Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel (born Peter Brian Gabriel on 13 February 1950) is an internationally-famous award-winning English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. Throughout his career Gabriel has won numerous music awards, including three Brit Awards (winning Best British Male in 1987), six Grammy Awards, and thirteen MTV Video Music Awards. In 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers”. In 2009 he was awarded the Polar Music Prize and, in 2010, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis.

Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse School pupils Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel began to experiment with various elements of world music as the underpinning for his dense, poetic lyrics. Although he released a series of successful song-oriented albums, Peter Gabriel 1, 2, 3, and 4 (aka Car, Scratch, Melt, and Security) and chart success in the UK with the top 5 single Games Without Frontiers his commercially strongest period began in 1986 with his now seminal album So and its slightly less successful counterpart Us. After this came a 10 year hiatus until the album Up came out. This was followed by the ground breaking Growing Up tour. There was a DVD released of this tour. His 2010 studio album is Scratch My Back.