Peter Gabriel’s career path isn’t so much a straight line as a series of tight curves, elongated arcs, left turns, bold diversions, unexpected pauses and welcome returns. But it has been a journey of continual forward motion, defined by a desire to push himself and his collaborators ever onwards, rarely looking over his shoulder.
This much became obvious when he left Genesis following 1975’s The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. He’d formed the band as teenager with a bunch of schoolfriends, helping lay the foundations for progressive rock and introducing vivid and frequently surreal theatrics to a genre that wasn’t known for extroversion.
His departure, as documented on his debut solo single was both liberating and terrifying. Four solo albums, all confusingly titled followed between 1977 and 1982, for which he brought in an array of collaborators and guest musicians, from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp to The Jam’s Paul Weller to his old Genesis bandmate Phil Collins.and bridged the worlds of pop and art-rock, while Gabriel’s growing interest in music from Africa, Asia and South America pushed back the boundaries of his music even further and led him to found the groundbreaking Womad festival in 1980.
