Peter Gabriel has announced that he will release In The Big Room on double 180g black vinyl and as a 2CD package on March 13. He will follow that with the release of Live At WOMAD 1982 on vinyl and CD on May 8.
In The Big Room is a recording of an intimate concert for members of Peter Gabriel’s Full Moon Club and took place at Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box near Bath during a short run of live shows in November 2003 . The set features material from both the Growing Up Live tour of 2002/2003 – Gabriel’s first in 10 years that accompanied the release of his album UP – and the subsequent Still Growing Up Live tour that ran through much of 2004.
Gabriel was joined by his touring band from this period, featuring Tony Levin (bass), David Rhodes (guitar), Ged Lynch (drums), Richard Evans (guitar, whistle, mandolin), Rachel Z (keyboard and backing vox) and Melanie Gabriel (backing vox).
“I’d not really taken advantage of the big room as a performance space myself, and when, in 2003, the opportunity came up, we grabbed it and offered the small number of seats to members of the Full Moon club,” Gabriel explains. “It was not part of a big tour, so we weren’t as polished and rehearsed as we might have been while on tour, but it made for a more awake and edgy performance, as we were fully concentrating on what we were doing. There was no elaborate visual show; the whole focus was about making it sound good. I had pretty much forgotten how these songs sounded, but listening back to these mixes, I was pleasantly surprised how alive they were. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.”
Live At WOMAD 1982 features Gabriel’s set from Friday night at the very first World Music And Dance Festival that he’d helped set up and which was held at Shepton Mallet Playground in June 1982. The set was released digitally last year.
In The Big Room will be available as a 2LP 180g black vinyl, in a gatefold jacket with a high-res download code and as 2CD in mini-vinyl style gatefold packaging.
Live At WOMAD 1982 will be available as a 2LP 180g black vinyl, in a gatefold jacket with Side D etching and high-res download code and as a 1CD in mini-vinyl style gatefold packaging.
