Peter Gabriel Tickets for 2013 Go On Sale This Week

 

European fans begged and PG listened.  Tickets go on sale this week for Peter Gabriel Back to Front concert tickets (including VIP packages from 300 pounds and up) this week for concerts in October of 2013.  At least PG isn't retiring completely as I'd feared.

Check out Petergabriel.com for all of the details.  So far, only 4 dates have been confirmed.  From PG's oficial website:

"The following dates will be going on sale, with more dates around Europe to follow:

Oct 21st	O2 Arena	London, UK
Oct 22nd	O2 Arena	London, UK
Oct 24th	Hydro	Glasgow, UK
Oct 25th	MCR Arena	Manchester, UK"

Dates for Germany will go on sale this Saturday, 24 November at 9am GMT:

Oct 11th 2013 - Arena Leipzig - Leipzig
Oct 13th 2013 - Schleyer-Halle - Stuttgart
Oct 16th 2013 - ISS Domeb - Düsseldorf
Oct 18th 2013 - O2 World - Hamburg
Oct 19th 2013 - O2 World - Berlin

Good luck!

Image is stolen from Rolling Stone's pic of PG's show at Jones Beach, New York in 2012.

I'm 43. What the Hell Happened?

I turn 43 today. Whee.  One year more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.  It didn't help that earlier this month I read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and discovered that one of the main characters dies at age 43. 

When you hit 43, you pretty much know how the rest of your life is going to wind up.  Most importantly, the rest of my life will in no way resemble Peter Gabriel's.  And we all secretly want to be Peter Gabriel, don't we? 

When Peter Gabriel turned 43, he was rehearsing for what would be his most acclaimed tour so far, the Secret World tour.  He'd already earned more awards, fans and gold albums than a boatload of most other artists.  He already had two lovely kids, at least three homes and one incredibly lovely studio (Real World Studios.)  At the time he was single, but already had more sexual partners and offers from future sexual partners than the population of some island countries. The image accompanying this post shows what he looked like when he was 43.

In contrast, as I turn 43 I'm 40 - 50 pounds overweight, single and will never, ever have kids because I like kids too much to let me be their mother.  The only awards I've won were for a dance contest when I was 4, a couple of blue ribbons at a small horse show when I was a few years older and the "Spread the Word about Knoji" contest earlier this year with this article.  You can count the number of sexual partners I've had with one crippled hand.  Sadly, Peter Gabriel has not been one of them.  I somehow missed his most promiscuous period. Now he's in his 60s and happily remarried and I'm fat and ugly.  Not that I ever had a snowball's chance with him, but that's not the point.  I should have at least had a chance to have a chance at him, dammit!

Also, on this date back in 1974 Peter Gabriel's swan song with Genesis was released, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Come to think of it, I never got a horse, either.  Unless I get freaking rich that's yet another dream of my youth going going GONE.

Hmmm.  Time to have a cuppa and some cake.

Peter's Father Ralph Parton Gabriel Dies

Peter Gabriel announced on his website that his father, Ralph Parton Gabriel, died on 9 November.  He was 100 years old.  Ralph was an engineer with five patents and was one of the forst persons to work on fibre-optic cables, which we take for granted today.  For a short while, a cow farmer who piped in music to the milking barn.  He leaves behind two children, Peter and his sister Anna, and his wife Irene.

Over the years, Peter would enjoy telling little stories about his father to interviewers.  Ralph liked to do meditation at train stations back when meditation was little known in England.  Back in 1999, Peter included a song about his father, Father, Son on the album OVO.

I grieve with you, Peter.

Lots of Peter Gabriel So Box Set Promotion Stuff on the Web

Peter Gabriel's long-delayed So special edition box set was finally released on October 22.  This means that Peter has been doing a sudden flood of publicity to flog the expensive mix of vinyl, CDs and DVDs.  For example, there is a positive but brief review from the BBC (which makes you wonder if the reviewer actually listened to any of the box set.) 

You can find the full list over at Peter's official Facebook page. 

Forgive me for being light on the snark over the individual reviews/interviews but I've been lucky enough to find a couple of new clients.  Freelance writing is a feast or famine business and right now I need to take advantage of the feast of work before another famine period sets in.

Let me wrap this post up by explaining about the strange image above and to the left of this sentence.  Peter has been saying that after the Back to Front Tour ends (and it did last month) he would "take a year off" to indulge on a round the world trip.  PG or someone in PG's camp posted an image from PG's computer screen to show that he is spending a little bit of time working in the studio before going on his trip for PG-only-knows-how-long-and-will-change-his-mind-at-the-last-second.  Apparently, the working title of this song is "God Song." Hmmm.