empty white noise: 1.0 year celebrations
a live link-up to peter gabriel @ real world studios

It's something of a coup, we admit. As per our request to Real World some time ago, Peter took time out from his busy schedule to send us his best wishes on this our 1.0 year anniversary. Unlike our previous encounters with Peter this meeting was pre-arranged and subject to certain counter requests made from the Gabriel camp. We know this will disappoint and perhaps even irritate some of our readers, but Peter is point blank refusing to play ball when it comes to questions on Up. When we kindly compared this situation to slitting our own throats, Real World's reply was firm and perhaps a little terse: no Up or no Peter.

Fine. Be that way.

So the net result of our toadying was a live link-up with Peter via satellite. Our suggestion that it might perhaps make more sense to use video-conferencing via the internet (particularly as we obviously already have internet access and not a satellite dish), fell on deaf ears. And so we gathered around the local pub, The Bucket and Castle, and briefly interrupted regular programming (from Paraguay: Pro-Celebrity Tea Picking), to hijack their dish and communicate with Peter.

pp: I can see Peter in there...Peter, is that you?

pg: Hi, this is Peter Gabriel talking to you from Box, Wiltshire, England. I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone at Plausible Publications warm congratulations on this milestone.

pp: Thanks, Peter that's awfully kind of you. In fact we were quite surprised that you knew of our existence at all.

pg: Even after you trespassed on our property twice?

pp: Oh. but that was just Mercutio. you must expect that kind of thing from him. You've been surfing the web for a long time now, Peter so you're probably more than qualified than most to answer this question. What do you look for in websites? What tickles you?

pg: Anything that takes the medium into new territory, and not just technologically. Websites, in order to compete with film, television, records or books, must connect with people emotionally so that they gain some satisfaction from being involved. When I'm surfing the web I like to be tickled in various ways: something for the belly, something for the heart and something for the head.

pp: For empty white noise it suffices to say there's a long way to go, isn't there.

pg: I think empty white noise has found itself a nice niche and Plausible Publications thus far have been willing to let it evolve to another stage. I think the interactivity, some of the human [elements] and a lot of the corners that now exist in it give it a different feel from a book. In many ways a lot of these websites parallel what we're trying to achieve with Real World: finding wonderful jewels around the outside of music making, stuff that has often been ignored, and trying to bring that to a wider audience and bring it to the centre in some places.

pp: That's very true, but we've never underestimated the value of a healthy sense of humour in a website either. For instance if a disreputable website were to make unfounded claims of having contact with certain celebrities, all tongue in cheek of course, we would find that charming and amusing.

pg: Are you sure that's not fraud?

pp: Fraud? Who said anything about fraud? It's purely imaginative and somewhat flattering artistic licence.

A short awkward pause ensued, while a fight broke out in The Bucket and Castle's ladies lounge.

pp: We've been hearing some very strange reports about the goings on at Real World. Who on earth was behind the bizarre charade with the aliens and what was all that supposed to mean?

pg: I have no idea. I could reveal the name of the person responsible, but I feel that would be unfair. Tina is already fielding too many requests for clarification without being bothered by people demanding to know why the relevant person is not being medicated.

pp: Touche! Still, after Real World's ten years in the industry, it must be satisfying to see the music world finally picking up on your philosophy just as you'd always expected it to. Interesting too that world music has really gained momentum since the release of Us.

pg: As I've said before, we're all bastards. I don't believe in purity, especially in art. Personally, I'm in constant search for new sounds and I have been using sounds fro other cultures for many years. I think the public have gradually opened their ears too. Everything we set out to create with the Womad Festival, nine years before the label launch has been achieved. But when we started Real World, nobody knew whether we would find the means to survive. 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 emerging ones. We thought of Real World as a meeting point for musicians from 'other' worlds and, why not, to act as their employment agency. And in a lot of ways this open mindedness fosters the perfect environment for creativity, not only for the musicians involved in making the records, but for the fans at home listening to them.

pp: Words to live by?

pg: Live by them and you will prosper, regardless of whether I'm around or not!

pp: Are you sure you don't want us to mention the "U" word?

pg: [conveniently ignoring us] Wait, I've just deciphered what the meaning of the alien charade is.

pp: What is it?

pg: May all your moons be bananas.

pp: Peter? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Peter!