Wikipedia

Back to Front Tour

Back to Front was a concert tour by Peter Gabriel, a retrospective performance based on every song from his 1986 multi-platinum album So played in sequence.[1] The backing band included musicians that Gabriel toured with in 1986–87 in support of the album's initial release.[2]

The Back to Front Tour
Tour by Peter Gabriel
Start date9 September 2012
End date10 December 2014
Legs2
No. of shows
  • 16 in North America
  • 51 in Europe
  • 67 in total
Peter Gabriel concert chronology
  • New Blood Tour
    (2010–12)
  • The Back to Front Tour
    (2012–14)
  • Rock Paper Scissors Tour
    (2016)

Each night of the tour was recorded and released both separately and as part of a box set entitled Back to Front: Encore Series. The releases were limited editions and available exclusively from Gabriel's official website.[3]

On 23 June 2014, Real World Records and Eagle Rock Entertainment released the live album and film Back to Front: Live in London, recorded at the O2 concerts.

Background

edit

In 2012, Gabriel released a 25th anniversary box set of So. To coincide with this release, Gabriel decided to assemble his band from the album's accompanying tour, with David Rhodes on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Manu Katché on drums, and David Sancious on keyboards.[2] Youssou N'Dour, who had opened for Gabriel for his 1986-1987 tour, was unavailable to participate on the Back to Front tour as he was serving as Minister of Culture and Tourism in Senegal at the time.[4]: 19:42–20:09  Gabriel was initially reluctant to play So in its entirety, but reconsidered after he witnessed Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds from start to finish.[2]

During the tour, Gabriel also played some new original songs, including "O But" and "What Lies Ahead".[5] Gabriel explained that he wanted to divide the tour into three different sections, starting with an unfinished song with the houselights on.[4]: 2:00–2:22  "O But" opened the set, which was later retitled "Daddy Long Legs". The song featured Levin on upright bass and piano playing from Gabriel, who sang his vocals in gibberish. "O But" and "Daddy Long Legs" were later reworked into "Playing for Time", which appeared on Gabriel's I/O album in 2023.[6]

The second portion of the set, which Gabriel called "the main course", included more electronic and experimental songs and the final portion of the set (labelled by Gabriel as the "dessert") was the entirety of So with the running order that he originally intended.[7][4]: 2:22–2:34  Gabriel explained that he placed "In Your Eyes" as the final song of the main set because he originally intended for it to be the last track on So. He was unable to do so for the 1986 release of So because the vinyl format was unable to accommodate the song's lower frequencies in the bassline.[4]: 2:46–3:48 

John Cusack appeared at the 6 October 2012 concert in Los Angeles, recreating a scene from Say Anything... (1989).[8]

Production

edit

Ben Findlay served as the front of house audio engineer for The Back of Front Tour, having previously worked with Gabriel at Real World Studios. The sound system used on the tour was a 96-input Avid Profile D-Show console, with the device's native EQ features being used on the drums. Findlay grouped these drum channels together, which he saved as a snapshot to correspond with each song. A Bricasti M1 was the primary outboard gear reverb effect used on the vocals and a Quantec Yardstick was relied on for long reverb decays. With the exception of Sancious, who used floor monitors developed by Firehouse Productions, all of the members used Sennheiser 2000 IEM systems.[9]

Some of the sounds used on the tour were accessed from floppy discs. Gabriel encountered some difficulties in locating DAT players and some of the old floppy discs were not longer functioning.[4]: 20:33–21:28  For the illumination, Gabriel referred back to an idea he had 25 years earlier about manually operating lights on a boom intended for a camera. He reused this idea for the Back to Front Tour with a couple of overhead lights, but discarded the proscenium arch that had been present on his 1986-1987 tour.[4]: 14:09–14:58, 19:24–19:33 

Reception

edit

Dave McKenna of The Washington Post described the 14 October 2012 concert in Fairfax as "great". He highlighted the "goofy line routines" performed by Gabriel, Tony Levin, and David Rhodes on "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" and said that Gabriel "choked up" when introducing "Biko".[10]

