First we otter mention...it was contributor Laura Moss that gave this topic...which we we posted a message on the alt.music.peter-gabriel newsgroup, and we asked for people to come up with their own ways to tell that you are a Peter Gabriel fan. We got enough responses to turn a top 10 list into a top whatever list. The names of the contributors appear after the entry.
100. You're crying now that this list is retired! (Laura Moss)
99. You invent a CD ROM *changer* so you can fill it with several copies of Eve *and* Xplora 1 and then hit "random". (Solsbury Hill)
98. You constantly write Atlantic Records, taunting them for dropping PG from the label after Melt. (Solsbury Hill)
97. You refuse to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because Peter Gabriel is inelligble to be inducted (as of to date). (Solsbury Hill)
96. You hook your tombstone up so a Helen Chadwick sculpture pops out each time someone leans over it. (rraven) (Inside Eve joke)
95. You set your CD player/alarm clock an extra hour early each morning so you can listen to US in it's entirety without being late for work. (Angel)
94. You have recommended "Say Anything" to friends solely on the basis that a Peter Gabriel song plays a major role in the film. (Ken)
93. You have heard "Solsbury Hill" more than a ka-jillion times, and the song still kicks your butt when you hear it. (Ken)
92. You believe the 10 minute version of "In Your Eyes" on _Secret World Live_ is far too short. (Ken)
91. You play your Adam Swatch at least once a day. (Ken)
90. You dance to it. (Ken)
89. You dance to it even when it isn't playing. (Ken)
88. You wear your Hard Rock Cafe Witness T-shirt backwards so that the PG-painted design is always visible on the front. (Inspired by Angel Langenberg)
87. You own two Hard Rock Cafe Witness T-shirts: One to wear (backwards) and the other to frame on your wall (Inspired by Angel Langenberg)
86. You discover by accident that playing "Moribund the Burgermeister" on your car stereo is the only way to make your kids quiet during long car trips.(Susan Brennan)
85. You make a tape where *every other song* is "Moribund the Burgermeister" to insure your kids stay quiet on long car trips.(Susan Brennan)
84. You know both of PG's birthdays.(rraven's keeper)
83. You celebrate both of PG's birthdays.(rraven's keeper)
82. You think nothing odd about the fact that most "celebrity birthday" books list PG as having two birthdays--in fact, you think it's a brilliant ploy by PG to get twice as many gifts!(plain ol' rraven)
81.You sing "Come talk to me" every time the computer is slow loading a web page. (Kali)
80. Your taste in music has even rubbed off on your childhood friend.(Solsbury Hill)
79. You qualify for frequent flyer miles at this page.(Laura).
78. When you spend three days arguing the spiritualality in "I Go Swimming", you might be a PG fan.(rraven)
77. Your friends and family know to tranquilize you, all they have to do is put on "POV" (actually, after post-op pain, my Mom found this worked really well on me...)(rraven)
76. You ask your husband for a ping pong table and matching expresso machine for your birthday.(Laura)
75. You decide you can't have your second child next year because Peter might go on tour and you don't want to miss it cause you can't go pregnant. (editors note: people of the pregnant persuasion are advised not to go to concerts because the loud music can hurt little developing ears).(Laura Moss)
74. You pick up a metal washer lying on the ground because you think it bears resemblance to the Real World logo. (Solsbury Hill)
73. You've converted all of PG's song titles as well as a several key lyrics into 7 letter/number/character combinations. You go down the list, changing your license plates every year. And your license plate holder reads, "Mercy St. - Swear they moved that sign." Really.(Wendy)
72. You always list the abbrieveation for "page" just so you have an excuse to type "pg" in essays.(anonymous)
71. You have a coffee mug with PG's picture on it.(Angel)
70. You have bank checks with a picture of PG printed on them. (Solsbury Hill)
69. You and your roommate like to make silly house rules, and one of them is that everytime someone leaves the room, "Solsbury Hill" has to be played. (Joe Giessner)
68. You spend three hours on the phone with a Zappafan friend making trails from Zappa to Pete. (Well, shortest- pete covered for Zappa once. Hm. Well, Zappa was friends with this guy who worked for this other guys who once met this guy who played in a band with Manu Katche who played with pete! Yes!) (Kali)
67. You're in a department store and you're shopping in the housewares department and you hear a familiar sound. You recognize it as the flute sound from "Sledgehammer" so you immediately run over to the electronics deparment, knocking over displays and patrons along the way, and get to the video section just in time to see the "Sledgehammer" video on a huge wall of TV screens. You stand in the TV section, drooling, for the next five minutes...(Solsbury Hill)
66. #67 is the highlight of your week.(Solsbury Hill)
65. You work in a bank and when someone asks you about investing in CDs, you recommend the entire PG catalogue. (Solsbury Hill)
64. You drive 200 miles (or more) each way to see PG in concert. (Harry Thomas III)
63. You buy the German editions of PG's CDs in Germany. (Harry Thomas III)
62. You buy PG's early CDs in Japan, paying in yen. (List price, ¥2,800 yen, or about $30 U.S. dollars, depending on the current rate) (Harry Thomas III)
61. You go into a CD store and is shocked to realize that there are other recording artists. (Solsbury Hill)
60. You see your job as just something to do between PG album releases. (Solsbury Hill)
59. You talk your family into renting New York Stories because you have heard that Peter is in it. Then you watch his 3 milleseconds upon the screen 12 times in a row, the whole while squealing "it's HIM!" despite the fact that your family is staring at you as if you are an insane asylum escapee. (Lauren aka Dragonfly.)
