I was wasting time on YouTube and searched for some Peter Gabriel videos. I happened to come across a couple of clips of his performance at the June 15, 1986, finale of the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope Tour at Giants Stadium…a concert I attended. I was with my sister on the field and not that far away from the stage…I mean, we were close enough for a guy five feet away from us to hit Joni Mitchell’s guitar with an ice cube he threw while she was performing.

But I digress…

Even though I was familiar at that point with PG and knew he used to be the lead singer of Genesis, I wasn’t the PG fanatic I am today. I became a convert when PG closed out the set on that hot June day with an impassioned, hypnotic peformance of “Biko.”

Unfortunately, the PG clips I found of that day do not include “Biko” or “Shock the Monkey.” However, they do include an early live version of “Red Rain” (the album “So” had just been released) and the incredible “San Jacinto.” PG opened with “Red Rain” so that video captures the very first moment I ever saw him play live…and, to paraphrase the Beatles, “it was 20 years ago (almost) today.”

“Red Rain”
Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope Tour
Giants Stadium – June 15, 1986

“San Jacinto”
Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope Tour
Giants Stadium – June 15, 1986

One thought on “20 years of Peter Gabriel fandom

  1. I was watching those too! A skinny Peter with hair…weird that this was his first performance supporting SoI had the same religious experience after watching the original concert on MTV. It was a very powerful moment during Biko, which everything was a crecendo that let up to it.The funny thing is that I actually recorded his entire performance on VHS. I would love to find it.

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