Liner Notes · No. 007
"Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the most-awarded video in MTV history got a Miami Vice episode, a stop-motion tribute and a Harry Styles cover. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- The first o\i song, "Been Undone," came out January 3, 2026. (Rolling Stone)
- Gabriel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on April 10, 2014, by Chris Martin. He was already in with Genesis since 2010. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
- At that induction he played "Washing of the Water" with Chris Martin and "In Your Eyes" with Youssou N'Dour. (Fox News)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
Miami Vice, a chicken remake and a documentary
Miami Vice used five songs from So, an indie band remade the video chickens and all, and Aardman made a 56-minute documentary about it.
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The episode: November 14, 1986. Miami Vice drops "Sledgehammer" into Season 3, Episode 8, "Better Living Through Chemistry." And the show didn't stop at one: it used five songs from So, including "Red Rain," "Mercy Street," "We Do What We're Told" and "Don't Give Up." Somebody in that music department owned the album and was not afraid to show it. Pastel blazer, no socks, art-rock soundtrack. Peak 1986.
The remake: Around 2010, Bella Union act Lone Wolf put out a video for "Keep Your Eyes on the Road," made by Broken Pixel, that rebuilds the "Sledgehammer" video with the same stop-motion methods. Chicken scene included. The label says Gabriel and the original animators saw it and approved. Imagine spending months recreating dancing poultry and then waiting to hear what the poultry's creators think.
The documentary: In 2022, Aardman co-founder David Sproxton directed Sledgehammer Revealed, a 56-minute film with the crew and Gabriel talking through how it was made. It ends on the fully restored video. Bristol's Watershed screened it in its 2026 "50 Years of Aardman" season, with Sproxton there in person. Fifty-six minutes about a five-minute video. Your book report on Hatchet was shorter, and you had three weeks.
Now, about those chickens. Quiz time.
Who animated the dancing plucked chickens in the Sledgehammer video?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Live, 1987 to 2023: Athens, Modena, the whole So album in order, and a tour where it closed the first set.
- Harry Styles' near note-for-note cover on Howard Stern, plus a hard-rock version.
- The new album that comes in two mixes, a bright one and a dark one.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
37 years of swinging it live
Athens in 1987, a Grammy-winning Secret World Live, So front to back in 2013, and still the first-set closer in 2023.
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1987, Athens: The This Way Up tour stopped in Athens, and the show was later released as the concert film Live in Athens 1987, "Sledgehammer" included. Mullets were at full altitude.
1993, Modena: On November 16 and 17, 1993, at the Palasport Nuovo in Modena, Italy, Gabriel recorded the shows that became Secret World Live. The film's version runs 6:05, more than a minute longer than the video, because live, nobody's paying an animator by the frame. The film won the Grammy for Best Music Film. The hammer finally got a gramophone.
2012 to 2014, Back to Front: Gabriel played So start to finish, in order, with the 1986-87 band: David Rhodes, Tony Levin, Manu Katché and David Sancious. London's O2 got filmed on October 21 and 22, 2013, for Back to Front: Live in London, released June 23, 2014. Same band, 27 years later. Most of us can't get the same five friends together for a fantasy draft.
2023, i/o: On May 18, 2023, opening night of the i/o tour in Kraków, Poland, "Sledgehammer" closed the first set, ahead of "In Your Eyes" and "Biko" in the encore. It held that spot at Madison Square Garden on September 18, 2023. Thirty-seven years on, it's still the song you save for right before the break.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Everyone picked up the hammer
Harry Styles nailed it on Howard Stern and got Gabriel's clapping emoji. A Montreal band and two hard-rock vets took swings too.
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- 2020 · Harry Styles. On The Howard Stern Show in March 2020, he played it live in the studio, nearly note-for-note. He'd recorded much of Fine Line at Gabriel's Real World Studios, and he reportedly called it maybe the best-mixed song ever. Gabriel shared the clip with a clapping emoji. A legend's entire review, in one emoji. Critics, take notes.
- 2021 · Vinyl Hero. The Montreal band made a 35th-anniversary version with its own video, and called it more of a rendition than a cover. That's what you say when you've made a cover.
- 2023 · George Lynch and Jeff Pilson. The guitarist and bassist put a hard-rock version on Heavy Hitters II, out August 11, 2023. Fewer horns, more hair. It was always going to happen.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Sledgehammer" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where Peter Gabriel is now
A new album, o\i, is booked for November 27, 2026, with two mixes of every song. No tour announced.
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The album: o\i, 13 tracks on Real World, booked for November 27, 2026. Every song comes in two mixes: a "Bright-Side" mix by Mark "Spike" Stent and a "Dark-Side" mix by Tchad Blake. He called it the longest album he has ever put out. Two versions of every song. Your Discman would have needed a second Discman.
The singles: The ninth song, "Face the Wall," came out September 26, 2026. It's about mortality.
The road: No tour has been announced for o\i. His last one was i/o The Tour, in 2023.
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