58. Your kids are smarter, cuter, and more popular than those kids whose parents who aren't PG fans...(Laura Moss)
57. You're driving along when you hear a PG song come on the radio. Suddenly, you become so enthralled by the music, that you don't watch what you're doing, and the next thing you know, you're first person in history to get a ticket for "Driving under the influence of Peter Gabriel." (Solsbury Hill)
56. You seriously consider getting a tatoo of PG's initials.(Angelique)
55. You "work late" just so you can look up PG pages on your workplace internet account.(Angelique)
54. Your licence plate reads "LUV PG". (Laura Moss)
53. Buy a piano, although you can't play it, so if PG happens to visit your house and you inspire Him to a new song, He can play it there and then. (or maybe I should get piano lessons after all, having this piano seems like a bit of a waste). (Angelique)
52. Annoy all your neighbours by playing PG albums over and over again, every single day, so you have to find different places to live all the time. (Angelique.)
51. You actually jumped into a pond and attempted to kiss a frog in the hopes that it would turn into PG, just like in the video. (Vincent)
50. You watched the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympics and, for a second, you thought the drummers were going to play "The Rhythm of the Heat" (Vincent)
49. You write an angry letter to Robert Zemeckis complaining that there are no PG songs in "Forrest Gump" (PG is part of all time American culture, after all) (Vincent)
48. You watch every single David Copperfield show hoping that when "Mercy Street" ends, instead of David's lovely assistant, PG's newest album will magically appear. (Vincent)
47. You wake up every night after the same horrible nightmare: Oliver Stone has made a movie based on PG's biography (I also happen to be a fan of Jim Morrison) (Vincent)
46. You still believe that, before you die, PG13 will mean something other than a movie rating. (Vincent)
45. You've had major arguments with a significant other over putting thumb tacks in a sacred Secret World Tour poster. (do you think I could make this up?) (Targem)
44. You've spent exorbitant amounts of money on numeroligists and various psychic hotlines attempting to divine the release date of his next album. (Targem)
43. You see films that do not intrest you simply because Peter is on the soundtrack. (Targem)
42. You cling to any optimistic Gabriel related rumour, no matter how ludicrous, including but not limited to (1) Pete will star in the film version of the William Gibson novel "Neuromancer" (B) Peter and Steve Hackett will rejoin Genesis to tour when the Boxed sets come out in 2003 (III) Mr.Gabriel is *this close* to proposing to Kate Bush/You/ Paula Cole/ Mary Parks/ Tony Levin (Targem)
41. You have named your pet/child/car/computer/house plant/etc. after Peter or any Pete related song/album/place/bacteria. (Targem)
40. You contributed to this list. (Targem)
39.5) You're reading this list. (Targem)
39. You find ways to work Peter Gabriel lyrics into presentations and reports at work, just for sport! (Laura)
38. You sing Peter Gabriel ballads to your child as lullabies (no dorky Mother Goose or Barney tunes allowed in *MY* house).(Laura)
37. You sit in your car in 105 degree heat just because you want to hear the end of "I Have The Touch." (shameful, but it's true, happened this weekend).(Laura)
36. You seriously threatened divorce because you heard Muzak on an elevator and your husband told you that it was the Lawrence Welk version of "Sledgehammer!" (Our Peter would never, never, never license his stuff to Lawrence Welk!)(Laura)
35. You were "this close" to convincing your husband to name your unborn child "Rael."(Laura)
34. When you accept peteposters in place of wages. (Lith: Lessee, I owe you money? How 'bout this poster of pete in the SWT? Kali: I'll TAKE it!) (Kali, obviously:-)
33. And also when you start crying over the phone to your best friend lith because pete looks soooo saaaaaaaaaaaaaad... (Kali)
