Posts by absinthe_boy

Quote from foxfeeder

He has said this, yes. Hope it doesn't come back to bite him. Ironic if he caught it from an audience member and had serious consequences.

It's not segregation. Those who choose not to vaccinate have made their choice, Those who have, have too.

Unfortunately Eric is a bit of a conspiracy theorist and even wrote/sang an anti-lockdown covid conspiracy theory song last year. He's had some.....less than savoury....views in his lifetime.

It is certainly not segregation. When the Beatles refused to play segregated venues in the USA that was, of course, the disgusting practice of racial segregation, and The Beatles were so big that they helped put an end to it. Segregation and discrimination on the basis of a characteristic someone is born with, is totally different form people who have made a personal choice not to care about public health. Venues can indeed choose in the USA. I dread the results.

Quote from Squigelyfox

Covid Deaths are rising in the UK, so certainly not all good here.

Barely. I think the hopeful sign is that deaths are just 10% of what they were the last time we had case numbers as they've been for the last few weeks. The majority of cases are also in those aged 15-24 and unvaccinated. The majority of people going to hospital are unvaccinated. Sure, every hospitalisation and death is lamentable but things are a lot better than 12 months ago. We've had almost 4 weeks of pretty much everything being open and have not had the apocalyptic case and illness numbers that might have happened if vaccination wasn't working.

Additionally, I would assume that in order to enter one of the UK concerts ticket holders will need to prove they've been fully vaccinated, have natural immunity from recovering from covid recently, or have taken a recent negative covid test - or are medically exempt from vaccination and have taken a recent negative test.

There's still some way to go and things could turn downhill....but the signs are about as promising as they could be. And trust me, I'm no fan of our PM...but I do follow the data closely and have a scientific background.

I have a different take on what Nic said....bearing in mind I think I've listened to three interviews given in 2021 where he says the same thing....he's very careful to state that he'll only mention song titles if a piece has made the final set - so as not to risk disappointing hopeful fans.

And he goes on at length about rehearsing Apocalypse, how tricky it is....he even corrects himself in one interview by talking about playing "Supper's Ready" and then correcting it to "about half of Supper's Ready - Apocalypse in 9/8 to the end".

I honestly will be very surprised if it's not in the final set given what Nic has said, on multiple occasions.

Nic can't be much more than a year younger than Phil was when he first played Supper's Ready.....

Bizarre thought. If it comes out on cassette I might just buy it.....because I still use a Walkman and a compilation is good for train journeys and flights - when the latter are feasible again.

I am struggling to find a reason to buy the box set as things stand....but I did buy Pink Floyd's Echoes.....having said that, I didn't own a couple of Floyd albums at the time.

Haven't Mike and Tony all but confirmed they're doing the first two verses of Fading Lights....because it feels appropriate now....

the guy who started the "Many Too many" rumour has since stated it was a joke, and there's no chance of it being performed.

Nic has, from memory, specifically mentioned Mama, HBTS, Apolcalypse, Invisible Touch, Land of Confusion. It's been heavily hinted by Tony and Phil that the latter's objection to the lyrics of Abacab has been overcome.

So we have a partial set. Mike stated back in March 2020 that he strongly wanted a set no longer than two hours but I begin to wonder if they're going to eek it out...or have a main set of two hours, break then have 15-20 minutes of encores.

I am not convinced Los Endos has made it this time. Nic omitted to mention it by name, and as we've already established he's specifically naming songs that are in the set and not naming ones they rehearsed and didn't make it. he did, however, state that the two most difficult songs they rehearsed (drum wise) didn't make the cut. And I am prepared to wager those are Los Endos and Watcher of The Skies. If they seriously rehearsed the latter (rather than a couple of attempts and giving it up) and don't perform it at some point then that's a crying shame....but it is what it is. Genesis don't mess with the set much and throw in few real surprises.

