Peter Gabriel Says New Album About Death--'A Nice, Cheerful Subject'
Yahoo! Music, Sep 25, 2002 7:00 am PDT(9/25/02, 7 a.m. ET) -- Peter Gabriel held a press conference in New York City Tuesday (September 24) to launch his new album, Up, and to officially announce his forthcoming Growing Up > Live tour.
Gabriel and his band played five songs from Up--"Darkness," "Growing Up," "No Way Out," "My Head Sounds Like That," and "More Than This"--along with two from 1986's So: "Mercy Street" and the set-closing "Sledgehammer." The band, which will also play the tour with Gabriel, featured guitarists David Rhodes and Richard Evans, bassist Tony Levin, keyboardist Rachel Z, drummer Ged Lynch, and Gabriel's daughter Melanie on backing vocals.
After the performance, Gabriel was asked about the theme of Up, and he said, "It's a sort of bunch of songs, really...It went on a long time, so there was quite a few different things that happened, and some of the stuff seemed to be irrelevant of what was going on, and others not. But I ended up realizing at the end that there were about four or five songs about death, and thought, 'Maybe that's a nice, cheerful subject for a pop record.' It hadn't really been covered much."
Keeping his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Gabriel then added, "There's gonna be a lot of dead people, and it's a market that no one's really taking care of."
The Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live itinerary (subject to change):
November 5 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena
November 7 - Cleveland, OH - Gund Arena
November 8 - Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena
November 11 - Washington, DC - MCI Center
November 13 - Chicago, IL - United Center
November 15 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center
November 17 - East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena
November 18 - Philadelphia, PA - First Union Center
November 21 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
November 25 - Boston, MA - FleetCenter
November 26 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Casino
November 28 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
December 2 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
December 3 - Auburn Hills, MI - The Palace Of Auburn Hills
December 5 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
December 8 - San Diego, CA - San Diego Sports Arena
December 11 - Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center
December 12 - Phoenix, AZ - America West Arena
December 14 - Oakland, CA - Oakland Arena
December 15 - San Jose, CA - Compaq Center
-- Bruce Simon, New York
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