peter gabriel secret world tour musicians

Secret World Live

By Susan Richardson

Susan Richardson

It’s a rare moment when an artist takes his established, even iconic work and makes it still stronger, but Peter Gabriel ‘s live two-CD set Secret World Live is just such a moment. Recorded in Modena, Italy, during a January 1994 performance on his Secret World tour, the album and the concurrent video release bring songs threaded together by the images of earth and water into a cycle that explores relationships between men and women. The result is tantamount to a religious rite, merging grandeur with the intimacy of feeling, the public with the secret.

Gabriel draws most heavily from the songs on his most recent studio album, Us (1992), assuming the emotionally ambitious task of reaching the places found deep within intimate relationships. “Come Talk to Me,” a plea to bridge a widening gap of misunderstanding, establishes the urgent passion of Secret World. The ethereal introduction of “Steam” gives way to the song’s sinuous, powerful energy. Peter Gabriel’s veteran band — including bassist Tony Levin, drummer Manu Katche and guitarist David Rhodes — lays relentless grooves for “Shaking the Tree,” “Red Rain” and “Solsbury Hill,” the originals slowed and deepened into an emphatic swing that is exuberant as well as majestic. Yet bitter despair runs through “Blood of Eden”: “I can hear the distant thunder/Of a million unheard souls/Watch each one reach for creature comfort/For the filling of their holes.”

The prayerful “Washing of the Water” seeks to purge the taint of broken love: “In the washing of the water, will you take it all away/Bring me something to take this pain away.” “Digging in the Dirt” captures the in-your-face fury and the wounded vulnerability of an argument and suggests the eroticism of such passion as it bursts into the sexual fire of “Sledgehammer.” Transcending the heat of “Dirt” and “Sledgehammer,” Secret World arrives at sober grief, posing the wrenching, solitary question “In all the places we were hiding love/What was it we were thinking of?” and finds no answer but only the response: “With no guilt and no shame, no sorrow or blame/ Whatever it is, we are all the same.”

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“Don’t Give Up” contrasts Gabriel’s male persona — bearing the unbearable weight of identity and success — with a feminine voice, which offers a reminder that help is present and offsets that consuming tension. And “In Your Eyes” is a jubilant paean that takes abandon to an epic level. In the wake of questions, pleas, anger and sexuality, the song affirms a love that is innocent but not naive, substantial but not heavy.

More than Gabriel’s Plays Live (1983), this album maintains a powerful continuity that loses neither pace nor momentum; more than the studio originals, these versions elaborate on the dramatic potential inherent in them — the heat and magnitude of rhythm, the human/animal ambiguity of an otherworldly cry. Secret World enters an inner realm that is knowable only through the range of emotion it gives rise to, joining ecstasy and agony into music that avoids being larger than life and instead is as large as life itself.

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Secret world live.

Secret World Live contains 16 tracks (15 on the CD version) from the Secret World tour of 1993. Recorded at the Palasport, Modena in northern Italy on 16 and 17 November 1993. Peter has always loved playing live in Italy and the choice of venue was deliberate; “The band runs on fuel provided by the audience, and in Italy it flows freely.”

The collection spans Peter’s solo career until that point; from debut single Solsbury Hill right up to Digging In The Dirt , Steam and Blood Of Eden from US , which was – at the time – his most recent studio album.

“The Secret World tour was focused on communication and relationships – the ‘phone was a perfect symbol. Robert Lepage had the idea of expanding on the telephone image using the iconic red telephone box, with a cable that extended from the square proscenium stage full length to the centre of the circular stage in the audience, for the song Come Talk to Me.”

Peter Gabriel, Secret World Live by Laurence Le Blanc

During this tour Peter’s band consisted of Manu Katché (drums), Tony Levin (bass, vocals), David Rhodes (guitars, vocals), Jean Claude Naimro – replacing Joy Askew who started the tour – (keyboards, vocals), Shankar (violin, vocals), Levon Minassian (doudouk) and Paula Cole (vocals). Peter on vocals and keyboards and special guests Papa Wemba and Molokai.

Peter worked with Robert Lepage to conceive and stage the show, which consisted of a traditional proscenium arch stage connected to a circular stage (in the centre of the audience) by a moving walkway. The traditional stage represented an urban, industrial and male world, whilst the circular stage was more rural, open and nourishing. The movement between the two was a key subtext to the overall show.

