Which GENESIS tours did you see?

    Quote from Ordinary Bloke

    Queued all day in December '76 outside the Free Trade Hall, Manchester to get tickets for the W&W tour got to 20 feet from the door and told 'Sold Out''. Out of the country for Knebworth '78, saw them in Manchester 2 x Duke April 1980, Birmingham NEC Abacab Dec 1981, Milton Keynes Oct 1982, Roundhay Park '87, and Old Trafford '07.


    Just an aside, this year (my 60th and events subject to this bug going around) is a hell of a Genesis music year - saw TMB Genesis Extravaganza II in Feb, got tickets for The Watch in April, Steve Hackett in November, Genesis in December and TMB - The Lamb next February!

    Not sure people can remember how hard it used to be to get tickets for gigs - sitting on the phone continually dialling, no redial facility, no websites etc ^^^^^^

    Quote from Groucho

    Not sure people can remember how hard it used to be to get tickets for gigs - sitting on the phone continually dialling, no redial facility, no websites etc ^^^^^^

    I queued for tickets to the London Lyceum 7 May 1980 gig; they went on sale on the Sunday before (I think the gig was on the following Wednesday). My friends and I arrived on the Saturday evening and already the queue went down the next side-street and back up again.


    Otherwise it was a case of sending a cheque to the venue and hoping for the best.


    The last time I queued at the venue for a ticket was Radiohead at London Shepherds Bush Empire, May 2003 on the day of the gig as I'd heard they released about 50 tickets on the day. They did, and I got one. Strictly speaking the last time I queued for proper advance ticket sales was again Radiohead, for their London Royal Festival Hall gig as part of Scott Walker's Meltdown festival. Anyone who knows the RFH will know it has 2 levels of external access. Just before sales began, by which time a huge queue had grown, a frantic bloke appeared. He'd turned up good and early but had queued on the upper level. At first he was pleased to be the first one there. Then grew uneasy at the fact no-one else was arriving. Finally it occurred to him to have a look around, whereupon he discovered the hundreds of people lining up on the level below. He desperately tried to convince the people at the front that he'd been there for hours, just in the wrong place, but they weren't budging. I last saw him trying his luck further back. If his story was true, poor guy (though you'd think he would've checked sooner).

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    Just realised that having voted, I didn't post what mine were.


    Mar 1980 London Hammersmith Odeon

    May 1980 London Lyceum

    Sep 1982 Shepton Mallet Showering Pavilion

    Jul 1987 London Wembley Stadium

    Jul 2007 Manchester Old Trafford, London Twickenham Stadium


    and still to come:


    Nov 2020 London O2 Arena

    Dec 2020 Glasgow SSE Hydro

    Abandon all reason


    Quote from Groucho

    Not sure people can remember how hard it used to be to get tickets for gigs - sitting on the phone continually dialling, no redial facility, no websites etc ^^^^^^

    More fun though! :) Cheques, postal orders, stamped addressed envelopes......you only knew about tours if you followed the music press. No ticket brokers, no rip off fees/charges, no secondary marketing. :P

    I saw them twice in '82, in the Hammersmith Odeon and also at the 6 of the Best gig in Milton Keynes, on the same weekend. But my big story is (I'll try to keep it short): I got into the Hammersmith Odeon gig free! I had traveled over from Dublin with friends for the 6 of the Best gig, we tried get tickets for the Hammersmith gig but no luck.

    But on the evening of the Hammersmith gig I went along to the venue myself anyway, just in case... A guy just came up to me and invited me to go in with him! I was walking on air as we went in. He was Mike Gardner of the Record Mirror magazine, going to review the concert, and his girlfriend couldn't make it. He was asking me for info about the songs during the gig.

    I've googled around and it looks like Mike Gardner moved on to the BBC World Service. I can't find any way to contact him now - if anybody knows a way I'd love to get in touch and thank him again!

    And by the way, he gave them a great review!

    Fortunate to have seen them 9 times. Abacab was my first and all the tours since Inc. SOTB and WCD twice. Knebworth and Earls Court. ( For free A compensation ticket)


    The story behind that was:

