A few excerpts from this Sunday's Houston Post (Calendar section, "Genesis Returns", by Claudia Perry):
Perry - Why is the band in Houston rehearsing ?
"Basically, we're drawn towards Dallas but we love Houston," Rutherford said, adding a few winks for good measure. "The lighting and sound companies we get involved with, Varilites and Showco, come out of Dallas so we normally rehearse there. But we couldn't find a place in Dallas that had this ceiling height to be indoors. [MR is referring to the old Goodyear blimp hangar in Spring, TX where the band has been polishing their act for the past couple of weeks] We wanted to be able to do the lights in the daytime and it's a good environment to work in. It's a nice place to work."
Perry - Is a stadium tour a bit ambitious in these days of tight budgets ? Does the band feel like this venture may not be wise ?
"That's crossed our minds," Collins said and then laughed. "We said we didn't want to go out for a long, long time ... If you're not going out for a year tour or a two-year tour -- like Dire Straits -- it's limited. The last time we were out as Genesis, we were out for 10 months. We just felt like we didn't want to do that anymore. We'd been on the road for a long, long time. If you go for a short tour, to make it a logistical exercise, you've got to be playing bigger places. You don't want to lose money. Therefore, you think, 'We ought to play big places to satisfy the demand rather than play four or five nights at The Summit.' That pointed us in the direction of stadiums."
"When you think about a world tour, the recession is slightly different in different places," Banks said. "We could obviously tell a little bit from album sales and things like that. This record has actually sold better in Europe than anything we've ever done before. The European part of the tour is very well-subscribed."
"Some of the American shows have sold out already and all of them are going to look good," Collins added. "There is an element of people who don't particularly want to go to stadiums. They can't believe it's going to sound good. I was in a restaurant the other night and someone said, 'Have you thought about the acoustics in the Astrodome?' as if we wouldn't have thought about it. We take it all very seriously in trying to sound as good as it can be."
Starts out showing the hangar, and it's *BIG*!!! Huge!
The report is from the hangar where they are rehearsing. Various music & stuff going on in the background during some of the talking -- Phil is playing drums some, and has *short* hair. The most bizarre thing is Tony's keys! He has a *completely* different setup, from what I could see! They were smaller, and stacked very spaciously. He didn't look cornered behind them.
Tabitha Soren (TS) did intro paragraph, Kurt Loder did the talking.
TS: After five years of persuing solo interests, the members of Genesis have re-grouped once again, and this weekend launch a US tour that they call a technical tour-de-force. [whole sentence sic] We [MTV] stopped by one of the band's rehearsals recently, to find out what they mean [yeah, but what did *she* mean? :)].
[No Son fades in...]
KL: Genesis was putting the finishing touches on the staging of its latest US stadium tour. While the automated television screens and computerized lighting are technically elaborate, the band says their [the lights] purpose is to make the show itself simpler.
[Mike is in rare form, being even more unintelligible than usual--can't understand half of what he says!]
MR: It's big, but in being big that should jus--be designed to actually focus more on tha band, I mean, you've often got these bands on either side, and them on the stage -- there's an awful lot going on. The whole thing is focused much more centrally around the group, so --??? Although it's big, you actually get a feeling of seeing the band more.
KL: Three computerized Jumbotron screens purchased for the tour are the band's latest visual toys. The group's history of elaborate visuals has of course been a big audience attraction for almost 20 years. [Almost? Can he not count? :)]
PC: They always know, which is probably why, I mean, fingers crossed, in such a climate--financial climate--that we live in--the recession--that people are buying our tickets, because they kind of trust us, I think. They know there's going to be a couple of hours at least of music, [something about getting the value of their money--they are in rare form for speaking unintelligibly!], but they're going to see something they haven't seen before maybe, and also they're going to get a complete show, as opposed to something that's just thrown together.
KL: The band may know all about organizing elaborate tours down to the last detail, but the boys are still [plug!] wrestling with the fine art of packing suitcases.
MR: I think we're still searching for the perfect way to pack. I was down at the luggage shop today...these are the big descisions of your day [Phil laughs], you know, where am I gonna put the shoes.
