Peter Gabriel is to make his stage comeback with a concert in Paris on Saturday, after a decade away from performing live.

The former Genesis frontman will be showing off material from his new album Up, which he has been working on for 10 years.

I was going for the record for the longest time to make an album

Peter Gabriel

Although he has not released any new solo material since the 1992 album Us, Gabriel has kept himself busy working on his record label Real World and the Womad music and arts festival, which he co-founded.

He released CDs such as Long Walk Home (his soundtrack album for the movie Rabbit Proof Fence) and collaborations with artists such as Youssou N'Dour and the Afro Celt Sound System.

He is also a co-founder of digital music company OD2, which distributes tracks on the internet by the likes of Dido, Craig David and Phil Collins, and is considered on the most successful services of its kind in the UK.

Gabriel helped co-ordinate the Millennium Dome show

On top of that he found time to help create the acrobatic show that was staged daily at London's Millennium Dome - one of the only features of the Dome not to come in for fierce criticism.

He contributed to the narrative and visual concept of the show and composed the music, which was released as an album called OVO.

His earlier solo material includes the hit singles Solsbury Hill, Sledgehammer and the duet with Kate Bush, Don't Give Up.

Gabriel came up with the title Up 10 years ago, wanting it to describe his music as "more vertical than horizontal".

He has drawn on the influences of the moon and water in the lyrics for the album but also looks at life and death.

Asked why it had taken so long to finish the album, Gabriel joked: "I was going for the record for the longest time to make an album."

"But I think the serious answer is that I enjoy the process of making music better than being a travelling salesman, so I probably avoided finishing the record. And I do get attracted by detours," he added.