Montreal gets lone Canadian date for Peter Gabriel mini-tour; new Bowie live disc

Peter Gabriel, whose new all-covers disc “Scratch My Back” hits stores mid-February, will be launching a North American mini-tour this spring in just three cities: Montreal, New York and Los Angeles. It actually comes as no surprise that Gabriel would choose Montreal as the city’s music fans have long had an affinity for the prog-rock sounds of Genesis, Pink Floyd, ELP and the like. Gabriel hits the Bell Centre on April 28th, followed by two shows on New York May 2nd and 3rd and an L.A. show on May 7th. No word on any further dates.

“Scratch My Back” is an all-orchestral covers album (as noted on his website, no drums and no guitars) and includes covers of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)“, Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” and Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble”. There are also plans for a disc called “I’ll Scratch Yours” featuring covers of Peter Gabriel tunes by those same artists. Ticket info for the Montreal show has not yet been announced.

Gabriel’s cover of “Heroes ” can also be heard on Download To Donate for Haiti, a compilation of as-yet unreleased music with proceeds going to earthquake relief. You can hear “Heroes” and other tracks here.

And speaking of Bowie, his new live double-disc souvenir of his 2003 Reality tour hits stores tomorrow. It contains over 30 tracks including such hits as “Rebel Rebel”, “Changes”, “Ziggy Stardust”, the aforementioned “Heroes” plus selections from his “Reality” disc, which while not up to par with some of his earlier work is actually pretty good. Check out live clips here.