Posts by absinthe_boy

Quote from NoSonOfVine

Stupid question but is it still going ahead? Even with everything still going on?

Britain is pretty much open at this point in time. Of course anything can happen in the next few weeks but it is highly likely the UK leg of the tour will go ahead. People have started to receive physical tickets in the post. The USA looks promising too.

What may well happen is that concert-goers could be required to prove they're fully covid vaccinated or have a recent negative covid test.

Regarding For Absent Friends, in the Prog magazine interview early last year they laughed off the idea that it might be played. White Mountain is an outsider but it's just about possible. They've poo-pooed the idea of dusting off The Knife (Prog interview again)

Quote from Liquid Len

I heard that they tried Suppers Ready during rehearsals too, but Nic was having some trouble with it. I don’t think Phil could pull it off at this point anyway. They dropped it after the Invisible Touch tour right?

Without wanting to spoil too much, Nic has pretty much confirmed that Apocalypse has made it to the final set.

They dropped the medley with Apocalypse half way through the IT tour. Phil wanted to do Supper's Ready in it's entirety on the WCD tour but the other two didn't. They did do "Lover's Leap" as part of an acoustic medley for the CAS tour with Ray.

There are several songs where Phil has questioned the lyrics. He does seem a bit self conscious about singing lyrics that don't make sense to him or which he feels sound "silly".

I understand that he disliked singing Firth Of Fifth because he thought "undinal" was a made up word. Abacab doesn't make a whole lot of sense and contains some rather odd lines which is said to be why it didn't make the cut in 2007.

I don't want to get all spoilery but Nic has specifically stated that several of the songs mentioned above as "Phil-centric" are in the set. Though he has also specified that the two most difficult songs that they rehearsed, from the drummer's perspective, haven't made the cut. I am assuming Watcher and Los Endos.

With Mike saying he is adamant the set must be kept to two hours, removing 20-30 minutes of familiar material such as Cage and FoF (if that is the case) might not leave much of a hole for surprises.

I've already been to my first post-lockdown gig. OK it was a small venue at 40% capacity but it's a start.

People get worried every time another band/artist cancels a concert this autumn but we need to remember that these other cancelled/rescheduled gigs all seem to be part of large European tours. It's highly likely that all the anticipated Autumn continental European dates had to be rescheduled thus rendering a few UK dates unviable too.

Genesis look to be doing IRL (hopefully) and the UK then hopping to the USA which is itself already seeing concerts. I would anticipate an announcement about Spring 2022 European dates at some point. Remember always that the venues Genesis want to play will be heavily in demand by many other artists and the scheduling is no easy thing. Phil had to book the RAH two years in advance for his comeback in 2017.

They can't simply choose to keep dates but put shows on in different countries. Venues this size are booked months, possibly even years in advance. Venues will have bookings from multiple artists wanting to get back to live performance.

This is why sometimes whole tours are postponed or cancelled.....Westlife might have been able to go ahead with their big UK shows this autumn but were planning a European tour. All the European dates had to be rescheduled so they had to dispense with the UK dates too.

Genesis, you may notice, have only announced UK, Ireland and USA dates. If they do need to reschedule Ireland, the UK and US may well go ahead. Vaccination rates are good in both countries, live gigs are already taking place on smaller scales in both (though I do know the USA never really understood the level of restrictions we have had to endure).

The reason no European dates have been announced is because they know they can't do that yet. With just a bit of luck the UK dates will go ahead....but it will depend on what Boris says later this month and if any restrictions remain.

Quote from melodyof1974

Cinema Show starting at the second half will be the opening song. Prove me wrong Genesis, I dare you.

I doubt there will be halves. Two hours straight, possibly with the band leaving the stage and returning for an encore.

And they won't ever play the entire Cinema Show again. Mike has "forgotten" the unusual guitar tuning of the opening lines and has declined to re-learn them since 1983.

They've pretty much confirmed that Fading Lights (first two verses) are in and Nic absolutely has confirmed Home By The Sea.

Fading Lights would be an appropriate main set closer or encore.

For the opening number Squonk would be fantastic but I do wonder if they will choose something quieter to allow Phil to warm up. Maybe open with an acoustic set like the very early Genesis days?

Genesis actually could do a "Wild West suite". Musically I think Ballad of Big has some merit, I could stomach a minute of that in a medley.

Driving The Last Spike isn't about the Wild West, or even America, however.

Quote from Mozo

Don't worry. I have it on good authority that Virgil is part of a 60 minute suite for the second half of the show.

There's rumours of a Netflix drama adaptation too, but don't spread that around.

I heard that Mike had agreed to a 75 minute medley/mash up combining VIrgil with Whodunnit, Going Out To Get You and a new Genesis song intriguingly called "Rael's Rap"

Honestly I love the idea of them strutting onto the stage, well Phil doing his best to strut....and launching into Watcher....but it's not going to happen. As the poster above says, Nic seems to have stated that Watcher was rehearsed and didn't make the cut.

Therefore I'm wondering about songs which we know are in the set (from Nic) or are likely to make it and which would be good openers.

Behind The Lines was excellent for TIOA in 07. They could launch with this and segue into Duchess (or "new Duchess")

Abacab - it's a stonking track as heard on 3SL and would be a ballsy openener

Land Of Confusion - Appropriate for these strange times we find ourselves in

Or something less ballsy, to give Phil's pipes a chance to warm up and the musicians a chance to limber up their fingers?

Tonight, Tonight, Tonight is certainly in this category.

