The Long Awaited Review/Overview of The Classic Peter Gabriel Biography by Spencer Bright
aka: The Bright Bio
by Mac Cat, Director of Coffee
I knew the Bright Bio had the reputation of being the most thorough of the books on Peter Gabriel around, but when I saw the book itself I was still shocked: over 500 pages long! I thought, "Geez, does it even mention what brand toothpaste Gabriel uses?" (The answer is: Yes. Crest, page 176).
Gallo's book has the pictures, Welch's book has all the anecdotes and concert descriptions, and In His Own Words has all the quotes. This book specializes in everything the other books don't cover, going deep into his personal and professional life.
It starts out describing the first year after Gabriel left Genesis before backtracking into Gabriel's childhood and early Genesis days. Despite the jumping around in the timeline a bit, I found this to be an improvement over the Welch book which spent practically the entire first half of the bio describing Gabriel's Genesis straight on through the split up.
To get an idea of how deep and dark Bright's book gets: most reports of Gabriel's evolution through Genesis attempt to explain why Gabriel wound up breaking away from the band.
In Bright's book, you marvel on how Genesis managed to stay together at all for so long, and without killing each other as well. If you were ever puzzled by Gabriel's departure from Genesis, this adequately explains it.
The bulk of the book focuses on Gabriel's solo career and his personal life, which I think is another improvement over Welch's book because I figure if you want to read about Genesis and their music, you're better off reading a Genesis biography anyway.
Keep in mind that while Bright is respectful of Gabriel, Spencer once worked for a tabloid and it shows. People uncomfortable reading the "gossipy" details of Gabriel's life or don't want to hear about the different romances probably won't care too much for this book.
I didn't have a problem with reading this bio, and my reading about his personal details put a new meanings on much of Gabriel's music. However, a few people I know seriously disliked this book for the reason they felt it went too far in terms of privacy.
The book also covers a lot of the Mickey Mouse politics that make up much of the music industry. Various A&R men, managers, promoters, producers, accountants, organizers, and "go-getters" come and go to show how they affected Gabriel's business and at many times, Gabriel's personal life as well. These people are divided up between those who support Gabriel to those who fight with Gabriel over just about everything.
If you're like me and are fascinated by the behind-the-scenes stuff and want to know what the music business is really like, then you'll get a lot out of this book. If you find any part of the music biz that doesn't involve the actual recording or performing of music boring, then this book might not be for you.
That all said, allow me to highlight and comment on some of the book's content:
In the Gallo and Welch books, the authors
felt free to show themselves in the bios as being associates of
Gabriel. Not Spencer...he's practically invisible throughout the
book. However, he does surface at one point when he interviews
Rosanna Arquette one week and then interviews Gabriel the next.
While Gabriel is being interviewed, Arquette leaves what has to
be a one-hour message on Bright's answering machine. This answering
machine message is one of the most hilarious examples of unintentional
self-parody of this century.
Young father-to-be Gabriel wanted his children
to be Leos. He wanted a Leo so badly that when his then-wife Jill
was nine months pregnant with Anne, he encouraged Jill to walk
up Glastonberry Tor, which is a long walk and a steep incline.
He believed the Tor was a spiritual place and would give Gabriel
the Leo he wanted. Fortunately, Anne was born a Leo, as was his
second daughter, Melanie. I say "fortunately" because
one can only imagine what would've happened if that wasn't the
case:
Just before, during and after So, the bio
starts to resemble a soap opera involving Peter, Jill and Rosanna
Arquette. Very interesting if you're into that sort of thing,
but I thought the "breakup" involving Gabriel and longtime
manager Gail Colson was a much more dramatic conflict. Heck...it
should be made into an HBO Movie of the Week.
At one point the book talked about Joy Askew
who started out playing with the Secret World Tour, but was then
mysteriously replaced mid-tour by Paula Cole. Bright asserts that
Askew was booted from the tour because the band felt uncomfortable
having a woman around.
This explanation has several flaws. First, most of the musicians have toured with female musicians in other bands before, especially Tony Levin who has played bass for just about everyone and has performed everywhere but on the Titanic. I don't think Tony or his bandmates would suddenly get all spooked over Askew.
Second, if having a female in the band caused so much friction, why was Paula Cole signed on? Is Bright trying to tell us that Cole is actually a man in disguise? Okay, she doesn't shave her armpits, but still...
Third, We Here at the Hill know the real reason Askew had to leave...Gabriel found out she wasn't a Leo.
After reading Phil Collins' willingness to
help Gabriel out of financial disaster with the first WOMAD festival,
we here at the Hill almost feel bad about blaming
Phil for everything. Almost.
It seems every time Bright reports on one
of Gabriel's projects (albums, CD ROMs, etc.), he always has to
go into major detail of the financial aspects...how much money
went into something and how much (or how much loss of) profit
was made at the end. Sure, money is a big part of the music biz,
but I thought the consistent mention of moolah would only appeal
to the Gabriel fan who also happens to be an accountant.
Another surprising element of this bio is
that Bright isn't afraid to reproduce some of the harsher music
reviews against Gabriel's work. Get ready to feel your blood boil
as you read about several hateful/clueless music critics who obviously
don't "get it" when it comes to Gabriel's music, concerts,
or CD ROMs.
The good news is that Gabriel is fully aware
that his methods of working are inefficient and mostly serve to
delay as many creative projects as possible. The bad news is,
Gabriel is delighted with these methods and he definitely wants
to keep things that way.
While this book is lacking in the lighter and humorous stories that the Welch and Gallo books contain, this book still reveals what a wonderful visionary Gabriel is. Also included is a handy index so the next time you read an article which mentions Gabriel working with so-and-so, you can easily learn more about him or her in the book.
This book is available from: