On March 15th 2010 Genesis was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It had been a long time coming and it brought the classic Genesis line-up together again for the one-off event. Peter Gabriel was the only one absent because of his touring obligations with the New Blood Orchestra.
Genesis was inducted by Phish singer and guitarist Trey Anastasio who claimed to be a huge Genesis fan. In his speech he referred to the albums ‘Trespass’ and ‘Selling England’ and how those helped to shape his musical taste. Phish did an outstanding interpretation of ‘Watcher Of The Skies’ and ‘No Reply At All’ of which the last was a bit of an unusual choice but therefore the better. Phish’s performance was very good, although Anastasio’s voice was not up for the task of singing Genesis classics. Nevertheless, you could feel the love for Genesis throughout the entire induction.
Genesis’s acceptance speech was brief. Mike Rutherford did a few quick words and apologized on Peter Gabriel’s behalf for not being there. Phil Collins came up with a list of names of whom to thank but in the end there were just too many. Tony Stratton-Smith was on that list, the godfather of Genesis. Before going off Steve Hackett took over the microphone and thanked Les Paul, the famous guitarist who had passed away a few months prior to that. It probably was his personal wish to do so.
A nice looking programme was designed for the 25th annual of the induction. Apart from Genesis other inductees were included like Abba, Jimmy Cliff, The Stooges and The Hollies. Six pages were devoted to Genesis and another six to progressive rock.
There’s nothing new to tell here. The ceremony can be watched on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website including Phish’s performance. Even the induction programme is on there. So why this blog post? Well, we now know what the band had for dinner that night thanks to a little menu card that was included with the book.