"A birthday party in heart of Sussex" - A review of The Watch in concert at Trading Boundaries on Saturday 23rd November 2024. Review by Øystein Hage.

Is it possible to find a better place to celebrate the 50 years anniversary of “The lamb lies down on Broadway” than in East Sussex?
No, not for two huge Norwegian fans…

The Italian cover band “The Watch” has toured Europe the last couple of years, and to celebrate the “The lamb” they decided to play a couple of shows at Trident Boundaries, a manor house outside the small town Uckfield south of London.
It was my first visit to this fantastic place, and what a weekend it was. For two nights we got “Foxtrot”, “Selling England by the Pound” and of course “The Lamb”. What would be more perfect than travelling from Norway to the area where the band was formed to celebrate this iconic album - exactly 50 years after its release?
I have experienced The Watch in Oslo, Norway, once before. In my memories they did not were as good as some of the other most famous cover bands. But how wrong could I be?
I have been seeing the marvelous guys in “Mama”, “The Carpet Crawlers” and “Genesis Visible Touch”. I have even seen “The Musical Box” several times and will never forget all the elderly gray men crying in Royal Albert Hall when they played Suppers Ready back in 2004. This weekend in Sussex I became one of these crying elderly…
And what about The Watch? Answer: They are even better than the more famous Canadian band.

So, what happened exactly down in East Sussex? After a perfect dinner we were welcomed by tonight’s conferences telling the history of the house, of which upcoming shows were planned and of course he pointed out that Steve Hackett had just released an album recorded in the house. He also told us the plan was that the old Genesis manager, Richard MacPhail, should have been the one who introduced tonight’s band and started the celebrations. Sadly, he passed as we all know away in August. Friday night included the whole Foxtrot-album. The fantastic sounds of the “The watcher of the skies” set the standard of the evening. Through great interpretations of “Get them out by Friday”, “Horizons”, “Time Table”, “Can-Untiliy and the Coastliners” and “Horizons” the band made the evening perfect. And still the best was yet to come…

They ended the first of the show with a superb version of “Suppers Ready”. The whole audience knew the words and sang together with the vocalist Simone Rossetti. A great version with pure magic of “Apocalypse in 9/8” and “As sure as eggs is eggs”. The roof was rising through the end.
After a small break the band gave us the whole “Selling England”. The sing along was not over with Suppers Ready. Rosetti invited us to sing the beginning of the “Dancing with the Monlit Knight” together and it continued into “I know what I like”.
Two great versions, but they could have made the last one a little longer. It was nearly over before it started, and much shorter than we are used to from the later shows with Genesis. Even if it was a Gabriel celebration, they could have picked some of Phils interactions with the audience.

With “The Firth of Fifth” we got both the piano intro and the outro. Valerio De Vittorio played the intro perfectly. The guitarist did also great job, but Andrea Giustinian could have played the solo a bit quicker. A lovely guitar solo, but I got a feeling it was a little bit too slow. As back in 1973-74 we got another vocalist on “More fool me”. The bass player Mattia Rossetti sang the Phil part, with the main vocalist Simone Rossetti on chorus. A beautiful interpretation. The song will always point out for me what Phil would come up with later. The second part of the album was as good as the first, with a beautiful version of “The cinema show”. The pianist and synthesizer-player Valerio De Vittorio impressed me throughout the whole concert, and the keyboard solo of this Genesis live favorite was at least as good as Tony Banks did back in his prime time. The band returned to the stage with a “The knife” as the last song. This Trespass-song was magnificent, and this song was the icing on the cake. What a night. And we still haven’t started the birthday party for “The Lamb” yet.

The second night started as the first. A delicious dinner, together with wonderful Genesis friends around the table and some nice local beers. All the hosts at the Trident Boundaries were so nice, and we got the same introduction before the show as we did the night before.
“The lamb” is not my favorite Genesis album. I prefer “Selling England” and “Trick of the tail” before Gabriels last album, but still it was a fantastic evening.
I remember looking at my Norwegian friend when the played “The Waiting Room” thinking not many of my friends back In Norway would understand my love of this kind of music. But what a song!
“The Carpet Crawler” are special for me. In a way a sum up everything Genesis is about. All the feelings, sounds and the way it builds towards the end. I got the same feeling this evening as when Phil sang it for the last time in O2 London in March 2022. It was very emotional. I had become the old crying man.

The album was played as the record, with a break between record one and two. We got beautiful versions of “Anyway” and “The Lamia”. “Anyway” have always been one of my favorites on the album, and of course I was singing it out loud. The rockier songs like “Lilywhite Lillith”, “Back in the NYC” and “It” they did also perfectly. As Genesis did back in 1975, they ended with a great version of “The Musical Box”. The vocalist invited us to sing along this night too, and we did not say no. The last part of this Nursey Crime-song caused the roof to rise. What a way to end two fantastic evenings. Looking back at the weekend when writing this I really need to express my feelings about how excellent “The Watch” is. The drumming gave me the Phil-feeling, the chorus were extended a bit compared to original versions, but that made it even better. And it was easy to see how the band enjoyed playing these historical tunes. The pianist and synthesizer-player Valerio De Vittorio smiled through two nights, and the joy spread to the audience.

The vocalist Simone Rossetti sounded like Gabriel, and it was fun seeing him playing the flute as Peter did.

I felt they did the songs nearly better than the band did back in the 70s. As I am writing this, I can just express my gratitude to the original writer of this music, to “The Watch” and my Norwegian friend Thomas Holter who invited me to join him this weekend. Thomas was in charge on of the first and best fan pages, “Genesis The path” (www.Genesis-music.net)m but sadly had to cancel the trip due to illness. When he asked me to join, I was a bit unsure if I should go, but today I am happy I did. The only sad part was that Thomas, who bought the tickets back in the spring, was prevented from traveling. So, I had to write this text to both honor him and his ticket purchase. “The Watch” will be playing in Oslo in April. In the start, I thought this weekend was enough, but I guess I have to be there hearing the “Lamb one” more.

Thank you, Mike, Tony, Peter, Steve and Phil, for making this beautiful music!

Øystein Hage
Bergen, Norway/Uckfield, UK