PG at WOMADELAIDE 93 - My Experience

[Richard Frost <rfrost@jrc.flinders.edu.au>]

Its not every day that Peter Gabriel comes straight to your home town! B-) 

My home town by the way, is Adelaide, SOUTH AUSTRALIA. If you have not
heard of Adelaide, think of the final race of the World Grand Prix
Motor Race (we host it).. still not heard of it.. oh well.. 

I was at WOMADELAIDE 1993 and I thought it was excellent, I will
definitely go to the next one!

WOMADELAIDE was from Friday Night Feb the 19th, to Sunday Night February
the 21st.

Peter Gabriel played on the Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday
night his performance was good but not great. But that is
understandable seeing that he and his band just got off the plane at Adelaide
airport 40 minutes prior to the concert! There were many other factors
that affected the performance but I won't go into them. PG played for
40 minutes and delighted the crowd. As PG was well aware of the band's lower
standard of performance, he told the crowd that Friday was "the
appetiser" and Saturday Night would be "the main meal". Apparently PG
practised on stage, with the band next morning, for 4 hours (this is
true as I know a guy who was working backstage at the time!). PG's
Saturday night appearance was much better, playing for a total time of
around 1 hour and 45 minutes. I took some photos that Saturday night
(yet to develop them) and if they turn out OK, I'll scan in the best ones
at work and upload them onto the net somewhere. PG's voice is amazing
to hear live, something I wont forget for some time.

Some of the songs played that Saturday had never been played to a live
audience before - ie. Blood Of Eden. Some of the songs were a little
rough around the edges and you could tell which ones they had practised
most. "Salisbury Hill" and "Games without Frontiers" were incredibly
tight performances, however "Digging in the Dirt" needed a little more
work but was great.

It was amazing to see PG in the flesh ! 

As PG's band comprises some new members, they are still in the midst
of practising for the coming World Tour. PG said that he will return
to Adelaide in November. He is to start his "US" world tour in Canada
within the next few months.

I wonder if KaTe will join the Tour at any stage? You never know, she
might drop in on a PG performance and do an impromptu appearance like
the one a friend of mine mentioned, that happened a few years ago!


Womadelaide 93 made a huge profit (around $100,000 Australian dollars)
and the organizers were so pleased they thought Adelaide should host
it on a regular basis - I hear it will be held every 2 years.

Some of the people who played at Womadelaide 93 were:

	Peter Gabriel
	Yothu Yindi
	Salif Keita
	Sheila Chandra
	The Holmes Brothers
	Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens
	Geoffrey Oryema
	The Persuasions
	Terem Quartet 	<- one of my favourite acts!!!
	Tiddas
	Not Drowning, Waving

	Plus Man Many more!

Thats all for now...

PS.
	1) Can anyone tell me where to get hold of good KaTe T-Shirts?
	   I am thinking of making my own, based on the large print on
	   Volume 2 of the TWW Album box set (the Ophelia shot!) - I have
	   a 1000x1000 24 bit colour scan of this BTW
	
	2) I hope that KaTe's new album is coming out in March as
	   everyone hopes!

	3) I hope her world tour includes Australia (and Adelaide
	   maybe? B-))
	

Thanks for reading !

	A big Kate fan from way back in 78.. B-)