After not being online for most of the weekend I will now try to catch up with reports from the weekend shows in Hannover & Brussels. First of all I’d like to say that somehow I’m glad I decided to not make the 3 shows in row in Linz, Prague and Katowice. Especially the last one must have been horrible regarding the weather. Kudos to the ones who held out in the rain there! Despite (or maybe even because of) the weather it must have been an outstanding show though.

Friday I left my office in Cologne right after lunch to drive up to Hannover. Usually a 2.5-3 hrs trip but due to one major traffic jam of about 14 kms it took me about 4 hrs to get there. After checking in at my hotel (right next to the AWD Arena; the crew stayed there as well) I drove on to Braunschweig to the “European Fan Meeting” including a 2 hrs long gig of Ray Wilson. The show was great. He played a lot of Genesis stuff, a few solo/Cut/Stiltskin songs and some covers. After the show he was available for autographs and joined us on a drink at the bar. On the way back to Hannover I overtook quite a few “Redburn Transfer” trucks which were coming from Katowice and were heading for Hannover as well. When I arrived back at my hotel it was 0.30 already. With another day of queueing ahead I went to bed very soon.

While I was having breakfast the next morning I could see that (once again) it was raining. However, I started queueing at around 10.00. There was only one entrance for the standing area on the pitch and the stewards gave us flyers with a venue map. So we knew where to run and once the gates opened it all went pretty smooth. The only thing was that it was about 200 meters from the gate to the front row inside. So everyone who arrived at the stage was totally exhausted! Despite the rain in the morning and a little shower around noon the weather was dry and while we waited for showtime inside the arena the sky even turned to blue! At some point there almost wasn’t a single cloud left. Too good to be true… It was exactly when the band took the stage that dark clouds moved over the stadium and with the first notes being played the rain set in. Just a shower of 10 minutes but raindrops big as golfballs. So those 10 minutes were enough to get everyone soaking wet!

The show however was brilliant. The only downside were some major technical issues. There was pretty much no keyboard on Turn It On Again. And before In The Cage Mike and Tony had some trouble with their gear at the same time. A great chance for Phil to introduce some crew members to the audience. The trouble continued throughout at least half the show and so Phil had to do some more “extra talking”.

Right after the show we got back to my car and this time made the trip back to Düsseldorf in about 2:15 hrs! Pretty good. I spent the night at home which is a bit more than halfway between Hannover and Brussels. So after just 4.5 hrs of sleep I got up again to continue the journey to Brussels, Belgium. On this Sunday morning with empty roads it only took me a bit more than 2 hrs to get there and we arrived at the gate to the “Golden Circle” as one of the first people.

Queueing was accompanied by light showers but it was as bad as it could have been. Again, opening procedures were very well organized and we ended up in front row once more. The rain just changed from light to “medium” (no really heavy rainfall like Hannover) with only a few breaks. But once the show had started (very late BTW - at 21.05 which was good for the light show) it took a couple of songs until it finally stayed dry for the rest of the night. Phil was in an outstandingly good mood and very talkative. There were no major mistakes musically or technically. So all in all the best show I’ve seen on the tour so far! In the end it even didn’t really matter the show wasn’t completely sold out. Having a look around from my spot in the front the crowd looked very good though.

In front row I ended up standing right next to two Brazilian guys (their first ever Genesis concert!). We talked a bit before the show and a some point they asked if I happened to be guy who posts this diary. It’s great to hear that people all over the world read (and enjoy) my reports. That’s what I do it for: to let people take part in what I do and for me it’s a great reward to hear they enjoy reading it!

After the show I bought the “Long Goodnight” DVD (very much looking forward to watching it tonight!) and drove back home. Not much fun cos I was really tired after this busy weekend and most of the way back we passed some heavy rainfall. Well, again it was worth the trip.

Tomorrow it’s the first of two “home matches” for me at Düsseldorf’s LTU Arena. With the roof closed it will at least be dry once we’re inside and it should be dark enough to see all of the light show for the first time.

Ulli

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 9:55 am and is filed under Genesis: Notes from the Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.