[Phil & Mike talk at once, can't understand either]
MR: He's [Phil] a very good packer.
PC: I'm a very good packer. Things come out the way they go in.
MR: He's [Tony, I guess] a terrible packer.
TB: He puts the tissue paper back in his t-shirts. [Meaning Phil does]
PC: That way they come out the way they go in
[All three talk at once, can't understand them]
MR: There's an art to it, but I think we're still striving to get there.
[Land of Confusion blasts in]
KL: For Genesis the final treat may be the chance to get out of inclement England and take full advantage of summer in the states.
MR: It does affect the whole atmosphere of the crew, the band, everyone around, and the audience too, [unintelligible, something about winter], it's always a bit more relaxes, to me, a summer tour.
PC: We've always had a bit of a strange relationship with outdoor shows, actually, Genesis--as soon as you mention Genesis and a summer tour, it rains.
[TS talks about three tour dates]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article on Genesis in last Sunday's paper. Jon Bream is the Star Tribune's resident popular music critic, and he usually hates any group that doesn't play in a garage. So when I saw his name attached to the Genesis article I prepared myself for a heavy dose of Genesis bashing. Much to my suprise, Mr. Bream managed to land a recent phone interview with Mike Rutherford, and the article was actually informative! Here are a few quotes from Mike:
About Phil's voice and the cancelled Tampa show:
"Phil is fine now. He has temporarily stopped doing interviews to help preserve his voice for Genesis' four concerts a week schedule. It was a horrible feeling (about the Tampa show). We weren't sure whether to cancel before or not; but we felt, 'we're here, we might as well try it'. Sometimes you go on stage and it will be better than you think it will be."
About people coming to the concert just to see Phil:
"Probably some people do come from knowing Phil better than Genesis. To my mind, in a way, it's probably good because there's the chance they'll get to enjoy Genesis and they might get into Genesis music a bit more. You can't do much about it, it's the same voice."
About why they haven't been to Minnesota since 1984:
"There was no intention to forego the Twin Cities. Somehow it just works out with our scheduling. Sometimes when you're in that part of the world, the venue is not available; it is as simple as that. The world is a big place. There is lots of places we haven't been. We hadn't played in Montreal for ten years, which someone reminded us when we played there a few days ago. This time around we're not playing Australia or Japan; not because we don't like them but just because we don't want to be out on tour for a whole year this time."
About if Genesis is merely an extracurricular activity for it's three members:
"I personally felt for the last ten years that I'm an individual who choses to do Genesis for a period of time because I want to and then I might choose Mike+Mechanics because I want to. I don't feel I'm in one thing and the other's part time. Genesis never stops. It's always there."
"Genesis has endured because of the quality of it's material and because the individual members have freedom to pursue other interests. Then you come together because you want to come together, not because there's nothing else to do, which is what so many bands seem to do. We don't have great expectations all the time. This album was such fun to make and so easy to make that we'll definitely do another one. But we don't sort of fix any dates or schedules beyond the fact we want to do another one in the future."
About recording WCD in improvisational/jamming style:
"The good thing about that is that it puts the pressure on. Unless you go in there and there's some magical spark, you haven't even got an album. It forces Genesis to be alive all over."
General notes comments made by Jon Bream:
For the current tour, the trio also enlisted a crew of artists, animators and film makers to make backdrops for each song. Two to three months were spent developing the visuals whereas the band rehearsed the music for only three weeks.
To make sure the sound is just right for stadiums in the U.S. and Europe, Genesis hired a new sound engineer, Robert (Cubby) Colby, who
use to work with Prince. When told about concert goers reservations about sound quality in the Metrodome, Rutherford said colby is from Minneapolis and should be aware of the dome. "He's had some fantastic comments", says Rutherford, "We've been very impressed".
DALLAS-- The rock group Genesis kicked off a 50-city tour with a high-tech show poking fun at television evangelists.
