators, bloggers, techies and human rights experts.

What do you think? Do you like what you’ve seen of the pilot Video Hub, and what are your concerns or hopes for a more expanded hub in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Photo of Rebecca MacKinnon by JD Lasica .]

Filed under Citizen Journalism, Digging Deeper, Online Video, Weblogs, World View
Permanent Link to This Post

Hardly coming out like gangbusters, unfortunately. A handful of poorly shot videos may be a lot better than nothing but jeez do I wish the left would crank it up a notch. Somebody pay the editor a full time salary for one thing. For gawdsake there's so much money being thrown around to get commercial interests up to speed around YouTube alone. Ugh.

By Marshall Kirkpatrick 4:22PM on 20 Sep 06

Sameer (our video editor) will be posting soon on the dirth of compelling human rights-related video online at the moment. That dirth is part of the motivation for the forthcoming hub we are planning- we hope that generating a vibrant space online where human rights related content can be found and acted on - will motivate more people to upload content of what's going on all around them. For now, its fairly slim pickings for all the reasons Mark suggested in his post. As for paying Sameer a full-time salary -- we're ready and willing, Marshall....once we have the funds. Care to contribute? :)

By Gillian Caldwell 8:07AM on 21 Sep 06

Robbie Robertson Receives Governor General's Award

The Governor General of Canada Awards for lifetime achievement for performing arts will be handed out in a private ceremony on Friday, Nov. 3rd, in Ottawa. Blues-rock legend Robbie Robertson has been named a 2006 recipient of the prestigious award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the music industry in Canada. One of blues-rock musics most influential musicians, the singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer is a living symbol of the nations multicultural character.

He is a living symbol of brilliant roots musicianship, spiritual insight and Canadas multicultural character, the awards jury stated. The Governor General of Canada Awards for lifetime achievement for performing arts will be handed out in a private ceremony on Friday, Nov. 3rd, in Ottawa. Blues-rock legend Robbie Robertson has been named a 2006 recipient of the prestigious award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the music industry in Canada. One of blues-rock music's most influential musicians, the singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer is a living symbol of the nation's multicultural character. "He is a living symbol of brilliant roots musicianship, spiritual insight and Canada's multicultural character, " the awards jury stated.

The son of a Mohawk mother and a Jewish father, Robertson grew up in Toronto and on the nearby Six Nations Reservation. He first rose to prominence in the early 1960s as part of The Hawks, backing rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. That group evolved into The Band: they toured with Bob Dylan, performed at Woodstock, and released a string of hugely successful albums, including Music from Big Pink (1968), The Band (1969), and their swan song, The Last Waltz (1976), also captured in a feature-length documentary directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Mr. Robertson.

He began an extended association with Scorsese, collaborating on the music for Raging Bull (1980), King of Comedy (1983), The Color of Money (1986), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Departed (2006). He also produced and starred in films, including Carny (1980) and The Crossing Guard (1995).

Robbie Robertson's hit songs range from such classics as "The Weight, " "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to the more recent "Showdown at Big Sky" and "Broken Arrow." He has performed with such stars as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, U2, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois and Gil Evans. He has released four recordings and was profiled in a PBS special about Native American music. He is currently working on a Native North American Broadway musical.

The other recipients of the Governor General's Award for Performing Arts 2006 include Lorne Phillips of television comedy fame, Mark Starowicz, a veteran CBC broadcaster and documentary filmmaker; Jacques Languirand, a longtime Radio-Canada broadcaster; Albert Millaire, a theatre actor and director; and Joysanne Sidimus, a dancer, writer and arts activist.

Montreal philanthropists Georges and Sherif Laoun are this year's recipients of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts. Richard Bradshaw, director of the Canadian Opera Company, receives the National Arts Centre Award for exceptional achievement during the past performance year.

The Awards Gala will be telecast in English on CBC Television, Thursday January 4th, 2007 at 9:00 p.m. and can be heard on CBC Radio-Canada on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 10:30 p.m. for more information visit

Hassan Hakmoun presents The Gift on Triloka Records

Moroccan Gnawa Master Musician Uproots the Past, Fuses with the Future

North Africa has long been a crossroads. The Gnawa people of Morocco descend from slaves from West Africa, but they claim spiritual descent from Bilal al-Habashi, an Ethiopian who was the Prophet Mohammed's first muezzin (caller to prayer). Gnawa music's integration of African rhythms and sensibility has been compared to the Blues and Santeria. But the Arabic context produced a unique sound. Not until Hassan Hakmoun's upcoming CD, The Gift, on Triloka Records (May 7, 2002) has the Arabic milieu of Gnawa been musically brought to the fore.

Hassan Hakmoun has street smarts. By age four, he performed alongside snake charmers and fire-breathers on Marrakech streets. His mother is known throughout the city as a mystic healer. Her derdeba trance ceremonies are all-night affairs where hypnotic playing and chanting exorcise evil spirits. This musical form, steeped in Islamic mysticism and West African rhythms, lifts the spirit and heals the wounded with songs of praise. Out of these origins came an emissary infused with Gnawa music as well as rock and funk.

It's not surprising how Hakmoun got to New York. In 1987, he was brought there as part of a traditional ensemble funded by the Moroccan government. He liked it so much that - without a lick of English - the twenty-something singer and sintir player evaded his traveling companions and purposely missed his flight by hiding in the airport.

