Genesis 1998 . Live in Poland. Brilliant.

  • Just watched the live in Poland DVD 1998 loud in surround sound , absolutely bloody brilliant. I know a lot of Genesis fans don't like it but I don't get that. The world's best songs done by MR + TB . RW is a great singer , great guitar from Anthony Drennan and Nir Zidkyaha drums brilliantly. What's there not to like? I don't think I enjoyed it more or less than any other. Haven't seen it for ages Something fresh, at the time , and feels like it now. ( Being fresh is something I see a lot a fans crave for) . Unexpexted highlight was The Dividing Line. Great drum solo done like a great great guitar solo , as in there was a backing. Also loved the acoustic section. All great . Seems odd talking about a 22 year concert as though it was brand new , I remember seeing and loving the tour at the time , but haven't seen it for ages .

    • Official Post

    It is actually a shame that the band is consequently ignoring this period these days. There would be plenty of material to release from the archives ...

    cheers

    Christian


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  • I love the recordings from this period. I enjoyed what they were doing and was really bummed when they decided not to continue. That feeling of being bummed turned to being royally pissed off when I read that Ray and Tony were up for continuing but Mike didn't want to because if the shows weren't going to be as big as they had previously been then 'what's the point?' or something to that effect. What an attitude!


    Would love to have more from the studio and tour. I had the Poland DVD but I think I've lost it. Along with my bloody DVD player.

  • I love the recordings from this period. I enjoyed what they were doing and was really bummed when they decided not to continue. That feeling of being bummed turned to being royally pissed off when I read that Ray and Tony were up for continuing but Mike didn't want to because if the shows weren't going to be as big as they had previously been then 'what's the point?' or something to that effect. What an attitude!


    Would love to have more from the studio and tour. I had the Poland DVD but I think I've lost it. Along with my bloody DVD player.

    Yes I had a similar feeling. It's their business I know but couldn't help being disappointed. Didn't know TB wanted to carry on. Genesis became something different without Phil but I liked it. From what I have seen I have the impression that that if CAS had been a big success they would have carried on. As it was , big places in the US didn't sell and Genesis would not have sold out stadiums elsewhere. Personally I think it's great seeing artists that used to fill big places now playing in small venues because it's what they do and you can see they love playing. Genesis would never have played to very small places anyway. It seemed it was all about sales , rather than seeing what music they could make. I recognize that MR does what he he wants anyway with M+M but they are not for me. Was quite sad that the two / three didn't continue.

  • Yes I had a similar feeling. It's their business I know but couldn't help being disappointed. Didn't know TB wanted to carry on. Genesis became something different without Phil but I liked it. From what I have seen I have the impression that that if CAS had been a big success they would have carried on. As it was , big places in the US didn't sell and Genesis would not have sold out stadiums elsewhere. Personally I think it's great seeing artists that used to fill big places now playing in small venues because it's what they do and you can see they love playing. Genesis would never have played to very small places anyway. It seemed it was all about sales , rather than seeing what music they could make. I recognize that MR does what he he wants anyway with M+M but they are not for me. Was quite sad that the two / three didn't continue.

    Hundred per cent agree. If it was about playing and making music instead of selling records and big tours they could have easily chosen to do so but it's just not them. I believe I came across the bigger about TB willing to continue in an interview with Ray where he described calling them both and Tony indicating that he was on board but Mike wasn't. I like the music they made around then so likewise feel something was lost in that decision. Certainly I think they were a much stronger creative unit than M+M.

  • I said in one of the various CAS threads that it sounded like a bridge to an album that never happened. While it's not a great album it does have some good stuff and shows promise for a post-Collins direction - I liked the leaner, darker feel in some of the material. Though Banks needed to curb his predilection for some horrible keyboard sounds - his awful solo in Congo brings to mind a musical-farting duck. And the brutal fade-outs didn't help. But I've always thought with the new members settling in and RW perhaps flexing his songwriting muscles a bit more, they could have had a shot at taking Genesis into the 2000s.


    Banks said he urged Tony Smith to go for theatres on the US tour then maybe go bigger if it went well. Wasn't there a story that ticket sales were in double figures in at least one venue? If so maybe it indicated the US just wasn't interested in Genesis by then - would those sales have increased in theatres?


    Smith says on the Songbook doc that as long as Banks was still there you could still call it Genesis. I wonder what a Rutherfordless line-up would've sounded like had Banks thought, aah sod him I'm carrying on.

    Abandon all reason

  • Some nice comments about the band at that time.

    Mrs farmer and I will be watching Ray live streaming on Saturday as we have been for the last few weeks. Thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes RW.

  • Some nice comments about the band at that time.

    Mrs farmer and I will be watching Ray live streaming on Saturday as we have been for the last few weeks. Thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes RW.