Giant screens on Friday showed _Phil_Collins_ singing "Jesus He Knows Me" inside a cartoon tel- evision. The phrases "Give Now, Pray Later" and "1-800-GEN-ESIS" flashed across the bottom.
The "We Can't Dance" tour ends Aug. 2 in London.
"This is our first gig for five years," Collins told the crowd at Texas Stadium in nearby Irving. "But we've been rehearsing, don't worry.
Art-rokcers offer concert for all ages By Jane Scott
(Taken from the Cleveland Plain Dealer 5-26-92) (Reprinted without permission)
Genesis took the Stadium last night like the Cleveland Cavs took the Chicago Bulls. The 25-year-old British Band, which hasn't played here in 5 years, proved from its first song that the years haven't slowed it down a bit. The show slated for 8:p.m., begin 35 minutes late. Three Jumbotron screens flickered to life with images of geometric forms and a twirling earth. Then vocalist Phil Collins popped up in a bright blue sweater, singing "Land of Confusion."
The show's lighting and sound had been billed state-of-the-art. This was no hype. I have never seen such a clear picture of any singer on screen before. The sound was also superb. Rob Colby, the engineer on Collins' latest solo album, But Seriously, Folks also engineered this tour. It took workers 96 hours to erect the curved, cocoonlike stage, that, counting the Jumbotrons, stood 80 feet tall.
Genesis mostly drew couples and families but also attracted everyone from grandparents to grade-schoolers. For Dorothy Skala of Canton, it was not only the first rock concert she ever attended. "I have trouble getting music on the radio that I like," she said. She has 13 children and 23 grandchildren. On the other hand, Kthy Bill, in her 40s, was no rock beginner. "I saw Genesis before most people here did, at Case Western Reserve University back in the early 70's when they weren't even so popular," Bill said.
But youth was served, too. Zach Kowall, 13, of Gates Mills, said he preferred Genesis over rap and the popular alternative group Nirvana. He attended the concert with his parents and a classmat. Meghan Soos, who said she was 6 and three-quarters said she was eager to hear the band sing "I Can't Dance." She came with her father and her little brother John, 5.
Some young people such as Tonya Osborne, 21, and Lisa Davis, 18, from the Collinwood area, came with colorful painted hearts on their cheeks. They like current music but think Genesis has kept current while preserving old favorites. For Bob Jadloski of Warren, Genesis is more like a religion. "I liked them long ago, before they were so popular, back in "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" days" he said. "I'd still go if they played that a lot, but I like the fact they don't rest on their laurels. They don't want to be the same."
Those who loved the early songs were happy to find that a medley of those hits was included in the set list. These songs were from the 1970s and included "Dance on A Volcano," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," "The Musical Box," and even a few bars of "Firth of Fifth." For this concert, the Stadium grass had a chance to breathe. It was covered with Inkomat, a protective product made in Asheville, N.C., especially for the stadium.
"It looks like green Brillo, but it has enough space to allow the grass to breathe underneath." said producer Jules Belkin. He rented the material from the Stadium for Genesis' concert Friday night at the Ohio State Stadium in Columbus. That concert drew 71,600, the largest single crowd on this tour. Last night's Cleveland show attracted about 50,000.
Genesis Reception Cool
Supergroup unable to turn up heat at Stadium.
By Michael Norman
Plain Dealer Rock Critic
(From Cleve. PD 5-26-92 Reprinted w/out permission =)
It was cold in the stadium last night, a late spring cold front making it feel] more like Browns football weather than the kickoff of the summer concert season. Unfortunately, the British rock supergroup Genesis didn't do much to heat up the 55,000 or so fans that braved the elements to see the Cleveland stop of the band's U.S. stadium tour.
The Genesis brand of classical-tinged art rock feels more at home on the home stereo than in huge, cavernous venues like the Stadium. The crowd sat and fidgeted through large segments of the 2 1/2 hour, 16-song show. This was especially true during long, instrumental laiden songs like "Driving The Last Spike," "dreaming While You Sleep," and "Fading Lights" from the group's new album "We Can't Dance."
