Anthony Phillips Event 2014 – Making Of Special

With the Steve Hackett event in 2009, we had set the bar for future fan club events at dizzying heights. Getting another one of the "Big Five" from Genesis for a fan club event was utopian. Banks and Rutherford had already ruled that out in interviews with us, and Collins and Gabriel… well, we didn't get any further than a terse "no" from management in response to our inquiries. So who else was there? Ray Wilson and John Mayhew had already been guests at our events. Chris Stewart and John Silver could only have talked about the earliest beginnings of Genesis. And so one name was at the top of our list of potential special guests: Anthony Phillips.

However, the idea of inviting Anthony Phillips was anything but new. Back in May 1991 – even before our fan club existed – Helmut Janisch had called for action in the fan club magazine "Der Genesis-Fan": "Bring Anthony Phillips to Germany for a club gig!" Helmut had just become a fan of the band and saw nothing unusual in the campaign. But of course, everyone knew that Anthony would not be giving a concert. However, one fan did contact Helmut to offer his support for the campaign: Bernd Zindler. And so the two crossed paths months before they founded the German Genesis fan club "it" together with Peter Schütz. The project was then put on hold for years. Even when Bernd and Helmut met Anthony several times for interviews in the 1990s, nothing came of it. In 2013, the time had come to ask Anthony again emphatically about it.

This happened on September 16, 2013, via email, and surprisingly, Anthony agreed immediately. However, we had to find a date that did not conflict with any of his library assignments. After Anthony confirmed that he would not have any major jobs during that time, we set the date for March 22, 2014, and announced the event on October 9, 2013, on the website and in a special newsletter. Within four hours, all tickets were sold out, and after a quick check with Anthony, he agreed to spend another day at Welkers. So on October 11, we announced that it would be a two-day event. And the additional March 23 was also quickly sold out.

Anthony agreed to be available for on-stage interviews, autograph sessions, and conversations with fans at the event. As expected, he ruled out playing anything live. However, since we still wanted to have live music at the event, we asked the fan community who would be willing and able to play a short Phillips set on that day. We already had one confirmation, as the now iconic duo Bernd Vormwald and Steffen Gerlach had immediately offered to perform after our request. But it didn't stop with the two of them. In the following weeks, more and more musicians from our ranks offered to play something live at the Phillips event. And so, at some point, we had the pleasant problem of having almost more live acts available than could perform during the scheduled program. Fortunately, we hardly had to turn anyone down.

However, it was a bit complicated to distribute the live acts over the two days in such a way that there was a relatively equal amount of live music in the program and that there were no repetitions of the songs played within a single day. In the end, the program was set, but it still required a lot of technical and organizational effort, because one of the projects was a complete band (set up especially for the event) that wanted to play part of Slow Dance. But the experience we had gained in previous years and our good contact with the largest local event technology provider ensured that everything went smoothly during the live performances at the event.

Incidentally, we would have liked to hold the event at Pentecost 2014. However, this was not possible because it had long been planned that the Welkers community center would be completely renovated and rebuilt. In fact, it turned out that the start of the work was already planned for March/April 2014. And so our event became the very last event in the "old" community center, because the excavators rolled in there in April. After fourteen fan club meetings/events at this location, we were feeling a little wistful because it meant the end of an era.

The new community center was to be significantly larger, more modern, and more attractive. But by then we knew every corner and made the best possible use of everything available for our purposes. From the champagne bar, which became our backstage area, to a picture rail (on which the local carnival club had hung picture frames with photos of the prince's guards from the last 20 years), which we used for our own frames with posters of Genesis + Co., we had tailored all our club day equipment to this location. But we were able to make use of it one last, fifteenth time.

Not only did the time until March become short for the live acts of the event to rehearse extensively and possibly learn new pieces, but we also had just under six months to do all the preparatory work for the event. A logo/poster had to be created, an interesting program booklet had to be produced, and, of course, the exhibition had to be planned. And all of this had to look just as good and be just as extensive as before at the Hackett or Lamb event.

Many preparations were underway simultaneously, but the first thing on the agenda was the motif for the event poster. Helmut had previously created collages of Anthony Phillips' cover artwork, which were used for official releases (Lyric Book/Living Room Concert and Anthology). And since he is a big fan of Peter Cross and his work (not only for Anthony), it was obvious that the event poster would also be a similar collage. Since the whole thing was to be printed as a color DIN A1-sized poster instead of a CD cover, the various motifs had to be scanned in high resolution from LP covers and edited.

The main motif was the cover of The Gese & The Ghost, framed by parts of the cover of Private Parts & Pieces II – Back To The Pavilion. But in fact, larger or smaller elements from many other Phillips albums up to 2014 were used, even (somewhat hidden) those that did not have a Peter Cross cover. Striking elements came from Wise After The Event, Sides, and Private Parts & Pieces VIII – New England. Less obvious and more subtle were others, such as the tower from Private Parts & Pieces VI – Ivory Moon, the quails from Private Parts & Pieces V – Twelve, or the soldier from Private Parts & Pieces I. Helmut tried to approach Peter Cross's approach a little and to incorporate a certain subtlety into this collage and pay attention to details.

Later, Peter Cross confirmed that he had succeeded in doing so. When the poster motif was largely complete, all that was missing was a kind of headline with the title of the event. Helmut therefore asked Peter Cross if he would draw something for the poster—a coat of arms or a banner with "The Anthony Phillips Event" on it. And indeed, thanks to the good relationship between the two, Peter Cross delivered the perfect addition to the motif. The poster was now complete, ready to be used for promotion on the website and go to print.

