The iconic Peter Gabriel is back on the road with his original touring band from the 1980s, with the Back to Front tour, which comes to Wembley in December. He tells us how he sees the tour as being a bit like a three-course meal.

What can audiences expect from the Back to Front tour in 2014?

This Back to Front tour we serve a bit like a meal. We do three sections so your starter is an acoustic section and the second section is more the savoury equivalent, which is the experimentation and the electronics area. The third section, the dessert, is the album So from start to finish in the order that it was originally intended.

In some ways that is supposed to mirror the process, so you actually start with a number that hasn’t actually been finished. The acoustic bit is more like we might be working the ideas through; we do it with the house lights on. The second section is trying to arrange it, maybe when it’s a bit more mature and play around with it and the third section is something that’s finished and in the case of So, familiar.

Being on the road with your original touring band from ‘86/’87 must be fun?

When we thought about bringing this music back in touring mode again I really felt I should do it with the original band, particularly the drums. Although we had a few drummers, wonderful drummers, working on it (the album So), there was a lot of Manu (Katche) in that record and he has a wonderful, very musical style that is unlike anyone else. So, I didn’t think anyone else would quite recreate that in the same way.

So I thought that would be a way to do it and similarly with David Sancious, who in this case plays accordion, some guitar and organ, and he does the gospel piano on Don’t Give Up, it feels like it’s really working him.

And David and Tony have been with me throughout pretty much, Tony right from the beginning. They are sort of standard elements of the band.

So, how important is it for you to showcase some brand new material as well?

I’m pretty slow at generating new stuff but I wanted to have a sprinkling of something fresh so people would feel that they’re still noticing some changes, progress.

And how do you choose the other songs that make up the rest of the set?

Well, there were quite a few candidates and then when we started the subdivisions, the three parts, some of the music was working better acoustically than others.

We have this transition in Family Snapshot that worked really well and we’ve tried juggling one or two things but it felt like this particular set was working very well.

  • Peter Gabriel – Back to Front is at SSE Arena Wembley, Arena Square, Engineers Way, Wembley on Wednesday, December 3 at 8pm. Details: 0844 815 0815, ssearena.co.uk