You can read the entire article here…..

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050426/LIFE/504260392/1039/archive

Ape Trust’s Bonobos show their musical flair

Rocker Peter Gabriel says two of the ape trust’s bonobos have shown a musical flair.

By PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
April 26, 2005

It made perfect sense for musician Peter Gabriel, a big fan of experimental and world music, to jam with two bonobos at an Atlanta ape-language research center several years ago.

Those two bonobos, Panbanisha and Kanzi, are among eight moving to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa in Des Moines. On Monday, Panbanisha, 19, and her sons, Nyota, 7, and Nathan, 4, arrived in Des Moines after a 20-hour van ride from Georgia.

…..

Gabriel said in a telephone interview last week that he has no doubt the bonobos have a sense of music and composition. He hopes to visit them in Des Moines to continue pursuing his curiosity about ape-language research.

"In my mind, there is no question that they responded with great musicality and responded musically," said Gabriel, a co-founder of the rock group Genesis. "When I play the tape to other musicians, they are just amazed."

In a video that has not been made public because of copyright issues, Gabriel and his band interacted musically with the bonobos; each ape got a turn to play a keyboard along with music Gabriel was playing from an adjoining room.

A Register reporter viewed the video last week. Panbanisha appeared to carefully pick notes one at a time with both index fingers. Kanzi seemed more interested in rhythm. Both kept time well.

"I was always interested in the reports of apes learning our language," said Gabriel, who called bonobo researcher Savage-Rumbaugh and asked to visit her project at Georgia State. "She said, ‘Come on down!’ " said Gabriel, who lives in England.

……

Gray’s analysis showed that Panbanisha picked as her first note the root of the chord Gabriel was playing, and followed it with the third, played on the index finger of her other hand. Later, she improvised a section that embedded a passage Gabriel had played earlier in the jam. "At times we were together, and at other times, maybe not as well," Gabriel said.

The apes had a keyboard for a couple of weeks before Gabriel came, and had not been taught to play. At Gabriel’s request, Savage-Rumbaugh told the apes only that they should use one finger at a time and play the white keys.

Gabriel said he also hopes to work with parrots and dolphins, two other species that have shown strong communication abilities.

Copyright © 2004, The Des Moines Register.

http://petergabriel.com/moonclub/downloads/

A different road for April’s Full Moon offering.

April’s lunar zenith has reached us without the opportunity to record anything to video, however that’s not to say the event is passing without notice. In a change of direction this month Peter has decided to bring you the chance to travel ‘Dr Who’ like back to the mid 1980s and hear the unreleased demo "This Is The Road’.

This is a 2MB MP3 download of ‘This Is The Road”, the track was eventually to become ‘Make Tomorrow Today" on ‘OVO’.

Sandie Shaw wrote in her article about that night with the Queen…

I really enjoyed meeting some of my Eighties musical heroes for the first time, like Peter Gabriel, Joan Armatrading and Kate Bush. Peter admitted to having me as a bedroom pin-up as a boy; Joan informed me she was now chair of Women in Music; and Kate took us on a grand tour of the Queen’s art collection, which adorned the walls. She was ecstatic.

You can read her full account of her golden Kween moments and her Gabriel meetup here.

Visit her very cool site here.

Hi there,

What was it like growing up having Peter Gabriel as a father ???
A little glimpse can be caught in the newest American issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (RS 971, April 7, 2005), or at Children Of Rock

Here´s the relevant snippet:

Children of Rock

Growing up in the shadow of legends

By MARK BINELLI

Being raised by a rock star would seem to be every teenager’s dream, unless you happen to be that teenager.

Then, things can get weird.

[…]

The flip side of Trixie Garcia’s childhood might be that of Anna Gabriel, who grew up in a modest cottage in the city of Bath, in the English countryside. Her father, Peter Gabriel, insisted he’d never done drugs and actually made her promise not to smoke cigarettes until her eighteenth birthday, in exchange for a car.

He still doesn’t know about Anna’s tattoo (a flower, on her ankle), clandestinely inked during his 1993 Secret World Tour.

For Anna — now a thirty-year-old filmmaker — the most harrowing experience involving her father’s fame was the time she inadvertently made out to one of his songs: "It was ‘In Your Eyes,’ of course. I was with one of my first high school boyfriends and a three-song special came on the radio. I had to stop. It was like he was in the room!"

(Excerpted from RS 971, April 7, 2005)

(Posted Mar 24, 2005)

[ Karin says : Well if he didn´t know about Anna´s tattoo, (presuming he buys Rolling Stone magazine or reads the Solsbury Hill news section), he certainly knows NOW !!! ;o) ]

Happy Easter !