I think the person who asked Snoot when he last saw PG perform has asked a vital question.
OK I admit outside of videos and audio recordings I have not "seen" PG perform...I was supposed to see a concert in the late days of the Spliter Group but my mate forgot to buy tickets...
Anyway...from what I can ascertain, Peter certainly did appear lost on stage in the 1980's, towards the end of his "first comeback". There's little doubt that often he didn't really want to be there. There are plenty of accounts and a few tapes of him that lend credence to the idea that he was 'wheeled on stage' because of his name.
However I have never seen any footage or heard any recordings from the Spliter Group days when he seems that bad. Even from the earliest days circa 1995, Spliter Group was a professional band and sounded professional. Peter doesn't always come to the fore but he's there, and even when he is just noodling, I'd rather hear Peter's inventive noodling than some "guitar hero" playing 100 notes when 5 will do.
How many of you have watched the "Hard Road" BBC documentary which follows the run up to the first couple of Splinter Group concerts? He's in good form in the interviews, but is quiet on stage...but still playing cleanly. ??
As for his attitude, he seems to be a very humble man who finds it hard to believe that many people really think he's a great musician. That's why he isn't confident on stage, he's really not sure there is anything concrete to live up to. Don't we all, from time to time, worry that we are frauds? Most artistic people seem to anyway, musicians, writers, designers...all worry that their work which is hailed as great will one day be cut down as mediocre by critics. Peter probably doesn't feel his playing or writing were/are truly great because it came/comes naturally to him. Its a gift, he didn't sweat tears to write Albatross or BMW...or to play the solos on Oh Well...so he wonders if it really is great after all?
Every interview I have seen with PG from 1996 onwards shows him coherant...not like that early 90's Mojo interview where he talked about zombying around all day because his medication left him too tired even to set up a record player. Sure, on the Spliter Group DVD he seems less than enthusiastic...but he's coherant, he makes sense...he's clearly with it. He'd just probably rather be watching TV or practicing some noodling on one of his 96 guitars.
Anyway thos are my thoughts.
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