How’s this for saying what so many privately think?

“Instead of spending a fortune on the opening ceremony, we should begin with a simple ceremony,” he says.

“Perhaps if the Queen walked in to the main arena and declared the Games open with a short speech along the lines of, ‘You will all be delighted to learn that the cost of a lavish opening ceremony has been saved this year and all of the money that would have been spent has instead been sent to Africa to be used for much more worthwhile causes’.”

He then went on to joke that there should be two Games: one for clean athletes and one for the steroid users.

Two thumbs up, Peter, for pointing out the absurdity of the Olympics—nationalistic dick-waving at its finest—in this day and age.

In the early-to-mid ’90s, Peter Gabriel hosted gatherings of artists from around the world, presumably to create some sort of cross-cultural musical alchemy. Notable western contributors included Tim Finn and Sinead O’Connor, as well as co-”curators” Karl Wallinger (of World Party and Waterboys fame) and Gabriel himself. Now, finally, the result is seeing release this month as Big Blue Ball.

You can read more about the project here, which also features a nifty EPK with Gabriel and Wallinger talking about the experience. What’s quite telling is seeing both artists then and now in the video.

To give you an idea of how drawn-out this process has been, take the track “Burn You Up, Burn You Down”:

• released on Big Blue Ball in 2008
• earlier mix released on Gabriel’s Hit compilation in 2003
• even earlier mix initially scheduled for release on the Gabriel studio album Up in 2002 but dropped at the last minute
• a sample of a very early mix was used on the Gabriel CD-ROM Xplora1 in 1994!

Yes, I’ve been waiting a loooooong time for this—pretty much half my life, actually…

UPDATE: You can download a free MP3 of “Burn You Up, Burn You Down” here.

So I finally replaced the header image above for this theme, choosing a “1980s MTV” theme instead.

The images are taken from my favourite promo clips growing up. From left to right:

1. “Road to Nowhere” - Talking Heads: great surrealism from the masters of art-punk
2. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” - Pink Floyd: one of my favourite songs as a kid; although I never actually saw this clip until years later, it still has great personal relevance to me
3. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: this clip freaked me the hell out as a seven-year-old, and as a bonus, it’s inspired by one of my favourite books
4. “Every Breath You Take” - The Police: a great clip for a great song by a great band, directed by the greats Godley & Creme
5. “Sledgehammer” - Peter Gabriel: the clip that made me a lifelong fan in 1986
6. “Babooshka” - Kate Bush: minimalistic (as most clips were at the time) but utterly memorable, plus I always associate it with my grandmother despite the title being a total misnomer
7. “Money for Nothing” - Dire Straits: the definitive ’80s promo clip and my favourite track at the time