Peter Gabriel Newcastle City Hall 1983
Support Act: Zerra One
Peter Gabriel was back at Newcastle City Hall in 1983. By now he had released four solo albums. The tour was billed as the Playtime 1988 tour. His fourth solo album displayed the influence of world music, and included the single Shock the Monkey. Peter was soon to move further towards the pop mainstream and mega-success with the release of his album So a few years later in 1986. 
This was the last time Peter was to visit the City Hall, and the last time he played in Newcastle for over 20 years. His tours from then on called at arenas and missed the North East out, until 2004, which was the next time I saw him in concert. The programmes scanned here are from later tours, picked up at a car boot fair somewhere! One of them is clearly from the So tour. 
Setlist included: Not One of Us; The Family and the Fishing Net; Shock the Monkey; Family Snapshot; Intruder; No Self Control; Humdrum; Lay Your Hands on Me; Solsbury Hill; I Don’t Remember; San Jacinto; On the Air. The band for the 1982/83 world tour was Peter Gabriel – synthesiser, piano, vocals; Jerry Marotta – drums, percussion; Tony Levin – bass, stick; David Rhodes – guitar; and Larry Fast – synthesiser, piano. This tour was more theatrical than previous tours and took Peter and his band around the world. In the USA he played some dates as support act for David Bowie.
Posts Tagged ‘prog rock’
11 Feb
Peter Gabriel Newcastle City Hall 1983
10 Feb
Peter Gabriel Newcastle City Hall 1980
Peter Gabriel Newcastle City Hall 1980
Support Act: Random Hold
Peter Gabriel returned to Newcastle City Hall in 1980. This was the fourth time I saw the post-Genesis Peter in concert. The first time was on his first solo tour in 1977, which I blogged on yesterday. I then saw him at two festivals. The first of these was at Knebworth in 1978 where he shared a very strong bill with Frank Zappa, The Tubes, Boomtown Rats, Rockpile, and Wilko Johnson. The second festival was Reading 1979 where he appeared on Sunday afternoon, before Nils Lofgren (who replaced the Ramones) and Whitesnake closed the weekend. The thing I remember most about that night at Reading was returning to the campsite to find my tent had been stolen! I’ll blog on those festivals on another occasion. So that means I saw Peter every year from 1977 to 1980. 
During that period he released three albums. For me Peter’s first solo album is the best, but that could simply be because it is the album with which I am most familiar. By 1980 new inclusions within the set were the great single Games Without Frontiers and the protest song Biko, both of which were to become big favourites. The programme was entitled Tour of China 1984, and took the form of a little red book, based on that of Chairman Mao. The band for this tours consisted of Peter Gabriel (vocals / keyboards), John Ellis (guitar), Jerry Marotta (drums), Tony Levin (bass / stick), and Larry Fast (keyboards / synths). Setlist: Intruder; Start; I Don’t Remember; Solsbury Hill; Family Snapshot; We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37); Modern Love; Not One of Us; Lead a Normal Life; Moribund the Burgermeister; Mother of Violence; Humdrum; Bully for You; Games Without Frontiers; And Through the Wire; I Go Swimming; Biko; On the Air. Encore: Here Comes the Flood.
8 Feb
Genesis Reunion 2007 Old Trafford Manchester
Genesis Reunion 2007 Old Trafford Manchester
In 2007 the rumours finally became true and the Genesis reunion tour was confirmed. There had been a lot of speculation to suggest that Pete Gabriel would be joining the band, but sadly that wasn’t to be. However I was still very excited at the prospect of seeing the band again after all those years. I’d missed a couple of opportunities to see Genesis during the 90s. I’d planned to go to Knebworth in 1992 and to the Calling All Stations tour in 1998 but ultimately didn’t make either gig. So I was determined to see them, and bought tickets for the Old Trafford gig of the reunion tour. Marie came along and we stayed in a hotel right next to the stadium. 
