Plays Live

Plays Live was compiled from live recordings made at four venues across the American Midwest in late 1982 and released the following June. The sleeve notes memorably state; “Some additional recording took place not a thousand miles away from the home of the artiste. The generic term of this process is ‘cheating’”. But it’s fair to say that the essence of the live shows remains very much intact on these recordings.

Although he had thrived on live performance as a member of Genesis, Peter Gabriel waited until he was four albums and six years deep into his solo career -- with the hit album Security and the Top 40 "Shock the Monkey" chalked up to his credit -- before he took the plunge into concert recording with this album.