In the early afternoon of the day of the 2nd Los Angeles show and the last of the tour, I paid a daylight visit to the Hollywood Bowl. I climbed all the steps to the very last row to have an overview of the whole venue and from up there you can even see the Hollywood-letters! I met one of the official Genesis Forum members when I descended and checked out where my seat that night would be. We chatted for a while and it was almost 2pm when I took the metro back to downtown in order to get ready for the show.

It was already 3pm when I was finally back in my hotel room. First I checked my e-mails and PMs on the Genesis Forum. Maria from Ultrastar (who run the official Genesis website and forum) had sent me a PM telling me I could be at the soundcheck and maybe even at the meet and greet that was organized that afternoon for the VH-1 contest winners! I wasn’t surprised by this message because already the day before that Maria had told me that she might be able to get a few more fans inside and that I would be one of them as I was among the people who travelled the longest distance to be there. Still this wasn’t sure until I got her message. She told me I should be at the west gate of Hollywood Bowl at 4.30pm. So no need to say I grabbed all the stuff that I needed and hurried back to Hollywood.

When I arrived at the artist entrance at the west gate I was about 10 minutes ahead of time and the first person there. Soon two others (David & Catherine, a couple from England) joined me. Maria came out to hand out wristbands to us. She then left to “collect” the other fans who were waiting at the wrong gate. While she was away a van arrived in the locked backstage area. When Danny Gillen, Phil’s “personal assistant”, got out it was clear that Phil himself couldn’t be far away. And in fact soon he appeared and went inside the building. Tony Banks was the next and last one we saw of the band at that time. A few minutes later Maria and the others returned. Apart from the VH-1 winners and us 3 there was only one other fan who had come all the way from Holland. So all in all it was a party of about 10 people. While we stood there we could already hear some jamming from inside but I assumed it could still be the techs who set up the gear. Then Hannah, the tour PR agent, came out to lead us inside. We were allowed to watch the soundcheck from the pool section which is the front of stage area at the Hollywood Bowl. When we went inside I realized at once that the band was on stage already! The soundcheck had just begun. We could sit down about 5 or 6 rows from the front and no-one complained as we all started taking lots of photos. Apart from us there were a handful of winners from a local radio station and a few friends of the band. Altogether there were less than 20 people in the pool section which made it a very intimate event!

The soundcheck started with loose jamming. Phil and Chester did a bit of the bar stool part of the drum duet and Phil played a few bars of Follow You Follow Me to check his headset mic. Together with him one of the camera operators adjusted the steady front of stage camera for Mama. For the lack of space they didn’t have the moving cameras on rails at the Bowl but just cameras filming from a little further back. But of course for Mama they needed a close-up camera for Phil. On the first night Phil wasn’t centered in the picture properly so they had to optimize that. As it took them quite a while to do that Phil rolled his eyes a few times obviously a bit hacked off by technical issues like that.

After they had finished their solo jamming they got together to play a soundcheck standard, No Son Of Mine. As usual they played it almost completely and then went on with Behind The Lines/Duke’s End which they also did frequently on soundchecks. As regular readers of my tour diary may remember I had already seen the soundcheck in Berlin. So at least I know what procedures to expect but in Berlin’s huge Olympic Stadium I could only see that from the opposite end of the upper level, i.e. as far away as it gets. So this time I really enjoyed being close to the stage, also because I would see my last show that night from a little bit further back again in the Garden section. Between the songs they had to solve some more technical problems such as Mike’s transmitter of his in-ear-monitors. At the end of the soundcheck Phil and Chester repeated just the drum part of the Duke intro which sounded familiar yet interesting as a stand-alone version. We shyly clapped between the songs which sounded strange with so few people doing it at the same time.

After a total of 20-25 minutes the soundcheck was over but still we didn’t know for sure whether the meet & greet would work out or not! The band’s schedule is so extremely tight that you can almost never plan on things like this, especially as it was the last night of the tour and they surely had a bunch of friends and relatives arriving soon for a pre-show meeting. The more we were relieved and excited at the same time when we were told that the guys would now come down from the stage into the pool section to do a very brief meet & greet!

Observed by the likes of Tim Brockman (tour manager), Danny Gillen and Tony Smith Mike, Tony and Phil in that order descended from the stage. It looked quite acrobatic as the steps were pretty high and God, how I hoped they wouldn’t break their bones so short before the end. Unfortunately Daryl and Chester didn’t join them for some reason. Having met them before a couple of times I could call myself lucky but I really felt for the other fans who of course would have loved to meet the whole band including the “sidemen”.

