GENESIS: TURN IT ON AGAIN TOUR
Production Rehearsal, Brussels, 4th of June 2007
by ahand83
After years of speculation and nothing new in the Genesis camp, news finally came through in November 2006 that Genesis was to tour again with Phil Collins. Being born in 1983, I never had the chance to see Genesis perform live. I remember them playing in Rotterdam in ’98 with Ray Wilson, but I didn’t attend that show because I was only fifteen and I didn’t have any money. So, when the SACD boxsets were released in 2005 and 2006 and the new Genesis website went online, something was clearly in the air. I became a member of the official Genesis fanclub and I visited the new forum almost daily under the nickname ‘thefox’. This is how I came to enter the competition to attend the 2007 production rehearsal in Brussels. As you might have guessed by now, I was one out of three very lucky people to attend the rehearsal together with a friend of mine. I remember the excitement I felt ringing him up after having received the news via email. This was it, I was going to see my favourite band perform live for the very first time in a very unique setting. Make my day, why don’t you!
I’m not sure, but I guess a few weeks went by before the day finally came. My friend and I drove off early in the morning to Brussels in his old red Toyota Starlet. We arrived long before the start of the gig so we took the opportunity to visit the Atomium which is opposite to the Trade Fair Hall #5 where the Genesis rehearsal show would take place. The Trade Fair is one of Europe’s largest indoor halls. As it was huge, this was the only hall in Europe where the stage could be set up. The stage had a massive led screen in the back and towers with lights going up and down. The production of the stage was summarized in a special book format called ‘Turn it on Again: Anatomy of a Tour’ which you can find here on this website.
After a visit to the Atomium and a nice diner nearby it was time to get to the Expo complex and meet up with our contacts from the Genesis fan club. A very friendly woman was waiting for us and managed to get us in after she took our photo. Me and my friend are in the middle. Entering the hall was very exciting, especially with the stage set up right in front of us. We set down in row 4 or 5 and we had a great view on the enormous spectacle. It was a surreal situation to be faced with. For many years I watched videotapes of the band performing live thinking I was never going to experience Genesis in person, but now I was closer to my heroes than ever, literally a few steps away from the stage! I saw a few familiar faces with those present: Tony Smith, Genesis’s personal manager and Steve ‘Pud’ Jones, their touring manager.
That said, it was time for the guys to hit the stage, their first performance for an audience in 15 years! The lights went out and music sounded through the speakers, music I instantly identified as the soundtrack theme of American Beauty, the ‘99 blockbuster with Kevin Spacey. Images of the band from their long lasting career were projected on the screen and a map of the world appeared. It zoomed in on Helsinki as the tour was going to kick off in Finland a few weeks later.
The band came on stage and started off with the intro to Behind the Lines, later simply called Duke’s Intro. I had no idea what to expect from the setlist and I was intrigued with the start. This year (2022) they did the same on their The Last Domino? Tour, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed. I believe they should have opened the show with a different piece this time. Anyway, Duke’s Intro was followed by Turn it on Again and I could feel the (small) crowd warming up. It’s the kind of track that makes you want to clap and sing along. After that, they played No Son of Mine and Land of Confusion, just as I expected.
In The Cage has been a regular one in Genesis’s set for many years, but still I was surprised when Phil opened the next song with “I got sunshine…” On the screen the figure of a man in a cage appeared, in red and white, moving around and running towards the audience. I thought the visuals were stunning. Cage passed into Cinema Show, Duke’s Travels and finally Afterglow. Phil set down on a bar stool for Hold On My Heart, probably the weakest moment in the set. I like the song, but I don’t think it’s a good track for live performance. I’d rather have heard them play Your Own Special Way or In Too Deep, songs that haven’t been played live much in the past.
Home By The Sea was a good counterpart therefore and it sounded very strong. I liked Phil playing a lot of drums, he even sat down behind the kit for Follow You Follow Me. The animation on the screen during the song featured figures from various album covers and it did the trick. Follow was followed by Firth and I Know What I Like. I could see the band were enjoying themselves on stage and there were a few smiles during IKWIL. Phil did his usual dance with the tambourine. Again I was impressed, because he’d turned 56 that year. Still, he did it with flair and he got the audience shouting out ‘hey, hey’ during the finale of the song.
The first part of the set was great and I really enjoyed myself. The second part started with Mama and Phil nailed it down without a doubt. I didn’t think he could still sing this song, because of the power it demands of his voice. I could tell they lowered the key a bit and this made it an even darker song than it already was. The back of the stage and a net between the towers above lit up in a blood red colour, and flashes of light accompanied Chester’s powerful drum fills. I was absolutely blown away by the stage and the performance. My heroes still rocked!
After Mama the band continued with Ripples which was a big surprise to me. I once again liked the animation they used on the screen. It looked like a forest with plants and trees opening up in springtime. For the next few years I had a picture of this particular moment in the show hanging on my wall at home, right above my piano.
During the concert I dreamed off for a moment, I looked around to the people next to me, the big hall we were in, to both ends of the big stage and then back to the band again. I had to pinch and tell myself: “This is it, it is finally happening. I’m at a Genesis gig and Phil Collins is just a few steps away from me…” It all was a surreal situation and too good to be true.
After Ripples the band fell back on the Invisible Touch album with Throwing It All Away and Domino. I think both songs are good, but I would have liked to hear something different, for example Duchess and Driving The Last Spike. Beggars can’t be choosers so I got over it almost instantly and got excited by the following drum duet between Phil and Chester. The funny thing was that they started on bar stools! I thought it wasn’t very Genesis-like and therefore a big surprise. The lights went down and for a few minutes everyone was under the spell of the rhythm and the heat that came off the stage. I realized that with a drum duet the show was about to end. During Los Endos both drummers stayed behind their kit, the band tested their ‘70s wall of sound once more and the led screen lit up as it was one big fireplace. Awesome!
Genesis ended their show with the same songs they ended the We Can’t Dance concerts with: Tonight3, Invisible Touch and I Can’t Dance. Instead of Turn It On Again they finished with Carpet Crawlers which to me was the best way to end a Genesis concert. I remember it being emotional, because of the melancholy of the song, but also because of the special event it was. The last notes and bits ebbed away and that was that. The guys waved their goodbyes in their usual row, shoulder to shoulder. First the five of them, then just Tony, Phil and Mike. Bye guys, you were great!
I had hoped that after the show we would get to meet the band. I even brought a vinyl record and a black marker. I briefly spoke to the woman who got us admitted in the first place, but she told us that they’d already gone back to the hotel. Security subsequently made it clear that we had to leave the Expo hall and so we did. We went back to our car, back to our homes, back into our normal lives. A life where Genesis only played their shows on a TV-screen, as I’d always known. Only now with a head full of memories.
