Peter Gabriel performed A Whiter Shade Of Pale as a punk parody – or was it a tribute? – at Knebworth in the summer of 1978.

In September 1978 I went to what was the second Knebworth Festival that year, with a line-up of old and new ranging from The Boomtown Rats and Nick Lowe to Frank Zappa and The Tubes.

In between came a solo performance by Peter Gabriel, whose old band Genesis had headlined Knebworth’s earlier concert that year, which I had avoided like the plague.

I’d always hated Genesis as the proggiest progsters in Progville, filing them in a bin alongside Yes and ELP, and Gabriel was a large part of the reason why, with his silly hair and costumes.

But, while never quite being able to ‘get’ his solo work, I had a certain curiosity about him as someone who pushed back boundaries.

So, after bouncing around to Bob Geldof’s Boomtown Rats (and Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders and Dave Edmunds’ Rockpile) I awaited Gabriel with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation.

It was an ominous moment for me – and a thrilling one for all the old hippies in the crowd – when he announced that he was going to play a cover of A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

That soon turned to astonishment – for punks and hippies alike – when Gabriel launched into a spittle-flecked 100mph thrash through Procol Harum’s hoary old prog epic, perfecting a vocal approximation of Johnny Rotten at his sneering, whiniest finest.

No one was quite sure whether it was a homage to punk – a gesture to assure the world that he was in touch with the New Wave – or a sneering piss-take. Or just a crowd-pleasing joke.

I’m still not sure (I tend towards the latter camp) but, thankfully, someone recorded it for posterity.