The New Blood tour is following on the back of his Scratch My Back album – A different take on the covers album, by working the covers as orchestral pieces.
So the tour means a large Orchestra rather than his regular touring band. The concert has much in common with a traditional orchestral performance with the first half being the new album end to end. After the interval we’re treated with some great reworkings of his own songs. Some obvious choices and others not so.
With a large orchestra Peter can’t provide the usual style of performance he lays on with zorb balls, Sedgeways, massive moving floors. That’s not to say this was not a class Gabriel visual feast. No, we get curtains made from massive U2 style displays, visuals behind the orchestra; several camera crews filming, often right in the middle of the musicians so the stage side screens get you into the heart of the action.
So a beautiful and stunning concert. I have posted some photos on our flickr account. What is cool is that the guy (Stefan Goodchild) who produced some the visuals has found my pictures ans some by a few others (possibly more professional than mine) and put them together into a collection to show his work which can be found here.
If you read the journal, the artist will be making some video clips of the work available. We would highly recommend checking them out, along with the blog.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mp3monster/sets/72157623594005837/
