Peter Gabriel's Press Statement
"The vehicle we had built as a co-op, to serve our song writing, became our master and had cooped us up inside the success we had wanted. It affected the attitudes and the spirit of the whole band. The music had not dried up and I still respect the other musicians, but our roles had set in hard. To get an idea through, meant shifting a lot more concrete than before. For any band, tranferring the heart from idealistic enthusiasm to professionalism is a difficult operation. I believe the use of sound and visual images can be developed to do
much more than we had done, but on a large scale it needs one clear and coherent direction.
Although I have seen and learnt a great deal in the last seven years, I found I began looking through 'rock star' eyes. I had begun to think in business terms -very useful for an often bitten, once shy musician, but treating records and audiences as money was taking me away from them. When performing, there were less shivers up and down the spine."
"I believe the world has soon to go through a difficult period of changes. I'm excited by some of the areas coming through to the surface which seem to have been hidden away in people's minds. I want to explore and be prepared, to be open and flexible enough to respond, not tied in to the old hierarchy.
My future within music, if it exists, will be in as many situations as possible. It's good to see a growing number of artists breaking down the pigeon holes. This is the difference between the profitable, compartmentalised battery chickens and the free-range.
There is no animosity between myself and the band or management. The decision had been made some time ago and we have talked about our new direction. The reason why my leaving was not announced earlier was because I had been asked to delay until they had
found a replacement to plug up the hole. It is not out of the question that we might collaborate in the future."
Peter Gabriel
Despite the artistic and commercial succes of "The Lamb", it was just a few weeks into the tour when Gabriel confided in their manager Tony Smith that he was going to leave. The reasons were many, but chief among them were the widening gap between him and the rest of the group, and his own restless desire to do his own solo work. He stayed with the group until their last performance at Besançon in France, in the May of 1975 (the last date was actually meant to be in Toulouse, but it was cancelled - a sign that for all this tour's "classic" status, not all audiences at the time necessarily got it). At the time he left, Gabriel didn't even know whether he wanted to continue making music. He did of course, and his solo career since has been one of the most celebrated in pop. Meanwhile, the music press and - more importantly - the group's fans, turned their eyes towards the group: what on Earth would they do without their unique frontman, their voice. They had a lot to prove. And prove it they did, but for now, that's another story...
