Peter Gabriel - Live at WOMAD 1982

A pivotal moment in music history, captured on record for the very first time. The very first WOMAD Festival took place over the weekend of 16-18 July 1982 at the 240-acre Bath and West Showground in Somerset — a landmark event born from a simple but radical idea: to prove that the brilliant music being made all over the world, outside the mainstream and off the radio, deserved to headline stages in its own right. Sixty bands from over 20 countries performed across three days and five stages, with a lineup that included The Drummers of Burundi, Echo and the Bunnymen, Simple Minds, The Beat, Prince Nico Mbarga, Rip Rig and Panic, and many more.

Peter Gabriel was at the center of it all — not just as a performer, but as one of the festival's driving forces, his attention split between the stage and the mounting financial pressures threatening to derail the entire event. As Gabriel himself recalls, his mind was so preoccupied with the potential disaster unfolding around him that the usual nerves of debuting new material barely registered. The result is a performance with a remarkable, electric quality — a mix of familiar favorites and brand new songs, played by an artist who had no choice but to simply let go and be present.

Available on LP and CD for the very first time, Live At WOMAD 1982 is more than a live album. It is a document of a moment that changed the way the world listens to music.