July 14, 2007, early morning - after a shower and breakfast I got back to the Circus Maximus. There were still not too many people waiting there although the crowd was constantly growing. It all turned out to be more or less like on the other concerts before. Most people didn’t arrive before noon. So it was by far not the hysteria many people had expected. Good for us! Sleeping at the venue would’ve been unnecessary but it was part of the experience and still worth the effort. Throughout the morning we could watch the stage works being finalized. The workers still had to put up the video wall and a few other things. Quite interesting because you don’t often get the chance to see something like this.

The sun was being down all day. No cloud in the sky and temperatures rising with every minute. On the field there was almost no shadow at all and a big problem was the dry ground which produced dust clouds with every movement. I took care not to get burned this time and had my head covered all the time. I think in total I drank about 4-5 litres of water throughout the whole day. Actually the water supply was very well organized. There were tank trucks with drinking water where people could refill their bottles and in addition to that free mineral water was handed out to the waiting fans - well enough for everyone!

The only problem we encountered was to find the right spot were to queue. The place we had waited at all night turned out to be a “dead end” so we moved down the slope onto the field where we thought it was the shortest run to the front. In the morning they finally put up the barriers and I could see that there was a front-of-stage area with small entrances to both sides. That’s where I wanted to get in! All the time I had expected to not really get a chance to get to the front on this gigantic concert but as time moved on I realized that there would be a good chance to make it. The spot we finally waited at was really not far from the entrance to the front-of-stage area. So at least the run would be much shorter than the terrible one in Lyon.

During the wait we even had a chance to talk to Annie Callingham and Nick Davis who came to the waiting crowd. Not many people know what they look like so their presence usually doesn’t cause a turmoil. But nonetheless it was really nice that they chatted with us.

Security staff had told us that they would open the venue at 18.00 so it was still a terribly long wait ahead. But already before 15.00 I noticed something going on. The Italian security staff was suddenly joined by British colleagues. For some reason people got a little nervous and in the end it was about 15.15 when the ropes which had held people back were ripped off and everyone sprinted to the front! As I had noticed that we might have an early start I had already packed my stuff and prepared myself for the run to the front. The early opening seemed a bit unplanned to me but anyhow security was ready to stop us from entering the front-of-stage area. I ended up among the very top of the crowd right next to the entrace to that sector. A lot of people had opted to wait at the fence which surrounded the front-of-stage area. Some of the had obviously thought that this would be a VIP only area so they thought they would be in the best spots. Well, at least they didn’t get crushed by the masses behind them as we did. My impression was that especially the British security had prevented the worst but even they had problems to make people at our gate moved a step back and relax.

The good thing was that at some point I realized that there would only be one entrance to the front-of-stage area - ours! The one on the other side was not going to be used. In the end we had to wait about an hour in this constantly pushing crowd until we finally were let in one by one. The entry procedure itself went very relaxed and smooth. Usually I don’t like surreptitious advertising in a report like that but in this case I will make an exception: so a big THANK YOU to Rock Steady Security for doing an excellent job that day! They handled the crowd without compromise and (sadly despite other security staff I’ve seen on this tour and others) really knew what they were doing. As I walked inside I saw that two friends I had with and who were let inside before me had reserved a spot for me. So I ended up in first row right in front of Phil’s mic! I think it doesn’t get any better on a concert with an expected crowd of about half a million people!

So there we were inside the venue. Mission accomplished. But still was only 16.30 - another 5 hours to wait until showtime. Well, actually “just” 4.5 as Annie had told us that the start was scheduled for 21.00 (30 minutes earlier than expected). The good thing with our spot in first row was that thanks to the stage we waited in the shadow for most of the time. Looking back down the Circus Maximus was a really impressive sight. Every once in a while I had to take a look at the constantly growing crowd. One of the nicest experiences - again! - was meeting so many people from so many different countries. Actually I met again quite a lot of fans who I had already met elsewhere on the tour. Too many to mention here. A big hello to all of them. They know who I’m talking about.