We lined up in front of the stage while the guys did their descent and for some reason I was the first in line. Mike was the first one who I shook hands with, then Tony. Although I can consider myself being a long-time fan of the band I have to admit that I lack connection to those two and especially Tony is rather quite and not as open-hearted as Phil maybe. This is just my personal impression. If only I knew Tony better I would probably revise that opinion! When it was Phil’s turned to shake hands with me I really just started talking straight from the heart. Although we knew there was a chance of meeting the band I still hadn’t prepared myself with what to say to them. So as Phil looked up to me (not sure, but maybe he is even shorter than I expected and I’m not one of the tallest persons - sorry Phil if you read this, I’m just trying to be honest), I said he might probably recognize my face from a few shows as I had seen a total of 24 concerts. I put this as carefully as possible as I had never in my life expected him to remember me. Therefore I wasn’t surprised by his reaction which showed that he obviously didn’t recollect. But he was really astounded by the number of shows I had seen and asked if I was just talking about shows on this tour which I affirmed. Honestly I don’t remember everything we said and there’s a photo of both of us laughing. Can’t remember what he or I said that caused this reaction. As I’m a German football fan and Phil was wearing his Hannover 96 jacket again (the black one with the big white “96″ on the chest) I asked if he knew what he was wearing. He said: ‘I know it’s from Hannover.’ And I mentioned that this is by far not my favorite football club (sorry Hannover fans - that’s just the way it is!) he said he didn’t care. He simply likes it and it keeps him warm. All this happened in less than a minute I think and Phil moved on to the others. The guys started to sign a few things people had brought along. I would have loved to get a program signed but as it was long before gates opened they didn’t sell merchandise before the soundcheck (and shame on me for not having a program in stock…).

When I saw some of the fans taking pictures with Tony, Mike and/or Phil I realized that I had almost forgotten about getting a picture. So I asked Hannah if it was still possible to get one with Phil. For the lack of time she got 3 of us together and we took this (as I think very nice) photo. By the way, I’m the guy on the right and no, I’m not standing on my toes! I’m 5′90 (or 1.80m) which is pretty average I think.

We said goodbye and the meet & greet was already over. All this took less than 10 minutes! I think I speak for everyone at the meet & greet when I say that we could hardly believe what had just happened. This was as good as it gets. And I can assure everyone that especially the 4 of us who got the opportunity to be there at very short notice were even more aware of how lucky we were. Maria told me later that she had checked a list on the forum of who was going to be at that show. As the forum administrator she checked the private profiles to see if there was a phone number stated. So she rang up the “out-of-towners” but mostly left messages on private answering machines. We four were the only ones she managed to contact. After this unique once-in-a-lifetime experience the following concert just seemed to be a little extra goody.

Of course we had to leave the venue after the soundcheck and re-enter when gates opened around 7pm. So in the meantime I had a snack and a beer and bough the last bit of merchandising I needed. It appeared that a lot of the t-shirts and other clothing they offered were no longer available in the most common sizes. I was lucky to still get a jacket that fits me! As the night before, I had a walk around in the venue before the concert. Especially here in Hollywood it was possible that quite a few known people could be there and wasn’t really surprised when I met Arturo Velasco (trombone player of the Vine St. Horns). We had met before on Phil’s last tour in Nîmes, Chicago and on the rehearsals in Neuchâtel. I also bumped into Maria again and was happy to have a chance to thank her once again for what she done fore us!

A fellow fan from Germany had told me that would finally be at that show as well and I was really happy to meet him shortly before the show. Not the easiest task with all the crowds entering the arena. This friend was one of the people who stood right next to me in first row on the Rome show. So apart from having met before at quite a number of gigs all over Europe this is a very special memory we share! While I went back to my seat the Keep It Dark cover version by Simon Collins sounded over the PA system! I hadn’t heard that before and was amazed by how cool it sounds. A really fresh sounding version but still quite close to the original. As far as I know it was never being played as part of the pre-show music before.

