"Two Nights Live" - Genesis at the O2 Arena, London on Thurday 24th and Friday 25th March 2022. Review by Stuart Barnes.

After all the messing around with Covid, postponements, lockdowns, etc, Genesis were eventually able to reschedule their London gigs by adding them to the end of the 2022 tour. By coincidence this would mean that their last ever gigs would be played in London. This is as close as it gets to a hometown for the guys. It also rounds off an impressive set of stats for them as well; the O2 was the last of the major London venues that Genesis had not played at.

Onwards to the first of the 3 gigs at this venue. In the main, my review for all three gigs is pretty much the same for each night. Sonically and visually everything was spot on. For me, it was all about moments. Each night had it's own special moments to set it apart from the others. From the response to the heckler shouting for Supper’s Ready (“that guy’s been here every f***ing night on this tour”) to Phil looking skywards and asking “just give me two more hours” on the last night when he felt a crack in his voice early into the gig. Thursday and Friday’s gigs are covered here. The last gig on Saturday warrants its own review that can be found elsewhere in this issue.

On locating my seat on the main floor, I decided to wander towards the stage to what sort of instruments were being used this time around. Tony Banks’ keyboard castles reached their peak in terms of size and number in the mid 1980’s and since then they have seemed to get more compact with each tour. This one was no exception. Gone was the rack of redundant sound modules, replaced by what looked like a laptop and a couple of DI boxes. The only actual sound modules were a couple of Roland JD990’s linked to a basic sequencer to provide the drum pattern and percussion sounds for I Can’t Dance. Roland have created a virtual JD800 but for some reason they have omitted these sounds from it, leaving the original hardware as the best practical way to make those noises. I digress… From the 6 or 7 keyboards around him in the 80’s Tony is down to 3; 2 of which are dumb MIDI controllers and the other is the trusty Korg Oasys used on the 2007 Turn It On Again tour.
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The guitar rigs looked simpler as well, with only a pair of bass heads and speakers, plus a combo for Mike and two pairs for Daryl (one for bass, one for guitars). Gone were the Moog Taurus I bass pedals, replaced with the newer Taurus III. Only a purist would be able to tell the difference in the sound.
The most notable change was with the drums. Sadly there was only one full kit on the stage, and that was set up for a right handed drummer. There was a smaller percussion kit to the left of the main kit, but looking at the photos in the gig programme Phil would not be playing this.

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On to the show. On the dot of exactly just after 20:17 the show started, the house lights went off and the walk in music of Thomas Newman’s Dead Already started. OK, so this was the same as the walk in music on 2007, but it builds and ends up giving the subs a bit of a warm up before the main event. As the music builds to it’s crescendo, movement could be seen at stage left. Slowly and carefully Phil Collins started up the steps to the stage followed by the rest of the band. Talking their positions, and following a count in from drummer, Nic Collins, the audience was greeted by the opening notes of Dukes Intro. The music of Genesis is best heard loud and this was no exception. To my ears the volume was perfect. The light show was very impressive. The whole of the wall behind that band was a video screen. With video technology moving on since 2007, this was 4k or better; crystal clear. The lights above the band were set up to look similar to dominos, tying up with The Last Domino theme of the tour; tilting and panning in time with the music to create themes and moods for the songs.

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On with the songs…
Dukes Intro segued into Turn It On Again and Phil started singing. Given the many documented articles regarding Phil’s health, it was clear that he was firing on all his remaining cylinders and giving it 100% throughout. One concession made to this (and the ravages of time in general) was that the key of all the sung songs was dropped, a lot of the time by two whole notes, which is a long way, and to a trained ear (yes, mine) sounded odd. It’s a bit like when a tribute band has to do that to accommodate their singer. The song is right, but the sound isn’t. I can’t explain it better than that; the notes in the original versions ring and chime in a certain way that they don’t when the key is changed. However, knowing that this is the original group that wrote the songs and not a tribute band, it was easy to overcome this and absorb the overall experience of the gig. Visually the screen behind the band showed live video of Phil Mike and Tony with lots of white light to light the whole stage. The next song, for me, was an unusual choice for this early in the gig, Mama. Here we got to see how the video screen behind the band would serve to enhance the mood of the music. Lots of red light and smoke created the ambience of the bordello inhabited by the titular character in the song. The dominos above the band moved to change the shape of the roof of the stage, adding to the mood.
Next was a short chat from Phil where he reacted to the crowds encouraging heckles with quick wit as he introduced Land Of Confusion. Musically solid, and visually brilliant. Behind the band was almost a full on music video in time with the music, complete with empty streets and an abundance of toilet roll. Very topical and on point.

The first Genesis magic trick was next on the agenda and Phil took the audience through contact with the Other World and then into Home By The Sea. Again, stunning visuals of the haunted house and the ghosts in the walls. Moving in to the Second Home By The Sea section, my ears noticed that the instrumental section was now in its original key (this allows the guitar to use more open strings; chords ring better…). Kudos to Phil for singing the end section in the original key.

