Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, songwriter and human rights activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched a successful solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single. His fifth studio album, So (1986), is his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the US. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and, according to a report in 2011, it was MTV's most played music video of all time.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida. Formed in 1976, the band originally comprised lead singer and rhythm guitarist Tom Petty, lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair. In 1982, Blair, weary of the touring lifestyle, departed the band. His replacement, Howie Epstein, stayed with the band for the next two decades. In 1991, Scott Thurston joined the band as a multi-instrumentalist—mostly on rhythm guitar and second keyboard. In 1994, Steve Ferrone replaced Lynch on drums. Blair returned to the Heartbreakers in 2002, the year before Epstein's death. The band had a long string of hit singles including "Breakdown", "American Girl", "Refugee", "The Waiting", "Learning to Fly", and "Mary Jane's Last Dance", among many others, that stretched over several decades of work.
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You " (1985), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Other commercially successful singles include "Promised You a Miracle" (1982), "Glittering Prize" (1982), "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" (1982), "Waterfront" (1983), "Alive and Kicking" (1985), "Sanctify Yourself" (1986), "Let There Be Love" (1991), "See the Lights" (1991) as well as the UK number one single "Belfast Child" (1989).
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Passion is an album released in 1989 by the English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel. It was the first Peter Gabriel album to be released on Real World Records, Gabriel's second soundtrack, and his eighth album overall.
Stephen Richard Hackett is an English guitarist, songwriter and producer who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP before he left to pursue a solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.
Michael Wayne Campbell is an American guitarist and vocalist. He was a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of the band's hits with Petty, including "Refugee", "Here Comes My Girl", "You Got Lucky", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". Outside of The Heartbreakers, he has worked as a session guitarist and songwriter with a number of other acts, including composing and playing on the Don Henley hits "The Boys of Summer" & "The Heart of the Matter" as well as working on most of Stevie Nicks's solo albums. Campbell, along with Neil Finn, joined Fleetwood Mac to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on their world tour in 2018–2019. After the end of that tour he has been involved in his own band, The Dirty Knobs, and has released two albums, as of 2022.
So is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released on 19 May 1986 by Charisma Records and Virgin Records. After working on the soundtrack to the film Birdy (1984), producer Daniel Lanois was invited to remain at Gabriel's Somerset home during 1985 to work on his next solo project. Initial sessions for So consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes, although these grew to include a number of percussionists.
Peter Gabriel is the fourth studio album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. In the United States and Canada, the album was released by Geffen Records with the title Security. Some music streaming services refer to it as Peter Gabriel 4: Security. A German-language version, entitled Deutsches Album, was also released. The album saw Gabriel expanding on the post-punk and world music influences from his 1980 self-titled record, and earned him his first US top 40 single with "Shock the Monkey".
Us is the sixth studio album by the English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriel, released on 28 September 1992 by Real World Records. Following the release of his soundtrack album Passion in 1989, Gabriel started work on new material for a new album, his first since So, which became his biggest selling release. Gabriel focused on personal themes on Us, including his divorce in the late 1980s, his subsequent relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette, and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.
Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, known professionally as Phil Manzanera, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music, and was the lead guitarist with 801 and Quiet Sun. In 2006, Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On an Island, and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. He wrote and presented a series of 14 one-hour radio programmes for station Planet Rock entitled The A-Z of Great Guitarists.
"Shock the Monkey" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the first single from his fourth self-titled studio album, issued in the US under the title Security.
"Cavatina" is a 1970 classical guitar piece by British composer Stanley Myers based on music originally written for the soundtrack of the film The Walking Stick (1970). After Myers expanded the piece and it was recorded by guitarist John Williams, "Cavatina" was popularized as the theme from the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.
Ricky Fataar is a South African musician who has performed as both a drummer and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a spoof on the Beatles, in which he performed as a member of The Rutles. He was also a member of The Beach Boys between 1971 and 1974, and has been the drummer for Bonnie Raitt for the last 35 years. Fataar is also a record producer, and has worked on projects scoring music to film and television.
Peter Gabriel is the third solo studio album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 30 May 1980 by Charisma Records. The album, produced by Steve Lillywhite, has been acclaimed as Gabriel's artistic breakthrough as a solo artist. AllMusic wrote that it established him as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians".
Up is the seventh studio and thirteenth album overall by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 23 September 2002 through Geffen and Real World Records. The album rose to number 9 in the US, number 11 in the UK, and captured the number 1 position in Italy. Most critics reviewed it positively, though Rolling Stone said Gabriel was "out of touch". This would be Gabriel's last studio album of new original material for 21 years until the release of I/O (2023), although he did release several studio projects in the interim.
Jude Anthony Cole is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and talent manager from Carbon Cliff, Illinois. He began his career as part of Moon Martin's backing group The Ravens, and joined the English power pop band The Records in 1980 by the age of 19. After his work on their album Crashes, he signed with Reprise Records to pursue a solo recording career and released his eponymous debut studio album (1987), which was followed by four subsequent releases—A View from 3rd Street (1990), Start the Car (1992), I Don't Know Why I Act This Way (1995), and Falling Home (2000). Afterward, he outsourced his work onto managing, producing, and co-writing for the alternative rock band Lifehouse. This led to Cole receiving production credits on many of their singles throughout the 2000s, including "You and Me," "First Time," "Whatever It Takes" and "Halfway Gone"; each became hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40, Adult Top 40, and Adult Contemporary charts.
Spectral Mornings is the third studio album by English guitarist and songwriter Steve Hackett, released in May 1979 on Charisma Records. It is his first to feature members of his touring band, which many Hackett fans consider as the "classic line-up". The musicians are his brother John Hackett, Nick Magnus, Dik Cadbury, John Shearer, and Pete Hicks.
Random Hold were a British rock band, originally active between 1977 and 1980, with a reformed band under the same name active between 1981 and 1982.
"I Have the Touch" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his fourth eponymous studio album released in 1982. The song's working title during the recording sessions was "Hands". This song was featured in the film The Chocolate War (1988). The 1996 remix was used in the film Phenomenon of the same year. In 1996, Heather Nova recorded a cover version of the song for the teen-witch horror film The Craft.
