Monday, May 30, 2011

PG - 1978-12-20 - London


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Dr. Forrester said...

MUPPET15:
Peter Gabriel
Hammersmith Odeon, London
December 20, 1978
-------------------------
Audience-recording of unknown gen., supplied by "The Marathon Zephead"

Disc 1:

1. Peter Gabriel Introduction - 3.24
2. Me and My Teddy Bear - 2.22
3. On Presuming to Be Modern - 2.46
4. On the Air - 4.38
5. Moribund the Burgermeister - 5.13
6. Perspective - 4.46
7. Humdrum - 4.42
8. Nothing (early Not One of Us / Family Snapshot) - 3.40
9. White Shadow - 5.59
10. D.I.Y. - 3.38
11. Waiting for the Big One - 6.06

Disc 2:

1. Band Introductions - 1.40
2. Mother of Violence - 4.31
3. Indigo - 4.04
4. Slowburn - 5.17
5. I Don't Remember - 5.43
6. Solsbury Hill - 6.22
7. Modern Love - 5.25
8. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - 5.52

Total Running Time: 47.14 + 38.54 = 86.08

-------------------------

Nearing the end of the tour supporting his second album, like the previous one simply called
‘Peter Gabriel’, Gabriel played five nights in sequence at the famed Hammersmith Odeon in London.
The first of these is documented on this recording. The five gigs are memorable for several reasons:
one night had Phil Collins drumming, another one was a special duet gig with Tom Robinson to
celebrate Christmas, but overall the gigs were memorable for their performances, which had been
finetuned after the many gigs played during that year.

Where the 1977 Tour was as basic as possible in the dressing department, this year’s tour saw the
band wearing fluorescent vests, while Peter was apart from this also wearing gardening gloves and
brought his teddy bear to accompany him for the first song ‘Me and My Teddy Bear’. Along with some
lengthy verbal bantering by Peter this can be heard on the recording as well. It takes quite a bit
‘til the actual first full band song commences after another intro, this time one of Larry Fast’s.
With full power the band launch themselves into a rousing version of ‘On the Air’.

This first night of the Hammersmith Odeon shows features ‘Indigo’, which was only rarely done on the
1978 tour, but made a short reappearance into the set over here. The highlight of the gig
performance-wise might be ‘White Shadow’ though. Where early on in the tour the song was fairly
similar to the album, here the song is played extremely tight, with Jerry Marotta banging the kick
drum in the instrumental intro and interlude.

With it’s unusual first 10 minutes and Peter talking more than ever, this tour was quite playful.
Another example of this is the rendition of an unreleased song by the name of ‘Nothing’, which would
eventually be worked into both ‘Not One of Us’ and ‘Family Snapshot’. During ‘Waiting for the Big One’
Gabriel went into the audience this tour, with him disappearing and then popping up at a totally
different spot in the venue, picked up by a spotlight. At the end of the song the whole band switch
instruments and finish the song that way. This lets Peter return to his very first instrument:
the drums!

All in all, the 1978 tour and this show in particular were fun gigs, where Peter and the band didn’t
take themselves too serious, but were able to deliver by rocking out with some strong performances.

May 30, 2011 at 12:49 PM

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