    Yes I have watched his streams. I have loved his music for years, long before he was with Genesis

    “Without music, life would be a mistake”

  • Yes I have watched his streams. I have loved his music for years, long before he was with Genesis

    Me too. Bowled over by Inside on the jeans advert. Like many others dashed out and bought it, got to No.1 I believe. Got the album too though the album version of Inside not as good , but still a very good album . Have most of the RW stuff. Saw him once live (other than with Genesis) but he seems only to tour the continent now.

  • Some nice comments about the band at that time.

    Mrs farmer and I will be watching Ray live streaming on Saturday as we have been for the last few weeks. Thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes RW.

    Re post . The above should simply read. Thoroughly recommend to everyone. !!!

  • I have been loving RW this weekend too.

    CAS Poland live is a tremendous concert but you need a top quality source.

    I love..

    There must be some other Way!

    What a song!

    One of my favorites off CAS, along with the title track. Also loved Dividing Line, Uncertain Weather and Run Out Of Time. Those songs made me believe that version of Genesis had great potential and had me very excited at the time for the future, one that ultimately did not come to pass.

  • I am probably like most genesis fans when i say. Yes Ray did a good job with Mike and Tony but to hear ray singing Phil Collins songs or Peter Gabriel songs just didn't work for me.


    Phil doing songs Peter originally sang was ok with me because Phil does the backing to the originals and Phil was in the band. Ray Wilson was an outsider coming in trying to make it all work and he does a great job on CAS love the album. But to hear his voice doing big Genesis hits that phil sang just didn't go to well with me or even the older stuff with Peter.

    To put CAS under the Genesis umbrella is fine with me but it needs to be in a branch like Mike and the Mechanics. The only thing Genesis about it is its Mike and Tony together. What would be interesting is seeing Phil or Peter do work on those songs lol.


    But i do give a the album good reviews. I remember back in the AOL days of waiting for my computer to boot up and get an internet connection just to go to the dark Genesis website and looking forward to seeing the new clips of the songs after they announced Ray Wilson. Listening to those short 40 second clips of calling all stations and Congo. Hoping like crazy this was going to work for them. The day the CD came out i got home from school shot up to the music store in a mall Got the cd came home and cranked it before even hearing it lol. I still enjoy it to this day. I even called a local radio station and asked them if they was going to play it and i was told they got a promo and the guy their would make me a copy of it if i gave him a tape. I put together a brand new tape and a nice hand written letter my dad took me over their i doped it off and never got got it in the mail. I was out a cassette and postage. 😞

  • If it was about playing and making music instead of selling records and big tours they could have easily chosen to do so but it's just not them.

    Think about it. Genesis were not exactly an overnight success; it took them many years of hard graft to reach the point at which they could play sell-out tours across the world in stadiums. In 1991, just before We Can't Dance was released, they were listed third most popular 'live' band behind a Led Zeppelin and Beatles reunion. Which means that at that time they were the biggest band on the planet.


    The next album they release, they can't even get arrested. They have to cancel an entire American tour, the country they'd been playing since 1972 and then play out the European tour with a man who thinks that all he needs to do as a frontman is walk from one end of the stage to the other and frequently sweep his lank, greasy locks out of his eyes - he still does that to this day: get a haircut, man!


    How do you think it would feel to be Mike or Tony in 1997? You have no idea. And neither do I.


    So, to just dismiss their actions as being those of greedy sell-outs who were only interested in playing massive stadiums and coining in loads of cash is, to be frank, ill-advised and pretty insulting.

  • It is actually a shame that the band is consequently ignoring this period these days. There would be plenty of material to release from the archives ...

    Well, we've heard all the studio cuts from that album so I'm not sure what else you feel we're missing out on. A live album? I can't see many people clamouring to buy that, to be honest.


    And you don't seriously expect them to play songs from Calling All Stations when they go on tour, do you? Mike and Tony hardly view it as their finest hour and Phil had left the band when they recorded the album.

  • What?


    I'm aware of Genesis' history. Mike's own words around the time of CAS/tour were (something along the lines of this because I don't have the quote in front of me to copy and paste): "if no one is listening then what's the point?" This was a band that had just had a number 2 album in the UK and an arena tour in Europe. So their definition of "no one" is a million times bigger than most bands. You yourself point out that they built up slowly over time. This to me means they had roots in a smaller scale operation and could easily have continued in that vein if they wanted to. I stand by my statement you quoted, which didn't say anything about greed or being sellouts or coining in loads of cash. They just didn't want to continue if they couldn't be big; the third biggest band in the world - take that how you want, it's the truth, otherwise they would have continued. They could have continued to make albums and tour arenas or theatres.


    Look, they aren't the first band to make it very big and then not react well when reality comes crashing in. I was following them avidly at this time though and felt that with the album and b sides they had plenty of creativity and talent to run with. I was very excited to see where they would go. They weren't exactly over the hill either! It was all the more bitter for me subsequently to find that Ray and Tony both had the appetite to go on but MR didn't.

    his lank, greasy locks out of his eyes - he still does that to this day: get a haircut, man!

    Yeah, this isn't insulting or dismissive at all. Stay classy dude.

    Think about it.

    I'll get right on that.