Australian Guest Musicians

  • In the 80's Genesis and Phil on his own hit Australia on tour a few times and every time it seems they had guest musicians on a couple of songs. From what I remember hearing long ago it was due to union rules in Australia that foreign bands had to employ local musicians during concerts, but I don't know specifics, nor if those rules are still in effect. In fact I don't know if it is the actual reason, though it sounds plausible.


    Has anyone heard of this, or can anyone explain otherwise their use of guest musicians in Australia? It's unusual because no other place had the use of string sections on tour.

  • A few times? Genesis came here once, on the Invisible Touch tour, and Phil came once, on the No Jacket Required tour. I have been to a huge number of concerts in this country and I know nothing about Australian musicians having to be used.


    This is what the Musicians' Union requires:


    https://musiciansunion.com.au/…-temporary-activity-visa/


    This is about the visa requirements:


    https://www.meaa.org/imports/

  • Interesting, wonder if they just used them as a special guest for Australian shows?


    From what I have heard on bootlegs and official releases they used them on the NJR tour, IT tour , and the Serious tour as well. I never looked into anything beyond but I guess they didn't play there after in any capacity in any case.

    • Official Post

    This is from the old Collins question & answer forum thread.


    For your information: We will, at some point, put together the complete q&a stuff in an article. It's just an awful lot of text and info.


    AUSTRALIAN MUSICIAN UNION RULES....insist on the touring band employing at least the same number of local musicians as there are in the touring unit. So with my tour and Genesis tours we decided to use real string players instead of a support act. These guys and ladies became friends, as we usually used the same people whenever possible. Sue Chaplin, a violinist, we see whenever we play in NYC as she lives there now. On the Genesis compilation there is a live version of "Your Own Special Way" that I believe was from such a tour.

    cheers

    Christian


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  • Now that makes me wonder which songs I would have liked to hear augmented with real strings or brass. Watcher of the Skies comes to mind, the intro played with real strings. Or Behind The Lines with real brass.

  • This is from the old Collins question & answer forum thread.


    For your information: We will, at some point, put together the complete q&a stuff in an article. It's just an awful lot of text and info.


    AUSTRALIAN MUSICIAN UNION RULES....insist on the touring band employing at least the same number of local musicians as there are in the touring unit. So with my tour and Genesis tours we decided to use real string players instead of a support act. These guys and ladies became friends, as we usually used the same people whenever possible. Sue Chaplin, a violinist, we see whenever we play in NYC as she lives there now. On the Genesis compilation there is a live version of "Your Own Special Way" that I believe was from such a tour.

    Ah thank you! That clears that up for me 🙂


    I wonder if that rule is still in effect. Based on what Feel It Coming shared above it seems not. Interesting that they chose to go with musicians sharing the stage rather than an opening act. I suppose if the rules are still in effect that most bands might go that route, though it may cut into their playing time depending on curfews and such.

  • Now that makes me wonder which songs I would have liked to hear augmented with real strings or brass. Watcher of the Skies comes to mind, the intro played with real strings. Or Behind The Lines with real brass.

    Agreed! There are so many possibilities with Genesis music, especially the early stuff. My mind goes straight to something like Entangled with the end being supplemented with a string section, or Blood On the Rooftops, but Watcher would be incredible!

  • There have been occasions where I have seen an act use local musicians - the Rolling Stones used a local choir for You Can't Always Get What You Want, while Paul McCartney used a pipe band for Mull Of Kintyre. But I maintain that the vast majority of the shows I have seen, there has been no mention of any requirement for local musicians to be used, and that included support acts. I saw the Eagles multiple times and they only ever had one support, back in 1995.

  • That's a good question. I haven't seen pictures of these musicians on stage with them anywhere I've looked either, and I have much less of a chance not being from Australia myself.

  • vl1, really?


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    fast forward / start at 2 minutes 57secs.


    Hope that helps,


    TGA