The night before, he had met composer Richard Horowitz, who came to his aid with a place to stay and a gig at a Moroccan restaurant on Bleecker Street. That night established the seeds of many years to come. The unknowing diners were soon ecstatically dancing instead of eating. A New York Times writer was dining there and began the buzz that led Hakmoun to the US stage as a premier world musician on par with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (they were the first signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World label). As fans lined up to praise Hakmoun, he disappeared again, this time with a waitress whose marriage soon became his legal passage to this land of dreams.

Hakmoun has resided in the US ever since. The pentatonic scale and driving rhythms of the sintir, a three-stringed long-necked African bass lute, are instantly appealing to many Western ears, and Hakmoun, has succeeded in presenting this music outside of Morocco to widespread critical acclaim. He was the only world musician invited to play Woodstock '94, and has performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and on the WOMAD '94 tour. Hakmoun became a regular fixture in New York's rock, jazz, and fusion scenes, and earned his following for spanning multiple genres with his spiritually charged voice and playing.

The Gift teams Hakmoun with American-born producer Fabian Alsultany. The two have tackled the landmark task of bridging Gnawa with Arabic music while maintaining a forward-looking sound. Alsultany recruited over a hundred musicians to fill out the sound with strings as is common in popular Arabic music. The CD breaks new ground with a widely popular Arabic song, "Layla Layla" (without which no Arabic wedding is complete), which is unheard of from a Gnawa musician. Hakmoun carries the healing tradition to a wider audience with the life affirming single, "This Gift," a remarkable and timely duet with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole, with whom he fell in love while recording this song. The two now have a four-month old baby.

The new Triloka release and a 2002 late summer/fall tour return Hassan Hakmoun to the world's eyes and ears. Drawing deeply on an intensely spiritual and ancient tradition, listeners will move their bodies and souls to the sounds of The Gift

Author to give intriguing talk

Flutist Guo Yue has many talents

EVOCATIVE writer, composer, and performer Guo Yue will be shedding light on Chinese culture when he comes to Saffron Walden later this month. The multi-talented flautist, composer and chef is appearing in the town as part of the Saffron Walden Literary Festival, sponsored by The Saffron Walden Reporter and Dunmow Broadcast on Saturday September 30. Blessed with a captivating charisma, Guo will demonstrate his talents as he speaks about his life, plays the flute and prepares Chinese food.

Having grown up in the back streets of Beijing during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Guo eventually came to the UK to study music and has contributed to the musical scores of The Last Emperor and The Killing Fields, working with Peter Gabriel.

Festival organiser Jo Burch said: "This is probably the most intriguing of the events we have on offer at the festival - a window into a culture very different from anything most of us have experienced. "Guo Yue's memoir is hugely evocative. His music is hauntingly beautiful. I am very much looking forward to seeing him in action."

Despite Guo's troubled childhood - his mother was beaten and taken away by Red Guards when he was 12, then taken away and "re-educated" for three years - the performer remains a positive force.

Postcards From East Oceanside - Paula Cole

Named Best New Artist in 1997 with seven Grammy nominations for This Fire and nominated for Producer of the Year, singer/songwriter Paula Cole has come a long way very quickly.

Her first album was Harbinger in 1994. She toured with Peter Gabriel on his Secret World tour in 1994, before producing her second album This Fire in 1996.

The spiritually themed Amen followed in 1999. This album is a compilation of her greatest hits, with two new songs Tomorrow I Will Be Yours and Postcards from East Oceanside.

Paula has a distinctive voice, making the most of her very personal lyrics, which also tap into universal themes, often telling a story. Gentle and mellow for the most part, often bittersweet, she is also capable of surprises, such as the more jazzy Autumn Leaves.

The numbers are backed by rich and interesting instrumentation giving each number an individual flavour.

Manu à Dinant

Dinant Jazz Nights (Belgique)

Du 29 septembre au 1er octobre 2006,
Dinant Jazz Nights présente
la 9ème édition de son festival
consacré entièrement au label ECM

(...) Le festival se terminera par ce qui peut être considéré comme un projet archétype d’ECM, le groupe Neighbourhood de Manu Katché qui a été assemblé par le batteur franco-africain et Manfred Eicher comme un projet unique et éphémère. Mais comme tant d’autres projets auparavant, il est devenu entre-temps un groupe tellement apprécié du public qu’il relève presque de l’institution. Le groupe comprend trois-quarts du quartet de Tomasz Stanko (Stanko, Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz), mais joue une musique nettement plus ensoleillée bâtie autour des mélodies de Manu, de ses modèles de groove et de ses rythmiques typiques. En ayant récemment remplacé l’influence d’origine de Jan Garbarek dans le groupe de Manu, le saxophoniste norvégien Trygve Seim complètera le quintet à Dinant. Bien que Katché soit plus connu pour ses nombreuses collaborations avec des musiciens de rock - Peter Gabriel, Sting, Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell, Dire Straits, Bee Gees, Simple Minds, Stéphane Eicher, Francis Cabrel... - le jazz est une priorité pour lui alors que ses premiers contacts avec la musique improvisée sont apparus par l’intermédiaire des albums d’ECM. Manu a largement contribué aux disques d’ECM depuis qu’il a collaboré en 1990 à « I Took Up The Runes » de Jan Garbarek. (...)