Phil's surprising attitude during the 1980 Duke tour

  • I saw in Armando Gallo's book on Genesis concerts several photos of the Duke tour where Phil Collins shows his finger of honor to the audience looking very angry. It surprised me a lot since Phil is generally nice and fun with the audience.


    Do you know what song it was and in what context? was it during the finale "I know what i like" if the audience booed Phil's tambourine solo?

  • I've seen a couple of different photos of Phil on stage giving the middle finger — and the two I can think of were both taken during the Abacab tour.

    I question whether he's genuinely angry in either of them, but then I wasn't there.

    I do know Phil, between songs, would interact with some audiences, occasionally engaging in playful banter, and that's why I'm inclined to think he's just playing around.

  • It's interesting what you said about the 40 minutes Abacab set. But the pictures about what I was asking are from the Duke tour. I think it's during songs because Mike and co are playing, not waiting. The fact that Phil has the shirt open makes me think that it must be towards the end of the concert, after the In the Cage / Afterglow Medley. As Mike plays the double guitar and not a 6 strings strat makes me think of a song from before 1978.


    We can therefore deduce that these photos were taken either during the medley "Cage / Afterglow" (as I call myself), or Turn It On Again, or Dance on A Volcano or very probably I Know What I Like (a track where Phil always interacted a lot with the audience).


    here are the photos

  • Is it from The Lady Lies, I wonder? He always encouraged the audience to boo the villain duing that song. There's some great pics from the Duke tour in Armando's book, including one (again from 1980) where Phil has a wooden cut-out of a naked woman standing beside him.


    As for the Abacab tour, they were only booed once, in Leiden, and Phil took great offence, offering to take the disgruntled fans outside so he could knock seven shades out of them! Of course, in later years, he turned it around nicely where he went along with the boo-ing of new songs and cheering of old songs (the best example being on the Mama tour where he entered into a pantomime routine with the audience before the old medley).

  • You had a great idea with The Lady Lies. It could probably be on this song.




    At the lyceum we see that Phil lives this song 100% when he sings it, he makes lots of faces, facial expressions and he seems very upset with the villain of the song at certain times. But no finger of honor, maybe he spontaneously made this gesture in some concerts but not in all, it would depend on the investment of the public in the show. (at the Lyceum the public is not very reactive and very receptive and passive haha). I watched the performance of the song at the Lyceum (official DVD released 2011) the lighting coincides with the photos, as well as the fact that Mike surprisingly plays the bass on that « new » song while he normally plays lead guitar in titles after 1976 . Yes I’ve seen the funny picture of the Naked Woman in Gallo’s book, that’s real Collinsian humour haha ! It was to introduce the Lady Lies (unfortunately no Naked Woman poster at the Lyceum, I wonder if they haven't filmed the show where Phil was the wisest unfortunately haha J ).




    I agree with you when you say that from the Mama Tour Phil seems more assertive and relaxed on stage because he had then constituted a great repertoire of standards appreciated by the public (Mama, That’s All, Abacab, Home By The See). I would have really liked them to sing Silver Rainbow in 84, in my opinion the best song on the album. I hope a DVD reissue of the legendary cassette of the show of 83 with the hilarious sequence of Illegal alien where it is really the great Phil Collins showman that I like most.

  • Is it from The Lady Lies, I wonder? He always encouraged the audience to boo the villain duing that song. There's some great pics from the Duke tour in Armando's book, including one (again from 1980) where Phil has a wooden cut-out of a naked woman standing beside him.


    As for the Abacab tour, they were only booed once, in Leiden, and Phil took great offence, offering to take the disgruntled fans outside so he could knock seven shades out of them! Of course, in later years, he turned it around nicely where he went along with the boo-ing of new songs and cheering of old songs (the best example being on the Mama tour where he entered into a pantomime routine with the audience before the old medley).

    All this begs the question of when your avatar photo was taken. I have seen it before but I can't place the period and I don't want to make a fool of myself by guessing.

  • All this begs the question of when your avatar photo was taken. I have seen it before but I can't place the period and I don't want to make a fool of myself by guessing.

    This was taken from the Abacab tour, but I have no idea what the story behind it is, whether it's taken during a song (they'd stopped performing The Lady Lies by then) or from some incident with an audience member (doubtful). Maybe someone who saw them on that tour could shed some light...

  • Funnily eough, Phil didn't like The Lady Lies that much, certainly he found the lyrics a bit of a mouthful, but I do know when he listened back to the version on the Archive Box Set Vol 2, he thought the band were "really cooking" during the instrumental section at the end. Yes, Mike does play bass on that one and I think it's to the benefit of the song - certainly he couldn't have played that solo at the end with the same speed and fluency as Daryl but then Daryl doesn't play the bass parts with the same distinction as Mike.


    As for the Mama tour video, it did get a re-release on DVD as part of the big remix project that Nick Davis helmed some years ago. It's a great show!

  • Thank you for all your answers. Yes So for the Duke tour's photos it's the lady lies. Thank you very good for this information.





    All this begs the question of when your avatar photo was taken. I have seen it before but I can't place the period and I don't want to make a fool of myself by guessing


    For the photos from the abacab tour I think it's from I know what i like (Phil has the tambourine in his trousers so he uses it in that song) when the public booed his famous tambourine solo in the middle of the song with the "Hey, hey" from the public of the left, and the right etc. And Phil is shirtless when he flips the bird on the picture (he changes his clothing during the In The Cage/Afterglow Medley) so this picture could be from In The Cage 2nd part, Afterglow, Turn It On again or I Know What I like. I think I know what I Like because of the tambourine. Unfortunaltely Three sides live stops after Turn It On Again (quite sad !!) so we have no filmed performance of IKWIL from 1981 (If you know that a complete video of Abacab show exists tell me i would be so much happy !! :) )

  • Not directly related but I saw them in Rotterdam around '83, I think it was the Invisible Touch tour. Near the end they were playing a medley of non-Genesis songs, when Phil suddenly stopped the whole show. He said "there are some f.... idiots fighting here", indicating near the front of the crowd, and with that they just walked off and that was it. He doesn't suffer fools gladly!

  • Not directly related but I saw them in Rotterdam around '83, I think it was the Invisible Touch tour. Near the end they were playing a medley of non-Genesis songs, when Phil suddenly stopped the whole show. He said "there are some f.... idiots fighting here", indicating near the front of the crowd, and with that they just walked off and that was it. He doesn't suffer fools gladly!

    That would've been 1987.

    Abandon all reason

  • Yes, and that must have been the Turn It On Again medley with all the 60's oldies (and possibly some contemporary hits). There's an upload on youtube, audio only, that documents this. If I'm not mistaken, they had to interrupt this medley for the same reason as well as on the Mama tour as on the Invisible Touch tour, both times it appears the Dutch fans were responsible.