It was, however, a technical challenge, as Peter Walsh the front of house sound engineer (and co-producer of the live album) remembers in his interview  for this website, “It was a very large and complex setup as you can imagine. Two stages meant we needed two of almost everything. Two drum kits, two mirrored sets of vocal mics and a complicated cable run from one stage to the other connecting all the other instruments.”

The show features many memorable set pieces, including Peter’s emergence within the red telephone box for ‘Come Talk to Me’ to open the show, the use of the moving walkway for ‘Across the River’, the literal ‘Steam’ effects and the tree that appears for ‘Shaking The Tree.’

As Peter told UNCUT magazine in 2020, “There was a moment, entirely Robert’s idea, where it looked as if we climbed into these suitcases on the moving  walkway – we were actually disappearing into a trapdoor – and that was the end of the show. A lovely way to finish – the suitcase fitted with this sense of a journey that we’d designed the show around.”

At the centre of it all though, is a thoroughly committed and total performance by Peter himself – further consolidating his reputation as a ringmaster of dynamism and daring – as captured by the concert film , directed by François Girard, which is also available.

Originally released as a 15 track CD on 28 August 1994, the album was recently released on digital platforms with the addition of the track San Jacinto and was released for the fist time on vinyl in November 2020.

“More than the studio originals, these versions elaborate on the dramatic potential inherent in them – the heat and magnitude of rhythm, the human/animal ambiguity of an otherworldly cry” – Rolling Stone

Photo: Armando Gallo

Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999

Revisiting His Weird and Wonderful Performance: ‘Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live’

Reaching the pinnacle of his popularity in the ’80s and early ’90s, Peter Gabriel was in the beginning, in the middle, and ever shall be, an odd fellow. He has also, all along, been a consummate entertainer whose early theatrics with Genesis groomed him perfectly to become one of the grand and shining stars of the video age. Through videos for pieces such as the sexually charged “Sledgehammer” and the ballad of the working man and, indeed, mankind itself, “Don’t Give Up”, Gabriel tore up the envelope, ate it, and demanded that, in the future, he be served one of better quality.

Both “Sledgehammer” and “Don’t Give Up” were culled from his 1986 album So (which receives the deluxe reissue treatment this autumn), but it was his 1992 outing Us that cemented his place in the video kingdom with “Digging In the Dirt” and “Steam”. It was in the aftermath of that latter album that the former public school student concentrated on making an unforgettable stage show that would touch on many of the––Jungian––themes found across his work but especially on Us .

Released in September 1994 this film––and accompanying album––were welcome arrivals from a man who probably did visuals––and live performances––better than most of his contemporaries––including U2, a band known for its highly stylized promo films and stadium tours. This wasn’t Gabriel’s only live video from those peak years––1988’s POV titillates the memory cells and brings to mind many a happy evening spent warming the ocular vessels ‘round the television––but it’s a damned fine one that retains its own musical and visual character and, as they say, holds up rather well.

Shot over two November evenings in 1993 during a Modena, Italy stopover, the footage looks remarkably fresh and vibrant on the current Blu-ray edition, radiating aliveness from the stage––and from Gabriel’s facial hair. True to our expectations, the stage set doesn’t disappoint––it, too, is rife with props and such that would make Dr. Jung proud. There’s an awful lot of dancing––more than you’d probably expect from most prog rock icons––but none of it ever strays so far from the core that Gabriel loses his sense of popzeit .

This isn’t a comprehensive best-of package. There’s no “Biko”, “Shock the Monkey”, or “Intruder”. This is Gabriel the hit maker making hits for one and all in a performance that is as delightfully off-kilter (read: filled with PG being his awesomely weird self) as his best work with Genesis. Curiously, the accompanying album has not yet been reissued, which is a shame because it’s as good a snapshot of the man during the era as the albums–– So and Us ––which it leans so heavily upon.

Backed by drummer Manu Katché, bassist Tony Levin, and Paula Cole, Gabriel surprises us with new but still comprehensible arrangements of favorites and a surprise or two––the (relative) rarity “Across The River” and a nod to the Birdy soundtrack via the excellent “Slow Marimbas”. Naturally, it’s the hits that come to the fore––he opens with “Come Talk To Me” (replete with a sentient—and possessive––callbox), then travels through “Steam”, eventually landing in the “Blood of Eden”, climbing “Solsbury Hill” and “Digging in the Dirt” while suggesting that, when faced with adversity, the best mantra is “Don’t Give Up”. One of the real stars here is Paula Cole who proves herself an able replacement for Kate Bush during the also aforementioned “Don’t Give Up” and maybe a superior vocalist to Sinead O’ Connor whose memorable turn on the studio version of “Blood Of Eden” may truly be bested here.