Personnel

edit

Musicians

edit

Tour crew

edit
  • Tour manager: Dave Taraskevics
  • Lighting designer: Rob Sinclair
  • Front of house audio engineer: Ben Findlay

Set list

edit

Acoustic (with house lights left on):

  1. "Daddy Long Legs" (new unfinished song, also known as "O But", released as Playing For Time on i/o in 2023 with a full band and orchestral arrangement. Replaced by new unfinished song "What Lies Ahead" in late 2014)
  2. "Come Talk to Me"
  3. "Shock the Monkey"
  4. "Family Snapshot"

Electric:

  1. "Digging in the Dirt"
  2. "Secret World"
  3. "The Family and the Fishing Net" or "Darkness" (December 2014)
  4. "No Self Control"
  5. "Games Without Frontiers" (in Herning and Amsterdam only)
  6. "Solsbury Hill" (played after "Washing of the Water" for first show in Quebec City)
  7. "Washing of the Water" or "Humdrum" (2012 tour), "Why Don't You Show Yourself" (2013 and 2014 tours)

So:

  1. "Red Rain"
  2. "Sledgehammer"
  3. "Don't Give Up"
  4. "That Voice Again"
  5. "Mercy Street"
  6. "Big Time"
  7. "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)"
  8. "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)"
  9. "In Your Eyes"

Encore:

  1. "Here Comes the Flood" (played 11 times in mid 2014)
  2. "The Tower That Ate People"
  3. "Biko"