When show began the sky was almost clear. Most likely no rain! So nothing was getting the way of a perfect tour finale. The concert started at around 8.20pm like the night before and I don’t reveal any surprises when I say that the setlist didn’t even change on the last show. At least they played the full set including I Can’t Dance and Carpet Crawlers that night other than the rainy night before. If the volume had to be turned down on the first night for noise abatements they really “turned it on” for the last time! On all the 23 shows I had seen before be it indoors or outdoors, I have never heard & felt the bass that heavily especially on Los Endos! It virtually shook the whole place - but luckily this region is used to earthquakes.

Phil mentioned in the beginning that it was the last show of the tour and that he would come back on that later. Once again the guys really delivered with their performance. As promised Phil said a few words at the end right before Carpet Crawlers. He took a speech of a few minutes saying that “as they stand here right now, nothing else is planned” and this made this evening even more emotional. He thank the roadcrew naming quite a lot of them. Of course Daryl and Chester were introduced as usual and after Phil said, that Mike, Tony and himself really love them, he finally revealed after being in the band for more than 35 years that he loves Tony and Mike. Sorry, ladies, now we know!

As they played Carpet Crawlers I reflected all what happened in the last 4 months - no doubt the best time in my life! All the waiting in queues no matter what the weather was. All the travelling which at times was pretty stressful. All the great moments with meeting fans, crew and band that in the end I can say I got as much of an insight as (or even more than) a normal fan can ever dream of! And therefore I don’t feel bad about admitting that I shed a tear during the last song.

After the band took a last bow it was hard to believe this was really about it. I took my time to say goodbye to a few fans and to sound engineer Michel Colin who always took a few minutes of his precious time to talk to me before or after the shows. He was also the one who took this unique and memorable photo of me in Rome standing in first row (the guy without cap with the blue Genesis t-shirt looking towards the camera).

From the Hollywood Bowl I left right to my hotel. It’s a pity I couldn’t join an aftershow meet-up with other fans. But it’s so hard to leave once you’re there and I had to get up early the next morning to catch my flight back home. So my alarm clock woke me up at 6.30am and I took a shower and packed my suitcase. At 7.30am I left for the airport. After the check-in I finally had breakfast. When I reached the gate for boarding I saw that again “Bora Bora” - exactly the same aircraft as on my flight to L.A. a week before - in her stunning Air Tahiti Nui color scheme was sitting there and being refueled and loaded. We were pushed back even a few minutes before our scheduled departure and airborne at about 12.50pm. The routing took us from L.A. straight to Las Vegas and on to Denver with some nice views of the spectacular mountain scenery below. After a very good lunch (pasta with smoked salmon and a good glass of white wine) I tried to sleep also because outside there was nothing more but clouds below as we were about 2 hours into our flight. The windows lids were being shut in the whole cabin to have it dark enough to sleep and when I opened it a bit after a 1-1.5 hrs long nap it was already completely dark outside.

More than another two hours later - now about 6 hrs into the flight - we were heading towards Greenland above the Davis Strait at around 1am local time. For a while I couldn’t sleep anymore and went to the snack buffet in the galley to drink some water. When I returned to my seat I opened the window lid again and first thought those were strange cloud formations which I saw outside in the dark. Soon I realized I was wrong. What I saw were the northern lights/aurora borealis. With my camera I took a few handheld photos with a 30 seconds exposure which in result turned the green-grey looking shades which we see with our eyes into bright green formations. I had never seen that before and have to say it was really impressive to see!

As we reached European airspace over the northwest of Ireland breakfast was served and less than 2 hours later we touched French ground on Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. After a 2.5 hrs layover I continued my journey on an Air France flight bound for Düsseldorf. After arrival at “DUS” it was a kind of strange coincidence that during taxiing to the gate we had to stop before crossing a runway because a Finnair Airbus bound for Helsinki was taking off. A bit like 4 months ago when I started my tour. So this somehow completed the circle of my selection of shows.

Looking back I have to say I was really lucky that all my travel worked out perfectly as planned and sometimes it was a really tricky schedule and I stayed healthy all the time. At this point I don’t really want to single out certain people (I believe or hope they know who they are) because I met so many fans throughout the whole tour that it’s way too much to list them all. But each of them made my tour worthwhile. And of course I want to thank Genesis for 24 unforgettable nights, powerful performances, in rain or shine, at night or even in bright daylight as happened on the first 2 shows. The memories will last all my life. I have tons of photos to relive every single concert and my travels in between as often as I want. It was my pleasure to share my impressions with you and I hope it was an enjoyable read. There might be “nothing else planned”… but, guys, I’ll be ready when you are!

Ulli