The rest of the band––guitarist David Rhodes, violinist Shankar, and keyboardist Jean Claude Naimro––delivers the musical goods with new arrangements and indefatigable musical acumen. Enough, any way, that one wonders how Gabriel could fail to bring a similar energy to his 2011 live release New Blood: Live In London . We digress. With footage such as this still lurking in the wings it seems that Gabriel’s legacy is secure and that the music that sounded positively of the future when it first emerged continues to sound that way two decades on.

Bonus materials include a time-lapse film of the stage set up at Gabriel’s Berlin performance, a making-of film with interviews and behind the scenes footage as well as two tracks that serve as the bed for a photo montage from the tour. The classic “Red Rain”, previously absent from the film, appears as a bonus track while a 2011 performance of “The Rhythm of the Heat” (a track about Carl Jung’s travels in Africa) with the New Blood Orchestra gives us future shock.

The remixed and remastered soundtrack sounds vibrant and neu , the master’s voice as clear and clairvoyant as ever. The ultimate Peter Gabriel experience? Nah. You really have to bathe yourself in the whole oeuvre for that, but this is one great spoke in the greater wheel that is Peter Gabriel’s not-so-secret world.

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Secret World Live

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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. Peter is now writing and recording, and working on a plan to create a streaming service for digital medicine and an Interspecies Internet. ...   more

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Secret World by Peter Gabriel

Songfacts®:

• Gabriel said this song is "bout the private world that two people occupy and the private worlds that they occupy as individuals within that space, and the overlap of their dreams and desires."
• When Gabriel wrote this, he had divorced his wife Jill, and ended a turbulent relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette.
• Gabriel used this as the title of his 1994 live album.
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Comments: 6

• Eileen from Aston, Pa Did you think you didn't have to choose it? I alone could win or lose it. Could it be salvation?
• Natan from Herzylia, Israel At Europe sessions of "Still Growing Up Tour" he says: "Tony and I, we had a hobbie. I bet you'll think of body building. (laughs) But no, we took close-up pictures of flowers with a high definition camera. And we discovered a new world of sensuality, that attracts the attention of the bee thats passing by. This sexy new world, brought me to this secret world". That's a nice definition of the song, in his own words.
• Peter from Huddersfield, England My favourite Uncle Pete song...incredible live, I do the spin with my daughter(16) whenever we listen/watch it.
• Grayson from Cleveland, Oh The Secret World tour is what turned me onto Peter Gabriel as well. excellent show.
• Todd from Denver, Co The live album/video was what turned me into a Peter Gabriel fan. My wife (before we met) attended the Denver concert of the "Secret World" tour and loved it. At a second-hand music store in '94 my future wife found the VHS of the concert and I loved it. I liked Genesis' early stuff as in "A Trick Of The Tail" and "Abacab," but wasn't familiar with the albums prior with Gabriel, but was of course familiar with Gabriel's "So" and "Digging In The Dirt" albums. We saw him when he toured in support of his "Up" album a year or so ago, which was entertaining. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling well and ended the show early.
• Travis from Somwhere, United States in live performances, Gabriel has dedicated this song to ?the spirit of Jimi Hendrix?

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Weekend Intermission – Greatest live performances (1) – Peter Gabriel, Secret World Tour, 1993

Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit. If you’re here on account of a favourite artist or band please also take some time to check out some of the Nordic artists, you are in for a pleasant surprise!

When I was writing about Lynyrd Skynryd’s ‘Free Bird’ last week, I suddenly realised that the live performance of that song that I included, from 1977, was probably one of the greatest ever, of any song, anywhere.

That got me thinking about others that were saved to video and the first one to occur to me was Peter Gabriel’s Secret World tour in the early 1990s, one of few tours he made over a period of 15 years, and to promote his 1992 album ‘Us’ .

Hence it forms the basis for a new, occasional series – Greatest live performances.

Gabriel employed the usual collection of top musicians in his band for the tour, including long-time collaborators bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Rhodes, drummer Manu Katché and violinist Lakshminaraya Shankar and with the addition of Jean-Claude Naimro on keys and the Armenian Levon Manassian on the doudouk, a weird, mournful piccolo-like instrument.

