i/o – The Tour will see Gabriel playing new material from his forthcoming album i/o, as well as delving into his peerless catalogue of music, with hits, fan favourites and the unexpected. For the shows, Gabriel will be joined by regular band-mates Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché. Additionally, new music from the i/o album is being released on the full moon of each month. The March song release is called “Playing For Time.” TICKETS: The general onsale for i/o – The Tour North American leg will start Friday, March 10 at 10am Local Time on LiveNation.com. Fans will have access to a special presale through Peter’s Fan Club mailing list, starting Tuesday, March 7. Citi is the official card of the i/o – The Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets in the U.S. beginning Wed. March 8 at 10am local time until Thursday, March 9 at 6pm local time through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com In Canada, American Express® Cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Wednesday March 8 at 10am local time through Thursday, March 9 at 6pm local time. Visit ticketmaster.ca/americanexpress to purchase tickets. Ticket limits & terms apply. VIP: Fans can also purchase VIP Packages, which may include premium tickets, access to the pre-show lounge, limited edition gift item & more. For more information, visit vipnation.com. Tickets for all European shows are available now at petergabriel.com. i/o – The Tour May 18 Krakow, Poland TAURON ArenaMay 20 Verona, Italy Verona ArenaMay 21 Milan, Italy Mediolanum ArenaMay 23 Paris, France Accor ArenaMay 24 Lille, France Stade Pierre-MauroyMay 26 Berlin, Germany WaldbuehneMay 28 Munich, Germany KoenigsplatzMay 30 Copenhagen, Denmark Royal ArenaMay 31 Stockholm, Sweden Avicii ArenaJune 2 Bergen, Norway KoengenJune 5 Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo DomeJune 6 Antwerp, Belgium SportpaleisJune 8 Zurich, Switzerland HallenstadionJune 10 Cologne, Germany Lanxess ArenaJune 12 Hamburg, Germany Barclays ArenaJune 13 Frankfurt, Germany FesthalleJune 15 Bordeaux, France Arkea ArenaJune 17 Birmingham, UK Utilita ArenaJune 19 London, UK The O2June 20 Nottingham, UK Motorpoint ArenaJune 22 Glasgow, UK OVO HydroJune 23 Manchester, UK AO ArenaJune 25 Dublin, Ireland 3Arena September 8 Quebec City, Quebec Videotron CentreSeptember 9 Ottawa, Ontario Canadian Tire CentreSeptember 11 Toronto, Ontario Scotiabank ArenaSeptember 13 Montreal, Quebec Bell CentreSeptember 14 Boston, Massachusetts TD GardenSeptember 16 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wells Fargo CenterSeptember 18 New York, New York Madison Square GardenSeptember 30 Chicago, Illinois United Center October 7 Vancouver, British Columbia Rogers ArenaOctober 8 Seattle, Washington Climate Pledge ArenaOctober 11 San Francisco, California Chase CenterOctober 13 Los Angeles, California Kia ForumFor complete tour and ticket information, VIP Packages and more visit: www.livenation.com and www.petergabriel.com.
On the full moon, Tuesday 7 March, Peter Gabriel releases the Dark-Side Mix of “Playing For Time,” the third song from his forthcoming album i/o. The track is accompanied by a cover image featuring the work of visual artist Annette Messager. Written and produced by Peter Gabriel, “Playing For Time” was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London, and features Tom Cawley on piano. The orchestral arrangement, by Ed Shearmur, was recorded at British Grove Studios in London with a number of players who previously featured in the New Blood Orchestra. ” ‘Playing For Time’ is a song that I have been working on for a long time and have performed live, without lyrics, so some people may be familiar with it. It’s been an important song for me. It’s about time, mortality and memories and the idea that each of us has a planet full of memories which get stashed inside the brain. It is more of a personal song about how you assemble memories and whether we are prisoners of time or whether that is something that can actually free us. I do think it’s good to push yourself towards more bold or interesting experiences because then you will have richer memories to feed you when you get to my age. You also get taught by every meaningful experience that you go through.” The presence of Tom Cawley on piano and Ed Shearmur’s arrangement, provide nice touch-points with Gabriel’s previous work. Cawley, having played piano on the New Blood Tour, was an obvious choice, “even though I performed and played piano live quite a lot I felt that this was something that I could get a real piano player in for and Tom Cawley is a brilliant musician.” The connection to Ed Shearmur goes even further back; “I thought back to That’ll Do, the Randy Newman song that I sang, and Ed Shearmur had done a beautiful arrangement on that and I thought that maybe that sort of thing would really suit this song well, so we managed to track Ed down again. When I first heard the demos it brought a tear to the eye because I felt so much emotion in it, particularly at the end. That was definitely what I wanted to try and do with this song, to give that emotional journey. It means a lot to me.” Gabriel’s thoughts about time were, in part, influenced by the work of the Long Now Foundation, and Danny Hillis’s extraordinary invention, The 10,000 Year Clock, which is an idea designed to try and encourage us to think long-term. “I’m sure that if we have a chance of surviving the existential problems that we now face we have to start thinking much bigger and longer to make some real headway. So, I think what they do is enormously valuable and there are some amazing talks on their website, so for those that want a deep dive into the role of time and long-term thinking, the Long Now Foundation is a wonderful place to start.” Just like the two previous full moon releases, “Playing For Time” will come with differing mix approaches from Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), released on 7 March, and from Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos In-Side Mix, released later in the month. The artwork that accompanies this month’s release is by visual artist Annette Messager, whose work Gabriel has long been an admirer of. “I’d seen the work of Annette Messager, who is a wonderful artist, many years ago and nearly got her involved in the Art from Us project, but this time I thought she’d be exactly the right person to ask to do something for this song. Annette has been a real pioneering sculptor and, if you look at the breadth of her work, you’ll find that she has influenced quite a few younger artists working today. It’s wonderful that she wanted to get involved. I strongly recommend you check out her work, it is full of life, even though a lot of it has death and memory at its heart.” Annette Messager – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_MessagerLong Now Foundation – https://longnow.org Cover image: Mes voeux (avec nos cheveux) by Annette Messager Further details on the release plans for the full album will follow. About Peter GabrielPeter Gabriel first came to international prominence with the success of Genesis, a band that he co-founded while still at school. Since leaving Genesis in 1975, his recording career has included eleven studio albums, film soundtracks for Alan Parker’s ‘Birdy’, Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and Philip Noyce’s ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ as well as numerous live albums. His wider musical career has included multiple Grammy Awards, the world-renowned Real World Studios, the formation of the Real World Records label, and in 1980 the creation of WOMAD, the festival that has launched the careers of many artists from around the world and has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Peter Gabriel co-founded the human rights organization WITNESS (Witness.org) in 1992, the organization that pioneers the use of cameras and technology in human rights campaigning, and in 2007, alongside Sir Richard Branson, he founded The Elders (theelders.org) which was launched by Nelson Mandela. In 2006, Peter Gabriel was awarded the prestigious Man of Peace title by The Nobel Peace Laureates and in 2008 was also included in the Time 100 list. He has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice. He remains engaged in a wide variety of tech-based businesses throughout a variety of creative industries.
