Duke Tour 1980

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    Looking through this section of the forum I was surprised to see no dedicated Duke Tour thread, although the tour has come up in various discussions. I'm thinking of it as today is 44 years since I attended the famous 7 May London Lyceum gig.


    Obviously this was a major change from the tours in the preceding years where they were playing arenas and outdoor venues with increasingly elaborate stage shows. Deciding to focus on Britain since they hadn't toured their homeland since 1977, they recaptured their earlier touring years by playing over 40 dates in small venues they hadn't played for a while including their old haunt of Aylesbury Friars, the ticket queue for which circled the earth several times. For one gig they even returned to university hall venues (University of Exeter). After February rehearsals in Shepperton Studios they kicked off at the (now long gone) Festival Theatre in Paignton, Devon, possibly the smallest venue on the tour with capacity of around 800. All the other venues were 1000-2000 capacity. All this obviously meant a considerably trimmed-down stage show, but being Genesis even this was still quite creative and striking as we've seen from the Lyceum videos. All the same, as a 14yo eagerly awaiting what were to be my first Genesis gigs I was a bit miffed I wouldn't be seeing any lasers or mirrors. My very first one was London Hammersmith Odeon, 27 March. The previous gig had been postponed due to PC having throat problems, leading to his finger-wagging opening comment "You didn't think I'd be here tonight did you..."


    For the setlist all the new Duke material was run together in a mini-set, 6 songs into the show. The rest of the set drew heavily on post-PG albums with a smattering of PG-era numbers which changed slightly as NYC and The Knife came and went. After the lengthy British tour they then did around 30 shows in the US and Canada. There were no dates in any other territories that year.


    What are other members' memories, thoughts etc on this tour?

    Abandon all reason

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    ATTW3 was my introduction but didn’t get to see them perform until the Duke tour. It was a very magical and exciting time. I think I had all of their studio albums at that point and was just starting to explore some of the solo albums.


    Seems very naïve of me looking back, but when the lights came on at the start, I was immediately surprised to see five musicians performing. It was then I recalled a radio advert I had heard earlier that day talking about Genesis’ drummer making a pre-concert appearance at a musical instruments store in downtown Toronto, and me thinking they had Phil’s name completely wrong.

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    I wasn't born until 1991 (my first Genesis gig was the WCD tour at Earl's Court aged 1!) But the Duke Tour is one of my absolute faves.


    A powerful mix of old and new tracks, the entire Duke Suite, the In The Cage medley in its modern incarnation and The Knife encore.


    Also, Phil was on real top form as a frontman. Probably the most aggressive he has ever been on stage.


    I was introduced to the tour via a bootleg DVD and loved it.


    Probably the gig I'd go to if I had a time machine!

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    One of my first gigs and still the best I’ve been to. It nearly didn’t happen. Queued all night outside Birmingham Odeon aged 17 to get tickets (well my mate did the first few hours and I took over). Come morning we were funnelled through a sort of outdoor channel around the back and there was a dangerous crush and I was wedged against an old piece of adversing hoarding for ages, struggling at time to breathe. Eventually we were let through only to find the tickets were sold out. My disappointment was tempered by thinking I might not get out of the queue at all so I was happy to be free. Luckily a very decent lad at college I hardly knew heard what happened and sold me his two spare tickets at face value. An amazing act of kindness I’ve never forgotten. The gig is fixed in my mind’s eye in flashes. Phil’s hideous shirt. The green lights for the introduction to Duchess. The magic of Carpet Crawlers. The purple lights and smoke for Afterglow. The power of the music and lights acting together. Finally, the encore, The Knife. At that time I was just getting into all this music and The Knife had a mystical quality for me as ‘Live’ was the only Genesis album I had for a while (my brother’s cast off) until I could afford more and it had been my favourite track for months. When Phil announced it I was in the aisle and jumped in the air and unfortunately landed on the foot of a poor usher. It completed a fabulous evening. The setlist was very balanced although my mates and I hated ATTWT as a sell out at that time (I’ve warmed to it since) and were unsure about some tracks on Duke but there was plenty of good stuff for us and the Duke Suite worked superbly live. My overriding memory was feeling at that time what energy the band had and what value for money they gave. Even at that age I could see the quality of their musicianship and feel the energy coming off them playing as a team. You could sense the thought that had gone into the setlist, the introductions and the lights. I didn’t know that I’d never see them in such an intimate venue again and I’ve always counted myself very lucky to have been there. And if that young sixth former who took pity on me and sold me the tickets happens to be reading this. Thank you!

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    Thanks all for sharing wonderful memories. If I had a time machine this is certainly the tour I'd go see. Genesis in 1980 playing to 800 people... Amazing. It would have been nice if they'd thrown in occasional smaller shows among the giant stadia spectacles as they went on.

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    Quote from thewatcher

    Thanks all for sharing wonderful memories. If I had a time machine this is certainly the tour I'd go see. Genesis in 1980 playing to 800 people... Amazing. It would have been nice if they'd thrown in occasional smaller shows among the giant stadia spectacles as they went on.

    I think they did a few smaller venuea on the WCD tour? Mayflower, Southampton springs to mind which has a capacity of 2,000 or so. Only time they played Carpet Crawlers on the tour too!

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    Quote from Mozo

    My main thought is "I wish I had gone".


    But I only really discovered them in 1980 so I didn't go. ;(

    same here. I became a fan much later and although my preference is PG solo, I still have a lot of affection for the Genesis Phil years. The Duke tour has something magical (like many tours that were never professionally filmed).

    ...

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    I was thinking the other day, why did Genesis name this album Duke and not Albert?


    Tommy by the Who comes to mind but also, they didn't use the name Rael for Lamb lies down on Broadway.


    But there is no mention of "Duke" in any of the album's lyrics. It's just a thought.

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    Quote from raeltheduke

    I was thinking the other day, why did Genesis name this album Duke and not Albert?


    Tommy by the Who comes to mind but also, they didn't use the name Rael for Lamb lies down on Broadway.


    But there is no mention of "Duke" in any of the album's lyrics. It's just a thought.

    At the time my mates and I were horrified when the title was released before the music. We didn’t like ATTWT and this did not augur well. I seem to remember the band saying at the time they wanted a harder edged word for the title and I don’t suppose Albert would do that although I think I’d prefer it. Maybe it also gave them the opportunity to name the track Duchess.

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    Quote from Thelawnmower

    At the time my mates and I were horrified when the title was released before the music. We didn’t like ATTWT and this did not augur well. I seem to remember the band saying at the time they wanted a harder edged word for the title and I don’t suppose Albert would do that although I think I’d prefer it. Maybe it also gave them the opportunity to name the track Duchess.

    Horrified?! I have an amusing image of you and your friends seeing the announcement of the title and variously looking aghast, shocked, swooning, shaking your heads, raising a fist in the air in anger.


    It was the first of three consecutive one-word titles and one of only five in their canon. After a run of wordy titles I can understand their going for this, and avoiding 'Albert' which would have been a rather twee and winsome-sounding title.

    Abandon all reason