Peter Gabriel at Knebworth, 1978

Gabriel gets up close at Knebworth

When Peter Gabriel re-emerged in 1977 after his shock exit from Genesis, he knew he needed to find his feet as a solo performer.

By the end of the decade, his music had taken on a rockier edge, harnessing the spirit of the new wave. But his early solo efforts were imbued more with the legacy of his progressive rock past, notably on the first album, Peter Gabriel.

For his return to recording after Genesis, Gabriel decided to work with American musicians and producer Bob Ezrin, best known for his work on Alice Cooper's albums such as Billion Dollar Babies, and later, Pink Floyd's The Wall.

PG at home, post-Genesis. Note the old masks

"At the time of the first album, I was nervous recording without the structure of a band and was happy to let Bob take a strong role" Gabriel told biographer Armando Gallo.

The record was much-anticipated by Genesis fans, many of whom were still getting over his leaving the band. The first single, Solsbury Hill, was a hit, rising to number 13 in the UK charts.

His first solo shows at the Roxy, Hollywood, April 1977

The song's lyrics are partly a reference to Gabriel's decision to leave Genesis, just as they appeared to be breaking into the Big Time.

He said Solsbury Hill was about "being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get. It's about letting go."

A second single, Modern Love, should also have been a hit, but somehow didn't make it onto the charts.
While he was happy with the first album, it was clear to Gabriel that he needed to take more control in future. Some of the record had been over-produced, in Ezrin's signature bombastic style. The closing track, Here Comes The Flood, for example, was a fan favourite but Gabriel said he preferred the stripped-down version he recorded with Robert Fripp.

So he went in an entirely different direction, enlisting Fripp to produce the second album, Peter Gabriel. King Crimson were on hiatus at this time and Fripp had recently been working with David Bowie.

For his opening live shows in the US, in April 1977, Gabriel used the core of the musicians from the Ezrin sessions. Anyone who saw Genesis touring The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in 1975 would understandably have expected some elaborate stage costumes, but instead Gabriel chose to dress down. At the Roxy in Los Angeles, he wore a grey track suit.

Here's some original footage from those first shows at the Roxy. Notably, he does covers of Ain't That Peculiar and You Really Got Me, encoring with Back In NYC, from The Lamb.

Gabriel at Knebworth, September 1978

The live band included Fripp and bassist Tony Levin, who would become a Gabriel mainstay and a key part of the reformed King Crimson in 1981. Fripp is said to have performed all the shows from behind a speaker cabinet. He's certainly not visible on the clip link above.

The second PG album was well received and got into the top 10 of the UK album charts. But there was no hit single, despite a couple of strong contenders in On The Air and DIY.

Gabriel himself was disappointed with the second record. It wasn't the step forward he had wanted. He said of Fripp, "He's a wonderful player and a great producer with other people, but for me it didn't work out so well.

Climbing into the crowd at Knebworth...

"Bob Ezrin was thinking music-biz but Robert was anti-music biz, so I just went from one side to the other on the first two albums."

During 1978, Gabriel toured in Europe and the US, honing his new cropped-haired persona with the high-vis orange vest and becoming a popular live act in the process.

Gabriel was signed up for the Knebworth festival in September 1978, on a bill with Frank Zappa, The Tubes, Boomtown Rats, Rockpile and Wilco Johnson.

...and climbing back up

Knebworth 1978

It was a lovely sunny day in Hertfordshire and Gabriel was clearly among friends. There were several 'Rael' flags in the crowd and one that proclaimed 'The Angel Gabriel'.

He didn't disappoint them, climbing up ladders and scaffolding and out into the crowd at various points, with a toy panda to sing 'Me and My Teddy Bear', as you do...

The set at Knebworth was comprised mostly of songs from the two solo albums, but included a new song, I Don't Remember, which appeared on his third album, Peter Gabriel. They also did a punk rock version of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with Gabriel behind the drumkit.

Getting his kicks behind the drums

The set finished with the uptempo rocker Modern Love and an encore of the Genesis classic, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Here is the band in 1978 playing On The Air
and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Around this time, Gabriel began experimenting with the stage diving that would culminate later in the 'Lay your hands on me' track from the fourth album, Peter Gabriel.

An early stage dive

"When I am standing on stage, I can sense how far the performance is reaching the audience. Sometimes the audience appears like a large animal...When I walk off the stage (into the audience) I relate to the people one to one. I am vulnerable...on a good night I can lose myself totally."

On stage with Genesis in 1973

Gabriel finally found his sound on the third album, with the help of young engineers Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham, whose experiments with the available studio technology Gabriel was happy to encourage.

Of the dry 'gated reverb' sound of the drums (played by Phil Collins) Gabriel said "it was originally Hugh Padgham's set-up and he should get credit for that.

"I remember the moment when I first heard the gated reverb. I stopped the session we were working on and said that I wanted to record that sound immediately for Intruder. I was certain that it was a landmark drum sound."

And so it proved, but not for Peter Gabriel. Instead, his old band mate took the sound for his own solo single, In The Air Tonight.

Gabriel wasn't best pleased, saying "I get angry when people say I have copied Phil's drum sound."

He worked with younger musicians from the new wave, including Paul Weller, XTC's Dave Gregory and John Ellis of The Vibrators. PG continued to innovate throughout this period and his third and fourth albums are unique and groundbreaking works. He was also asked to create soundscapes and atmospheres for Alan Parker's film Birdy and for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

The majority of photos in this piece are from Armando Gallo's book Peter Gabriel, published by Omnibus Press in 1986.

See also on this blog:
Genesis On Tour in 1975 - Peter Gabriel Quits
https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2012/07/coming-soon-gabriels-cosmic-juice.html