Rael...

What happened to Genesis at the Empire Pool on April 14? From being one of the few bands with a reasonable sense of sound balance and volume control, they have now jumped on the ear-bashing bandwagon.

Banks' keyboards started dropping bum notes, Collins' drums sound like tin cans and Gabriel is too busy jumping around to be bothered to sing the correct lyrics and is, most of the time, too breathless to make them audible.

The concept of Genesis "creating moods" is ruined by the crowd who scream and clap every time Gabriel appears, totally destroying the careful blend of music the band creates to initiate his appearance (particularly on 'Watcher Of The Skies").

Two encores (obvious, because the house lights remained off) and what happened to the promise to play "more of our earlier material" to make up for the original tour cancellation?

They played only two songs not off the current album. Total playing time, two hours - pathetic.

How life's illusions are shattered.

R. J. BARNES, Melrose Avenue, London

I WENT to the Genesis concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley. Imagine my dismay when I got to my seat and found myself 30 feet up a wall and on a level with the stage so that my view of the band was almost completely obliterated by the enourmous PA.

The only one I could see was Tony Banks and on the occasions when he came to the front of the stage, Peter Gabriel. Of the other three - no sign.

Maybe if I had paid only 50p for a ticket (a price incidentally, which I paid to see them only two years ago) I should have no cause for complaint, but I paid two pounds for this privilege!

Maybe I and about 500 others should have saved our £2 and stayed at home and listened to the albums; at least the sound balance would have been better.

JOHN MANNING, Pemberton Road, London

Transcribed by Thomas Holter, October 13, 1998