Mama Tour 1983-4

    Feel free to post anything here related to this tour. I didn't see them on this tour - the UK (and indeed the world except for US and Canada) portion of the tour consisted solely of 5 nights at Birmingham Arena, I was an impoverished student in London and couldn't afford the ticket and travel/accommodation. At the time I kind of resented that itinerary a bit, the whole of Europe and the rest of the world getting those 5 gigs in England to scrabble over, stuck on the end of a massive US/Canada marathon. We had been spoilt with quite extensive tours during 1980-82, and I guess they were really turning the heat up under their US ambitions at that stage.


    Does anyone know of any decent recordings of the 'old medley' segment of the show that comprised variously combinations of Eleventh Earl intro, Squonk, Ripples, The Lamb, Behind The Lines, Firth and Musical Box?

    Abandon all reason

    Edited once, last by Backdrifter ().

    Like 2

    I was lucky enough to see them at the gigs in Birmingham that subsequently became the Mama Tour film. Have to say those gigs remain some of the most memorable I ever saw the band perform.

    Quote from alanh

    I was lucky enough to see them at the gigs in Birmingham that subsequently became the Mama Tour film. Have to say those gigs remain some of the most memorable I ever saw the band perform.

    I reckon it was the last tour where they had a reasonably 'balanced' setlist with some relatively unexpected inclusions (at least until the 07 tour). I can imagine it would have been memorable. It must have felt very different - the stage and lighting configurations, Banks centre-stage, some old numbers re-appearing for the first time in a while (even as snippets), the TIOA medley. Instrumentally and vocally, they were hitting a real peak at that point.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    My only experience of this tour has been watching the tour video. It looks like it was a great tour. The ITQE section of the In the Cage medley is particularly crushing. The drum duet is also great.


    There are some poor quality videos of the various old medleys that were done, some as rehearsal footage and some from concerts. It is the only time I know of where they varied a medley so much over the tour.

    I'll have to check out my bootlegs from the Mama tour for a decent recording of the old medley. No pre-fm or soundboard bootlegs exist that include the old medley (itself a forerunner of the medley they played on the WCD tour) but I know I have some really decent sounding audience recordings. I'll just need some time to go through them.


    I do love the Mama tour. Phil's in-between-song banter was often hilarious. I especially liked the pantomime-esque introduction to the old medley where he talked of getting out the old records - big cheer - and then putting them away again - boo - and then getting them out again etc. The new songs sounded great and there was still plenty of room in the set for a decent smattering of old tunes. And lest we forget this was the tour where they started performing the Turn It On Again medley.

    Quote from Dr. John

    The ITQE section of the In the Cage medley is particularly crushing.

    Oh yes indeed. That segment was a nice surprise and sounded stunning. That and the IT Tour version killed the original for me, I can't listen to it now as I keep mentally willing it to be like those live ones. (The version I saw Hackett do last year wasn't up to much either).


    In the Mama Tour medley I assumed it would naturally go straight into Afterglow so was surprised they kept their Slippermen snippet in there.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 2
    Quote from Backdrifter

    Oh yes indeed. That segment was a nice surprise and sounded stunning. That and the IT Tour version killed the original for me, I can't listen to it now as I keep mentally willing it to be like those live ones. (The version I saw Hackett do last year wasn't up to much either).

    Daryl just flies on In That Quiet Earth. I have a bootleg from the IT tour recorded in Germany on which Daryl's performance of the piece is jaw-droppingly good.

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Anyone else got thoughts on this tour?

    It's the one I wish I had seen first.


    I remember the three dates in Philly being announced and desperately wanting to go. However, parental permission was not going to materialize (I was only 16 at the time). ;(


    I know there are boots of the shows, but they are either incomplete and/or not always great performances all the way through (i.e., some of the sonic gremlins, arising from the technology and/or (occasionally) the musicians come through on the recordings).


    Like many above, I would love to have a high-quality boot of a full show with the double oldies medley. One of the holy grails of live Genesis recordings, I would think.

    Stepping out the back way, hoping nobody sees...

    Like 1

    Seeing as the TOTW thread on Mar diverted off into its brief inclusion in Mama Tour medleys, I thought I'd revive this thread by referring to this post kindly put up in the Mar thread by Thelawnmower showing a very rare bit of footage of that medley from one of the 5 Birmingham UK shows in Feb 84 - the only shows on that tour in not just the UK but the whole of Europe. They followed about 70 US dates when they were focusing strongly on continuing to build and consolidate that market. (A fair few europeans were quite pissed off about that!).


    The footage is blurry and static but I welcome it as there seems a dearth of footage from that tour beyond what was on the official release.


    This was the end of the tour and by that point the medley had become Mar - Lamb - Firth - Musical Box. Earlier it had been Mar - Squonk- Firth and at times (early in the tour) Mar - Ripples - Squonk - Firth. The other main variation was that sometimes they did a couple of verses of Mar but mainly it was just the intro. Although I'm not keen on the song, I think it's irritating they'd only do the intro. It would be a bit like if they did the piano intro of Lamb, or the whole intro section of Volcano, only to then go into a different song.


