Live in Athens 1987

Live in Athens 1987 captures the concert tour that supported the release of Peter Gabriel’s fifth solo album, ‘So’.

Recorded at the open-air Lycabettus theatre above the Greek capital, Live in Athens 1987 documents the final shows of the This Way Up world tour and five musicians at the peak of their game, playing the songs from the album that had catapulted Gabriel into the pop stratosphere. The show features a special guest appearance by the young Youssou N’Dour on a rousing rendition of ‘In Your Eyes’.

The touring band captured by the recordings consists of Peter, alongside Manu Katché (drums), Tony Levin (bass, backing vocals), David Rhodes (guitar, backing vocals) and David Sancious (keyboards), and in a nod to the Plays Live album the cover image was taken by photographer Armando Gallo.

Though previously a concert film, this is the first time on vinyl for ‘Live in Athens 1987’, presented as a 2LP set with a wide-spine single sleeve and full colour printed inner bags. Brand new artwork by Marc Bessant, Gabriel’s long-time designer.

The album has been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering, mastered by Tony Cousins at Metropolis and overseen by Peter Gabriel’s sound engineer Richard Chappell. The LP also comes with a hi-res audio download code (24bit or 16bit).

Part of a series of live LP releases, which includes Plays Live, Secret World Live and Growing Up Live. A twenty-year period of live performance is captured by the four releases, and over forty different songs.

“Gabriel in impressive voice, digging into material from throughout his career… At times he’s in furious form… but he gets tender too… A spine-tingling, unifying Biko provides a heady climax.” Classic Pop

“Magnificent it is too, even minus the eye-popping visuals… a bumper year for Gabriel fetishists.” Prog Magazine

"Mastering quality is excellent. There is superb tonal balance here - especially on the Athens release - with strong bass and a sense of clarity that you rarely hear on a live cut." Hi-Fi World