Many of you who could not attend the Rome show may nevertheless be interested in how the concert was organized, so here are my impressions. A UK76’s TRAVELS special edition, as it were.

Contrary to wild rumours that fans would camp out on or around Circus Maximus for this free concert many days before, everything was rather calm and relaxed. The first tents showed up late in the evening before the show. Only on Saturday morning did the field begin to fill. The sun burnt down relentlessly, but the promoters had at least made sure there was enough to drink for everybody by providing free bottles of water and water tank lorries. Sanitary conditions were as well organized as there was an adequate number of mobile toilets. Another big problem was that of dust rising because the area was dry as a bone. This was at least mitigated by irrigation.

There was a front of stage area that was completely fenced in and another fence in front of the rest of the field. It was not always very clear where exactly the entrance to the front area was suposed to be. Italian security told us that fences would be opened around 6p.m. There were only a couple of thousand fans when suddenly the fences were removed at 3.15p.m. and the waiting crowd rushed towards the fences. Before that British security people had reinforced their Italien colleagues. It seemed as if the admission had absolutely not been planned for this time or this way. But security (particular the British) soon had things under control. It was still unavoidable, though, that those fans who wanted to be in front of the stage stood more than tightly packed for more than an hour. Some fans also had the impression that the fenced-in area was a VIP area, a rumour that was allegedly confirmed by Italian security.

The admission proper went smoothly after the usual jostling. Spectators for the front of stage area were admitted individually.

There was no full soundcheck before the show. Neither was there any special announcement or moderation for the concert, except for one brief announcement. Circus Maximus filled slowly. Most of the spectators arrived only in the early evening. I counted more than 15 cameras in the front area and on stage; I assume there were more cameras further back.

The show was scheduled to begin at 9p.m. because of the midnight noise curfew. In the end it began at a quarter past nine. Much has been written about the actual show in sundry forums, so I shall restrict myself to the logistic side of things.

After the end of the show the crew quickly began disassembling the stage. By noon next day there were only a couple of steel girders from the basic construction. The Circus Maximus looked terribly after the show. When the crowd were leaving they were kicking up a lot of dust so it was as if a fog had spread across the area. I was surprised to notice, though, that the grassy area had been almost completely cleaned by noon of the next day. I had also assumed it would take me an hour or more to walk back to my hotel which under normal circumstances would have been only fifteen minutes away. Since I did not use public transport (metro, bus, taxi) I cannot say how things went there.

If you have any particular questions, feel free to post them as a commentary. Additions and corrections are, as always, welcome!

Photos of the stage setup and disassembly and of the show itself will hopefully be available from tomorrow (July 17) on in the photo galleries.

edit: Nick Davis has already announced to the official Genesis forum that he is going to patch all the mistakes that happened during the show with recordings from Düsseldorf, Lyon or London. He will be particularly busy with Firth Of Fifth…

After a long period of absence I finally have the chance to resume my diary. I’m at work again already after arriving back from Rome at 0.30 last night (or shall I say this morning?). As I have a lot to catch up with I decided to do it in portions. As Phil once said, “anticipation is half the fun”. So for now I will concentrate on the Munich show and carry on with Lyon and then Rome at a later point.

In Munich I was lucky to have a working pass again to help hanging up the Official Fanclub banners. The morning before the show had been mostly dry. But shortly after my arrival at the stadium at around 14.30 the first shower set in. About 1.5 hours later we entered the stadium, hung up the banners and I walked onto the pitch. It was all a little bit more relaxed than it had been in Berlin, maybe due to the fact that in Munich the band would not be doing a proper soundcheck (which they had done in Twickenham BTW). Before the gates were opened I could slowly walk to my place in the front-of-stage area.

It had been mostly dry since the last shower in the early afternoon but dark clouds were threatening more and more towards the evening. Closer to showtime a pretty heavy shower came down but luckily enough I had proper raingear with me and didn’t get too wet this time. By the time the show started the rain stopped and it stayed dry for the rest of the evening.

The show was really amazing! A very powerful performance with especially the instrumental bits being really outstanding (e.g. Duke’s Travels, Drum Duet, Los Endos). The audience which - of course apart from Rome - was one of the largest on the tour did a great job as well. And when the show was over I really asked myself “what the heck was that?”. Of course it’s just a personal opinion, but after having seen more than a dozen shows at that point I really can say that Munich was among the best shows! It’s interesting that with so many shows you can tell slight differences although the set was always the same.

The next morning I headed to the airport again to fly on to Lyon via Nice. This routing resulted from a very cheap flight I got to Nice which would have been the closest airport to Monaco. As the show there was moved to Lyon I had to figure out what to do. I tried to find a travel plan which still included this flight so that I didn’t lose the money. In the end I simply booked a flight on to Lyon. Both flights in addition were still cheaper than a direct flight from Munich to Lyon! We left Munich in still not too promising weather but arrived in Nice with blue skies, nice temperatures and palmtrees! What a great treat! During the descent into Lyon I had a great view on Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps. The weather in Lyon wasn’t as sunny as in Nice (no wonder, Genesis were about to come!) but still it was dry and pretty warm. In the evening before dinner, I had a nice walk through the old city center. But as I wasn’t really prepared for a sightseeing trip I might have missed a few more scenic spots. Seems I will have to return to Lyon one day.

More about the concert and my onward trip to Rome in a few days. Maybe tomorrow already. So “stay tuned”…

Ulli