I first became aware of Genesis in the early 80s, when I was in junior high school. When I was 15 - at the time Invisible Touch was huge - I started getting into progressive rock, and dug into the Genesis of the '70s. They have been one of my favorite bands ever since.
Sadly, I never did get to see them live. I had tickets for a show in Los Angeles in '92, but unfortunate circumstances caused me to miss it. S’okay, though. I saw Steve Hackett at a club the next year. It was probably better seeing him play the “Firth of Fifth” solo, about 20 feet away from him, rather than Daryl Stuermer a mile away in a stadium.
This version with Pete and Phil but modern production values…made me so sad that there old stuff was never redone aside from this. I’ve just never been able to get into much before “And Then There Three…” because to my ear its just to proto-Genesis.
As I commented on Bored Panda when someone griped about how expensive Rolling Stones concert tickets are, that voodoo priest to keep Keith reanimated has to cost them quite a bit.
Here’s some concert footage of the band from 1973. It’s apparently been rattling around the internet for some time, but recently someone put a lot of time and effort into restoring and upconverting it. It looks like it was filmed yesterday!
Anyway, if you’re a fan of the Gabriel years, you’ve probably already seen it. But if you aren’t familiar with them, have a look to see what these five young weirdos were up to, a decade before the streamlined three-piece edition (not to mention the solo careers of Collins and Gabriel) stormed the pop charts in the 80s.
In later years, Collins’ pop success and ubiquity made him a bit of a punchline (unfairly, IMHO); here, you can see what a fine musician he was.
In August of 2007, I had a psychotic break and went into the hospital. I was pretty messed up for several months. At one point we were living with church friends and I was suffering from depersonalization, in which I was struggling to remember basic facts about myself.
I asked Mom to give me yes or no answers to questions I would ask, as I tried to remember who I was. (All of the answers were yes.)
One of them was whether I liked Phil Collins.
Phil got me through a very dark time in my life, and I wish him well in his retirement.
I was there too. Man, it pissed down. I think I still have a vinyl bootleg of the gig.
I saw them 6 times including that show. The 1st time being the stripped down Duke tour at much smaller venues than the previous arenas. It was at Sophia Gardens Pavillion in Cardiff, April 9 1980. A friend of mine was roadie for the day and sneaked me into the venue just before the sound check. Got on stage, sat at Phil’s kit (I’m also left handed but didn’t dare hit anything) touched guitars and stepped on Mike R’s bass pedals causing the engineer to tell me to get the fuck off the stage. Great gig but no Supper’s Ready.
1981 in the NEC in Birmingham. My girlfriend had no interest in them but came along. She was so kind and patient when I sobbed for about 15 minutes at the end of Supper’s Ready - she was totally baffled. I’m not sure I know why, but the ‘New Jerusalem’ still makes me well up.
Phil Collins was such an amazing drummer - his playing on Cinema Show for instance is difficult to even comprehend. Their music has been a huge part of my life.
ETA - I was listening to Seconds Out recently and the drum fill a minute into Los Endos jumped out at me as the proto version of his ‘Most Famous Drum Fill Ever’ on In The Air Tonight
I hope PC’s health issues don’t plague him further.
First time I saw them was on the Duke tour, summer of 1980, at the Kiel Opera House in St Louis (a ~3500 seat venue). I tagged along with my brother and some of his friends. Just starting to get into them at the time, so I wasn’t as familiar with the music. I do remember some doofus in the back yelling “Rock and roll!” when they started playing “Ripples”.
Second time was at the Arena in St Louis on the Abacab tour. Phil did the Romeo and Juliet bit that was the well-known intro to “Cinema Show”, but then the band launched into “Supper’s Ready”. Freakin’ awesome.
Third time was at Kemper Arena in Kansas City for the Mama tour. A fantastic show with about a half hour delay in the middle when the power went out.
Sir, despite my love of Joe Jackson and our shared positivity to Genesis, I have to ask you to meet me on the common at dawn with your Seconds, as you have ruined my reputation as Chief Threadkiller at the Dope.
