"Don’t Fold This Programme! Revisited" - A look at the more recent Genesis tour programmes and some variations on some of the older ones by Alan Hewitt.

Transcribing a batch of older paper editions of TWR (remember them, folks?) I came across the original idea for this feature which appeared many moons ago and thought it was time to bring it up to date with an examination of the more recent tour programmes that have been generated by the band and also to include details on some that were missing from the TWR archive when the original feature was done. I hope you find it interesting.

We left the story of the band’s tour programmes at the Invisible Touch album but even there we have several variations to consider but before I get to those, I would like to fill in a couple of gaps that were present in the original feature.

First, and most important of these is the Japanese tour programme which commemorated the band’s inaugural visit to that country at the culmination of the massive world tour which the band had undertaken in support of the And Then There Were Three album. As is usual with Japanese material, this is a highly collectable item outside of Japan and with the passage of time, probably equally so in that country too! In practical terms it is perhaps one of the most disappointing programmes by the band. A twenty page large format brochure with mainly black and white photography by Armando Gallo and accompanying Japanese text it is not quite the luxurious item that one expects of Japanese tour memorabilia but is still one of the more collectable of the later era programmes.

The 1981 Abacab tour programme appears to have thrown up a few variants too with no less than three slightly different versions being in the archive. The standard edition omitted the centre spread page which reprinted the album lyrics, and subsequently had “now includes Abacab album lyrics” on the top right hand corner of the front cover, whilst the US variant is easily recognised by the appearance of the advert for the album and back catalogue on Atlantic Records rather than Charisma/Virgin. In every other aspect, the programme remains the same whatever version you happen to have but you know what collectors are like! We then move onwards in time to the 1992 tour in support of the We Can’t Dance album. For the shows which took place in the US, Europe and the UK in the summer of that year a large format programme was produced which included a nice mix of photographs and an informative and on occasions, amusing text.

With the band taking the fans here in the UK by surprise by announcing their six night residency at the cavernous Earls Court Arena in London, they took us even more by surprise by announcing a string of shows in theatres in several major cities throughout the UK prior to the Earls Court gigs making these the hottest ticket of 1992. A “new” programme was available for these gigs in A4 format, this one was exactly the same as its summer predecessor but sported a new cover design and with these gigs being a UK only affair, this one is harder to find than its predecessor.

With Phil’s departure in 1996, many fans thought that the band were over but they bounced back with a new line up for 1997’s Calling All Stations album and the subsequent European tour in the spring of 1998. The tour programme this time sported the album cover on its frontispiece and a mixed bag of photos and text. With this tour being less well - attended than its predecessors, this one is still a fairly common item and not that hard to find.

2007’s Turn It On Again tour and reunion with Phil Collins was a huge success and a brochure was produced to commemorate the event. Sadly, the same amount of care and attention which had been lavished on the band’s stage set up cannot be said to have been spent on the resulting tour programme which is a very disappointing affair with a text that completely leaves out the band’s all-too-brief final incarnation for Calling All Stations. The photos are good though!

And there you have it folks, a stroll through the band’s varied tour programmes. I hope that you found it useful. Next time I shall bring the solo artists’ details up to date.