The set was a mix of tracks from throughout their career, and I was pleased to see the inclusion of I Know What I Like. Setlist: Behind the Lines; Duke’s End; Turn It On Again; No Son of Mine; Land of Confusion; In the Cage; The Cinema Show; Duke’s Travels; Afterglow; Hold On My Heart; Home By The Sea; Second Home by the Sea; Follow You Follow Me; Firth of Fifth; I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe); Mama; Ripples…; Throwing It All Away; Domino; Los Endos; Tonight Tonight Tonight; Invisible Touch. Encore: I Can’t Dance; The Carpet Crawlers
7 Feb
Genesis Knebworth 1990
Genesis Knebworth 1990
The next time I saw Genesis was on a multi-act bill at Knebworth in 1990. This was the Silver Clef Award Winners Concert and had an amazing line-up including Pink Floyd, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, Tears for Fears, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Ray Cooper, Robert Plant (with guest Jimmy Page), and Status Quo. Pretty strong bill! I won a pair of free tickets in a competition; I think is was with KitKat, and Marie and I went down for the weekend. This was a great concert, which deverses a blog post of its own. I’ll save that for another day, and limit my reflections today to Genesis’ part of the day. Some of the acts such as Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd got to play pretty full sets, but most of the other bands were limited to a few songs. In Genesis’ case their set was four songs which were: Mama; That’s All; Throwing It All Away; and Turn It On Again. Phil Collins also did a four song set which was: In the Air Tonight; Sussudio; Colours; and Another Day in Paradise. By now Genesis and Phil Collins was blending and merging together in the public consciousness and even I was sometimes confused as to which songs were Phil and which were Genesis. It was good to see Genesis again, but their short set, and Phil’s set, just served to underline how different this band were from the Genesis of the early 70s. It was 17 years until I saw Genesis again.
5 Feb
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1980
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1980
Genesis were back at Newcastle City Hall in 1980 for two sold out concerts. It seemed quite surprising at the time, that the band would return to a venue as intimate as the City Hall given their massive popularity. Ticket sold out immediately and we managed to get them for the first night, although we were quite near the back of the hall. Genesis were promoting their new album Duke, which complete their metamorphosis from a prog-rock band to a much more AOR, pop, soft-rock band. Duke spawned the single Turn It On Again which was a big hit in the UK. The set was a mix of tracks, largely drawn from the post-Gabriel era, but the encore was I Know What I Like and my favourite The Knife, so I went home a happy man that night. 
It was great to Genesis in the intimate setting of the City Hall. This was the last time I would be that close to the band. From there on, all of their UK gigs were in arenas or stadiums. Setlist: Deep in the Motherlode; Dancing With the Moonlight Knight; The Carpet Crawlers; Squonk; One for the Vine; Behind the Lines; Duchess; Guide Vocal; Turn It On Again; Duke’s Travels; Duke’s End; Say It’s Alright Joe; The Lady Lies; Ripples…; Cage Medley; In the Cage; The Colony of Slippermen; Afterglow; Follow You Follow Me; Dance on a Volcano; Los Endos. Encore: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe); The Knife.
4 Feb
Genesis Knebworth 1978
Genesis Knebworth 1978 A Midsummer Nights Dream
And Then There Were Three…..
Support from Jefferson Starship, Tom Petty, Devo, Brand X, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Roy Harper
Come 1978 and Genesis were massive news. Firstly they were one of the biggest bands in the UK, big enough to headline the massive Knebworth festival and secondly they were in the news because their line-up changed again when Steve Hackett left to pursue a solo career. Genesis were now down to three members, and hence the album title, those being Phil Collins now vocalist, frontman, and drummer extraordinaire, Mike Rutherford on bass and guitar, and Tony Banks on keyboards. The remaining musical duties we fulfilled by players Daryl Stuermer on guitar and Chester Thompson on drums. By 1978 the Knebworth Festival was well established and the line-up for this event was pretty strong. Of the other acts on the bill I remember enjoying Tom Petty particularly. In fact his set was the highlight of the day. Jefferson Starship also played a great set, which was remarkable given the absence of lead singer Grace Slick who had left the band a few days earlier, suffering from drink and drug problems. The weather was ok, warm, but not hot. 
Festival favourite Roy Harper was a late, unexpected and very welcome addition to the bill, coming on stage to warm the crowd up just before Genesis. The headliners took to the stage quite late in the evening, and had an amazing light show. The set was drawn mostly from their more recent albums, which was a disappointment for me, as I was hoping that they would still play some of their older material. I Know What I Like was reserved for the encore. The single at the time was Follow You Follow Me. The crowd gave Genesis a great reception with major singing along to Follow You Follow Me and I Know What I Like. I suppose this was the point where Genesis really became a mega band in the UK, and started to move more towards AOR and soft rock, and away from the beautiful mysterious prog rock what had characterised their earlier days. Although I continued to enjoy their music and saw them a few more times, something innocent and beautiful had been lost during the journey, and it wasn’t simply about the departure of Peter Gabriel. Genesis had changed into a different sort of rock act, and I guess that night at Knebworth I realised that for the first time. I enjoyed the gig but left the field longing to see them play The Musical Box, Watcher of the Skies and The Knife.
