Secret World Tour

Secret World Tour
Tour by Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel in duet with Paula Cole
Associated albumUs
Start date13 April 1993
End date14 August 1994
Legs5 (3 Secret World, 2 WOMAD)
No. of shows162
Peter Gabriel concert chronology
  • So Tour
    (1986–87)
  • Secret World Tour
    (1993–94)
  • Growing Up Tour
    (2002–03)

Secret World Tour was a 1993–94 concert tour mounted by British singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel to promote his 1992 album Us. The stage show was designed by French-Canadian Robert Lepage, expressing the themes of tension and union between male and female forces, as represented by two stages linked by moving walkway.[1] Three tour legs with elaborate staging were interspersed with two legs of much simpler WOMAD festival dates. Many of the same songs were performed by Gabriel,[2] and he felt that all of his large-scale performances during these two years were part of the same tour.[3] Secret World was Gabriel's first major solo outing since his tour of 1986–87 to support the album So. Afterward, he waited for almost a decade before embarking on the next tour, Growing Up, in 2002.[4]

Musically, Gabriel used his most recent songs as well as a few earlier compositions for the set list of Secret World, taking songs primarily from Us, but also from So and other works. A handful of songs called for female vocals, especially "Blood of Eden" with its theme of sexual union. For these roles, Gabriel began the tour with British musician Joy Askew as second keyboardist and vocal duet partner, then he brought Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor onto the tour as guest vocalist, covering Askew's keyboard parts with Jean-Claude Naimro of Kassav'.[2] O'Connor left suddenly in October, and American singer-songwriter Paula Cole was quickly recruited to fill her position, earning high praise for her performance.[5] The core of Gabriel's touring band was composed of long-time collaborators: bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Rhodes, drummer Manu Katché and violinist L. Shankar. This was the first time that Gabriel used in-ear monitors on tour.[6]

A few days after Cole joined the tour, the show was filmed and recorded in Modena, Italy, to produce the concert video Secret World Live. The video was honoured at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, winning in the category Best Music Video, Long Form.[7] An associated live album was released with the same name—Secret World Live—it rose to number 10 on the United Kingdom charts,[8] was certified 2× Platinum in Italy, and was certified Gold in the United States.[9]

  1. ^ "Us". Peter Gabriel. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Zindler1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT1994 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Fielder, Hugh (16 August 2020). "Peter Gabriel: my life story". Classic Rock. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. ^ Martoccio, Angie (19 March 2021). "Paula Cole on New LP 'American Quilt,' What She Learned From Emmylou Harris". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SOS1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Artist: Peter Gabriel". Grammy Awards. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company". Official Charts.
  9. ^ "Peter Gabriel". Billboard.