Posts by Backdrifter

  • Genesis in the media

    Quote from Thelawnmower

    There was a superb interview with Paul Heaton in the Guardian recently where he said he’d pegged the prices for his arena tour at £35. It can be done, but there are not many like him around. I’ve just had a look on Ticketmaster and the few that are left seem to be £35 - £45 which I assume includes some add ons he can’t control.

    Not a fan but good for him. I remember the first time I thought "ouch" when paying for an arena gig ticket: U2 in 2001 on the Elevation tour, £45 at London Earls Court (= £82 now). Just over 20 years later, £45 seems a very 'reasonable' top-price arena ticket. Even at £82 it would be notable for not being three figures.


    Radiohead persisted in keeping their prices low for such a high-profile band, but that ended and it went up but when they last toured about 6 years ago it still didn't reach the levels we saw with eg Genesis, PG etc.


    Not a music example: highly regarded stand-up performer/storyteller Daniel Kitson never charges more than £15 regardless of venue but then he generally seems to perform at independent places not under the giant grabbing iron hand of ticketmaster.

  • Genesis in the media

    Genesis in 47 year old media. I bought some old copies of Sounds, my and my brother's preferred weekly music rag, at a record fair. 11 June 77 edition has this full-page ad for the Earls Court gigs a mere 7 weeks beforehand. Top price £4 equates to £23 now. Imagine a large arena gig in 2024 where the most expensive tickets are £23.


    This is the ad my brother would have seen, he went to one of those gigs.

  • Genesis in the media

    Quote from Ben

    I think he does it on purpose - or at least he often answers off in interviews because he doesn't like it. He knows a lot more than he's willing to admit... typical Banks!

    Maybe but in this case no-one knows anything more about the point in question as it's clearly something that emerged solely from inside the head of Steve Hackett.

  • Genesis in the media

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    He goes on for 10 minutes talking about the influence of the Beatles of the Beach Boys, about their simple yet sophisticated songs etc. but he hasn't more to say to the initial question than just this: "This is the first time I ever hear of this."

    To be fair, given he hasn't heard that comment there's nothing else he can say.


    What interview is this?

  • TotW 12/02/2024 - 12/09/2023: MIKE + THE MECHANICS - Word Of Mouth

    Quote from foxfeeder

    But not a hint of that in the lyrics!

    But the lyric does address the fact that some survivors do revisit their abusers, and that some abusers are not only unrepentant but go further and paint the survivor as being in the wrong. This is the situation portrayed in the song. It wouldn't be unreasonable to consider this as akin to survivors feeling guilt, even if it's not explicitly precisely set out in that way, which you seem to expect. You appear to be expecting a lot from a song lyric. And it sounds like you don't accept these things as facts, that they do happen, and you consider that the lyric is therefore wrongheaded.

  • Afterglow - your preferred version?

    Quote from Dr. John

    I tried listening to examples of that section from the 1986-87 tour and couldn't quite hear what you are hearing. Can you link me to a video where you hear that octave shift?

    In this video (the Hanover stage cams one) the 'raindrops' part starts at 06.32. TB's lead line fades, leaving his organ part, which then drops down at 06.39 - it's possibly not an octave. I've heard other recordings where the drop is much more prominent, for example it really struck me on the BBC radio Wembley broadcast in July 87. As I said I'm not ruling out that he did it on other tours but I don't remember picking up on it.


    Quote

    I did think of another example where he changes a keyboard line. For the TIOA and the Last Domino tours, he drops the main melody for Cinema Show by an octave. I have no idea why he decided to do that. Personally I don't like it, although I know others do.

    Yes in fact you and I had an exchange on this, I was in the 'like it' camp but couldn't - still can't - fully explain why, I just do. I think I found it previously too high and whiny on the original and Seconds.

  • Afterglow - your preferred version?

    Quote from Thelawnmower

    Yes I was at Old Trafford in 07 and couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong. I thought it was Phil getting older. He just didn’t seem to be feeling it. I thought he probably already hurt his back and was struggling with that. He does pull some faces behind the drums at those gigs. Whatever it was he was the consummate professional but a little bit of magic wasn’t there.

    On a tangent from live Afterglow specifically, when you watch the Rome concert his demeanour behind the drums is different from previous tours. On those he generally looked relaxed, as though it was all effortless. In the Rome show he doesn't look comfortable. He doesn't seem too bad in the Two Stools segment.

  • Afterglow - your preferred version?

    Quote from Dr. John

    I think this is interesting as I can't think of another example where he changed his keyboard part for just one tour.

    That's what struck me about it.


    There might be another one just before it, midway through the 'raindrops' part of Cage I think he drops his keyboard line down by maybe an octave. It made me look out for it in the other Cages and he either doesn't do it or he does but I'm missing it. But it seemed quite pronounced in the IT tour one.

  • TotW 12/02/2024 - 12/09/2023: MIKE + THE MECHANICS - Word Of Mouth

    Very few songs are Cole Porter, other than those by Cole Porter. As for No Son, there are as many personal reactions to abuse as there are survivors of it. Some indeed never go anywhere near their abuser again, completely removing them from their life. Others do choose to revisit their abuser for a range of personal reasons, it does happen. The song relates the thoughts of one such person. And the perpetrators also react in different ways. Some act remorsefully, others remain unrepentant and do in fact lash out at the victim.

  • Afterglow - your preferred version?

    I see the original and the various live ones as distinct things with their own merits. It's not so much whether the original or any of the live ones are best, for me it's a case of: there's the original, I love it, it's a fixture on my Genesis compilation. Meanwhile there's all the live ones among which I do have some preferences.


    I lean towards those who've said the original mellotron chorus is best, with its richer deeper voices which were never adequately matched post-mellotron. On that basis I'd go for the 78 version. Of the later ones I quite like the IT tour 87 one, I had a recording of the London show BBC broadcast and was struck by some separate ascending voices Banks seemed to add above the main chorus during the run-out, which I thought was a nice touch I hadn't noticed in any other live versions. It kind of mirrored some of the voices on the original doing a similar thing.


    For the same kind of reason already stated the Last Domino version has some emotional heft. What added to it was that it followed the 'end of the line' vibe of Fading Lights, with the Cinema Show reminder of their peak 70s glory days sandwiched inbetween. I also agree that the 07 version, in common with some of the rest of that show, lacked something. Going to the TLD gigs put in perspective that there was a comparative restraint of some kind about the 07 performances, like their hearts weren't fully in it. It comes across in the When In Rome film.


    1980 has impact as it was my first experiences of seeing them on stage, plus the start of the simple but hugely effective magenta backlighting moment. The addition of the slow varilite sweep from 81 worked well. Neither 07 nor TLD could match the visuals, 07 in particular.