All waiting comes to an end, so around 21.15 we finally heard the well-known sounds of “Dead Already” (from the American Beauty soundtrack) foreshadowing the main event. From the first tunes of the concert on I knew that a special feeling was in the air. On the sing-along parts the crowd was extremely loud and sang very well by the way. During the concert there were several moments when I saw Mike and Daryl looking at each other with a very impressed expression on their faces. As I had expected the band was a bit more concentrated and not as relaxed as on the last two shows obviously due to the fact that the Rome show was being recorded for the official DVD release. But still they played extremely powerful. Parts like Duke’s Travels were among the most powerful performances I’ve seen on the tour. For the introductions Phil talked a bit of Italian but always mixed it with some English sentences. Unfortunately some introductions were a bit shorter than on most of the other shows. One of which being the transition between Mama and Ripples (”from the red-light district to a place of innocence…”). The only major mistake that night happened during Firth Of Fifth. The show so far had went absolutely brilliant but somehow suddenly “Tony left planet earth for a few seconds during Firth of Fifth” (this is quote from Nick Davis posted on the official Genesis Forum). He got the wrong speed, Phil on the drums maybe tried to adjust it and it all sounded really bad for a few seconds. When I first heard this I even thought they might have to stop and restart the song. But as they all are absolute professionals they manage to get into the correct speed again. Me and my fellows around me were looking at each other with a puzzled expression a bit like “what the heck was that?”. During the following song I Know What I Like it seemed like Phil was trying to make up for this mistake. I think the Tarantella was the most dynamic I’ve seen on the tour!

That night I really enjoyed the show, didn’t take too many photos (as the show will be on DVD anyway) but just concentrated on whole performance. I looked back onto the crowd several times though from my spot it was hard to really see the whole field. But as far as I could see there were people all over the place. I didn’t see a free spot anywhere. I think it was during the break before the encores that the crowd started to sing the Stagnation bit again.

To my surprise I didn’t get as emotional as I feared during Carpet Crawlers (well, honestly I had had “my moment” during Afterglow already) but maybe this will come in Hollywood when I realize that it will not only be the last show for 2 month…

It was amazing how fast people got out of the place after the concert. This enormous crowd left pretty fast considering that according to Italian newspapers there were 500,000 people. The Circus Maximus looked like planet Mars after the show. Litter all over the place and the whole field was covered in dust raised by the masses on their way home.

It was an unbelieveable and amazing experience. Can’t wait to see the DVD and relive the whole night again. I hope it can give a proper impression of what this show was like - even for people who weren’t there. For me it will always remain a special night to remember!

After the show I really need a drink and most of all something to eat. So I joined a bunch of fellow fans on a pizza and a beer. After this very late dinner I was really wiped out. The result of only 3 hours of sleep in the night before and such an exhausting day. Though it was hard to say goodbye to the other I finally went to bed at around 3.00.

The next morning I slept until 10.00 and did some sightseeing after breakfast. But it turned out to be too hot in the city. I went to Piazza Navona, the Collosseum, the Vatican and of course Circus Maximus again. At that time the stage was almost torn down already!

So in the afternoon I took the Leonardo Express from Termini station to Fiumicino Airport for my evening flight back home. A month of following Genesis across Europe all the way down from Helsinki to Rome was about to come to an end. My flight was expected to be on time but we already boarded the plane with a slight delay and once the passengers were on board the ground staff was still unloading the luggage from the inbound flight. After waiting about an hour we were finally being pushed back for departure to Düsseldorf. The flight went smooth and we arrived about 30 minutes late at 23.15. Unfortunately there was some technical trouble which delayed the baggage claim until after midnight! It was almost 1.00 when I finally got back home. 5 hours later my alarm-clock would wake me up again and welcome me back to “real life”…

So much for the European leg of my personal selection of shows. So many impressions, memories and experiences. Too many to mention them all. I hope the diary has given you a little impression of my travels. But my tour isn’t over yet! It will continue with the show in Hartford, Connecticut on September 16 and I will fly to Boston the day before. About 6 weeks to go. For sure UK76’s TRAVELS will continue. Hope you will pop in again…

Thanks for reading and for all the comments so far!

Ulli

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