Carpet Crawlers? Not obvious, and therefore an intriguing choice

I do wonder about the statements various members have made. Mike's "two hour limit" was imposed a year ago, and I do wonder if they might have stretched it to two hours plus an encore or two. Much of the info from MIke, Tony and Phil dates from over a year go when they did the Prog magazine interview and the BBC Radio slot. As far as I can tell the only one of them talking at length since they actually rehearsed is NIc.

Have we heard Nic mention IKWIL? I know it's a staple of Genesis concerts since the mid 70s but with Phil unable to do the tambourine dance (as far as we know), would the consider replacing it with something else? Maybe we'll get two old medleys....though I tend to dislike the medleys that might be the direction they take.

I suspect Tony is right about the majority of the audience expecting the hits....but they could drop a couple of them. I'm doubting we'll get four or five songs from Invisible Touch this time. And I do suspect we'll get shortened versions of some songs (Fading Lights).

Another point made above is that Phil probably won't want to spend long periods of time sitting doing nothing. We don't exactly know how mobile he is these days but even if he is able to drum for a few minutes (he's said he can), he won't be sprinting between the drum kit and the mic. That could mean shorter instrumental sections, or could mean he leaves the stage (as Peter used to) for certain passages. Or maybe he'll be bathed in darkness....still unanswered questions.

Quote from thewatcher

Hopefully whatever it was shows up on some DVD of the rehearsals, I thought I read on here they filmed them in case the tour never happened because of the pandemic.

They filmed the final "show" in it's completed form on the last two days of rehearsals when they were ready for the stage.

The earlier rehearsals, according to Nic, included up to 40 songs of which about 25 have made the set. I would imagine that several of the 15 songs that didn't make it were dropped quickly and not thoroughly rehearsed. While there may be footage of the rehearsals, we'd likely only see fragments in an extra on a disc.

Quote from thewatcher

I think the most likely surprises are Squonk, Many Too Many, or maybe Watcher of the Skies. I expect one or more of those.

Other than those, I suspect most of the guesses above are going to be close to the mark.

Going from three recent Nic interviews, he's hinted that they rehearsed something really difficult (from the drummer's perspective) which they haven't played in many years...and decided not to add it to the final set.

I'm therefore drawing a conclusion that they tried Watcher and decided not to select it. Shame.

I didn't get into Genesis in the 90s, but my first experience of them was TIOA and Misunderstanding being in the charts in 1980. I was 7 years old but already into Queen and The Police, already familiar with some Yes and ELP as well as some jazz and classical. I noted "Genesis" as being a band to listen out for while I started collecting Queen and The Police. It would be around the time the Mama album came out that I actually started seriously listening, bought that and Invisible Touch when it came out by which time I was 13. Then I delved further back. A friend lent me Seconds Out, another lent me Selling England....and I was really hooked by the more complex music, fantastical lyrics, the instruments they used in the 70s, and the guitar work of someone called Steve Hackett. I started picking up all their albums, not in any particular order.....buying the cheapest used vinyl I could and very soon after buying the original UK vinyl pressings - I was lucky enough to live near a *fantastic* second hand record store which is still trading to this day. That lead me to investigate more prog bands including Yes. I really fell in love with the run from Trespass to Seconds Out. Never have been able to get on with ATTW3, I do really love Duke. To my ears, the style of composition and the instruments used in the 70s are sublime.

Suffice it to say that by 1990 I had UK first pressings of every studio album bar Nursery Cryme and FGTR, and similarly all of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins' albums up to that point, most of Steve's, Smallcreep, The Fugitive and had started looking for Ant's work. I was aware of Peter Gabriel when Games Without Frontiers was riding high in the charts at the same time as the Duke singles but didn't know that that time he used to be in Genesis. I did have a dubbed cassette of PG3 in the early 80s, and of course for the whole decade nobody could be unaware of Mr. Collins.

Quote from Healy52003

https://www.genesis-news.com/n…ica-in-November-n724.html

interesting quote from this ' While Mike seems to be not so sure about the UK shows ("I can't see it at the moment")'

TBH listening to the segment of the podcast the quote is taken out of context a bit and Mike is positive and 100% wants the tour to go ahead as planned

ATM here in Ireland were waiting on a new covid roadmap but in the past large mass gatherings have not been discussed. Wait and see situation

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I haven't heard the podcast but thanks for confirming my suspicion that the hysterical headline was taken out of context. Elsewhere Mike is talking about the Autumn shows not only taking place, but leading to shows in other countries later.

Quote from Mozo

If that's ALL they played I'd probably be quite happy!

Me too! A limited view of their substantial canon, but if they performed those songs for a TV or radio special that could be great. Nice mix of old, new, familiar and one surprise.

There's another relatively recent interview with Nic. Not much new info but I will spoiler this just in case.

Quote from vl1

The one person that needs to be on a riser, Phil, isn't on one. Very difficult to see him at some venues when people are stood up on the floor. Jon Anderson uses one standing up.

Another recent (itchy bearded) Nic interview on YT discussing the gigs and preparation.

Perhaps he will be on a riser at some venues? I guess we all have to wait and see how they modify the show going forward.

I think we can safely say they fully intend to tour in the Autumn....and that Land Of Confusion and Mama will be in the set.

When I bought WCD, all I had to go on was the track listing on the back until I got it home. It briefly crossed my mind that Jesus He Knows Me might be a religious song, but I already knew a fair bit about the guys and thought that was unlikely....so I settled on the likelihood of it being less than serious.

It's Genesis slightly off-colour humour at it's best. Harold The Barrell for the 90s. One of the better amusing songs in their canon and certainly one of the better videos.

Probably not on the set for the upcoming tour but to me it's one of the best light hearted songs they ever did.