3 Feb
Family London Shepherd’s Bush Empire 2 Feb 2013
Good to see Family again after 40 years
I had been looking forward to this gig for months. It is 40 years since Family last performed together and since I last saw them on their farewell tour at Newcastle City Hall in 1973. Marie decided a few days ago that she would like to come along with me, and I managed to buy a ticket for her, so we were all set for a nostalgic weekend. The last time she saw Family was probably 1969 or 1970 at Sunderland Locarno. We travelled down to London by train on Saturday morning, met up with David for a meal, and then took the tube across to Shepherd’s Bush. We had a couple of drinks in the pub next door, and went into the Empire at 8.45pm. Family were on stage prompt at the advertised time of 9.15pm. We had standing tickets down in the stalls and by the time we got into the venue the place was absolutely packed to the walls. I bought a programme and we found a spot on a little raised area at the back of the hall, where we had a good view of the stage.
The line-up for the two reunion concerts featured Roger Chapman on vocals, Poli Palmer on vibraphone, Jim Cregan on guitar and Rob Townsend of drums. The members of Family changed quite a but during their career and last night’s grouping represented a pretty good selection of past members. The one big miss was of course Charlie Whitney. I assumed that this was because of some long term fall out between old friends Chapman and Whitney, but the programme says otherwise. Apparently Whitney was the first person that Roger Chapman approached when the idea of a reunion came up, but Charlie now lives in Greece, hasn’t been involved in music for some time, and just didn’t feel as if he could do it. Shame. 
Never the less the show did go on, and the band was augmented by a number of other musicians to ensure the strange textures of the old classic songs were recreated on stage. There were 9 musicians in total on stage at Shepherd’s Bush Empire last night. As well as the four members of Family there was Geoff Whitehorn on guitar, Nick Payne on sax, flute and mouth harp, Gary Twigg on bass, Paul Hirsch on keyboards and John Lingwood on drums. The programme refers to the additional musicians as the “in laws” and they are all members of Roger’s band. The band were introduced onto the stage by long time friend and local Leicester football hero, Frank Worthington. The set was drawn from across their 8 album catalogue with all the classics and a few lesser know (at least to me) tracks. Family music was always a strange mix and difficult to categorise, blending folk, rock, psych, and blues with a deep sense of dynamics, shifting effortlessly from the soft and melodic to loud, rocky and swirling progrock or R&B. The opening song was Top of the Hill, followed by Drowned in Wine. My favourite No Mules Fool came half way through the set. As we got to the end the classics were rolled out to the delight of the largely male, balding late 50s and 60 something crowd. The last couple of songs were the rocky Burlesque, and In My Own Time. For the encore they played an exquisite version of The Weavers Answer, and then we all sang along to My Friend The Sun. Roger was as engaging as ever, a mix of the wild rock singer, the cheeky arrogant front man, and still getting lost in some weird crazy dancing at times. 
His voice was strong, but has lost a little of its power and the warbling vibrato is perhaps not quite as evident. But hey the guy is 70 and he gave it his all and put in an amazing performance. His crack with the crowd was as cheeky and friendly as ever, like he was with a group of old friends, which of course he was. Time and age haven’t dimmed his humour or his ability to eff and blind with the best of the them. He also made a few quips about effing Whitney sunning himself in Greece, clearly missing his old friend. At the end Roger thanked us and assured us that this was to be the last effing time we would see Family. We all rolled out into the cold night, warm in the knowledge that we had just spent a night with some old friends, and a good night it was too. Marie enjoyed it and recognised the well known songs. Next reunion gig for me is the Status Quo Frantic Four gigs next month. There are some good things about getting old and revisiting your past.
Setlist: Top of the Hill; Drowned in Wine; Holding the Compass; Part of the Load; Ready to Go; Crinkly Grin; Burning Bridges; No Mule’s Fool; Sat’dy Barfly; Between Blue and Me; Hung Up Down; Burlesque; In My Own Time. Encore 1: Weaver’s Answer. Encore 2: My Friend the Sun; Sweet Desiree.
2 Feb
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1977
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1977
Genesis released Wind and Wuthering in late 1976 and took it on tour during 1977. Chester Thompson joined on drums for the 1977 tour which took in two nights at Newcastle City Hall. The set mixed songs from the new album, with some old classics including Supper’s Ready which was by now becoming a concert favourite, I Know What I Like, and The Musical Box as an encore. Sadly for me The Knife was no longer part of the set. I always saw The Knife as the perfect Genesis encore and gigs were never the same without it. The performance was great but not as monumental as the gig we had seen the previous year at Glasgow. 
Perhaps that was as much about our anticipation for the Glasgow gig and the reception that the Apollo crowd gave the band, as it was about Genesis’ performance, which was as usual faultless. By now I had got used to Genesis without Peter Gabriel and had become comfortable with Phil Collins as the lead singer, but further change was on its way. Although we didn’t know it at the time; this was to the last tour with Steve Hackett, and it would soon be 1978 …And Then There Were Three….I will blog on that new line-up soon.
