When he was Genesis's frontman, Peter Gabriel thought nothing of dressing up in a rubber costume as a block of flats. Now 53 and Growing Up (the title of his first tour in a decade) he has more toys to play with. There's a round revolving stage, a moving drum-kit and a giant canvas egg which at one point descends to nestle on his head... and that's just the first few minutes. This tour is probably the most visually dazzling rock experience ever attempted in Britain, and it makes U2's Zooropa look like a few lights in the pub.
The musicians - including Gabriel, whose shorn head and austere black outfit give him the look of a Star Trek villain - are often playing unaugmented in the centre, a clever contrast that makes this an exercise in minimalism and flamboyance, mirroring Gabriel's straddling of rock and avant-garde. Educated at Charterhouse, he's always been a clever so-and-so; the "egghead" is almost certainly an in-joke. The set is centred around last year's Up album, but each song brings a new surprise as Gabriel allows his fantasies (and finances) free reign. For Sky Blue, the Blind Boys of Alabama rise out of the floor to add haunting baritones. For Downside Up, a platform descends and Gabriel and singing daughter Melanie use special harnesses to walk upside-down.
If this were an empty spectacle, it would be awesome, but it makes you think and it makes you laugh. When Barry Williams Show, about reality TV, segues powerfully into the hypnotic More Then This, you're left pondering the wider unknown. When Gabriel discusses how apes are learning to communicate, someone bellows: "George Bush!" "That's quite an insult," retorts the singer, "to our primate friends."
However, the clashes of sight and sound will stay longest in the memory: Gabriel donning a lightbulb suit for Sledgehammer, cycling round the stage for Solsbury Hill, and singing Growing Up inside a giant bouncing hamster ball. He can't follow that and doesn't, performing Father, Son alone with piano. It's a quiet, emotional moment in the techno maelstrom, and a metaphor for the power of humans to shape the world that is, of course, entirely intentional.
· At Wembley Arena on Wednesday and Thursday. Box office: 0870 739 0739.
