I can remember sitting on the floor in front of the gas fire eating my Saturday night fried egg and chips dinner and staring open-mouthed at this video. Wow, I am old. An extremely popular and influential video, the claymation, pixelation and stop-start animation was done by Aardman Animations (of the fabulous Wallace and Gromit) and the Brothers Quay. Peter Gabriel had to lay under a sheet of glass for sixteen hours at a time to allow the video to be filmed. The famous “dancing chicken” scene was directed by Nick Park of Aardman. The video won nine MTV Music Video Awards in 1987, a record which as of 2011 has not been broken.
It may not be particularly right-on to like Peter Gabriel, but I am a big fan of his, mainly because I love his unique voice. I think he has an unusual talent with lyrics, and “Solisbury Hill” and “The Book of Love” are two of my favourite songs of all time. I will always have a childlike fascination with this video, and think it is genuinely inspired.
From the album: So
Released: 19th May 1986