32. You go to an NBA playoff game, and you can't remember who won, but you remember that they played "Steam", "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" during the commercial breaks. (Jeff Linakis)
31. You actually say this in an e-mail: Excuse me, but I'm listening to my PG tapes, which is causing me to have multiple petegasms. (Kali)
30. At least once a week, you hit yourself in the forehead for not buying the program for the "So" concert tour. (Ken)
29. You believe "I Go Swimming" is comparable to Shakespeare's finest sonnets in lyrical beauty. (Ken)
28. While waiting for the "Secret World Tour" show to begin, you knew you would have gotten your money's worth if PG came out, sang "Blood of Eden," and ended the show. (Ken)
27. You visit Solsbury Hill (the webpage) at least once a week. (Ken)
26. You visit Solsbury Hill, (the actual hill) once a week, even when it means constantly scheduling expensive flights to England. (Solsbury Hill)
25. You actually believe the theme park in Barcelona will be built. (Ken)
24. You have somehow managed to buy season passes to the theme park in Barcelona. (Solsbury Hill)
23. You approve of all of PG's hairstyles. (okay, okay -- that was maybe hitting below the belt -- I'll stop now). (Ken)
22. You watch a video of "World Music Awards `96" in slowmotion `cause PG is sitting in the third row and you won't lose a chance to see him. (Geider)
21. You watch it twice to see who's sitting near him. (Geider)
20. You try to stay awake till 4 am(germany) to meet someone at the PG-chat and when you meet someone you are to tired(sorry John) to have a good conversation in english. (Geider)
19. You think other musicians put out albums way too fast. (Solsbury Hill)
18.When you stay up till 1 in the morning, enduring modern pop and country, just to see pete for three minutes and strain to hear his voice because the voiceover's in portuguese and it's a program you've already seen. Then this causes you to collapse into your chair and eeee for three minutes straight just 'cause you saw pete on tv. (Kali, who just came back from Brazil)
17. You learn the hard way that proper "casual day" attire at the workplace does not include your Slipperman costume. (John Schwalm)
16. You take the QuickCam you won from VH1 and you try to find a way to attach it to a hat. (Solsbury Hill)
15. You get up early on Sunday mornings just in case Claymation Peter makes a guest appearance on Davy and Goliath. (John Schwalm)
14. Your therapist tells you the first step to recovery is admitting that you own a copy of the "Hard to Hold" soundtrack. (John Schwalm) [Note: On the "Hard to Hold" soundtrack "I Go Swimming" appears. It doesn't get any more obscure than that.]
13. You will stop whatever you're doing, shush all conversation, just to hear if that's Pete on the radio. (Valentina)
12. Everyone tells you that there's something strange about your eyes, and everywhere you look, you see the Real World logo. (Solsbury Hill)
11. You buy a PG album, even if you already have it, just 'cos you found it in a rock-bottom discount bin next to John Denver, and decided he [editor's note: Gabriel, not Denver] deserves more dignity than that. (Valentina, who actually did this BTW.)
10. You have surreal dreams about PG even when you are wide awake. (Solsbury Hill).
9. You hear "Rhythm of the Heat" in every movie trailer, whether it's there or not. (John Schwalm)
8. You know from first-hand visual inspection that Pete does indeed keep his MTV Video Awards among his garden gnomes. (John Schwalm)
7. Even your pets can't get enough of PG! (Solsbury Hill)
6. You're always disappointed to see Tom Baker emerging from that phone booth. (John Schwalm)
5. You hope to get through your trip to Paris on a vocabulary of "jeux sans frontiers" and "Lanois". (John Schwalm)
4. You are the webmaster of this page.
3. You can't lip-synch to "Digging in the Dirt" without looking at your reflection in a soup spoon. (John Schwalm)
2. Not only have you decided to become a vegetarian, but so have your three gerbils Mozo, Rael, and Bunderschaft. (Solsbury Hill)
1. You find yourself frantically opening old suitcases in thrift shops in a vain attempt to rescue Tony Levin. (John Schwalm)
