Posts by Thelawnmower

    I gave this 9. It’s ok. I remember the first time I heard it and being impressed with the first minute or so and liking the darker sound and Ray’s voice. But there is something missing and that was the feeling I got from the whole album. It just lacks a bit of personality or soul, which Phil’s drumming and vocals gave them in abundance. Once I realised that if it wasn’t Genesis I’d probably never bother to play it again I never really returned to it much. (I have the same feeling about most of Mike’s stuff and some of Steve’s recent albums.)

    As always - one of the strongest tracks on the album to open with but lacking something for me. If I’d heard it from a new band on the radio I’d have thought of was a good solid first record but I wouldn’t have bothered to pursue it. Great title though.

    Glad you enjoyed it Mr Farmer, I was there too and it was a superb performance. I’ve seen them a few times and I’ve seen each of the tours - Foxtrot, Selling (Black and White versions), The Lamb and Extravaganzas 1and 2. This lineup ranks with their best, everyone is completely proficient but the drummer stood out to me as propelling the whole thing beautifully with that distinctively ‘Phil attitude’ and he also sang outstanding back up vocals. Seeing this material presented in the slightly magical setting, with the superb acoustics of the Birmingham Symphony Hall really brings home the quality of the music and the musicianship and performance of the original band, as well as The Musical Box. I could have done without the earnest but quite dull introductory video and been home a bit earlier but that didn’t detract from a brilliant night. I’m going again on Tuesday in Newcastle

    I confess to not following his work at all. I don’t like CAS but I thought it was perfectly reasonable for them to do it. It is a legitimate Genesis album and he’s a full time member at that point. I tend to think of that CAS lineup, Mike and the Mechanics and Ray’s solo work in the same way. Polished, professional and fine in their own terms- short, quality songs, well performed. But I think other bands do short songs better for my tastes, e.g a lot of new wave and 80s bands,

    Others like U2, Arctic Monkeys and countless pop and soul outfits, plus of course Peter and Phil. When it comes to varied, experimental and challenging music I find a lot of prog to be self important and showy- but Genesis, Ant, Steve, Peter and Tony (and Phil for his musicianship) have a soul and a sincerity which transcends Prog and keeps me coming back. I know their outputs can be uneven and I tolerate the dips in quality, for example with Steve, because overall I like his work and I want him to keep producing stuff.

    I’ve nothing at all against Ray, in fact I suspect he was hard done by through poor communication. I’d like to see him do well, but there’s not enough in what I’ve heard of him to interest me.

    Two great summaries from Backdrifter and its interesting to read what Steve says, although it is only re-capping what he has said before, that the upbringing of the Charterhouse lads left them reserved to say the least (thankfully they found ways to express themselves through music...). I imagine he was more reserved himself in his twenties and that probably exacerbated the separation between him and them, more than Phil, who seems more upbeat and outgoing. His leaving coincided and probably contributed to, a change in direction for the band, which became such a tight unit that it would be even harder to return, even temporarily. Then there are the logistics of what he would play on from the three man era live, if anything. So, once Peter dropped out of any reunion you would be catering for two audiences, one a small, devoted bunch like us who want the earlier classics and another, stadium size group. Whilst there are crossovers in that particular venn diagram, (again many of us here) it would be a strange set to put together, maybe with Steve in a part one, Darryl in part two and a coming together at the end. I can see why it was easier for the three to fall back on what they knew and enjoyed and certainly Tony Smith would know which way the spreadsheets worked.

    First impressions....

    I'm listening to it now and I'm enjoying it, which I was not at all confident about.

    I like the cover! Now I've seen the whole package and can hold it as a proper LP cover, I think it works much better than the last few photo covers. The full package is nicely put together with lyrics and photos following the themes of the album. The autobiographical narrative is reasonably obvious I think but works well. The music is a big improvement on the last few albums, to my ears anyway, because - at long last - we have some light and shade, not as much as I would like, but it is there.

    There is a sense of a following a tale and it is easy to see how the music suits the moods of the story; some passages do draw you in and Steve sings really well throughout. There are at least three passages so far which have given me time to reflect and break up the frantic nature of some of the instrumentals. Steve also has returned to making the guitar sound radically different in places, once again making you listen to see if it's a voice, a keyboard, or a guitar.

