Peter Gabriel rocks WOMAD crowd with stunning set (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Peter Gabriel rocks WOMAD crowd with stunning set

5:56pm Sunday 26th July 2009 in Leisure By Alana Lewis

Thousands made their way to the outdoor stage at the WOMAD festival to see rocker Peter Gabriel perform last night.

The festival's co-founder entertained the crowd with a non-stop 90 minute set, which opened with thundrous rumbling follwed by gentle string music to build up an atmosphere of expectation.

A video screen played videos of the work of human rights charity Witness, before Mr Gabriel appeared dressed in a blue shirt and black waistcoat to rapturous applause.

Speaking to the crowd he said: "Well we didn't expect to be back here two years later.

"Some of you might know I have been with Witness.org for some time and I promised to do some fundraising this year.

"I was going to do it at another festival and I got a message from the WOMAD team saying don't do that, do it here."

He then went on to introduce his support band John Metcalfe and The Bus Stop Strings, before saying: "What I have tried to do is make it a bit different to last time.

"I have been doing a project called Scratch My Back, which is a song exchange.

"I tell artists I will do one of their songs if they do one of mine."

Boy In The Bubble and The Book Of Love got the crowd going, and a spectacular light show projecting images on to the back of the screen kept the energy high.

At one point stick-men images of the backing band with giant heads were chased back and forth across the screen by a comedic Mr Gabriel on various modes of transport from a bike to a canoe.

Fans of Mr Gabriel's early works were not left disappointed as he rounded of the night with Solsbury Hill and finally the poetically political Beko.

Mr Gabriel hoped to raise £100,000 over the weekend for Witness, an organisation that he helped to set up to supply human rights activists with video cameras and computers to document and stop human rights abuses.