... and I like watching him arrive at the studio with his little brief-case.

Heres the rest....

South Bank Show - Peter Gabriel (part 2 of 4)

South Bank Show - Peter Gabriel (part 3 of 4)

South Bank Show - Peter Gabriel (part 4 of 4)

Not only my favourite Peter gabriel, but one of my favourite singles ever.

fabulous song, Solsbury hill.

Very rare to my mind - the drums were too much like Thor in a vast cave hitting a collection of water butts for me - I mean the SOUND not the technique.

PG2 is fantastically good and I can hear a lot of his hero Otis Redding in amid the paranoia - especially on Perspective.

His world music stuff is great and its impressive how much he went out on a limb for it but with an old fashioned 4 piece band he made a hell of a racket

PG has rarely made a duff album (although I'm not so mad about his debut), but Passion is simply sublime. The atmosphere is palpable, and the way he combines the traditional ethnic instruments with synths and samples is one of the things that makes him great.

Running a close second is So - there's not a bad track on it.

Best individual track: if I had to choose one, I'd say Humdrum, just for the way it suddenly swells up at 1:50:

Peter Gabriel's third and fourth solo albums are two of my favourite records. Wildly inventive, great songs, great production. Oh... and great covers.

I have long been of the opinion that the man is a demi-god and can do no wrong (with the exception of So - an album that I have never heard of which does not exist).

Mother of Violence is one of his finest moment

NB: clip features the Mozo T-shirt

and I reckon that's one of the best programmes on the creation of music in the studio I've seen. Really well put together.

I'm still trying to get over the shock of seeing Tony Levin sans moustache.

Firstly as a schoolboy in the seventies i was a Genesis nut. In the early 80's I coached and trained across the country for the sole purpose of climbing Solisbury Hill on a blisteringly hot Summer's day. When PG4 came out I had a temporary job as a parking attendant at the 1982 Commonwealth games in Brisbane and listened to the album every day on my journeys to and from home. I still remember playing 'So' to a bunch of unruly teenagers when i worked at a private home for kids in care.

Years later the MD of a company I worked for was previously PG's marketing manager. (He was not so enamoured of Peter as I was).

Just this week and completely by chance, on a drive from Bath to Salisbury I found myself motoring through Box in Wiltshire and made a detour to pootle past the Real World Studios.

He's something of a hero of mine. I love this version of this early song:

New Blood Live...22.00 on Sky Arts tonight.

I too love this album. The percussion gobsmacked me on tracks like The Rhythm of The Heat (ironically as memorable a drum sound as Phil Collins' on In The Air Tonight). San Jacinto is, I think, one of his best but I also like the slightly proggy oddball stuff like Moribund The Burgermeister or D.I.Y.

That said, the track from Peter Gabriel that absolutely sealed in my mind just how significant he was as an artist is taken from the Passion soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ.

The track is called With This Love

Always really loved the 3rd album, but never quite got 4 somehow. Don't get me wrong, I think it's ok, but I much prefer other albums for some reason. Also, may also be a bit odd, I'm not a Genesis fan in any shape or form. Anyone else feel that way?

Shock The Monkey

I really like the first three albums. I also really like "Don't Give Up".

Not a Genesis fan either.

There's a track on The Lamb Lies Down Broadway which is one of my favourite tracks with Gabriel. Without any firm evidence I've always felt it's a Gabriel track simply on the basis of the direction he took when he left compared to the direction Genesis took. It's a great example of prog condensed into a kind of mini-operatic pop song. It's also the cool sparseness of the arrangement that appeals to me, something that Field Music excel in today but which I strongly associate with Gabriel's music. Prog is often characterised by busy and elaborate instrumentation whereas Genesis, in particular, had a knack for creating melody and space in their music while still offering other prog staples such as multiple key and tempo changes in one song.

The Chamber of 32 Doors

think his last album of original material ("Up" in 2002) was his best album. This is gorgeous

Another fave from pg4

Check out the "New Blood" version it's heartbreakingly beautiful. Wish he'd written some new stuff though.

I was very fortunate this week, and got a ticket to see the recording for BBC Radio Two In Concert at the Mermaid theatre on Wednesday.

It was with a different group of musicians from the Later... and album recordings (the BBC Concert Orchestra, not the New Blood Orchestra), and was just awesome.

It'll be on iPlayer until next Thursday.