    Now, its no masterpiece and doesn't need to be at this stage. But on one listen I like it more than the albums from Wolflight onwards, it stands up well against what I think of as his middle period (90s and 2000s) and in places there are little passages which would fit into his early stuff.

    Yes, there is too much going on at times, but sometimes that works and here it is broken up with more variety than we've had recently and also suits the story.

    I think it will repay further listens much more than the last few and I'm looking forward to getting to know it better. He certainly could and should play some of this live.

    He doesn't need the money, must be one of the hardest workers on the live circuit and yet has managed to produce what sounds like a very genuine and sincere effort, with something of a return to form in places. Good on him!

    I’ve listened to this a few times and, like Backdrifter, thought it started really well and when the song returns to that little refrain it’s good. But then the kitchen sink had to brace itself again as it was chucked in the mix and it all became what my mum and dad would have referred to as - in this case reasonably so - a racket. Maybe it will fit the terms of the concept well, as did The Waiting Room on the Lamb, or the bubbly and then wild volcano section on DOAV, but, taken along with the other two tracks, it doesn’t bode too well. Is there no-one who could suggest he sits down and tries to write something straightforward and undercooked, or a Virgin and the Gypsy type of track? At this rate Decomposing Man is looking like a bit of a career high.

    Wow. I didn't see him until the 1980 tour. Any other memories of the PG2 tour? Isn't that when Fripp played, but offstage?

    They definitely would have. I loved the two shows I attended but was sorry to not get anything from this or 4.

    You are quite right and my memory deceived me. I thought I saw him before Christmas but is was Feb 1980. Mixing it up with Hackett, which was Oct 79. So, the same tour you saw, did he sit on the edge of the stage and dangle his legs to do Mother of Violence when you saw him? Very powerful. Peter shuffled onto the stage in his jeans and jumper to announce Random Hold with the words ‘hello I’m Peter and I work here…’

    Great days, Hackett was my first gig, then Gabriel and then Genesis in April 1980.

    Mother, wonderful day and white shadow for me. Wonderful Day is quirky and lively and makes me smile, the others have a melancholy charm and Mother of Violence really works well. I remember him in 1979 in Birmingham, sitting at the front of the stage singing this beautifully, despite crackly speakers. A good album, and a few of these tracks would have fitted well on his recent tour

    A school mate got me into Genesis in 1978/9, not long after he saw them at Knebworth. In 1979/80 we saw Genesis, Gabriel and Hackett on their tours and I was hooked for life. Bought Spectral Mornings which was his current album and loved it, picked up cassettes if Voyage and Please Don’t Touch. Then Defector and then Cured - a disappointment. I saw the next couple of tours and then lost touch with him a bit, (went to uni and listened to a lot of punk and new wave and then got stuck into work and brining up children so no money or time for much music…)apart from acoustic and classical albums until his live tours around 2009, when I picked up again with my teenage son and we’ve been to every tour since. Met him three times and he is a gentleman and always very encouraging to my son and his guitar playing. I’ve kept up with all new releases and filled in just about all the gaps now. Those early days of discovery of my own music tastes are still exciting to look back on and those early albums, plus everything Genesis and Gabriel did up to that point and most they did afterwards stilL form the core of my listening.

    Nothing wrong with your post or the replies, that’s what a forum is for. I’ve always liked Another Record but I don’t know why, maybe that little drum fill, but it’s no classic and some of the b sides would certainly give it a good run. But the slightly off-centre choice is partly what makes Abacab a great album, where they were wilfully doing what they wouldn’t usually do.

    I feel I’ve started something that’s going bad ways! I have lots of questions, why did Backdrifter have this information so readily to hand? How will I cope when I inevitably research Alan’s canon of work? Is there any risk that the spike in online interest will be noticed by his agent and cause him to go back into the studio? These are serious matters….

    I think the look on his face at the end reveals Tony felt much the same as Backdrifter. He almost is the anti-Titchmarch.

    For overseas friends- the presenter is Alan Titchmarch - a relentlessly chirpy tv gardener turned presenter of largely worthless light entertainment programmes and near the top of my list of people not to get stuck in a lift with.