peter gabriel/

Peter co-founded the group Genesis in 1966 at school. He went on to make 7 albums with Genesis. He left in 1975 and has made 12 solo albums. His film soundtrack works include Birdy (1984), The Last Temptation of Christ (1989) and Rabbit Proof Fence (2002).

In 1980 Peter conceived of, and founded WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance), which has presented over 150 festivals in over 40 countries, recently adding Abu Dhabi. In addition, the WOMAD Foundation provides education and workshops to many schools.

Peter’s Human Rights work includes, the coordination of and participation in the Human Rights Now! Tour, which took place in 1988 with Amnesty International. In 1989 he conceived of, and co-founded Witness.org, giving cameras and computers to human rights activists. Witness has won many awards and pioneered the adoption of video and online technologies in human rights campaigning. The Hub was launched in 2008, providing a platform for human rights video from all over the world (a YouTube for Human Rights).

In 2000 Peter co-founded and conceived of the Elders.org with Richard Branson, which Nelson Mandela launched in 2007.

Peter’s business interests have been in the field of music, media and technology. In 1987 he founded the Real World Group of companies – Real World Studios, Real World Records and later Real World Multi Media and Real World Films. In 1999, Peter was co-founder of OD2 (On Demand Distribution), which be came the leading European platform provider for the distribution of on-line music. (It has now become Nokia’s Music Store). In 2005 Peter acquired Solid State Logic with David Engelke, the world’s leading manufacturer of mixing consoles for music recording, broadcast and post-production. He also co-founded thefilter.com and We7.com, and is currently developing several projects, including a visual language for the Internet, and the first social network for the dead.

Amongst awards Peter has received, are the Man of Peace Award, presented by the Nobel Peace Laureates, the ‘Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ and also the Quadriga Award. He has received various lifetime achievement awards, BT’s Digital Music Pioneer Award, and the Polar Music Prize as well as Grammy awards for his music and video work. His ‘Sledgehammer’ video has been voted best video of all time, and his interactive work, EVE, won the ‘Milia D’Or for Multimedia’