Setlist for the 1977 Wind and Wuthering Newcastle gig: Squonk; One for the Vine; Robbery, Assault and Battery; Your Own Special Way; Firth of Fifth; …In That Quiet Earth; Afterglow; I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe); Eleventh Earl of Mar; The Carpet Crawlers; All in a Mouse’s Night; Supper’s Ready; Dance on a Volcano; Los Endos. Encore: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; The Musical Box.
1 Feb
Genesis Glasgow Apollo 1976
Genesis Glasgow Apollo 1976
The big shock came in 1975 when Peter Gabriel announced that he was leaving Genesis. Losing such a powerful and charismatic frontman seemed at the time to be a blow from which the band was unlikely to recover. And when it was announced the Phil Collins would take on the mantle of lead vocalist that also seemed, at least at first, quite bizarre to say the least. In fact, Phil had provided backing vocals for years, and more of their trademark vocals were down to him than you might at first think. So all of this change intrigued me, and when I started to read reviews of Genesis which suggested that the new line-up was good, I was determined to go and see them. I also bought the new album A Trick of the Tail, which was also surprisingly good. So when they announced a couple of shows at Glasgow Apollo we bought tickets and started to look forward to seeing Genesis again. The gig was originally set as I think three shows: one on the Thursday night and two on the Friday night; an early show at 6pm and another at 8pm. We bought tickets for the Friday early show, but when we arrived on the night we were told that the two shows had been combined into one, and we were too late to exchange our tickets! After a little arguing they managed to find us a few single seats up in the circle. Whew! The gig was amazing. Much much better than I could have expected or hoped. 
The line up was: Mike Rutherford on bass, Phil Collins on vocals and drums, Tony Banks on keyboards, Steve Hackett on guitar, 12 and special guest Bill Bruford (ex Yes) on drums and percussion, and covering for Phil when he came to the front to sing. This was one of the best times I ever saw Genesis. It was as if they were born again with new energy; the songs from the new album A Trick of the Tail were great; and the Apollo crowd were willing them to play well. And play well they did. The set was a mix of old and new. From the Gabriel days we got Suppers Ready, The Carpet Crawlers, and Watcher of the Skies. And from the new album stand-outs were Dance on a Volcano (a great opener), Entangled and Squonk. We all left the Apollo that night with our faith in Genesis renewed. This was a truly amazing gig. On that night in Glasgow, in the grand old Apollo, Genesis were reborn with a new identity and power and for those of us in that old hall that night they were the best band in the world. Period. Setlist was something like: Dance on a Volcano; Lamb Casserole; The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; Fly on a Windshield; Broadway Melody of 1974; The Carpet Crawlers; The Cinema Show; Robbery, Assault and Battery; White Mountain; Entangled; Squonk; Supper’s Ready. Encore: It; Watcher of the Skies. Encore 2: It’s Yourself; I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe); Los Endos
31 Jan
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1975 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour
Genesis Newcastle City Hall 1975 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour
Always listen to the album before you go to the concert. That is a piece of advice I keep giving to myself, but I often don’t follow. It was never more true than in this case. It had been a couple of years since I last saw Genesis, and I wasn’t interested to see their new production for the new album “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”. I’d read the reviews, but hadn’t heard the album (you see; mistake). For some reason, I hadn’t bought a ticket for this tour, but when Genesis reached Newcastle City Hall, I decided to go along on the night and try to buy a ticket. I managed to do so, purchasing a ticket for a little more than face value from someone outside the venue. My seat was pretty near the back, but hey I was in! 
I knew what to expect; the set was the entire new (double) album played in sequence to tell the story of Rael, and was their most theatrical show to date. Peter Gabriel really excelled himself in terms of his performance and in costume changes, the most spectacular and outrageous of which was the Slipperman who was covered in terrible growths. The concert was incredible as a piece of theatre, however having not heard the album, I did find it a little hard going at times. Even to this day, I don’t fully understand the story or know many of the tracks; and I do have a copy now. My favourite is of course Carpet Crawlers. My memory tells me that they came back at the end and encored with The Knife, but published setlists tells me that it was likely to have ben Watcher of the Skies, The Musical Box; or both. This was the last time that I saw the Gabriel era Genesis, as big changes were soon to come. I will blog on my next Genesis experience tomorrow. Setlist: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; Fly on a Windshield; Broadway Melody of 1974; Cuckoo Cocoon; In the Cage; The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging; Back in N.Y.C.; Hairless Heart; Counting Out Time; The Carpet Crawlers; The Chamber of 32 Doors; Lilywhite Lilith; The Waiting Room; Anyway; Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist; The Lamia; Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats; The Colony of Slippermen; Ravine; The Light Dies Down on Broadway; Riding the Scree; In the Rapids; It. Encore: The Knife?
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