Genesis

Old Trafford Football Ground, Manchester.

Saturday 07 July 2007

I was in two minds about going to see Genesis, and indeed, friends have expressed something of a surprise that I should even like them. Let me get one thing straight from the start – even though this concert was in a huge football stadium, and controversial as Genesis are in the history of prog rock, this was one of the best concerts that I have been to, in absolutely every way possible.

I couldn’t miss out on this concert, no matter how far they have strayed from their prog rock beginnings, and no matter how much of a middle of the road “man of the people” Phil Collins might have become in the general public perception.

In their early incarnation they are rightly revered as one of the founding fathers of prog, which is my very favourite sort of music (see my essay The Rise And Fall Of Progressive Rock) and on that basis alone, they can’t be missed. Peter Gabriel and the hey day of Genesis’ progressive  involvement have long gone of course, but I couldn’t afford to miss this and am eternally grateful that I went  – and to make it all the better, it was the one and only dry day in the middle of the wettest summer on record!

As can be read in my essay, the reason that Genesis are controversial is that once the fashionability of prog began to dim, they were the first of the mainstream groups to seem to attempt to “desert” the genre. Other groups took other routes to react to the punk revolution, and of course many did not survive, but Genesis seemed to do the worst thing of all – horror of horrors, they attempted to become a “pop” band!! Many, many of their early followers never forgave them for this, and Phil Collins has become something of a hate figure for them, symbolizing as he did, a sort of down to earth Cockney charm and humour which was somewhat at odds with the earlier image of Genesis as art rocking public schoolboys. I sort of partly went along with that, mainly because I simply didn’t think that the post Peter Gabriel stuff was anywhere near as good, but I never deserted them completely, and recently have found much to admire in their later, more pop influenced material. Of course, they did aim for the pop market, but in my view they never deserted their progressive roots, as it is quite plainly woven intricately into all their newer stuff if you are open minded enough to hear it. To prove the point, you only need to listen to any of Phil Collins’ solo material: now THAT is totally different, it is pop music par excellence, and I would not willingly go within ten miles of a concert like that!

To answer the question of why some people were surprised that I liked Genesis – the answer is that those people don’t see any difference between Phil Collins and Genesis, and whilst I can understand that, it just isn’t good enough!

Now then, what about the concert itself? 

I had deep misgivings about attending a rock concert in a 70,000+ seater football stadium, for the obvious reasons that I feared that I would be able to see very little and that the sound would be thin and weedy. Wrong on both counts! I was lucky to get a seat in the stands rather than at pitch level, and therefore I had a superb unobstructed view of the stage. There still might have been a problem though, with the band looking as big as ants – but fear not, there were excellent large screens, which made it appear that they were performing only a few feet away. Biggest fear of course was that the sound quality would be dreadful, but totally to my surprise, this ranks as alongside the very best sound quality that I have experienced at any concert: not only was the sound quality crystal clear, but the bass was loud and thumping and the volume was as high as I could possibly wish it! I have a CD set of the concert, and the sound quality on that is superb and backs up what I have said. What’s more the tracks were played in a much harder, aggressive style than they appear on the studio CDs, and it made what had previously seemed “pop music” suddenly breathe new life as out and out hard rock!

My only complaint, and it is a niggling one really, is that there was much too much newer material at the expense of the older pure prog rock stuff. I think that was always really going to be the case, bearing in mind that Peter Gabriel sang most of the prog stuff rather than Phil Collins, but I think the balance was just a little bit wrong. If they had played “Supper’s Ready”, the 23 minute progressive rock all time blockbuster, I’m sure that the crowd would have forgiven them for playing 100% pop for the rest of the concert. Alas, it wasn’t to be, as was the rumour that Peter Gabriel might appear for one or two songs.

The other thing that impressed me immensely was just how good a showman Phil Collins was. I’ve been to concerts before and since when such and such a person was renowned to be a great “showman”, but have done nothing to impress me, but here, Phil Collins really had the entire 70,000+ crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, and I think he was superb and very funny. How much better than the stand offish, non communicative approach that the die hard prog fans might have preferred!

What a brilliant night. I can’t really imagine being in the fortunate position again very often of reporting in such glowing terms as this on a concert – and it is all there for posterity on the CDs!!

(26.09.08)