Genesis Live - We Can't Dance Tour; Cowdray Ruins '93

We Can't Dance (8/5/92-17/11/92)

As always, see anything you like, email me. All boots are listed in chronological order, and all are on Audio CD-R unless I say otherwise. All dates are written in the European style, as in day/month/year. Click on the text links below to scroll directly to the entry you're interested in.

Tour Summary and Menu

WCD Rehearsals, 4/5/92 (Texas Stadium, Irving Texas)

Astrodome, 9/5/92 (Astrodome, Houston Texas)

Cleveland '92, 25/5/92 (Municipal Stadium, Cleveland OH)

Veterans Stadium '92 (first night), 31/5/92 (Philadelphia, PA)

We Walked on Hornet Field, 19/6/92 (Hornet Field, CSUS)

We Walked on Hornet Field (CF), 19/6/92

Live in Vienna, 16/7/92 (Wiener Pater Stadion, Austria)

Munich '92 (DD), 17/7/92 (Olympic Stadium, Munich)

The Last Dance, 2/8/92 (Knebworth Park, Stevenage)

The Carpet Crawlers, 23/10/92 (Mayflower Theatre)

BURP 11, 16/11/92 (Royal Albert Hall, London)

COWDRAY RUINS 1993

Cowdray Ruins, 18/9/93 (Cowdray Ruins, Oxford England)

WCD Rehearsals

4/5/92

1 Hold on My Heart (5:18)
2 Way of the World (6:31)
3 Domino (11:23)
4 Throwing It All Away (5:34)
5 Post-Show Radio Outro (1981)(2:57)

Type/Quality: Soundboard/Very Good-Good

Comments: At Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas, this is a rare little thing which features the only recorded instance of "Way of the World" being played outside of the studio. I assume this date is correct; it is what was given to me by the person I got it from, and also what the disc labeled itself as after my computer's CD player consulted the online database. There's a low buzz on it, some hiss, and the occasional low pop, but generally this is a very good soundboard recording. It gets a bit crackly on louder bits, and there is also a loud scratch at the end of the disc. Definitely a rehearsal performance, there is no audience to be heard and Phil screws up lyrics at least once in every song! He also makes some conversational comments during the songs, but in a lower voice so that it's hard to tell what he's saying. Interestingly, it sounds as though the first and second songs would have faded right into each other as the band simply shifted from one song to the next, but a fade-out and fade-in and a short pause have been stuck between them.

The last track is an odd addition to what is certainly a very partial type of recording--it appears to be an "interview" track which was originally placed at the end of the Nassau/Savoy soundboard recordings of 1981. This version is a tad more intelligible than others I have, but nonetheless it seems very out of place on this disc. It's basically a heck of a lot of people in the dressing room after the show with the band, while the band are trying to get something to eat. They say some humorous things to each other and to the visitors. They get introduced to people and promptly forget who they are. A couple of guys discuss the sound quality of the previous performance. There is a mention of Pat Purcell interestingly enough, who often used to post on the official site's forum. A DJ introduces the track and then comes back on at the end to discuss the band's schedule on tour, while the DoaV theme from "Endos" plays. Says the DJ, "That's the way it usually is after a concert."

Astrodome

9/5/92

1-1 Land of Confusion (5:37)
1-2 No Son of Mine (7:03)
1-3 Driving the Last Spike (11:25)
1-4 Old Medley (20:52)
1-5 Dreaming While You Sleep (8:45)
1-6 Fading Lights (12:34)
1-7 Jesus He Knows Me (5:20)

2-01 Home by the Sea (5:20)
2-02 Second Home by the Sea (6:47)
2-03 Hold on My Heart (5:09)
2-04 Mama (8:25)
2-05 Domino (11:26)
2-06 I Can't Dance (7:23)
2-07 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:35)
2-08 Invisible Touch (5:41)
2-09 Throwing It All Away (6:18)
2-10 Turn It on Again (6:44)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: Genesis live at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. This is the second show of the WCD tour. This bootleg has a name and everything, and has been slickly edited and put together. Some people rate it relatively lower than my rating--and it is true that the music sounds somewhat far away. But Phil's voice is very clear, and vocals probably are a very strong factor in my weighing of quality. I thought this was an okay show. It's early in the tour so the set is interesting and has a couple of slightly rare songs. The one problem I have in it is in the area of cuts; I'll detail the cuts as I go through the details of the show.