But they also sat on their hands during most of a 70's medley of Genesis classics like "Dance On A Volcano," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," "Firth Of Fifth," and "Musical Box." Things picked up a great deal when the band went into an 80's hit mode after a sizzling world beat drum duo featuring vocalist/drummer Phil Collins and tour drummer Chester Thompson. Reneditions of "I Can't Dance," "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "Invisible Touch" perked the crowd up, prompting dancing in the aisles. A rocking two-song encore of "Throwing It All Away" and "Turn It On Again" finally send things over the edge. But it was too little, too late.
Like U2, Genesis is splicing its new stage show with eye-popping high- technology. The centerpiece is a collosal video system that beams a combination of live concert footage and music videos, short films and animation to the crowd. Three 20-by-40 foot Sony Jumbotron television screens towered above the band, linked to a minirail system that enabled technicians to move the screens from one side of the stage to another. For some songs, the screens were brought together to form one 60-by-120 foot TV set. For others, they were separated, allowing three separate images to be shown at once.
Nine video cameras were stationed around the Stadium. Signals were beamed to an editing center, where technicians and producers mixed things together to create an instantaneous concert film, complete with dramatic fades, double exposurs and slow-motion interludes. The sound system was equally colossal. two 80-foot sound towers, one on each side of the 200-foot wide stage, were equipped with a hydraulic system that allowed technicians to change the elevation and direction of the sound to fit the acoustics of different types of tunes.
But whereas U2 used its video system to draw the crowd into the concert, Genesis used most of its canned footage to tell the stories of the songs. The effect was that many people were watching TV and ignoring the band. Editing the live concert footage into the videos didn't help much either unless you were close enough to tell that Collins, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks were wearing the same clothes on stage and on screen, it looked and felt like another MTV video.
The band ran through about two-thirds of the material on "We Can't Dance," which has been positioned in the upper reaches of the Billboard album charts for more than 25 weeks. The album has already spawned two hit singles-"No Son Of Mine," and "I Can't Dance"- and a third single "Jesus He Knows Me" is about to be released. the group played all three last night. They rounded out the set with a sampling of tunes from various albums. "Land of Confusion," "Home By The Sea" and "Domino."
LARGER THAN LIFE
(excerpted from Houston Chroniclepage E-1 [front page!] of Houston section)
Genesis building big show in former blimp digs
By Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
It's a tad early for Phil Collins to be blowing out his voice for Genesis' American tour. After all, the shows haven't even begun yet.
But rehearsals have, and Collins cranked up the volume - perhaps a bit too much - when the British band played two songs for the local media this week, a prelude to its May 9 show at the Astrodome.
For the past 10 days, [sorry I didn't say anything earlier...just found out...Mike] the superstar rock group has been based at the recently abandoned Goodyear Blimb hanger on Interstate 45 North.
There, mammoth staging is being erected, technical details are being ironed out, and the group has been playing 2 1/2 -hour sets before no one but busy crew members.
Some fans have perched behind a fence a block away, listening and training binoculars at a small hanger door. But largely that's been an invisible touch.
Yet Wednesday was different for the thresome, joined by longtime sidemen Daryl Stuermer on bass and Chester Thompson on drums and gearing for its first tour in four years.
With a few onlookers close to the stage, Genesis plowed through a ragged
rendition of "Land of Confusion" [originally italicized], off its last album.
Then the band caught fire for the new "No Son of Mine", with Collins wailing
away on its prolonged finale, an inspired segment that pop radio routinely omits.
"I was singing louder than I have been because of having any kind of
audience," Collins said later, retreating to a trailer outside the hangar with
Genesis band mates Mike Rutherford (guitars) and Tony Banks (keyboards).
"It's good to have someone there, though," Collins said. "Suddenly
you're a performer. That accelerates us in these last days here, because
otherwise we'd go out and suddenly there'd be 60,000 people."
Even a handful of listeners "charges you up, because you know if you
play a bum chord they'll here it," Banks said.
"But it's important in the early parts of rehearsal that you don't have
anyone there. You don't want to perform before you're ready."
