Turn It On Again: The Tour

Turn It On Again: The Tour
Concert tour by Genesis
Start date 11 June 2007
End date 13 October 2007
Legs 2
Shows 47
Genesis tour chronology
Calling All Stations Tour
(1998)
Turn It On Again: The Tour
(2007)
...

Turn It On Again: The Tour was a 2007 concert tour of Europe and North America by progressive rock band Genesis. The tour was notable for the return of drummer and vocalist Phil Collins, who left the group in 1996.

Contents

History

After much speculation regarding a reunion, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford announced the tour on 7 November 2006, nearly 40 years after the band had first formed. Collins insisted it would be more of a "selection of shows" rather than a tour. Group manager Tony Smith was also on-hand for the announcement.

Originally, Collins, Banks and Rutherford wanted to reunite as a quintet with Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett, for live performances of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Peter Gabriel had reportedly agreed in principle to perform, and as such Steve Hackett was also contacted, but as time went on, Peter Gabriel could not commit to a date. "Peter is a little over-cautious about going back to something which fundamentally is fun", Collins said.[1] Once Peter Gabriel backed out, Hackett's participation became moot, and the decision was made to proceed as the three man band. A short note expressing Hackett's good wishes for the reunion tour was placed on his website.[2] In their stead, both Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson returned as supplementary on-stage musicians.

The band embarked on the first leg of the tour in Europe. The stage set was designed by Mark Fisher with lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe. The routing took in twelve countries beginning in Helsinki, Finland on 11 June 2007 and ending in Rome, Italy on 14 July 2007. The Rome show was a free concert for an audience of 500,000. This leg of the tour is well documented in the film Come Rain or Shine, which was released as part of the three-DVD set When in Rome in 2008. The documentary shows the rather difficult conditions the band faced during the first leg, with rain hampering all but a handful of the shows during this portion of the tour.

The band held a press conference in New York City on 7 March 2007 at noon EST to announce the details of the North American leg of the Turn It On Again reunion tour. This leg commenced on 7 September 2007 in Toronto at BMO Field and ended on 13 October 2007 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. On 1 June it was announced that Genesis would be working with the Encore Series team at TheMusic.com to record each show of their European tour (and also done for their subsequent North American tour) for release as a 2-CD set (similar to the series done for the Who and Peter Gabriel). Each show was recorded directly off the soundboard and is available for either individual sale or as a complete box set of the entire tour.[3]

The CD Live Over Europe 2007 was released on 20 November 2007 in North America and 26 November 2007, in the United Kingdom.

The When in Rome 2007 triple-DVD set was released 26 May 2008 (10 June 2008 for North America) and featured the entire free concert filmed in Rome, Italy. The set also contains the documentary Come Rain or Shine which was broadcast in a selection of cinemas in the UK and Europe on 20 May 2008.

The 27 June concert in Dusseldorf was broadcast live in HD and Dolby 5.1 Surround to cinemas in the UK, Spain and Sweden.

The tour was notable as being the first time nearly every song was performed in a lower key to compensate for the deepening of Phil Collins's voice. Only "Hold on My Heart", "Follow You Follow Me" and all instrumentals were performed in the same key as their original studio recordings.[4]

Set list

During the initial London press conference, it was revealed that music dating back as far as 1973 would be performed on the tour, with the songs "Domino", "Afterglow", "In The Cage" and "Los Endos" cited as probable inclusions in the set.[5] Rehearsal footage screened at the conference also showed the band working on "No Son Of Mine" and "Home By The Sea".[6] It was confirmed that no material from the post-Collins album Calling All Stations would be performed, and that the group were "not planning" on playing their 1972 epic "Supper's Ready".[5] It later evolved that a small piece of "Stagnation", from the pre-Collins album Trespass would be included as part of the "Firth of Fifth/I Know What I Like" medley (as it has been since their 1977 tour).

Further details were uncovered whilst Genesis were rehearsing in Cossonay, Switzerland, throughout April and May 2007, when fan recordings began surfacing on the internet. These recordings revealed the band to be working on a number of older songs, including "Behind the Lines",[7] "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)",[8] "The Carpet Crawlers"[9] and "Follow You Follow Me",[10] as well as latter-day singles "Invisible Touch",[9] "I Can't Dance"[11] and "Throwing It All Away".[12]

In an interview with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, it was confirmed that both "Jesus He Knows Me" and "Abacab" were rehearsed in preparation for the tour,[13] though neither song was performed.

The complete set list was finally revealed following production rehearsals in Brussels, Belgium.[14] This set remained unchanged throughout the European leg of the tour:[15]

  1. "Duke's Intro"
  2. "Turn It on Again" §
  3. "No Son of Mine" §
  4. "Land of Confusion" §
  5. "In The Cage" § / "The Cinema Show" / "Duke's Travels"
  6. "Afterglow" §
  7. "Hold on My Heart"
  8. "Home By the Sea" § / "Second Home By the Sea"
  9. "Follow You Follow Me"
  10. "Firth of Fifth"
  11. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" § / "Stagnation" / "I Know What I Like" (Reprise)
  12. "Mama" §
  13. "Ripples" §
  14. "Throwing It All Away" §
  15. "Domino: Part 1 - In The Glow Of The Night, Part 2 - The Last Domino" §
  16. "Conversations with Two Stools" (Drum Duet)*
  17. "Los Endos"
  18. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" §
  19. "Invisible Touch" §
  20. "I Can't Dance" §
  21. "The Carpet Crawlers" §

§ - performed in a lower key to compensate for the deepening of Phil Collins's voice.

