From: ipv@bway.net
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 21:37:44 -0500 (EST)
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To: paperlate@ansto.gov.au
Subject: Re: Booing-how it can be justified (or old fan angst redux)
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Reply-To: ipv@bway.net
>Why do you thing old Genesis fans visit new Genesis concerts? Because they
>hope Genesis will play old stuff.
Sorry, no. I'm probably one of the oldest fans on this list and have been going to Genesis concerts since 1973. The reason why I still go is because Genesis can still put on a show every bit as compelling and beautiful as the ones they did way back when. I go so that I can watch Genesis grow older with me and because I like to reflect on how much they've given me in all this time. I go so that I can continue to be inspired by their music, their playing, their performing, their composing. Although I enjoyed the Old Medley very much, I feel no need to hear 1973 songs played live again by 199(whatever) Genesis. It's the old fans who were there when the old music was new. We've shared that moment in time and now it's gone. Personally, I have no burning desire to have it recreated. IMHO, it can not be recreated anyhow. Perhaps it could be rearranged, but certainly never recreated.
>So you're suggestion for Genesis not to play any old stuff, will only keep
>old Genesis fans away from concerts when this is advertised before hand. And
>even then fans will not believe it.
If Genesis were to publicly announce that they were finished playing anything pre-1978, I would still attend their shows and I probably wouldn't even notice the difference. And as Phil said in the History video, the old fans could only fill a few rows of the stadiums they play now. If we old fans were to boycott en masse, no one would even miss us!
I am most definitely partial to the music of the Gabriel era. But that partiality has never dissuaded me from enjoying the later work of Genesis too. I shudder at the portrayal of old fans as 30-somethings who are stuck in the 70s and can't accept progress.
As for Simon's post about the boo-ing concert - I feel that whenever you get such a huge audience together it's fertile ground for disruption from troublemakers. A handful of bad apples can be enough to get other inebriated cretins started and before you know it, you've got a good deal of loud people disrupting the event. When Peter Gabriel played (was it the McCarter Theatre?) in New Jersey on his first solo tour, he had a critically revered punk band called Television opening for him. (Or was it just Verlaine? See, I obviously did participate heavily in the 70s, as evidenced by the fact that I can't remember anything that wasn't written down.) At that time punk was first finding its way out of CBGB's and into auditoriums. Anyhow, the same audience that embraced the extremely idiocyncratic Peter Gabriel all but booed Television off the stage. Ever since then, at least when Peter plays NYC, he always begins every concert by coming out on stage in his street clothes and personally introducing his opening act and asking his audience to give them a fair chance. I have always wondered how much the Television event played into his strategy to do this.
Best,
Chloe