Genesis expects to be ready. Contrary to the chaps' often playful
posture in videos, they seem dead-serious here, intent on preparing within a
tight schedule.
"We're working a bit too hard, actually," Rutherford said. "But this
is very valuable time. Once you hit the road, you've got no more time to work
on it."
Only Collins has taken some R&R, attending Tony Bennett's concert at
Jones Hall last week. Banks' family visited from England, but they toured the
Johnson Space Center and other local sites without him.
The group will be in Houston until Saturday [tomorrow] night, when they
leave for Dallas for more rehearsals and to shoot a video for "Jesus He Knows
ME".
The tour opens May 8 at Texas Stadium. After Houston the next night,
there are four off-days to iron out the kinks before the grind begins.
Perhaps reasoning "if we build it they will come," the band commissioned
a mammoth production for its first sustained stadium tour of America. Counting
the European dates that start June 30, Genesis will play 54 cities in 90 days,
often for crowds of 50,000 or more.
The stage is 8 feet 4 inches tall and 205 feet wide, counting sound-
system towers on the sides. Three large video screens can show a single wide
image or can move apart, and special lighting can glide above or away on cables.
Hand-held and remote-controlled video cameras surround the stage,
feeding images for the screens to editors and directors, working before banks
[not my pun!] of monitors, tape machines and computers.
Stadium tours, since they're so big, tend to move slowly. But thanks
to duplicate materials, Genesis can play in four cities on consecutive nights.
"While we're in city A, we'll be finishing building the set in city B,
starting construction in city C, and tearing down the set in city D," said Jim
Digby, floor manager for the tour and an employee of Morris Lyda Associates of
Austin, which has staged past tours for Genesis and for Collins as a solo act.
Digby said this tour will play three cities back-to-back half a dozen
times and four cities in a row once.
"Voice-wise, you really can't do much more than that," Collins said.
"As I've gotten older, I can do less. On earlier tours, we'd do eight shows in
11 days, then seven, then six. Every tour we do a little less."
The three musicians have been together 22 years [is that right?], with
Collins becoming lead singer after the theatrical Peter Gabriel left in 1975.
Collins still plays drums on recordings but only for a few songs in concert,
where he'll work solely with a hand mike for the first time, enabling him to
roam the stage.
Between Genesis albums, Collins has recorded solo since '81, scoring
big hits such as "Against All Odds", "One More Night", and "In the Air Tonight"
. Banks and Rutherford also have worked apart, with the latter leading the
popular Mike + the Mechanics.
In the '80s, Genesis' popularity also mushroomed, after years as art-
rock critical darlings. And that's affected its concert repertoire. For this
tour, theband will play a few song's from the '70s, "but the rest will be more
recent," Banks said.
"Some people's hearts are sunk deeply in a song we did in 1976, and if
we don't play it they get upset. But the majority of people come for the last
couple of albums." [not why I bought _mine_]
Collins said the new album's title, "We Can't Dance", isn't just a
variation of the song "I Can't Dance", which is about male models.
"It's also because we're an alternative to all the dance acts today,"
he said. "If you're fed up with that, then you've always got us."
Actually, the band does a truckin'-style strut, akin to Houston's
ZZ Top, on its "I Can't Dance" video.
"But you can't really call that a dance," Banks said. "It's a walk."
For the live show, about half the video images will be live from the
stage, with the other half canned, including animation.
"We've never done visuals this elaborate," Banks said. "Our attitude
was, if we're gonna do stadium shows only, we should make the shows for
stadiums, with everything larger than life."
Not that the band members seem that way. Regular blokes despite their
success, they appear to be level-headed professionals, their humorous videos
to the contrary.
"Being funny is a way to disguise the fact, particularly for Mike and
me, that we can't do much else in terms of acting," Banks said.
Collins, by contrast, has acted in movies, where he said he once had a
tough time doing a nude scene.
"We're all nude in the next video," Banks said with a laugh.
Ten it was back to work and back to their game faces. For Genesis, clowning around isn't a way of life. It's just part of the job.
*end*