The first probable cut is the story for "Driving the Last Spike;" there is no story. The edit is done so smoothly (as are most of the other edits in this show) that you might not even notice it--I only caught it because I know that there was usually a story for this song, which also involved Phil greeting the audience for the first time (without this intro, Phil never really gets a chance to say hello to the fans). There is an intro for the "Old Medley," and it's pretty much your typical intro for this song. The second verse of IKWIL is not sung by Phil--either this is another very slick edit, or the band simply neglected to play that part of the song. I lean toward the latter explanation; it does sound as if the band hesitates right before moving on past the second verse, and being that this is an early show, errors like this are to be expected (though for most of the show, the band seems pretty well rehearsed and on target, and errors of this kind are few).

Phil provides a band intro for Daryl and Chester before "Dreaming While You Sleep" (along with the intros during "Turn It on Again," they get to be cheered by the crowd twice in one gig--this may have been SOP for this tour). DWYS was not played every night of the tour, and this is the only Genesis tour in which it was played live. Tony seems to hesitate slightly during his solo in "Fading Lights," but there are no obvious screw-ups. Phil tells a drawn out story about TV evangelists before "Jesus He Knows Me;" it has very little of his evangelist impersonation and is instead a rather boring description of the shadier types of TV preachers.

Another story intro is cut before HBTS, so we don't get to hear the audience lowering the lights of the Astrodome with their goofy ghost noises. So far, the cuts seem to have all come between songs, but the next cut unfortunately carves out a small chunk from "Mama"--doubly unfortunate, because "Mama" was a very rare number for this tour (it was dropped before the end of May in an attempt to save Phil's voice). The cut removes a bit of the opening, including a line or so of vocals. It's not a devastating loss, and the edit is fairly smooth. There is an interesting and possibly unintentional segue between "Hold on My Heart" and "Mama"--the drum machine beat for "Mama" starts while Phil is still busy singing choruses for HOMH. This may be due to a lack of coordination in the band, or they might have actually wanted the transition--I'm not sure. It's remotely possible that this segue is actually a clever crossfade made by the person who created this recording--but I don't think so.

I think this is a fairly good performance--like I said, early shows in a tour can suffer from technical problems and misplayed notes, but this one seems fairly low on those (except for some lyric slips from Phil which come later in the gig). Another thing that early tour shows suffer from, however, is an uncertainty in song intros and rapport with the crowd, and I think this gig definitely has that problem. Phil's intros seem uninspired and devoid of their usual wit and energy--even his typical "Domino Principle" story seems kind of boring. On the other hand, the crowd seems generally very positive and easygoing, and they provide some good energy. Phil is unable to work with this vibe, and seems uncomfortable when he's not singing.

The final cut in the recording is probably the most severe of all--though again, since the edits are so well hidden, I am left wondering whether it's really a cut. But looking at other set lists of this period, which all include a drum duet before ICD, I conclude that that entire number has been cut from this recording. This is kind of a shame, but at least it doesn't interrupt the flow of the show at all.

For the ending numbers of the show, Phil's memory or concentration seems to start breaking down. He messes up one of the choruses on ICD, some of the beginning words of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight," and one of the lines of "Invisible Touch." Still, these are some good performances. The music is good, the sound quality is not bad at all, the audience behaves itself, and some of the songs are rare. You can't expect much more from a good audience boot.

Cleveland '92

25/5/92

1-1 Land of Confusion (6:31)
1-2 No Son of Mine (8:47)
1-3 Driving the Last Spike (12:22)
1-4 Old Medley (19:48)
1-5 Fading Lights (11:00)
1-6 Jesus He Knows Me (6:32)
1-7 Dreaming While You Sleep (8:44)

2-1 Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (15:31)
2-2 Hold on My Heart (7:48)
2-3 Domino (11:38)
2-4 Drum Duet (4:42)
2-5 I Can't Dance (7:06)
2-6 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:35)
2-7 Invisible Touch (8:05)
2-8 Throwing It All Away (6:17)
2-9 Turn It on Again (7:41)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Fair

Comments: At the Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. When I first acquired this show, even Simon Funnell did not list a copy of a show from this date in his collection (he now lists one which matches my track times). I got this show from the person who recorded it. It is a fairly complete recording from early in the tour, featuring the slightly rare "Dreaming While You Sleep" (which Phil prefaces with a story that actually explains the song, naming the main character "Johnny"). And finally, what I found most interesting of all, this is the show where Mike Rutherford slips on the steps of the stage while doing "the walk" during "I Can't Dance." Mike often tells this story in interviews, and until I got this show I did not know the historic moment had actually been recorded. It's at about five minutes into the song, and you can kind of hear Mike's guitar affected by the fall--afterwards, Phil pointed at Mike and you can hear him say "He can't dance!"