    I find these Mama Tour medleys some of the least effective of their medleying. They feel most like the sort of showbizzy medleys old-style crooners would do, with literally a verse/chorus from each song punctuated by recognition applause. Although it would've been intriguing to see how Sinatra, Jack Jones or Shirley Bassey might've handled Squonk, Lamb and Musical Box.


    EDIT: I meant to credit Duke of Earl of Mar with finding an example of a longer snippet of Mar than just the intro 👍

    Abandon all reason

    Edited once, last by Backdrifter ().

    Like 4

    Similar to 82 when Misunderstanding came straight after Supper's Ready and brought everyone back down to earth, this Mama Tour collection of golden nuggets was immediately followed by Illegal Alien.

    Abandon all reason

    Moaning about a seltist for an event you didn't attend is an interesting pastime.


    It's no fun, being a woke Genesis fan apparently.


    Everyone there seemed to enjoy it, as evidenced by the big cheer at the end.


    The band have always been careful with the flow of their concerts, this is no exception

    Just a reminder that I was there for the one I mentioned. It will certainly thin out the forum if we can only discuss what we have actually seen and anyone under forty can leave any debate about the Mama tour immediately. You are right though, their setlists were very well planned and appreciated. Many of the medleys - especially the ones built around In the Cage, were very smooth and others, presumably by necessity, were more Stop/Start. Either way they went down well but I think it’s a rich source of enjoyable discussion to debate which worked better than others. They deliberately juxtaposed Suppers Ready with Misunderstanding, as I’m sure Backdrifter knows and it was a clever thing to do to highlight the very contrast that makes them the band they are. As for Illegal alien, well it’s a shame that was ever made in the way it was. I think it’s a great song musically, but the lyrics and vocal delivery were at best naive at the time. Such was the culture of the 80s it wasn’t something I thought too deeply about then, fortunately the debate around issues of immigration has matured and I’m sure Genesis would do it differently now.

    Quote from Thelawnmower

    They deliberately juxtaposed Suppers Ready with Misunderstanding, it was a clever thing to do to highlight the very contrast that makes them the band they are.

    Spot on, and blatantly obvious this was the reason for that programming, and as you say likewise IA following that old medley.


    I also agree re IA. Some reviewers called it out for its crassness at the time. Anyway, bands have mis-steps and as you said it's a nice piece of music and highlights their penchant for catchy hooks, especially Banks who I assume came up with that one.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 2

    Also agreed about their general skill with medleys, yes the Cage ones flowed very well. I'm glad that on the TLD tour they revived the Cinema Show/Afterglow linkage which I liked on the 78 tour. Does it count as a medley when it's 2 songs or do you need at least 3?! Though I suppose that had the snippet of Scree in, which started in 78 as well.

    Abandon all reason

    I think that counts as a medley. Yes the Cinema show into Afterglow was always going to hard to beat as a segue- two of their best and most powerful and emotional pieces that worked so well together. Always the moment that stands out in my mind whenever they did it. I also like the abrupt change in Fading Lights on TLD. Much as I'd have liked to have heard the whole track, as it's one of their best, I thought the idea of singing 'remember' and then suddenly having a blast from the past was clever. Overall I think the medleys were a good way of trying to satisfy everyone, doomed as it was to failure. I do think, especially on the WCD tour, they went too far down the last two albums route, but I can understand why and they were good gigs. There was another medley - which I can't remember just now but I'll think about today, where they stopped and Phil counted in the next bit. I think it was planned that way but it did sound very odd. I'll now torment myself trying to remember it. I was there, so it narrows things down.

    Quote from vl1

    Moaning about a seltist for an event you didn't attend is an interesting pastime.


    It's no fun, being a woke Genesis fan apparently.

    You will find that the general Genesis fan population here will defend the band at times and criticize in others. The fact remains that most of us here love the band and have our likes and dislikes. If we all liked the same thing, that would make for a boring forum. Labeling someone because they may not like something you like isn't the right way to go about making friends or influencing people. Like someone else recently said, if the rules of the forum only allowed us to comment on the things we have experienced live from the band, we wouldn't have as much to say which would limit our conversations of the band. That too would make for a boring forum...

    Quote from HomeByTheSea

    You will find that the general Genesis fan population here will defend the band at times and criticize in others. The fact remains that most of us here love the band and have our likes and dislikes. If we all liked the same thing, that would make for a boring forum. Labeling someone because they may not like something you like isn't the right way to go about making friends or influencing people. Like someone else recently said, if the rules of the forum only allowed us to comment on the things we have experienced live from the band, we wouldn't have as much to say which would limit our conversations of the band. That too would make for a boring forum...

    Ah, don't mind him. He's got a termite in his underpants about "wokeness" and is on a mission to crowbar it in at any opportunity. Including in response to innocuous comments about old-new setlist sequencing which he chooses to characterise as "moaning" 😂

    Abandon all reason

    Like 2