An identical setlist was performed on the North American leg of the tour,[16] with the band's producer, Nick Davis, stating that no changes are planned.[17] Tony Banks had earlier cited "In Too Deep" as a likely addition to the North American set, possibly at the expense of "Ripples", but that change was not made. The only exception to the setlist was on 12 October at the Hollywood Bowl, where the last two songs had to be dropped due to the heavy rain causing problems with Tony Banks's keyboards. [13]

At the beginning of the drum duet Thompson and Collins begin drumming either side of two barstools. This idea evolved from when Collins was interviewed during the Way We Walk tour about how the duets are constructed. He said: "A lot of the patterns evolve through the tour, so the duet at the end of the tour is much longer than the one at the beginning. But initially me and Chester sit either side of a chair and drum out beats until something sticks."

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
Europe
11 June 2007 Helsinki Finland Olympic Stadium
14 June 2007 Herning Denmark Messecenter
15 June 2007 Hamburg Germany AOL Arena
17 June 2007 Berne Switzerland Stade de Suisse
19 June 2007 Linz Austria Gugl Stadium
20 June 2007 Prague Czech Republic Sazka Arena's carpark (replaced from Stadion Evžena Rošického)
21 June 2007 Katowice Poland Stadion Śląski
23 June 2007 Hanover Germany AWD-Arena
24 June 2007 Brussels Belgium Stade Roi Baudouin
26 June 2007 Düsseldorf Germany LTU Arena
27 June 2007 LTU Arena (Broadcasted live to cinemas in the UK, Spain, and Sweden)
28 June 2007 Stuttgart Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadium
30 June 2007 Paris France Parc des Princes
1 July 2007 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam Arena
3 July 2007 Berlin Germany Olympiastadion
4 July 2007 Leipzig Zentralstadion
5 July 2007 Frankfurt Commerzbank-Arena
7 July 2007 Manchester United Kingdom Old Trafford Football Stadium
8 July 2007 London Twickenham Stadium
10 July 2007 Munich Germany Olympic Stadium
12 July 2007 Lyon France Gerland Stadium
14 July 2007 Rome Italy Circo Massimo (free concert)
North America
7 September 2007 Toronto Canada BMO Field
8 September 2007 Buffalo United States HSBC Arena
9 September 2007 Pittsburgh Mellon Arena
11 September 2007 Boston TD Banknorth Garden
12 September 2007 Albany Times Union Center
14 September 2007 Montreal Canada Olympic Stadium
15 September 2007 Ottawa Scotiabank Place
16 September 2007 Hartford United States Hartford Civic Center
18 September 2007 Philadelphia Wachovia Center
19 September 2007
20 September 2007
22 September 2007 Columbus Nationwide Arena
23 September 2007 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center
25 September 2007 New York City Madison Square Garden
27 September 2007 East Rutherford Giants Stadium
29 September 2007 Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
30 September 2007 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills
2 October 2007 Chicago United Center
3 October 2007
4 October 2007
6 October 2007 Denver Pepsi Center
9 October 2007 San Jose HP Pavilion at San Jose
10 October 2007 Sacramento ARCO Arena
12 October 2007 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl
13 October 2007

References

  1. ^ "Press conference, 7th November 2006, Mayfair hotel, London". genesis-news.com. Retrieved on 23 March 2007.
  2. ^ "Steve Hackett's website". stevehackett.com. Retrieved on 23 March 2007.
  3. ^ "Genesis Encore Series". genesis-music.com Retrieved on 10 June 2007.
  4. ^ "The Life Of Phil". genesis-news.com. http://www.genesis-news.com/philcollins/biography.html. Retrieved 2007-09-04. 
  5. ^ a b "The Press Conference - Interview Transcript". genesis-news.com. http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/interviews/press_conference_06.html. Retrieved 2007-09-04. 
  6. ^ "Genesis Press Conference Montage". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlf4jForyoU. Retrieved 2007-09-04. 
  7. ^ "Cossonay Rehearsals: Behind The Lines". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3d2RyiEyh0. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  8. ^ "Cossonay Rehearsals: I Know What I Like". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH9ndu2B8xo. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  9. ^ a b "Genesis in Cossonay/CH". Official Phil Collins Forums. Archived from the original on 2008-01-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20080104204020/http://www.philcollins.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=1264&st=20. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  10. ^ "Cossonay Rehearsals: Follow You, Follow Me". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW5ad1Wiv6Y. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  11. ^ "Cossonay Rehearsals: I Can't Dance". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE2OaivkZZ4. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  12. ^ "Cossonay Rehearsals: Throwing It All Away". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqLbx1wTSZI. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  13. ^ a b "Interview with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford". genesis-news.com. http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/interviews/2007-tour-hannover.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  14. ^ "Brussels Dress Rehearsal 2007". genesis-news.com. http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/live/2007-dress-rehearsal-brussels.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-05. 
  15. ^ "Helsinki Set List". themusic.com. http://www.themusic.com/encore/setlist.cfm?id=9002298. Retrieved 2007-10-13. 
  16. ^ "2007 North American Set Lists". genesis-movement.org. http://www.genesis-movement.org/tioa2007na.html. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
  17. ^ ""No Changes Planned for North America"". genesis-news.com. http://www.genesis-news.com/live-2007-blog/2007/08/26/genesis-according-to-nick-davis-no-setlist-changes-planned-for-north-america/. Retrieved 2007-09-05.