A lot of Genesis fans are currently a bit upset with PG, as he didn’t show up at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Mike Rutherford explained for him, saying, “He has a very legitimate and genuine excuse. He’s actually starting a tour.”

Steve Hackett later had a bit more to say in this Spinner article,

With Collins currently unable to drum because of medical reasons and Gabriel continuing on with his successful solo career, the chances for a reunion of ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’-era version of Genesis, one of the most influential and successful acts of the art-rock period, continues to dwindle. And guitarist Hackett, who says, “I think it would be wonderful it happens and I’m certainly up for it,” knows it’s becoming less likely.

“But it wouldn’t surprise me if that never happens,” he tells Spinner of a possible reunion. “It’s so difficult to turn the clock back, for all sorts of reasons.” The very candid Hackett says just look at the Hall of Fame dinner and you’ll understand the difficulties the band faces. “At the moment it seems we can’t get either of the singers to perform live for this induction thing,” he says. “So what does that tell you about potential reunions?”

We at the Hill are just wondering… when is Peter going to get up from his huge beanbag chair and stop making excuses and just admit he doesn’t want to be “Genesis’ former lead singer” anymore?

If you’ve been following PG’s twitter feed, you know the tour rehearsals are really beginning to take shape! Here at the Hill, we’re all very excited to see the looks of the new tour and hear the new orchestral arrangements of PG classics.

And just so that this post isn’t too short and is worth your time, here are some recent quotes from the main himself:

• “It’s great advertising. People look out at the full moon and think, ‘Oh! There’s gonna be something new on the website’.” – AFP
• “The industry is a corpse but there’s lots of interesting things crawling out of it.” – AFP
• “Happy music that is genuinely joyful is probably the hardest music to write.” – New York Times
• “I’m often guilty of overcooking and too much arrangement and throwing too much at it. But I think as I get older, I’m learning better when to be empty and when to be full.” – New York Times
  

Scratch My Back seems to be doing quite well, according to this billboard article.

HERO UP THE POP CHARTS: Peter Gabriel‘s covers set “Scratch My Back” debuts at No. 1 on the indie- and small chain-driven Top Tastemakers chart (viewable at billboard.biz). Billboard 200 chart manager Keith Caulfield points out that the set is Gabriel’s first No. 1 on a Billboard album chart since “So” led the now-defunct Top Compact Disks tally for eight weeks in 1986. (That chart, discontinued 20 years ago this month, highlighted CD sales at a time when vinyl was still consumers’ main physical product of choice).

Gabriel had recorded No. 1s on airplay charts since 1986. “Digging in the Dirt” and “Steam” each commanded Alternative Songs in 1992, and Afro Celt Sound System‘s “When You’re Falling,” featuring Gabriel, topped Triple A in 2001.

The lead cut from “Scratch My Back” returns Gabriel to Hot Singles Sales after more than 17 years, as “The Boy in the Bubble” enters at No. 11. Paul Simon‘s original version of the song, from his landmark “Graceland” album, peaked at No. 86 on the Hot 100 23 years ago this week.

On the Billboard 200, “Scratch My Back” starts at No. 26. Gabriel had last appeared on the chart with the best-of album “Hit,” which peaked at No. 100 during a three-week run in November/December 2003.

The renowned rocker’s last studio album of new material, “Up,” debuted and peaked at No. 9 in October 2002.

You're all from... wikipedia?

Peter also did an interview with NPR today, discussing the new album. Audio from the interview should be available by tomorrow.

In other news, the new site design has allowed us to gather some information about who the typical Hill reader is, and we’d just like to say ‘Hi there!’ to all you wonderful folks who were innocently reading the Solsbury Hill wikipedia, and suddenly found themselves whisked away to Solsburia.

We hope you’re all enjoying the new design and the building excitement for the upcoming live dates! Don’t forget to visit the forums to connect with your fellow Solsburians and share your electronic business cards information.. You can chat about your favorite Scratch My Back track, or the new design, or maybe even the second half of Scratch My Back.

Oh, and get with the social media bandwagon and follow us on twitter!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the brand new Solsbury Hill.

The Solsbury Hill Committee has been hard at work perfecting this new design for weeks. It was long overdue, eh? It has arrived, however, on a good year for this hill, as this is, in fact, our 15th birthday!!! That makes Solsbury Hill the longest running Peter Gabriel websites to date and one of the oldest blogs on the internet entirely. We’re older than Tony Levin’s blog and Peter Gabriel’s own official site. Yeah. It’s that intense!

Anyway, the design isn’t perfect, but we’ve gotten decent feedback from most of our beta-testers. The main flaw at the moment is the lack of content! We chose to rush the design out for pure functionality, but there is still a lot of content that needs to be filled out. This will happen in the coming weeks. Until then, please pardon our dust.

Please visit this post in the forums to sound off and let us know what you think of the new design!

You can now proudly tell all of your friends and family about this awesome Peter Gabriel website you waste so much time on called Solsbury Hill, without the fear and shame of their harsh web-design judgment.

Again, we’re welcoming all suggestions and criticisms in this post, so head on over and sound off! And, as always, even with the new design…

This page is best viewed while listening to Peter Gabriel.

The Indianapolis Star caught up with PG for a short Q&A session today. Although short, it confirms that Brian Eno is covering “Don’t Break This Rhythm”. Let’s hope the rest of the artists are familiar enough with PG’s catalog to make such inspired choices!

Question: Talk about your new album.

Answer: I began as a songwriter a long, long time ago, and I’ve always wanted to do an album of other people’s songs, but I thought that a regular covers album might be a bit boring. It might be a lot more fun to do a song swap, so you do one of my songs, and I do one of yours.

Q: What made you decide to forgo drums and guitar on “Scratch My Back”?

A: I thought if you’re going to try something different, then go all the way. I’ve always worked better when you make rules. The worst thing you can say to an artist is “you have freedom to do anything,” or you say it to yourself.

Q: What types of songs were you looking for on this album?

A: Songs that I could fit into and felt meaningful to me. Sadly, David Bowie is the only artist who said he clearly didn’t want to play with the song swap. I don’t think he’s doing much music at the moment. But Brian Eno was a co-writer on (“Heroes”), so it gets around that problem, and he’s going to do a version of this song, “Don’t Break This Rhythm.”

Q: Of all the artists covered on this record, do you agree that Radiohead seems to be the one that shares your kindred spirit?

A: I love Radiohead, from the onset, pretty much. . . . Besides writing great songs with wonderful sounds, they are always unafraid to push themselves as arrangers and musicians and writers, and I love that about them.

You can read the full article at IndyStar.com.