IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Peter Gabriel live in Amsterdam, November 30th 1978
by ahand83
Scrap Of The Month originally started as a way to showcase new additions to the website. Sometimes, I find new material that suits a single page. When new stuff calls for a proper dig in newspaper archives or magazines, I try to get as much information as possible. This time was no different. The recent purchase of a Peter Gabriel concert ticket from Holland led me to a, at first, rather insignificant gig back in 1978.
The ticket is from a PG concert at the Jaap Edenhal in Amsterdam, a skating stadium named after Jaap Eden, a Dutch ice scater and sports cyclist who’s achievements back in the 19th century were unparallelled. Because of that Jaap Eden’s name is still being used for the annual national Dutch sports awards. The Jaap Edenhal was built in 1961. In the 1970s, it was used for many concerts. Many well-known rock acts played at the stadium such as Frank Zappa, ABBA, The Carpenters, Fats Domino, and AC/DC.
Back in 1978, after the release of Peter Gabriel 2 aka ‘Scratch’ on June 3rd, PG toured Europe and the United States extensively. In the second half of 1978, Peter Gabriel started at Madison Square Garden, NY, accompanying Genesis for the encore I Know What I Like. Most people might presume Gabriel only joined Genesis once on stage after leaving the band (Milton Keynes, 1982), but that appears to be incorrect.
After playing England, Germany and Scandinavia in August and the first part of September, Peter Gabriel came to Holland for a festival at the Congresgebouw in The Hague (September 10th). One of the other headliners of the festival happened to be Brand X. Phil Collins wasn’t present because of his obligations with Genesis. There’s an advert of the Pop Festival in the gallery below.
After a few more dates in Europe Peter Gabriel went back to the United States and Canada for most of October and November to return to Holland on November 30th. That was the gig at the Jaap Edenhal in Amsterdam. Despite Peter Gabriel’s popularity, few attended the concert. According to a newspaper article in Algemeen Dagblad on December 2nd only 1000 people showed up which “wasn’t more than the night before at the James Brown concert”. The article in Algemeen Dagblad was a critical write-up. It said: “His music is as whimsical as is his performance. The variety of musical styles makes him hard to define. The lack of a common thread in his music just has an annoying effect. The unorthodox presentation of it all makes it even harder to enjoy.”
An article in the NCR Handelsblad from December 1st was a bit kinder to Gabriel’s urge for doing things differently: “Although Gabriel doesn’t seem to know in which direction he’s heading, he has to be regarded as an intelligent and innovative force in popular music.” Another newspaper article in Het Parool, also from December 1st, mentioned “a well chosen batch of songs and Gabriel’s excitement as translator of these songs, made the concert a fascinating experience in every aspect.”
A live recording of the concert from the audience can be found here. PG started his performance talking, welcoming the audience in his Gabriel manner. The newspaper articles tell us the first song was On The Air, but from the audience recording we can hear that is was the unusual Me And My Teddybear that had to warm up the audience. Gabriel explained: “I take this opportunity now to cut out some of the vicious, nasty and unpleasant things that have been written about me in the press and say that Teddy and I are just…good…friends.” After having left Genesis, Gabriel still had to make a name for himself, despite the success of his first solo record. Peter Gabriel 2 didn’t do the trick just yet, but Gabriel hit back at the critics with his wittiness and a sarcastic song to shut them up.
Gabriel goes: “What we’re gonna do now is play a game which Teddy and I like to play a lot. We turn all the lights down and we look for our musicians because they are somewhere out there.” Then music plays and one can imagine the musicians coming up from the back of the stadium, dressed in orange working vests, holding their flash lights to make their way, guided by the first tones of On The Air. A Peter Gabriel show at its best.
I happened to find a few rare pictures that were snapped during the gig. They were taken in front of the stage and are of exceptional quality. Peter Gabriel can been seen wearing the same shirt as in the photo that’s shown in the newspaper articles. Besides Peter himself there are also Tony Levin (bass), Sid McGinnis (guitar) and Tim Cappello (saxophone).
This concert holds a few surprises and is definitely worth a listen. There are work-in-progress versions of Family Snapshot and I Don’t Remember which wouldn’t be released until 1980. The 8-minute version of Waiting For The Big One has a sax solo of Cappello and Slowburn is played with fire and perfection. Peter Gabriel plays the intro of Solsbury Hill on the piano and Modern Love is the last song before an enthusiastic ‘WE WANT MORE!’ Gabriel performs The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway as an encore, supposing he couldn’t just yet avoid a Genesis track. Amen.
