Peter Gabriel

So much more than a biography of the Genesis founder and world music pioneer, Hegarty's study focuses on Gabriel's art taken as a whole, and what it tells us about being in a particular place at a particular time, be it Seventies England, Eighties New York, or the global mixing pot of Womad. --Choice Magazine (UK) The key to understanding progressive rocker Peter Gabriel, first as frontman of Genesis, later as solo artist, is through what author Hegarty calls 'locatedness, ' that sense of time and place that begins with Gabriel's early years in a southern England, through his fascination with America, and later in his embrace of and contribution to world music. Canadian example: the final performance of Gabriel's Rock Paper Scissors tour with Sting came a month after the 2016 Brexit vote. During this concert, Gabriel sang 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, ' the first track on Selling England by the Pound, his first live performance of a Genesis track since 1982. Hegarty . . . believes Gabriel's choice referenced Britons' impossible dream of returning to a mythic Albion where peace and prosperity reign. --Sarah Murdoch Toronto Star Peter Gabriel: Global Citizen is frequently fascinating; there is time to assess the value of hybridity in Gabriel's work, but also to suggest that Back in NYC is 'closer to Suicide's first album of pulsing electro punk.' Hegarty's assessment, too, that Gabriel's 1992 album, Us, aligned itself to the post-rock movement is astute . . . Peter Gabriel's work, like that of peers David Byrne, Brian Eno, and Robert Fripp, calls out for professorial analysis, and Hegarty delivers, never losing sight of accessibility, with spotless references and a deep understanding of the music and artist. --Record Collector