Armando Gallo – Remembering … The Lamb – review

Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid…¹
 

Preliminary remark

Hardly any other name is as closely associated with the visual side of Genesis as Armando Gallo. The reviewer will never forget the moment when, at the end of 1978, he held the German version of his pictorial biography of the band in his hands._² Expert background reports were accompanied by wonderful photos of this unique band. For someone who did not have the opportunity to experience the early days of the band first-hand, it was a real treasure trove. There were then several new editions with additional material on the history of Genesis, all of which were of course purchased.

Background

How did Armando’s contact with Genesis come about, which led him to become their ‘court reporter’? I quote from an interview that the German Genesis Fan Club it conducted with him during the 2006 convention in Welkers:^₃

“I was in London as a foreign correspondent for an Italian magazine. In October 1970, I got a call from the editor-in-chief of Ciao 2001 magazine.^₄ He made me the offer I had been waiting for: ‘Can you write me a weekly column and two articles per week? Can you guarantee that?’ I was thrilled because I could finally give up my previous job as an architect and become a full-time journalist. He then said to me: ‘I don’t want to hear any more about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Write about new bands. You have carte blanche for that.’ I liked Van Der Graaf Generator at the time and saw them live with a few friends at the Lyceum on 19 January 1971, my birthday. That’s where I saw Genesis, because they were the opening act…

‘…The first encounter was a year later. They went on tour in Italy and I wanted to interview them, which was then supposed to be published a week before the tour. That’s when I took the pictures, in March 1972…’

“…I just thought the band was great. If you listen to The Musical Box alone – it’s a single piece that combines classical music, opera and everything else. Italians can identify with a piece like that. That was the element that connected Genesis with Italy. I suggested them to their first tour promoter in Italy. He was looking for new bands and I suggested them to him. He paid them £100 per gig. In England, they were only getting £40 or £50 per gig. But in Italy, they were able to do nine gigs in five days. There was mutual sympathy…‘

’…I was the guy who got on a plane to see them in California. They were grateful for that. Not many people do that, especially not for a band that hasn’t sold that many records yet. That’s how a friendship developed. But I was always the reporter, the journalist, the photographer. A professional friendship. We never went on holiday together…‘

As we know, this contact resulted in countless concert visits, countless photos and several books about the band. ^₅

Armando’s new work, which deals exclusively with the album and concerts of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, has now been published in this ’series”. Armando saw Genesis in 1975 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on 24 January and at the Civic Theatre in San Diego on 25 January. The photos were mainly taken in LA. In San Diego, Armando mainly took notes for his report for Ciao 2001 magazine.

Form, structure, content

The book comes as a softcover in a format slightly larger than A4. With this size, it joins Armando’s softcover editions of the various editions/issues of his Genesis book. There is no table of contents and no page numbers. Two papers are attached, whose A4 pages are stapled together. One describes the approximately 100 photos, which are reproduced in tiny format with page numbers, according to location and content. The other explains the songs on the album in terms of content and music.

This gives the book the character of an exhibition catalogue, in which the photos can speak for themselves without text. This distinguishes it from Robert Ellis’s Lamb book. ^₆

There are only 18 pages of text with photos at the beginning and three at the end of the book. They include a short introduction, an interview with Armando by Peter at the end of October 1974 after the album was completed, the report on the Lamb show, as well as acknowledgements with closing words and a short biography of the author.

Interview

The basis of this text is the current English translation of the interview written in Italian for Ciao 2001 magazine. The enthusiastic Italian fans were eager to learn more about Genesis. Armando had already reported for Ciao 2001 magazine when the Selling England By The Pound album was released. Tony Smith knew this and asked Armando to introduce the new The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album to Italian fans. He gave Armando an acetate pressing (!) so that he could listen to it and prepare himself for the interview with Peter Gabriel.

So in October 1974, he met Peter in private at his home in Bath. First, he talks about his trip to Bath, passing a certain hill…

For the reviewer, the interview is a minor sensation. We learn everything…and nothing about the new concept album. Peter answers questions about the story, content and music cryptically. He gives brief hints that raise more questions. Here is a small, amusing example:

Armando: ‘How did you come up with the Lamb story?’
Peter: ‘I walked down to the railway. And I pressed my ear to the tracks, and I listened… And I heard the whole story coming through.’

Peter continues in this vein, playing the mysterious, eccentric singer of a cult band. He knows full well that this goes down well with the Italians.

