Here's the article and Intruder says comes from an Italian daily newspaper. We couldn't resist making snippy comments at some of the more absurd stuff, so if you want to read the article without the running commentary, e-mail us and we'll send you a clean copy of th story. The Committee's commentary is in blue, Intruder's commentary is in green.

Paradise exists. It's in Wiltshire, 100 miles northwest of London. Once it

used to be an old stone mill, now it's a sanctuary for musicians from all

over the world which arrive in pilgrimage hoping to cut a record to sell on

the lucrative market of pop music. The dream of a repented rockstar has

transformed this little property in the Real World headquarters: a meeting

point for musicians that Peter Gabriel selects in the farthest corners of

the earth and fixes forever on record.

 

The houses, offices studios and fields of Real World have been set up for

the big party celebrating the 10th anniversary of this record label. Peter

Gabriel and the whole staff of people working with him are present, as well

as a large number of artists and more than a few VIPs, who, like the master

of the house, fight the star system every day: the actor Woody Harrelson,

Tom Robinson, the beautiful Indonesian singer Anggun and Roland Orzabala

(ex Tears For Fears).

 

In an atmosphere of great friendship, the founders have told the story of

an adventure that gave third world artists the chance to record in

technologically advanced recording studios. An adventure which created

beauty and trends by the numbers. Born as a natural evolution of Womad -

the multiethnic festival which for almost 20 ytears has organized events in

the whole world (at the beginning of September one should be held in

Palermo, perhaps), Real World has become in the span of ten years the

smallest but most dynamic engine of the global village. A giant cake with

the label typical colours was brought in front of Peter Gabriel, together

with the certificate for sales of over 3 million copies during the last 10

years.

 

[Now, comes the strange part. Didn't we mention this upcoming scenario a few years back with question one of the RW Employment Quiz?]

 

Then, 4 men dressed up as aliens, with enormous bald coneheads, [Akroyd? Beldar? Is that you?] approached Peter Gabriel agitating in front of him some audiotapes spouting incomprehensible sentences.

 

[Ditch the disguise...we know it's you R.E.M! You have your own label already. Take your Up title and get out,.out!]

 

A very clear metaphor: the sounds yet to be discovered in the universe are still infinite. [Seems to me there was a huge misunderstanding: that was clearly a demonstration of fans which the wait for a new work turned into monsters...].

 

Come on Real World. Happy Birthday to you.

 

His hair is gray and very short, the face is heavier and his eyebrows like

bushes... Only his magnetic green eyes [Cool! He can make his eyes change color!]remain those of the magic performer who made the fortune of early Genesis. Peter Gabriel, who turned 49 on the 13th of May [sic!!] [Arrrgh! Not this again!], is now a country squire. But in his tenue around Bath, rather than growing vegetables or raising animals, he cultivates sound. His creatures come from Asia, from the depth of Africa, from the Indian sub-continent, from Japan, from Algeria, from Tibet.

 

The tapes for the new album which fans have been waiting for almost ten

years lie forgotten in his private recording studio [Grumble]. The only sure thing

about it is the title, "Up", but nobody knows the release date. Nobody

dares pushing him for it, not even the president of Virgin the record company which distributes Real World albums.

 

"It will come out when it's finished." he cuts it short.[Fine. Be that way.]

And for those who expect something in the fashion of his Eighties work, he has a very clear message: "I haven't listened to rock music for a long long time. I prefer

classical music and the huge quantity of tapes that we receive from all

over the world".

 

His philosophy hasn't changed at all in the past ten years, and he believes

that what he said introducing his then new creature still holds true:

"We're all bastards. I don't believe in purity, especially in art.

Personally, I'm in constant search for new sounds".

 

Was this the belief that made you try to turn your dream into reality?

 

"Everything begun with the Womad Festival, nine years before the label

launch.. And when we started Real World, besides enthusuasm, nor I nor the

others had plenty of certainties. Nobody knew whether we would find the means

to survive. But by all means we wanted to find an international space for

those musical talents that derive from cultures that in the Western world

have scarce visibility. And we wanted to mix traditional sounds with modern

and emerghing ones. We thought of Real World as a meeting point for

musicians from 'other' worlds and, why not, to act as their employment

agency".

 

How did you get in touch with the first artists that were involved in the

label?

 

"Our first recruiting field was Womad. With the help of Thomas Brooman, who

costantly travels six month per year to recruit the cast of all different

events, we started choosing among the stuff we had. Until the beginning

Womad has been for us a sort of Yellow Pages".

 

What's the score after ten years of Real World?

 

"We are a company economically sounder and, with the recent agreement we

signed with Narada for distribution in the U.S. we also trust the future is

even brighter".

 

What were the main changes, since then, in world music?

 

"Nowadays our artists are star in all the big summer festivals, they can

perform on the same stage with Page & Plant [Yeah!] or Transglobal Underground. [Who're they?] The Afro Celt Sound System [Yeah!], whose second album is out now, sold over 200,000 copies,. At the beginning we used to drink to the sales of one of our

artists in excess of 2,000. The results are under everyone's eyes, you just

have to walk into any record shop".

 

How do you manage to recreate in a place such as this, in the English

counryside, an habitat where artists from such different cultures can feel

at their own ease?

 

"We wanted to open our doors to the press [But not the Committee, alas.], in the

occasion of our tenth anniversary, just to make people understand that here

one breathes a different air. Here musicians exchange experiences every day.

This is the more stimulating side of our whole project. And no artist has ever backed

out when the chance to cross breed two different musical genres arised".

 

Those who don't particularly love you [We know who they are and boy, are they gonna get it!] malign by saying that in the Real World Studios the repertoires are manipulated so to appeal on the more vast rock market...

 

"I believe it is impossible to emphasize, say, the 'dance' aspect of a

certain kind of music if this isn't natural for it. Some of our proposals

are from the very beginning very 'danceable'. We are a generation of

artists who grew up with pop music, but that is not a fault. And I never

considered the possibility of putting the sounds of the world in a museum.

I'm convinced, on the contrary, that to make them grow they have to be

placed within the market. And as a consequence any promotional action

helps: even the use of this or that song within an advertising commercial".

 

Aren't you afraid that these may alter the original content of the message?

 

"Fashion trends come and go. Art remains". [Here, here!]

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