John Metcalfe

The whole year has been pretty much taken up with Peter Gabriel's 'New Blood' tour and recordings. We completed the European and US tour back in May and had a blast picking up some great reviews along the way. We used the UK orchestra for shows in London and Berlin but picked up local orchestras in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. It was fascinating to work with players from different countries and hear their approach to the arrangements. The venues in the US were amazing particularly Radio City in New York and the Hollywood Bowl in L.A. It was thrilling to hear the music performed there and to be so well received by the audiences despite our initial concerns they might not want an entire evening without drums/guitars etc.
In July we recorded the tracks from Peter Gabriel's back catalogue at Air Studios including some of his biggest hits and some less well known. The UK orchestra were just amazing and we got some truly outstanding performances. Peter's engineer, Dickie Chappell, and I will be mixing the album this Autumn after the current tour finishes.