It seems like a long time ago that Peter Gabriel was on stage wearing a fox mask or a headband with bat wings… Before becoming the respectable poster-boy for human rights performing in the biggest arenas in the world, Peter Gabriel was just a teen who wanted to stand out. The son of a pianist and an electrical engineer, and a fan of The Beatles and soul music, he embarked on the Genesis adventure with his school friends in the late 60s, quickly proving his capacities as a showman. His appearance on stage in Dublin wearing a red dress (his wife’s) and a fox head mask in 1972 attracted the attention of the British press, allowing Genesis to double their fees. Today, Peter Gabriel looks back and sees “a desperate attempt to stand out from the rest of the band”. Three years later, on the 15th August 1975, he would quit the band for good, after a final show in Besançon in France, at the height of its success.
In the documentary Genesis: A History, Gabriel explains that he dreaded the long tour schedules, saying he did not want to be “swallowed by the machine”. The desire of escaping his seemingly preordained vain future as a rock star was already dawning in him, especially with the image he had built around him with his various costumes. “I felt I was becoming a sort of stereotype, wanting that ego gratification. I didn’t like myself, and I didn’t feel free.” The singer had also just become a father, which changed his entire perspective on life and widened the gap between him and the rest of the band, who perhaps thought he was trying to steal the limelight. Tony Banks, the keyboard player in Genesis, incidentally recognised that “Peter grew up faster than the rest of us”.
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