The program booklet for the event was to include a short biography of Phillips and a clear discography—as we had done for Steve Hackett at our 2009 event. And so Helmut worked on another 8-page A5-sized program in gatefold format. The front showed the event motif, the back contained the schedule and credits, and when you opened it for the first time, the discography appeared with cover images of all albums and singles and other releases in list form. When fully opened, the biography written especially for this occasion by Andreas Lauer became visible.

We printed it in German and English, as visitors from abroad had also announced their attendance. Between the two texts was a picture gallery with 26 small portraits of Anthony, showing him from his childhood to 2014. Getting pictures from all eras was not that easy. In the end, Anthony helped Helmut out with one or two photos. Only after all the details of the event had been finalized (exact schedule, participating musicians, crew members) could the program go to print at the beginning of March and arrive from the printer in time. Each visitor received a free copy upon admission.

Speaking of admission… Helmut also designed the tickets for the event with motifs by Peter Cross – with slight differences between the first and second days of the event. A small gimmick was the motif of the zipper being pulled up by a "fly" (on the back of the Wise After The Event album). Helmut placed this between the main part and the control stub on the tickets and added a perforation by hand to each individual ticket so that half of the zipper could be torn off upon admission. Each tear-off was placed in an empty Kinder Surprise egg shell, put into a lottery drum, and later in the day the raffle winners were drawn (as was the case at previous events). Also at the entrance, each visitor was given a printed admission wristband with different designs related to Anthony Phillips/Peter Cross on each of the two days.

Another gimmick of the event and gift to visitors was a button that we handed out at the end of each day. And this is how it came about: For his work on the artwork for the Lyric Book, Helmut had been loaned a unique button made by Peter Cross in 1995, along with lots of other private material belonging to Anthony. It was a simple yellow tin lid with a safety pin attached and an original painting of a pipe-smoking squirrel glued to it, which Anthony had received from Peter on the occasion of the Wise After The Event album. So what could be more obvious than to take advantage of this opportunity and give visitors a replica of this button after the event… where they would then be "wise after the event" after all. We had 250 of them made.

Meanwhile, Helmut and Peter were busy compiling everything imaginable from the it editorial team's own collections for a major exhibition dedicated to Anthony. We tried to obtain important publications that we didn't have ourselves. As a result, it became difficult for other collectors to bid for anything rare related to Anthony on eBay during those months if we were interested in it for our exhibition. Exhibits that were procured especially for the event included a large promotional shop display for Wise After The Event and various alternative pressings of LPs and CDs.

We filled almost the entire wall of the hall opposite the stage with LP-sized displays, in which we showed the various LP pressings with their front and back covers and their contents (because of the respective label on them). Original posters and enlargements of some beautiful advertisements for Phillips album releases complemented the exhibition. As with the two previous events, we had again compiled press material and articles from magazines and newspapers in a folder that visitors could leaf through between program items. It was intended to be the most comprehensive exhibition of Anthony Phillips' complete work from his time with Genesis to 2014… and we undoubtedly lived up to that goal.

We were determined to make the event a visual sensation as well. And somehow, the walls filled with posters and album covers weren't enough for us. It wasn't until early March that we came up with the idea of sprucing up the stage area a bit. So we found out how much a large fabric banner would cost that we could hang at the back of the stage. We knew from previous years that there were hooks in the ceiling that we could use for this purpose. Once we had established that it wasn't cheap but was within our budget, we agreed on the desired format and Helmut put together a special motif for the banner using elements from the event poster.

The order was placed, and just over a week before the event, the 5-meter-wide and 2.50-meter-high banner arrived at Helmut's place, packed in a huge roll. To avoid any nasty surprises on the day of setup, the banner was unpacked and hung up in the apartment for a trial run… no easy feat given its unwieldy dimensions and the relatively stiff decorative fabric material. To ensure that the banner would not crease on stage, we built a pole construction for the top and bottom. And in the end, this unique decoration hung in all its beauty as a stage backdrop for all program items.

Hardly any of our club days and events ever took place without us allowing ourselves the fun of creating special passes for the crew, special guests, and other areas. As a parody of big tours, there was always an Access All Areas pass, but also passes for VIPs for live acts, catering, or the collectors' market, for example. And there were also accompanying pass regulations, which we posted in the hall, informing everyone who had access to which areas at what times with which passes.

All of this was done with a wink, of course, because such passes were almost never necessary… but they were a gimmick and a nice souvenir for everyone involved, at least those with a special function at an event. After all, at many club meetings, all visitors received a (slightly smaller) laminated admission pass as a souvenir. But not this time. Instead, there were tickets, admission wristbands, the Wise After The Event button, lots of live music, a top exhibition, and, to top it all off, Anthony Phillips, a very communicative and accessible Genesis band member.

On the morning of the dismantling day, it felt somehow strange to take down all the beautiful decorations, clear away the exhibition, and transform the community center back into a staid village hall. Added to this was the realization that the premises would never be the same again. And so we left the good old community center and didn't even have to hang the pictures of the prince's guards back in their usual place, because shortly afterwards the whole building was cleared out and turned into a large construction site. What remains is the memory of a short, very intense preparation period and an incredibly successful event.

Oh yes, and we probably still have a few remaining copies of the poster, program, and button from this event somewhere. In exchange for a small donation to the club and reimbursement of postage costs, we would be willing to part with some of them with a heavy heart.

Author: Helmut Janisch (2025)
Photos: Helmut Janisch, Anneke Brüning