As for the American tour not being part of the original plan. that's simply not correct. they always planned a world tour but didn't announce all the plans. The original idea was to tour much the way Phil did from 2017-2019....do a few weeks in one country/continent....take a month or two off....tour another part of the world....take a month or two off....tour another continent and so on. It was made clear that was the plan but they had originally wanted to keep from making any announcements about concerts outside of UK/IRL until they'd played the first leg....decided how they felt. Covid kind of forced their hand, they'd clearly always intended to play the USA towards the end of 2021 and I am betting they intend to tour continental Europe in the first quarter of 2022....late winter or very early spring.

What I do wonder is if they might shake up the set a little. Nic mentioned rehearsing up to 40 songs of which "about 25" made the final list. Knowing this might be their final tour, even if they stretch it out over two or three years, they could decide to swap out a couple of songs after each tour leg and rehearse a couple of replacements for the next leg. But that's not typical Genesis style.

Quote from MoonlitKnight

I much prefer the music from Genesis’ golden prog years. Having said that I can stomach almost all their pop songs live, with the exception of I Can’t Dance and In Too Deep. I come very close to hating the studio version of Invisible Touch but it’s decent live. To me songs like No Son of Mine, Land of Confusion, and even Hold on My Heart are a cut above average pop songs from that era.

Invisible Touch, the studio album, has a production style which has not aged well. At all. Live, that song in particular sounds much better, has some punch and rhythm. The song always had a good melody and "hook" in any case so I never object to it being in the set.

I have a soft spot for I Can't Dance. it is, after all, a humerous song. With a surprisingly raunchy guitar lick from Mike that Nick Davis captured perfectly in the studio. the whole "walk" thing is never to be taken seriously. Fountain of Salmacis it is not....but perhaps not so far removed from Harold The Barrel.

Like you I prefer the 70s work but can get on with most of the hits. Some of the 80s material is great too, imagine opening with Abacab followed by Dodo/Lurker....possibly the finest opening 15 minutes Genesis ever offered.

Quote from Healy52003

Erasure have changed there Dublin show to next year as part of a European leg but the most interesting part is that there UK dates are going ahead as scheduled in 2021

Can see Genesis doing something like that. Really hope the decision is made pretty soon. The tour is only a month away

Yes this seems likely.

Remember a lot of acts which have further delayed UK shows to 2022 had a small handful of UK dates as part of major European tours. The European legs of tours cannot yet go ahead. In such a scenario, it wouldn't make sense to do five UK dates followed by six months waiting for a rescheduled "rest of Europe" tour.

Genesis are in a different boat. They've got a substantial UK tour which looks like it can go ahead, followed by a US tour which also looks promising in most states. No European dates yet announced but I would assume they're looking at early 2022 and just not announcing them yet.

Also remember venues of this size are booked by many artists across genres, often over a year in advance. Tours cannot be rescheduled at the touch of a button. A rock band, touring symphony orchestra or theatrical show will typically take in scores of dates across multiple cities in many countries. All such acts are vying for similar and sometimes the same venues. There is a lot of metaphorical Tetris going on.

Quote from Mild Mannered Superman

I doubt "Apocalypse" is gonna make the final set...I think the most likely "SR" appearance will be "Lover's Leap" in the acoustic section.

Nic has pretty much confirmed Apocalypse has made the final set. In that he's stated in multiple interviews given since the rehearsals that he'll only mention titles that made the set, so as not to confuse or disappoint....then goes on to wax lyrical about playing Apocalypse in 9/8 with the guys

He might have just let his enthusiasm get away with him but I've seen at least three separate interviews he has given in 2021 where he does this. It will be a surprise to me if they don't play Apocalypse on the upcoming tour.

