by Qing Li
Peter Gabriel (Born February 13, 1950, Chobham Surrey), is known as a musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. Gabriel was born into a family with a 150-acre dairy farm. Gabriel’s father was an electronic engineer and inventor. Gabriel’s mother was from a musical family and she played piano. Gabriel began taking piano lessons at an early age. At the age of nine, he started to become more interested in writing songs and exploring his path of music. Besides playing piano, he also learned how to play the drums and the flute. Later on, during his boarding school Charterhouse in England, at age 13, Gabriel started performing in front of the stage as a singer, along with writing songs with his friends.
Jonathan King discovered Gabriel while he was in school and helped him start his music career. King graduated from Charterhouse. He was first known for his success from a song that he wrote when he was still an undergraduate, “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” in 1965. During King’s visit, Gabriel’s friends gave King a tape that they had made. King decided to sign them to a one-year contract with Decca Records, and also chose a name for the group, “Genesis” after listening to the tape. The band started in 1967 and Gabriel was a part of this band until 1975. During this time he was a lead singer and a songwriter on his own, as well as with Genesis group members. They were into soul music, leading to their first song writing called “She is beautiful”. The song spoke about delivering a message towards someone who is beautiful; however, she does not know about all the love he has towards her. The band had their first studio album, also known as their debut album, From Genesis to Revelation, released in 1969. Although this album was not as successful as they hoped for, the band released a new single song in the same year, “Where the Sour Turns to Sweet.” In 1974, their album gained more popularity and peaked at number 170 on Billboard. The band later went separate ways.
Peter Gabriel departed from Genesis because he wanted to concentrate and experiment on other interests outside of mainstream rock. He also wanted the freedom of not being in a band. Regardless of leaving the band, the members of Genesis are still great friends. Gabriel also reunited with Genesis in 1982 for a reunion concert, Six of the best, at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes of England. In 1975, he began his path of solo performances after preparing an album with around 20 songs. Peter Gabriel had a successful solo career. In 1977, he had an 80 date tour with his album. The name of the album was his name, and the cover of the album was a car. In 1978, he also had a tour that went from August to December. This is also the year that Peter Gabriel came to perform his album on the SUNY Geneseo campus on October 7th. After that, his album reached number 1 for three weeks in the UK and it also reached number 20 in the US in the year 1980. He also won many awards with his music career. He continues promoting and producing music all over the world. Perhaps the most impressive award of his career came when he was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2008.