Tour dates

edit
List of 2012 concerts
Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
16 September 2012 Quebec City Canada Colisée Pepsi 8,652 / 10,006 $914,352
18 September 2012 Montreal Bell Centre 11,902 / 11,902 $1,277,415
19 September 2012 Toronto Air Canada Centre 11,267 / 12,159 $1,098,899
21 September 2012 Philadelphia United States Wells Fargo Center 11,773 / 12,809 $1,111,651
23 September 2012 Wantagh Jones Beach Theater 10,602 / 13,995 $991,035
24 September 2012 Boston TD Garden 5,671 / 9,215 $519,413
26 September 2012 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills — —
27 September 2012 Chicago United Center 9,886 / 10,863 $967,504
30 September 2012 Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre 8,631 / 8,631 $787,067
2 October 2012 San Jose HP Pavilion at San Jose 6,964 / 7,500 $710,388
5 October 2012 Las Vegas PH Live Showroom — —
6 October 2012 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl 15,482 / 17,416 $1,527,290
8 October 2012 San Diego Valley View Casino Center — —
9 October 2012 Santa Barbara Santa Barbara Bowl 3,972 / 4,549 $432,182
13 October 2012 Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena 4,150 / 4,497 $379,490
14 October 2012 Fairfax Patriot Center 5,812 / 5,812 $546,621
List of 2013 concerts
Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
28 September 2013 Herning Denmark Jyske Bank Arena 6,500 —
30 September 2013 Amsterdam Netherlands Ziggo Dome — —
1 October 2013 Brussels Belgium Forest National 8,000 —
3 October 2013 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle 10,000 —
5 October 2013 Belgrade Serbia Kombank Arena — —
7 October 2013 Milan Italy Mediolanum Forum 11,000 —
8 October 2013 Geneva Switzerland Geneva Arena 8,000 —
10 October 2013 Prague Czech Republic O2 Arena 12,000 —
11 October 2013 Leipzig Germany Arena Leipzig 10,000 —
13 October 2013 Stuttgart Schleyerhalle 12,000 —
15 October 2013 Paris France Palais Omnisports de Bercy 16,000 —
16 October 2013 Düsseldorf Germany ISS Dome 10,000 —
18 October 2013 Hamburg O2 World Hamburg 12,035 / 12,730 $876,611
19 October 2013 Berlin O2 World Berlin 13,468 / 13,468 $1,060,450
21 October 2013 London England The O2 Arena 22,584 / 27,739 $1,762,780
22 October 2013
24 October 2013 Glasgow Scotland SSE Hydro — —
25 October 2013 Manchester England Phones 4u Arena 14,057 / 15,105 $913,023
List of 2014 concerts
Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
29 April 2014 Frankfurt Germany Festhalle Frankfurt 11,000 —
30 April 2014 Munich Olympiahalle 11,000 —
2 May 2014 Cologne Lanxess Arena 15,000 —
3 May 2014 Hanover TUI Arena 12,500 —
5 May 2014 Bratislava Slovakia Slovnaft Arena — —
6 May 2014 Budapest Hungary Budapest Sports Arena — —
8 May 2014 Bucharest Romania Romexpo Pavilionul Central — —
12 May 2014 Łódź Poland Atlas Arena 13,000 —
13 May 2014 Ostrava Czech Republic ČEZ Aréna — —
16 May 2014 Vilnius Lithuania Siemens Arena — —
17 May 2014 Riga Latvia Arena Riga — —
20 May 2014 Helsinki Finland Hartwall Arena — —
22 May 2014 Stockholm Sweden Ericsson Globe 10,950 —
23 May 2014 Oslo Norway Oslo Spektrum 7,000 —
25 May 2014 Berlin Germany Waldbühne 20,000 —
12 November 2014 Brussels Belgium Palais 12 9,000 —
13 November 2014 Strasbourg France Zénith de Strasbourg 8,000 —
15 November 2014 Nantes Zénith de Nantes Métropole 8,000 —
16 November 2014 Toulouse Zénith de Toulouse 8,000 —
18 November 2014 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion 7,212 / 13,000 $597,346
20 November 2014 Turin Italy Pala Alpitour — —
21 November 2014 Bologna Unipol Arena — —
23 November 2014 Graz Austria Stadthalle Graz 4,000 —
24 November 2014 Salzburg Salzburgarena — —
28 November 2014 Birmingham England LG Arena — —
30 November 2014 Sheffield Motorpoint Arena Sheffield — —
1 December 2014 Cardiff Wales Motorpoint Arena Cardiff — —
3 December 2014 London England SSE Wembley Arena — —
4 December 2014 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
7 December 2014 Liverpool Echo Arena Liverpool — —
8 December 2014 Aberdeen Scotland AECC Arena 4,600 —
10 December 2014 Dublin Ireland 3Arena — —
Cancellations and rescheduled shows
5 October 2013 Zagreb, Croatia Arena Zagreb Venue changed to Kombank Arena, Belgrade, Serbia[11]
10 May 2014 Kyiv, Ukraine Palace of Sports Canceled[12]
26 November 2014 Lyon, France Halle Tony Garnier Canceled[13]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Peter Announces North American Tour 'Back To Front' To Celebrate 25th Anniversary of 'So' - PeterGabriel.com". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Graff, Gary (14 September 2012). "Peter Gabriel Launches So-centric Tour, Plots Hiatus". Billboard. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  3. ^ "Back to Front 2013: Encore Series - PeterGabriel.com". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Google; Gabriel, Peter (22 October 2012). Peter Gabriel: "Back to Front", Talks at Google (Interview). Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  5. ^ "Peter Gabriel Debuts New Song 'What Lies Ahead' in Concert". RollingStone.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  6. ^ "Peter Gabriel's i/o, Explained". TIDAL Magazine. 30 November 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
  7. ^ Pittman, Sarah (22 April 2014). "Peter Gabriel's Back To Front Tour Continues". Pollstar News. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
  8. ^ "John Cusack Appears with Boombox at Peter Gabriel Concert". PasteMagazine.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  9. ^ Gallagher, Matt (1 January 2013). "Peter Gabriel's Back to Front Tour". Mixonline. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  10. ^ McKenna, Dave (15 October 2012). "Peter Gabriel's 'So' still so great". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 January 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  11. ^ "Zagreb Show Cancelled, Belgrade Show Announced - PeterGabriel.com". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  12. ^ "Back to Front show in Kiev cancelled - PeterGabriel.com". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  13. ^ "PG's Lyon show cancelled - PeterGabriel.com". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Back to Front Tour.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Back_to_Front_Tour&oldid=1285301624"