sent to Paperlate by Linda Darling, April 25, 1996.
From: LINDA.DARLING@ey.com
As Craig also mentioned, anything could happen, but I wonder if indeed Tony and
Mike would be willing to cede so many of the songs which they wrote over the
last 15 years to Phil, as it were, by dropping them from the set list during
their very first tour in this incarnation -- if anything, I'd sort of expect
them to really make it apparent that Genesis was indeed a songerwriters
collective, and those songs so many of us associate with Phil's tenure are
indeed Genesis songs. Just as after Peter left and Phil was, as he said,
"encouraged" to do the songs from the back catalog, like Supper's Ready, that no doubt a good percentage of the fan base at that time associated only with Peter, wouldn't it seem as likely that the new singer will be encouraged to do songs from the more recent catalog as well? After all, Tony and Mike wrote Land of Confusion and I Can't Dance as well as Phil, and I suspect that the songs from the more recent albums are still close to their hearts as creative artists. As has been mentioned several times, Mike uses I Can't Dance in the recent Mechanics medley which goes through a few songs associated with himself, Paul Carrack, and Paul Young in their other musical endeavors (ok, ok, it's got a terrific riff that Mike probably loves to play as well!)
And, if Genesis is indeed planning to do arenas on their next tour, well, I
suspect a lot of the songs that got Genesis to the level of playing arenas and
stadiums might actually show up in the set list; after all, Tony and Mike did
the first cut at the WCD set list, so that list may indeed be reflective of
their tastes, both personally and in designing entertaining sets. I'd guess
that, like the WCD and IT tours, the new set will be *very* heavy on the new
album, with songs from the older albums that both appeal to the band and sound
fresh to their ears, and hopefully appeal to the audience as well -- but who
knows? Maybe Tony will have overcome his antipathy for playing In The Cage again
by that time :-)) As far as voices very different from Phil's or Peter's -- hmm, it seems to me that both Tony and Mike tend to like voices that aren't so far different in range (well, not counting Toyah and Janey) from PC and PG, although I think technically Carrack probably has the best voice of all the solo project vocalists -- it would be fascinating to hear whoever ends up on their short list of auditioners, though, wouldn't it? And I wonder how Mike and Tony define 'unknown' as far as singers go? Unknown as in previously unsigned artist, or just not well known to people outside the industry?
On the other hand, if anything about Genesis can be predicted, it's probably
that they'll always zag when you think they'll zig, so that first set list may
be full of surprises for everyone.
This whole new incarnation of Genesis is, I think, a very brave move on Tony and Mike's parts, and a huge challenge to them from many perspectives. It's going to be a fascinating thing to watch how they handle it and I, for one, am still pretty sure that the one person who even more fervently wishes them great
success than people on this list do is Phil.
Just my $.02 (and I know I owe personal mail to many wonderful folks on this
list, but I've been under the weather for a couple of weeks now -- hopefully
catching up soon -- but I've got to say reading Paperlate is a wonderful way to
distract yourself from aches and pains while speculating on drummers and singers.
-- BTW, does anyone know the background on the guy who did drums for SI? I got
the impression that he was a highly regarded English session drummer, and Tony
sounded as though he were very impressed with him.)
Thanks much,
Linda Darling
To: "paperlate(a)ansto.gov.au"
Subject: Re: New Singer/Old Songs
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 05:18:29 -0400
Sender: paperlate-owner@ansto.gov.au
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: LINDA.DARLING@ey.com
Craig mentioned a prediction that 'The new singer will be someone with much of a VERY different voice, and the concert playlist will most likely include tracks from the new album, and will drop a lot of recent "Phil" songs from the past 10-15 years, like "Invisible Touch." This would give the guys more room to bring in some classic songs we haven't heard in a while, like maybe "Down and Out" or "Trick of the Tail" or "Earl of Mar" or even "Supper's Ready".'
