Peter Gabriel is best known as a musician. He started his solo work in 1975 after leaving his old school group: Genesis. He has released eleven solo albums and written soundtracks for three films.
In 1980 he founded WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance), which has presented 170 festivals in over 30 countries. The festival became the inspiration for Real World Records, which he launched in 1989 with the aim of providing talented artists from around the world with access to state-of-the-art recording facilities, and help get their music better known around the world. Artists released by the label such as Hukwe Zawose, Ayub Ogada, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Papa Wemba, Totó La Momposina, Sheila Chandra and more recently The Gloaming and Loney dear, have all helped establish the label’s eclectic credentials.
Since 1980, when Peter released the anti-apartheid single ‘Biko’ he has been actively involved in human rights campaigning. He has participated in many benefit concerts, notably Amnesty International’s 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour, which was the first benefit concert to tour globally with Youssou N’Dour, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman and Sting. It was on this tour he saw first hand how video can transform a human rights activist’s chances of achieving justice and change, and in 1992 proposed the creation of an organization to pioneer the use of video in human rights work, Witness.org. Around 2000 he co-founded TheElders.org, with Richard Branson, to bring together a small group of highly respected global leaders, launched with Nelson Mandela in July 2007.
In 1999 Peter co-founded On Demand Distribution (OD2) with Charles Grimsdale and others, which quickly became Europe’s first successful Digital Music Download retailer (and pre-dated Apple’s iTunes launch in Europe by some four years). OD2 is now Nokia Music.
Still convinced in the need for easy digital access to music, he co-founded WE7, a streaming service, with John Taysom and Steve Purdham in 2006 (two years before Spotify). It was sold in 2013.
In 2008 Peter, along with Real World and British Hi-fi manufacturer Bowers and Wilkins, created the Society of Sound to record and release new music in high definition audio. The Society of Sound has recorded over 100 albums of previously unheard music (as well as many recordings from the archives of the LSO) in the highest possible quality
For his music, Peter has received several Grammy and MTV awards, an Oscar nomination, the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and various lifetime achievement awards including BT’s Digital Music Pioneer Award and The Polar Music Prize. He has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall. For his activism, The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates awarded him Man of Peace award in 2006 and TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Peter is now writing and recording, and working on a plan to create a streaming service for digital medicine and an Interspecies Internet.
Passion is Peter Gabriel's remarkable musical collage for Scorsese's 'The Last Temptation of Christ'. Built on a foundation of Middle Eastern and North African rhythms and melodies, it was Real World Records’ first album, and featured many artists who would subsequently release music on the newly established label.
Whilst recording for his 1989 album Passion, Peter Gabriel worked with many international musicians. Some recorded at Real World Studios, some on the film’s location in North Africa, and others were sought out from past archives. Passion Sources gives us scope to hear more from these musicians in their own right.
Almost eighteen years in the making, Big Blue Ball grew from three extraordinary Recording Weeks at Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992 and 1995. With Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger at the helm, the album features a huge cast of performers with a global reach.