Next came the familiar drum machine intro for Fading lights, with Mike moving to stand between Phil and Tony. This made the song a bit more poignant, as this was just the three of them playing and singing at this point. Sadly, with no Korg Wavestation in the armoury (and with the VST version being close but not perfect), the keyboard rise at the end of the second chorus didn’t take us into the instrumental/solo section, however with a bang and blaze of lights, the 7/8 guitar riff of the base chords to the Cinema Show keyboard solo started. No need for a key change for an instrumental passage, Tony was able to prove that even in his 70’s he could still play these things. Not to be out-done, at the back of the stage Nic was playing the equivalent of the parts for two drummers in this section. As for many a medley in the past, this segued into Afterglow. Summing this up in one word, magnificent. The sound, the imagary, of the band backlit with white light… there aren’t enough superlatives to describe it.

Next came a new section, the ‘fireside’ bit. This was something that was first done in 1998 with Ray Wilson and was a highlight then. It was also a highlight now. All the musicians came to the front of the stage with Phil and huddled close together played ‘unplugged’ songs. Notably this was a chance for Tony to be on the other side of the stage, something that Phil pointed out to the crowd.
That’s All started this section of the show off. With no organ on the stage, we were treated to a piano solo in the middle of the song. Simple, but effective, this pared down version of the song was not all that different to the original.
I was caught out by the next song. The long sustained string chord, the simple drums (with rimshot, not snare) had me thinking that the guys had agreed to play one of Phil’s solo songs, especially when he started singing “Early man…”. It could have come from the Tarzan soundtrack. I was completely fooled and it was several lines in before I realised that this was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Unplugged). Genius. Even the crowd knew when to sing along.

Follow You, Follow Me followed this and I wasn’t expecting what happened to happen. Again, a simple arrangement and beautifully played, it was the audience that made this one special. Without prompting, and all over the arena, people took out their phones and switched on the camera light; a modern equivalent of holding up a cigarette lighter. This lit up the whole of the inside of the venue, and from my seat I was able to look back to see hundreds of pinpricks of light waving in the air with the music.
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Back to the regular programme, and a new addition to the set for this tour, Duchess. Sadly, I was too young to have seen this song performed back in 1980/1 and this was a welcome surprise to hear. The music did all the speaking for this song, as I am not sure what the video team was trying to achieve with the visuals; lots of colours, and bubbles, verging on the psychedelic, but nothing that I could see that gave it all meaning. It’s still a darn good live song.
Band introductions were next. Definitely worth a mention are Daniel Pearce and Patrick Smith. More than just backing singers, they provided support to Phil for some of the more challenging moments in songs. Never taking over, their presence was mainly un-noticed, however it would have been more noticeable had they not been there.

Another staple of the bands modern setlists, No Son Of Mine was as solid as I have ever seen it. This went straight into the Firth of Fifth solo section with lots of close ups of hands on keyboards and guitars, excellent as always. Taking us from there into I Know What I Like, Phil and the guys had the crowd singing along. Phil even managed to do a short tarantella from his seated position, ending in him playing with the crowd. The enjoyment on his face was clear to see, even when he did forget the words to the next bit. The crowd helped him out by shouting “WHEN” at him.

Phil then announced a second magic trick and took us all through the domino principle. This is an audience participation section we know and love and this time Phil took it one step further by focussing on one person in the front row for some good-natured ribbing.

Domino followed and was accompanied by excellent visuals in both sections of the song. During the Last Domino section, the large video screen behind the band split into nearly a dozen smaller vertical strips of screen, with the space in between them filled with flashing and spinning lights. Yes, that’s hard to describe. I guess you had to be there.
This was followed by Throwing It All Away, complete with visual representations of audio and video cassette spines going back over the bands back catalogue, along with excerpts of video going back to both the Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel eras.

The main set was closed off in the time-honoured way with the Tonight, Tonight, Tonight/Invisible Touch medley. The former starting off with an atmospheric and dramatic mood with visuals to accompany seguing into the latter with a much simpler lighting and video. At this point, it’s about Phil, Mike and Tony and the people on the stage rather than the visuals.
Given that four of the musicians on the stage were in their 70’s this still had the energy it always had.

With that, everyone left the stage so that the crowd could cheer for an encore. The solution found to keep Phil out of sight in a way that meant that he didn’t have to go down the stairs at the side of the stage only to have to come back up them was creative and simple in its execution. No more needs to be said about that.

I Can’t Dance was a logical choice for the encore, even if his reduced ability to actually walk was an unfortunate act of irony. Happily, Nic was able to make up for this by ‘doing the walk’ back to the drums in the second verse (and for the last night, he was followed by the whole of the backstage crew across the stage; another moment).

“Can you tell me where my country lies?” only means one thing, and that was exactly how Phil started off the intro section of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, asking that perhaps Old Father Thames had died, this linked very nicely into Carpet Crawlers. Again, simple lighting highlighted that this was about the people on the stage. By this point, everyone around me was singing along, arms in the air. Always a great way to close the show.

Overall, and given what was available for them to work with, I don’t think that anything could have been done better. It was a very fitting way to round of the tour and to say goodbye to the fans. The fact that this was in London was even more special. I'm glad that I can say that I was there to see it.

Thanks for the music guys, and enjoy your retirement.

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