    Went to Knebworth. They should've done two shows Sat and Sun but ended up doing one ,all tickets valid for the one show. The place was madly overcrowded. My wife at the time was a wheelchair user. Outside gigs have a platform with a good view about halfway to two thirds back. So we were there nice and early to get a good place on the platform , ( they often ran out of space) which was quite big and we went to the front (got a good spot. ) .We were there quite a while before Genesis started . I mean hours .There were several acts on first. Slowly the platform started to fill. No stewarding. People filled the front area then started to settle behind us . Then people settled behind them . Then it was five or six deep. But no marked areas .Only one ramp to get both on and off. Everyone was close together. More people needed to get on and everyone did their best to make room , squash on. Then we all realised .Loads of people using wheelchairs , all close crowded, jammed . One ramp to get on and off .No way off for us ( well my wife) and loads others . Imagine .There would have needed about 30 people to have moved, got off , down the ramp to make space for my wife . That would have been really hard and needed stewarding . Even then impossible because the whole place was rammed tight. Thousands crowded . No room anyway to get off . No clear route provided . No way to get to a toilet . I managed to get off to the toilets etc but had to climb over people and an almighty squeeze once off the ramp. Ok for me but my wife and others were stuck for about 5 / 6 hours maybe more. We wrote and complained after , and were given tickets to Earls Court later on in the year. I think these days we would've had much more. Anyway we still enjoyed the show.

    first show was Hammersmith 1982..and then each tour after that. Was thinking about the 2007 gig at Twickenham. Had treated myself for my 40th to some premier tickets and was in about 10 th row. Was sitting next to 2 couples who barely got involved...may have been on a corporate freebie!

    When ITC was played there was a women a few rows in front..probably aged around 50..she was on her feet belting every word out. Was great to watch and I spent most of the song watching her rather than the band!..not being sexist but don't see too many girls going mental over the old stuff..so was great to see 😊

    See the list below. Far and away my favorite show was the 1982 Encore Tour—Supper’s Ready, The Lamb/Watcher. Superb! I knew things had changed for the worse when I was in a car full of people driving to the IT show at RFK Stadium. I was playing a cassette recording from the King Biscuit Flower Hour of a show from the Mama Tour. When In the Cage started a girl in the backseat said “We want to listen to Genesis. Turn this stuff off!” Argh.


    Sorry no tic pics, but . . .

    Abacab Tour 1981, Capital Center, Wash, DC.


    Encore Tour 1982, Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia, Maryland.


    Mama Tour, 1983, Capital Center, Wash, DC.


    IT Tour (twice), 1987: Capital Center and RFK Stadium, Washington, DC.


    Turn it in Again Tour, 2007, Washington, DC.

    Quote from MoonlitKnight

    I knew things had changed for the worse when I was in a car full of people driving to the IT show at RFK Stadium. I was playing a cassette recording from the King Biscuit Flower Hour of a show from the Mama Tour. When In the Cage started a girl in the backseat said “We want to listen to Genesis. Turn this stuff off!” Argh.

    I think what happened at that point was that Genesis had become one of those bands who people went to see, not because they were fans, but because they were the big show in town. Pretty much the kind of thing that's been happening with The Stones for some time. It's not a bad thing, it's a reflection of just how big they were by the time of Invisible Touch.


    I'd never listen to the music of the band I'm going to see on the way to the gig, though - I recall a friend and I listened to Erasure on the way to the gig at Roundhay Park in 1992 - the same way that I don't listen to the music that I sing when I'm on my way to one of my own gigs. But that's just me!


    Looks like you saw the band when they were at their best, anyway :thumbup:

    Quote from Ordinary Bloke

    Queued all day in December '76 outside the Free Trade Hall, Manchester to get tickets for the W&W tour got to 20 feet from the door and told 'Sold Out''. Out of the country for Knebworth '78, saw them in Manchester 2 x Duke April 1980, Birmingham NEC Abacab Dec 1981, Milton Keynes Oct 1982, Roundhay Park '87, and Old Trafford '07.


    Pretty close to me actually. I didn't see the Duke tour unfortunately but...


    ...First one for me was NEC Dec 1981. I walked in as a casual Genesis fan, and walked out a full on convert and have been obsessed ever since. From that point I bought everything I could and I had every Genesis album by the time I...


    ...was at Milton Keynes 1982 - which was the most euphoric I've ever been at a gig (tied with Kate Bush in London). I still pinch myself sometimes and listen to the bootlegs with a big cheesy grin on my face.


    I saw MAMA tour at Birmingham - which I enjoyed, but it was in support of my least favourite Genesis album.


    Leeds Roundhay park 1987 - my last mega gig - I haven't been to a "stadium" gig since, other than


    Manchester 2007 - which doesn't count because I could sit down!


    And hopefully later this year too.

    Quote from YouMightRecall

    ...was at Milton Keynes 1982 - which was the most euphoric I've ever been at a gig. I still pinch myself sometimes and listen to the bootlegs with a big cheesy grin on my face.

    The Milton Keynes gig was one of the first bootlegs I ever got (this was when you got a bootleg in the post and then copied it for three other people). I've listened to it once. I guess you just had to be there!