thanks. i have to say that dosent seem to make much sense but i belive it.

ozricman wrote: he didn't like being a rock star

but is't that what he was after he left?

I believe he became disenchanted around the time of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway when he was asked to write the music for a film, I think by William Friedkin, and the rest of the band weren't too happy about him taking time out. He continued with the band on condition that he wrote all the lyrics to Lamb, then left shortly afterwards. I don't suppose that was the sole reason.

As NetsNJFan said, read the lyrics to Solsbury Hill - "I was feeling part of the scenery, I walked right out of the machinery".

chopper's the nearest..

Friedkin wanted Gabriel to work on a film project with him, as a writer NOT a musician. The director had read the short story on the back of the 1973 live album and loved the imagery..

Apart from that, the band started to get fed up with the medias focus on Gabriels theatrics. The Slipperman costume was the last straw. Gabriel felt the bands opposition to what he was doing and was also becoming uncomfatable with the spotlight being on him all the time. He announced his departure during the tour and played his last concert in France. He apparently played the Last Post on his oboe before going on stage that night, and nearly had everyone in tears before going on..

GoldenSpiral wrote: Ever since the beginning of Genesis, Phil Collins hated Peter and everyday he sat behind his drums plotting the best way to get rid him.  He studied Magick and spoke often with Satan Himself and planned out how to finally rid the band of PG.  Finally, Satan sold Phil a special syrum in exchange for his soul and musical creativity.  Late one night, Phil snuck into where Peter was sleeping and put a drop of the evil syrum in his ear.  The very next day, Peter up and quit the band.  No one knows the true story except Phil, Satan, and me.  That's how it happened.

This all makes sense, except for the fact that Collins wasn't in the band in the beginning! not even in the second album, he only stepped in around "Nursery Cryme"...

Wow. Where do some of you get your information?

The Lamb project took a huge toll on Peter because he was a new father.  He was driving like 4 hours each way to the studio and the rest of the band didn't understand what he was really going through.  On top of that there was the Friedkan issue but that wasn't the main one.  He announced he was leaving at the begining of the Lamb tour so the band knew it for quite some time before the public did. He felt like the press were putting him in a box and giving him all the credit for Genesis.  Yes other members of the band resented that but he himself felt bad about it. 

BTW Tony Banks really tried to talk him out of quitting being his best friend in the band.  Peter was adamant about moving his carrer into a different direction than where Genesis was going and the rest is history as they say. There was no bad blood between any of them.

margaret wrote: Blacksword wrote: chopper's the nearest.. Friedkin wanted Gabriel to work on a film project with him, as a writer NOT a musician. The director had read the short story on the back of the 1973 live album and loved the imagery.. Apart from that, the band started to get fed up with the medias focus on Gabriels theatrics. The Slipperman costume was the last straw. Gabriel felt the bands opposition to what he was doing and was also becoming uncomfatable with the spotlight being on him all the time. He announced his departure during the tour and played his last concert in France. He apparently played the Last Post on his oboe before going on stage that night, and nearly had everyone in tears before going on.. which movie, during that time frame....the Exorcist ('73)???

The Exorcist would have been created and shot in 1971-2 for a 73 release so that is impossible.  I believe there was an understanding between Gabriel and Fiedkin to have a new project based on Peters idea/script.

some of the quoted reasons are right but one of the most important reasons was that Gabriel wanted to spend more time with his wife and child which is hard if you're constant touring in another part of the world. He also was fed up with the rock business in general and wanted room for other projects which the band prevented him to do.  

In August 1975, Peter Gabriel wrote this letter explaining his reasons for leaving Genesis.  He personally delivered it to the English press:

======================================================

I had a dream, eye's dream. Then I had another dream with the body and soul of a rock star. When it didn't feel good I packed it in. Looking back for the musical and non-musical reasons, this is what I came up with:

OUT, ANGELS OUT - an investigation.

