Peter Gabriel’s innovative ‘Sledgehammer’ video from 1986 has been remastered in high definition 4K.
For the remaster, Aardman Animations went back through 600 meters of original film footage to create the new 4K version by director Stephen R. Johnson.
“The remastered video looks fantastic. It brought it all back to life,” Peter Gabriel said in a statement.
The original video made for the lead single of Gabriel’s fifth solo album ‘So’ won nine MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year in 1987.
“No-one expected it to do quite what it did” says Peter, “I think we knew that it was very fresh, and that mix of hand made with its imperfections, when everything else was getting smoothed out and digitised, really made it stand out”.
Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer original
David Sproxton, co-founder of Aardman said, “one of the things we love about ‘Sledgehammer’ is that it did have that slightly rough edge. CGI was just coming in so we were seeing some quite slick stuff coming out and this video had a different feel, a different roughness and a kind of magic to it.”
To song gave Peter Gabriel his first mainstream hit. “It was my time in the sun as a pop star,” he says “which wasn’t my natural place but I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time”.
“It was an extra-ordinary conversation starter,” say David Sproxton, “a fantastic door opener from our point of view and a great calling card that had an impact on our career.”
The new clip is streaming exclusively at Apple Music.
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