| 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 | ||||
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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.
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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]
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]
§ - 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."