One vocalist for the tour, introduced as a special guest part way through, was Sinéad O’Connor, but she quit suddenly, which may or may not have been something to do with her ‘did she/didn’t she’ purported relationship with Gabriel. Some stories have it that she attempted suicide after she failed to hook Gabriel and at least that she was never the same afterwards.

The replacement was Paula Cole, best known for ‘Where have all the cowboys gone?’ Cole, who was performing in small venues in the US when she got the call, and only had a couple of days to learn and rehearse the songs, rose spectacularly to the occasion and for my money she was the best female accomplice that Gabriel has had to date, even though the others have included O’Connor, the Manchester-based Californian Jesca Hoop (who is very good) and Kate Bush of course, memorable for their joint rendition of ‘Don’t give up.’

Gabriel is the acknowledged master of putting on a theatrical performance, as all the 1970s prog rock bands did to a degree but Genesis more than any, using costumes such as those of Britannia, a fox’s head, a repulsive wart-encrusted ‘Slipperman’ and, memorably, a dying old man mask in ‘The Musical Box’, often deliberately not telling his Genesis band mates that he was going to do it first time around, in order to shock them.

I was privileged to see him with Genesis, taking off into the air like Peter Pan (and on the same wires) at the Drury Lane Theatre in London at the end of ‘Supper’s Ready’ as his evil characterisation of 666 morphed into Jesus and his black cloak was replaced by a silver suit in the blinding flash of multiple magnesium flares. It almost killed him as he became entangled in the wires. I don’t think there’s been anything quite like it since.

The stage show for the Secret World tour was designed by the French-Canadian Robert Lepage, expressing the themes of tension and union between male and female forces, one that runs through the album, and as represented by two stages linked by a moving walkway; a square one representing masculine energy paired with a circular one representing feminine energy.

There are two videos here, from performances filmed at three different shows in Italy in 1993, with most of the filming done at the Modena concert and which together were issued as ‘Secret World Live’.

(The full video was honoured at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, winning in the category Best Music Video, Long Form. An associated live album was released with the same name, rising to number 10 on the United Kingdom charts, was certified 2× Platinum in Italy [where Genesis have always had a massive following, one that kept them going while they struggled to gain recognition in the UK and US], and was certified Gold in the United States).

The first one is of the opening song, ‘Come talk to me’ in which Gabriel is seen illuminated inside an old British red telephone box (of which few remain today), while the band rises up from beneath the square stage.

Many people understandably think this is a break up song, the final attempt at reconciliation before a relationship falls apart. In a way that is true but it actually concerns his attempts to reconnect with his daughter following his divorce. The scenario though is a universal one of misunderstanding.

Incidentally Gabriel has sung ‘Come talk to me’ with his daughter Melanie, who was a backing singer for several years in the noughties and there are videos of it on YouTube.

The first thing you notice is that we were still in the era of cigarette lighters rather than mobile phones (a tradition which apparently started at Woodstock in 1969 when people held up their lighters to honour musicians who had passed away). Bring them back! (The lighters not the musicians).

The staging here is fabulous. Any amount of things could go wrong – then and now – but they didn’t, or at least not here.

At the first mention of “come talk to me” Gabriel bursts out of the box but is evidently held back by the chord that signifies the other person’s previous reluctance to do so. However, immediately Paula Cole is lit up, on her circular stage, singing pleadingly to Gabriel in a way that suggests that it is he who lacks communication.

Reconciliation almost takes place but Gabriel is dragged back into his box by the same uncertainties that held him back before although he valiantly fights against them. The conclusion must be that he has failed in his task and the blame lies at his door.

There are numerous dramatic moments, especially at 4:16, and the interaction, the chemistry between Gabriel and Cole is tangible and at times intense. Offhand I can only think of that between Meatloaf and Karla DeVito on ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ on The Old Grey Whistle Test (1978, BBC TV) to match it; a different song entirely.

And the musicianship from this ultra tight band, especially Manu Katché’s percussion, is out of this world. He makes the skins and cymbals sing.

This is the best copy of the video I can find, unlike some of the other songs it hasn’t been re-mastered in any way.

I debated over the second video for a long time. A popular choice would have been the incredible wild dance-athon that was the performance at this show of ‘In your eyes’, and featuring guest like the late Papa Wemba . (Yes, do check it out).But eventually I plumped for the sublime one of ‘Blood of Eden’.

