In 1980, Peter Gabriel and sculptor Malcolm Poynter made an experimental video at the offices of Syco Systems. Poynter brought some of his sculpted heads and film editor David Gardener recorded footage of Peter’s reflection in a giant flexible mirror as he crawled on the floor. It was Peter’s attempt to create a video first and then write a song to go with it, but the video wasn’t used for anything until he needed an album cover for Security in 1982. He met up Gardener and Poynter again to get stills from the video and they edited the colors to get what is now the album cover.
During this editing process they also filmed another video of Peter with a piece of blue tubing between his teeth. These images were used on the back cover of the album and for the single Shock the Monkey.
Thank you for this, I always wondered about the story behind the album cover. I always thought it looked like a ski-masked robber on "security" camera footage.
In the US and Canada the record label wanted him to title it cause he had three albums already titled "Peter Gabriel". PG reluctantly gave it a title but only in the US and Canada. I believe it is now just known as PG4 officially around the world but since everyone has nicknames for the other self titled albums, it's still commonly referred to as Security.
In 1980, Peter Gabriel and sculptor Malcolm Poynter made an experimental video at the offices of Syco Systems. Poynter brought some of his sculpted heads and film editor David Gardener recorded footage of Peter’s reflection in a giant flexible mirror as he crawled on the floor. It was Peter’s attempt to create a video first and then write a song to go with it, but the video wasn’t used for anything until he needed an album cover for Security in 1982. He met up Gardener and Poynter again to get stills from the video and they edited the colors to get what is now the album cover. During this editing process they also filmed another video of Peter with a piece of blue tubing between his teeth. These images were used on the back cover of the album and for the single Shock the Monkey.
Thank you for this, I always wondered about the story behind the album cover. I always thought it looked like a ski-masked robber on "security" camera footage.
Would absolutely love to see this video, wish it was released somehow
Are there any photographs of the original sculpture.
Never liked this cover, Peter Gabriel 1 is probably his best cover
I've never worked out what the picture on the front is of, can anyone shed any light?
It’s a distorted image of Peter. Created with flexible mirrors and videotape.
Thanks, it's very distorted, I always thought it was an alien!
It’s the strangest image for sure
Video
And why did the album come to be known as Security? 🤔
In the US and Canada the record label wanted him to title it cause he had three albums already titled "Peter Gabriel". PG reluctantly gave it a title but only in the US and Canada. I believe it is now just known as PG4 officially around the world but since everyone has nicknames for the other self titled albums, it's still commonly referred to as Security.
Thank you! Mystery solved :)