The vehicle we had built as a co-op to serve our songwriting 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 "Genesis the Big" meant shifting a lot more concrete than before. For any band, transferring 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 have done. But on a large scale it needs one clear and coherent direction, which our pseudo-democratic committee system could not provide.

As an artist, I need to absorb a wide variety of experiences. It is difficult to respond to intuition and impulse within the long-term planning that the band needed. I felt I should look at/learn about/develop myself, my creative bits and pieces and pick up on a lot of work going on outside music. Even the hidden delights of vegetable growing and community living are beginning to reveal their secrets. I could not expect the band to tie in their schedules with my bondage to cabbages. The increase in money and power, if I had stayed, would have anchored me to the spotlights. It was important to me to give space to my family, which I wanted to hold together, and to liberate the daddy in me.

Although I have seen and learnt a great deal in the last seven years, I found I had begun to look at things as the famous Gabriel, despite hiding my occupation whenever possible, hitching lifts, etc. 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.

Much of my psyche's ambitions as "Gabriel archetypal rock star" have been fulfilled - a lot of the ego-gratification and the need to attract young ladies, perhaps the result of frequent rejection as "Gabriel acne-struck public school boy". However, I can still get off playing the star game once in a while.

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 pigeonholes. This is the difference between the profitable, compartmentalized, battery chicken and the free-range. Why did the chicken cross the road anyway?

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 impossible that some of them might work with me on other projects.

The following guesswork has little in common with truth:

Gabriel left Genesis

1) To work in theatre.

2) To make more money as a solo artist.

3) To do a "Bowie".

4) To do a "Ferry".

5) To do a "Furry Boa round my neck and hang myself with it".

6) To go see an institution.

7) To go senile in the sticks.


I do not express myself adequately in interviews and I felt I owed it to the people who have put a lot of love and energy supporting the band to give an accurate picture of my reasons. So I ask that you print all or none of this.

Peter Gabriel

ozricman wrote: he didn't like being a rock star

That's odd because now he IS a rock star.

Jim Garten wrote: Blacksword wrote: Apart from that, the band started to get fed up with the medias focus on Gabriels theatrics. The constant focus on Gabriel was a cause of friction in the band - this is a story I read in one of their (many) biographies: Just after he left Genesis, Steve Hackett was at Alex Harvey's end of tour party when he apparently overheard someone saying in a stage whisper that Genesis would have to fold because Gabriel was Genesis. Hackett was so angry, he crushed the wine glass he was holding and the subsequent injury delayed recording the first post-Gabriel album. Don't know if this story is true, or apocryphal, but it sums up the mood in the Genesis camp in the mid 1970s

I read that story too, but with a slightly different slant. In Hugh Fielders 'Book of Genesis' Steve Hackett claimed that he overheard someone say that 'Alex's band would be nothing without Alex Harvey' Hackett said it was as if someone had said 'Genesis will be nothing without Gabriel' This caused him to break the glass in his hand.

Either way you're right about the tension that must have existed among them at the time. Now I know why the first three tracks on Trick of the Tail were laid down pretty much without Hackett!

margaret wrote: Blacksword wrote: chopper's the nearest.. Friedkin wanted Gabriel to work on a film project with him, as a writer NOT a musician. The director had read the short story on the back of the 1973 live album and loved the imagery.. Apart from that, the band started to get fed up with the medias focus on Gabriels theatrics. The Slipperman costume was the last straw. Gabriel felt the bands opposition to what he was doing and was also becoming uncomfatable with the spotlight being on him all the time. He announced his departure during the tour and played his last concert in France. He apparently played the Last Post on his oboe before going on stage that night, and nearly had everyone in tears before going on.. which movie, during that time frame....the Exorcist ('73)???

Well, I guess you've had you question answered, but as a fellow Hawkfan, I felt I should just commend you on your signature..

Thought he was to good, and he was. Not to say that Genesis is a bad band is one of the best.

300 Posts, Peter would be proud.

^ Yeah, I was lucky to be watching the opening ceremony and could not believe it when I saw him at the piano! I had no idea that he was going to perform. It was so great to hear his version of Imagine