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Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Series looking at the creation of some of the greatest albums in music.

Classic Albums celebrates the making of the greatest albums in music. Each film features interviews with band members and producers discussing the creation of the recordings.

Nick de Grunwald

George Scott

Classic Albums: Peter Gabriel: So

Peter Gabriel's 'So'

23/03/2012

Peter Gabriel: So

BBC Four - Classic Albums, Peter Gabriel: So

A look at the creation of Peter Gabriel's massive-selling 1986 album, So.

A look at how Peter Gabriel's album So, released in 1986, gave him a level of success that had eluded him with Genesis and his four previous solo albums.

With the release of So in 1986, Peter Gabriel achieved a level of success that had thus far eluded him. Gabriel famously started out leading Genesis, but his four albums of solo work had made him the definition of a cult artist, with flashes that broke through such as Solsbury Hill and Games Without Frontiers. His fifth album, the first not to be titled Peter Gabriel, changed everything and became a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic. 

So includes the singles Don't Give Up, Big Time, Red Rain, In Your Eyes and Sledgehammer, the latter reaching number one in the USA, ironically knocking Genesis's Invisible Touch off the top spot. 

The R&B/soul inspired Sledgehammer was propelled to the top by a much-celebrated stop-motion music video, which won numerous awards and set a new standard for art in the music video industry. 

By returning to the original multi-tracks, along with musical demonstrations and rare archive footage, we discover how Gabriel's melodic ability to blend African music, jangly pop and soul created a classic. 

So stands as one of the greatest records of the 1980s, helping define its time to become a true classic album.  The film features interviews with Gabriel himself, co-producer Daniel Lanois, bass players Tony Levin and Larry Klein, performer Laurie Anderson, drummer Manu Katché and Rolling Stone editor David Fricke amongst others.

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