Well, this is a man who famously insisted that if you show for him, he’ll show for you. Peter Gabriel was in attendance at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in London this past weekend, where multiple concertgoers captured him socializing with other rock elder statesmen such as Paul McCartney and Jon Bon Jovi. With this public friendship-bracelet foxtrot, Gabriel has become the first member of Genesis to see Swift’s three-hour epic. What’s your excuse, Tony Banks and Steve Hackett? (Phil Collins, we love you.) Before you besmirch this as some sort of nursery cryme, there’s a connection here: When Swift was still doing interviews earlier in her career, she told NPR how Gabriel’s artistry and “incredible taste” was a direct influence for 1989.
“What he was doing in the ’80s was so ahead of its time, because he was playing with a lot of synth-pop sounds but kind of creating sort of an atmosphere behind what he was singing, rather than a produced track,” she explained in 2014. “It was just kind of astonishing how he was able to do that … he’s remarkable at giving people what they want but they didn’t think they wanted.” Gabriel returned the sentiment in 2023, telling London’s The Times “I do have a lot of admiration for what she has done” and “she now has more economic clout than many small countries.” There’s no Eras Tour footage of Gabriel, so just assume he went crazy during the “But Daddy I Love Him” to “So High School” transition.