Regarding the backing singers, we don't yet know how they'll be used. It is possible they may assist Phil on some songs, or it might be the case that Mike & Tony don't want to sing backing vocals any more. Also, listening to albums like Duke, Trick and W&W a lot recently I've noticed there is a lot of vocal harmony on some tracks which became live favourites which has never been performed live in that way. We might get some songs slightly rejigged to include vocal harmony as per the original studio versions. Sometimes it's Phil harmonising with himself via multi track recording, other times it's Mike or Tony. And we know the latter two don't actually enjoy singing vocals and Tony in particular doesn't like the sound of his vocals. Even a song like Land Of Confusion has a fair amount of stuff that the backing singers could do while Phil sings the usual vocal lines. Tony does not seem to have a mic in the teaser videos, though Mike does.

At this point I assume nothing substantial from Trespass will be performed, but should I be wrong the backing vocalists could imitate the "Anthony Phillips male voice choir" which was a staple in the very early days.

Quote from Liquid Len

What would make me excited and probably many of us would be a new album. New material. I’m kind of hoping a successful tour will prompt some creative juices and, wishful thinking on my part, a new album. Not gonna happen though.

Would be lovely....but everything they do and say suggests they're not interested.

Personally I think they theoretically could if they went back to the pre-Abacab ways....Phil has been working on some songs for a few years. Mike probably has some ideas that he hasn't used with The Mechanics. Tony? He's not mentioned working on any new music as far as I know, has even talked about going into semi-retirement after his classical albums. But they don't want to bring existing material into a Genesis project like they used to 30+ years ago. And the failure of CAS still weighs heavily on both Mike and Tony.

But...if Phil and Mike did bring in their existing song ideas, and the three did some jamming....I am sure they could come up with 45 minutes of decent music. They just don't appear to want to. At all.

Mr. Hackett can still put out music that sounds somewhat like 70s Genesis....but the chances of them asking for his assistance in putting together one final album are in the realms of the infinite improbability drive....

So I'm holding out for a 3 or 4LP live box set and Blu Ray.

Quote from WinstonWolf

Other than being back together and ready to tour, I suppose. That certainly surprised me!

Phil hinted at it as far back as 2016 when he talked about coming out of retirement....doing music again "maybe even with Genesis". The three of them were spotted together a lot in 2018. Wasn't a big surprise really.

I'm personally not really surprised if Apocalypse makes it....they've played (at least) part of Supper's Ready on most tours since 1972. I hope I am wrong but I don't foresee any big surprises. Ripples was the biggest surprise of the TIOA tour, and it was quite a biggie...and really well done too.

Perhaps our definitions of "big surprise" are different.....I'd say a big surprise would be a substantial part of anything from Trespass....more than the opening section of Moonlit Knight....more than the closing section of Musical Box...the whole Cinema Show....something from the 70s they haven't played in it's entirety since 1982 or earlier...or never played live. Slotting a couple of minutes of Fly On A Windshield into a Lamb medley would be a big surprise...and very welcome.

I still reckon they're doing Apocalypse. Nic has said, in at least three interviews I've seen, that he'll only mention song titles that made the final set....and he talks a lot about how Apocalypse is really difficult for drumming etc. He mentions rehearsing "a song from 1971" but doesn't name it, so I am doubtful about Musical box....but I see two different track listings for the upcoming box set. I wonder if there will be a set for the UK shows and a slightly different one for the US shows? Then combine both for the live DVD/BD/album? I'd buy a 4LP box set of Genesis Last Domino Live.

I really don't think the creature with red eyes is the Squonk. I don't see the resemblance. It looks evil, with one red eye...the Squonk is not evil. I did ask some non-fans what they thought of it, and the universal verdict was that it was canine. One even said "It's a wolf with one bad eye". But I now think it unlikely that White Mountain will make it. The red eyes could be from HBTS. Genesis rarely give us big surprises these days.

Not sure I am the target audience....not entirely sure who the target is unless it's completists.

There doesn't appear to be much, if anything, new here. I wouldn't buy CDs or a download. If I were to buy anything it would be the vinyl and I think I'll save my 60 quid for the 4LP live album that I hope to see next year.

However it is intriguing how many of these might make the set. The two different track listings do make me wonder if they've settled on two sets, one for UK and one for the USA? Then combine both for the live releases? Possibly wishful thinking.

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.