his musical career in earnest in Boston, building on performance experience starting in high school. During the 1980s and early 1990s he was a member of bands including The Dark, Life on Earth, The Atom Said, Rubber Rodeo, The Bentmen and Modern Farmer. Modern Farmer (Gabrels, Jamie Rubin, David Hull, and Billy Beard) issued an album of original rock songs, Hard Row to Hoe, on Victory/Universal in 1993. David Bowie and Tin Machine David Bowie and Gabrels met in 1987 during a Bowie tour for which Sara Terry, Gabrels' then-wife, worked as a publicist. The first project on which Gabrels worked with Bowie was a re-imagining and rearrangement of the song "Look Back in Anger" and its live performance combining dance, music and projection as part of a benefit for London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 1988. The resulting score was minutes long, whereas the song originally ran three minutes as written by Bowie and Brian Eno and recorded on Lodger (1979). Bowie sang, played and danced with members of the avant-garde troupe La La La Human Steps; Gabrels and two other musicians played onstage throughout. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it." Gabrels subsequently (1989–1992) joined forces with Bowie and the Sales brothers (drummer Hunt Sales and bass player Tony Sales) in the rock band Tin Machine. Gabrels carried on working with Bowie, becoming an essential part of Bowie's nineties sound, most notably on Outside (1995), Earthling (1997), and Hours (1999), the latter two of which he co-produced. "Dead Man Walking," a Bowie/Gabrels song from Earthling, was nominated for a Grammy award. Gabrels and Bowie also created the soundtrack to the computer game Omikron: The Nomad Soul in 1999 for the game's French publisher. Gabrels ended his professional association with Bowie in late 1999. His last stage appearance with Bowie was a performance recorded in New York City for VH1 Storytellers. The Cure Robert Smith of the Cure and Reeves Gabrels first met during rehearsals for Bowie's 50th Birthday Concert held on January 9, 1997, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Bowie had invited Smith to sing as one of a select group of guest performers at this event, for which Gabrels served as musical director. A friendship ensued, leading to further collaborations within the year. Gabrels