Sinéad O’Connor was the female vocalist for this on the album (it was also a single) and a lot of pressure must have fallen on Paula Cole’s shoulders to get it right live. And boy, how she did.

By the 1990s and nine albums on from quitting Genesis what you see here was more typical of Gabriel’s evolving theatricality from the early ‘shock tactics’ days. I like this version not only for the fantastic musicianship but also because of the production and arrangement. The song is acted as much as sung, on a stunning blood red stage set full of symbolism (such as the Tree of Life) as Adam Gabriel and Eve Cole wander around their private Garden of Eden debating their own failed relationship.

Gabriel said of the song, “I wanted to use the biblical image in ‘Blood of Eden’ because it was the time when man and woman were in one body, and in a sense maybe in a relationship. In making love, that sort of struggle is to get some form of merging of boundaries; it’s a really powerful union. And there are many obstacles to this.”

The song takes place in its entirety on the circular (female) stage, in the round. Make of that what you will.

The last minute and a quarter in particular (from 5:52), some of which was written for live performances (it isn’t on the album) is marvellous, the way Cole looks at the forlorn Gabriel over her shoulder, almost disdainfully, as he sings “ we have done everything we can” before going her own way and above all the imagery of his final despairing attempt at physical contact as her back is turned. And all supported by beautiful harmonising between Gabriel, Cole and Shankar.

Most people will have a list of gigs they wish they had attended. I think it is fair to say that this one tops mine.

I don’t think we will see shows with this level of musical delivery and sophistication again, or at least not for a long time. The big video screen has long since taken over. Some bands use them informatively, the video(s) becoming a critical part of the shows. Others don’t, while big name artists go way over the top with battalions of dancers and stage sets that look like they are straight out of those ‘That’s Entertainment’ films in the 1970s through 1990s.

So savour shows like this while you can. One outcome of the Incredible Shrinking Internet is that one day they will be gone.

David Bentley

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Peter Gabriel Plays Full Concert in Modena, Italy (1994)

in Music | December 21st, 2012 Leave a Comment

“It’s a rare moment when an artist takes his estab­lished, even icon­ic work and makes it still stronger,” wrote Rolling Stone ’s Susan Richard­son in 1994, “but Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live  is just such a moment. Record­ed in Mod­e­na, Italy, dur­ing a Jan­u­ary 1994 per­for­mance on his  Secret World  tour, the album and the con­cur­rent video release bring songs thread­ed togeth­er by the images of earth and water into a cycle that explores rela­tion­ships between men and women. The result is tan­ta­mount to a reli­gious rite, merg­ing grandeur with the inti­ma­cy of feel­ing, the pub­lic with the secret.” Bold words, but then music crit­ics have always enjoyed using them, and Gabriel him­self has spent a career grow­ing known for using bold sounds. If you rec­og­nize him only as the man who sung the song waft­ing from John Cusack­’s held-aloft boom box , watch his entire Secret World Live Mod­e­na con­cert and get a sense of his true cre­ative range.

A hybrid of pop star and musi­cal mag­pie, Gabriel has gone from Gen­e­sis front­man to eight­ies hit­mak­er to world music impre­sario. Today he brings all the influ­ences col­lect­ed along the way to a peri­od of aggres­sive­ly enthu­si­as­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion with a host of play­ers from the leg­endary to the obscure. This 1994 per­for­mance finds him in mid-career, or at least what now looks like the mid­dle-ish por­tion of a very long and very pro­duc­tive run indeed. The set, as Richard­son went on to assess it, “main­tains a pow­er­ful con­ti­nu­ity that los­es nei­ther pace nor momen­tum; more than the stu­dio orig­i­nals, these ver­sions elab­o­rate on the dra­mat­ic poten­tial inher­ent in them — the heat and mag­ni­tude of rhythm, the human/animal ambi­gu­i­ty of an oth­er­world­ly cry.  Secret World  enters an inner realm that is know­able only through the range of emo­tion it gives rise to, join­ing ecsta­sy and agony into music that avoids being larg­er than life and instead is as large as life itself.” Does the show still mer­it that lofty descrip­tion today? Watch and per­form some music crit­i­cism of your own.

Relat­ed con­tent:

Peter Gabriel and His Big Orches­tra Play Live at the Ed Sul­li­van The­ater

Col­in Mar­shall hosts and pro­duces  Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture   and writes essays on lit­er­a­ture, film, cities, Asia, and aes­thet­ics . Fol­low him on Twit­ter at  @colinmarshall .

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