We also learn about Peter’s fatherhood, his life with his young family and his new home in the countryside. This insight into his private life is a sign of the trusting relationship between Armando and Peter. Of course, Armando briefly describes the songs in terms of their music and content. Armando senses how well the material would suit a film. Peter agrees and expresses his desire to make a Lamb film. The interview is accompanied by photos of Peter at his home in Bath. It is not until much later in Armando’s Peter Gabriel book that we experience this atmosphere again. ^₇

Report

Armando gives a very personal account of his encounters with the band, the concert venue, the PA, the light show, the audience, the music and the songs. He aptly titled his report ‘Welcome to the Wonderful World of Genesis’. We can admire a photo of a magazine page from the report.

He mainly took photos at the Shrine Auditorium, so he must have made mental notes for this report. He also used recordings of the concert in San Diego. We readers are treated to a personal, naturally subjective description of the author’s experiences, thoughts and emotions at a legendary concert on the Lamb tour. Armando’s report is light-hearted and humorous, drawing on his enormous background knowledge and his good rapport with the band. To reproduce it here would go beyond the scope of this review.

The fact is that the reportage is a treasure trove of gems from the Lamb tour. Interestingly, the concert at the Shrine Auditorium was officially released on record decades later. It is no coincidence that Armando contributed photos to the design of the box set book on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Lamb.

The photos

Armando couldn’t take photos with a flash. He always held the camera with his elbows pressed tightly against his body. This helped to steady the camera. A tripod would have been a hindrance, as the photographer wanted to be able to move around in line with the action on stage. Armando used 160 tungsten film, which he double-exposed. ^₈

This has the effect of making the images appear slightly faded. He worked with an exposure time of 1/8 or 1/15 of a second. Just imagine that! The stage show was so dark that they didn’t even consider filming this sensational show of music, light (darkness), slides and sparse stage design – rock theatre, in other words. Armando managed to stand completely still to avoid blurred shots. That is the reason for the wonderful shots of the Lamien, the Slipperman and the like. Even for Armando, the results of developing the photos were always like a surprise bag.

Here is a rough structure of the sequence of photos:

Before the show, hotel, backstage area
The Lamb Show in chronological order
Portraits of the band members during the show
The encores
After the shows, press photos
Retrospective: black and white photo of Peter from 1978 ‘Double Exposure’

It is very pleasant for the viewer that only five photos were printed across both pages of the book. This avoids the annoying crease/cut through the image that detracts from the viewing pleasure. The page numbers in the accompanying paper are not easy to match to the photos in the book, as there are none. This is easy to get over. No text gets in the way of the photos.

The result is a series of beautiful photos full of warmth, colour and depth. They mesmerise the viewer, drawing them into their spell. They underline how enormously important the visual side of music was to Genesis. Of course, the portrait shots in particular sometimes appear pixelated, slightly blurred and faded due to the long exposure. But this has a certain artistic appeal. It’s as if Kim Poor was at work with her diaphanism. ^₉

Hey, those were the analogue seventies!

The reviewer would like to highlight three photos at this point:

Page 38, Cockoo Cocoon: Peter/Rael desperate, vulnerable at the edge of the stage, bare-chested, looking imploringly at the photographer.
Page 63, The Lamia: Peter/Rael dressed in white in purple light shortly after the Lamias have released him, half-mad, holding his head with both hands.
Back cover of the book: A black-and-white photo of Peter, looking fragile, bare-chested, playing the oboe backstage. Is he saying, singing, playing a ‘goodbye’?

Conclusion

‘Welcome to the Wonderful World of Genesis!’ Let’s accept Armando’s invitation. We get the photographer’s wonderfully subjective view of the marvellous world of the most mysterious, bizarre, romantic and surreal of all albums and the accompanying show by this great band. Let the wonderful music and accompanying photos speak for themselves. The reviewer is certain that no one can escape the fascination of ‘The Lamb’. What joy, what poetry these photos radiate.

One could accuse Armando of jumping on the hype surrounding the album’s 50th anniversary and rummaging through his drawers again to make a bit of money. Even if that is the case, he has earned it. The reviewer is delighted that Armando has given us this gem. It is not a glossy product in a leather binding. We don’t need that. It’s the content that counts. We fans will treat the book with kid gloves anyway, reverently, just like we do when listening to the album.

The reviewer goes so far as to say that Armando’s work on Genesis has cultural and historical value. It reaches us fans anyway, but it also benefits future generations who have never heard of the lamb that settles on Broadway or Rael’s journey into the self. The verdict: a must-buy!

Remarks

1 Genesis, Songlyrics, The Carpet Crawlers
2 See u.a. hier.
3 See here.
4 See here and here.
5 See here.
6 See here.
7 See here.
8 As discussed in the interview with it, more info here
9. See here and here.

Remembering … The Lamb is available directly on Armando Gallo’s Website.

Author: Thomas Jesse
With love for my father, 28 February 1939–2 November 2025, who always tolerated and encouraged my taste in music.