Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is an internationally-famous musician and Third World activist, and was the original lead singer with Genesis. A major player in the staging of the African segment of Live 8 in the early 00s, he is not only known for his Eastern and African-influenced music, but also for several groundbreaking music videos (most notably Sledgehammer, his highest-charting release on both sides of the Atlantic).

After leaving Genesis, Peter Gabriel began to experiment with various elements of world music as the underpinning for his dense, poetic lyrics. In addition to a series of successful song-oriented albums Peter Gabriel 1,2,3,4 (aka Car, Scratch, Melt, Security) he didn't really hit the commercial high until 1986 with his now seminal album So and its slightly less successful counterpart Us. The last studio album from Gabriel was 2002's Up. He has also composed and recorded soundtracks for films as diverse as Birdy (which contained re-purposed snippets of his studio albums to date), The Last Temptation of Christ, and Rabbit Proof Fence. He also sang the Randy Newman composed title song to Babe: Pig in the City called That'll Do.

He created one of the more innovative videos of its time, for the song Sledgehammer, with the then fledgling Aardman Animations studio.

He was also instrumental in founding the long-running festival organization WOMAD (World Of Music Art and Dance), and participated in the UK millennium celebration, for which he wrote the musical OVO. The recording studio he built, Real World, and the record label it spawned, have brought many artists from around the world to the attention of Western ears.

Rumors of reunion with his former band have persisted, with conflicting information that changes almost daily, although he has confirmed he will not play a part in Genesis' reunion tour.