Now onto the things that aren't so great about this recording. The music is quite far away and dull and the audience is very annoyingly intrusive. For most of the show you can very clearly hear conversations among the nearby audience members. You can hear people shouting "Down in front!" through most of the second verse of "No Son of Mine." I couldn't really make out Phil's first intro to the audience (apparently, though, it was very cold that day, especially for Memorial Day, and Phil hugs himself while sarcastically commenting "This is nice!"). I could make out the cries of vendors in the stadium; you can clearly hear a man shouting "Hot dogs!" during the quiet beginning of "Last Spike" (interesting to note that it seems the pitch drop that was put in the ending section of this song to save Phil's voice is not present here; this is the beginning month of the tour, so perhaps they hadn't started doing that yet). Phil's intro for "Old Medley" is also hard to make out. Something might be a little wrong on stage at this point, because Phil takes this moment to introduce Daryl and Chester, possibly playing for time. He would also later introduce them at the normal time, thereby providing two introductions for the guys in one night--but this may have been normal for this tour.

I heard some crackles during the instrumental bridge of "Fading Lights." There's a cut after that song which removes most of the intro for JHKM (though I'm told it was the typical intro for that song that night). As mentioned earlier, Phil tells the story for DWYS, which may be quite a rare thing. The taper told me that Tony slightly messes up during SHBTS, but I didn't even notice it. One thing that I did notice was the sound of someone throwing up as HBTS becomes SHBTS (unfortunately not an entirely unique occurrence in my bootleg collection). Afterwards, during "Hold on My Heart," you can hear other audience members discussing the drunken men involved in the incident (who by that time have "stumbled out"). There is a lot of immature booing during the "Domino Principle" intro; the sections of the audience who have not been chosen to cheer boo those who have. There is a cut in the "Drum Duet." Toward the end of the show, the crowd takes to hooting, using the trademark hoot developed by the audience of the classic "Arsenio Hall Show." Ahh, that takes me back to the early '90s... During IT, one can listen to more talk about how inconsiderate it is for people in the audience to stand up.

A couple of other comments on things in the show, which I will quote directly from the guy who recorded it: "Starting with "Hold On My Heart," you can hear a middle-aged woman make several comments to her companion who apparently needs a hearing aid or something. She is listening to the radio at one point and declares "There's a Genesis concert on 99.5." My friend Jeff wonders aloud "I wonder if it's being simulcast?" Considering that 12 years on nothing has surfaced in our boot world, I doubt they were simulcasting this concert. When Phil drops the "F" bomb during "Invisible Touch" the audience goes wild for a few seconds, then the woman has to repeat the line to her friend."

So I did find the audience quite annoying on this recording, and they often came close to drowning out the music. However, this is a somewhat rare show which features some rare things.

Veterans Stadium '92 (first night)

31/5/92

1-1 Land of Confusion (6:27)
1-2 No Son of Mine (9:12)
1-3 Driving the Last Spike (12:08)
1-4 Old Medley (20:49)
1-5 Throwing It All Away (7:27)
1-6 Fading Lights (13:01)
1-7 Jesus He Knows Me (5:41)

2-1 Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (16:28)
2-2 Hold on My Heart (8:50)
2-3 Domino (12:17)
2-4 Drum Duet (5:11)
2-5 I Can't Dance (8:15)
2-6 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:46)
2-7 Invisible Touch (6:48)

Type/Quality: Audience/Fair-Good

Comments: At Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. This was the first of two consecutive nights at the Vet (a venue which has, I believe, now been demolished!). The recording is complete; the only place where I thought there might be a cut was in the "Old Medley," just before "Follow You Follow Me." At the beginning of the show the taper says that the recording comes "Straight from the mouth of the Master Baiter (Masturbator?)." At the end he says that it has been a "King Dong (?) Production." Meanwhile someone else asks, "What's the quickest way out of here?" Even with these wonderful credits, the recording suffers from an overall quality problem. It is hissy and I gathered from the "Domino Principle" intro that the taper was somewhere near the back of the auditorium, so the audio pickup was probably just not that good; and there is chatter from the audience as well.

I also thought at times that the recording seemed slow, but this actually may just be Phil's voice. As the comments on the Movement for this date mention, Phil was not feeling well that night and saw a doctor after this show. The band skip the second encore of "Turn It on Again"--the taper is expecting the song, but it doesn't happen.

At the beginning of the show, Phil leads a "No rain, no rain!" chant. The taper, though familiar with the newer songs and general set list, does not seem to recognize "I Know What I Like" in the medley. This is a pretty much complete recording, and nice for that reason, but it's not among the best this tour has to offer.


	We Walked on Hornet Field 19/6/92

1-01 Land of Confusion (5:11)
1-02 No Son of Mine (6:53)
1-03 Intro: Spike (0:54)
1-04 Driving the Last Spike (10:16)
1-05 Intro: Old (1:13)
1-06 Old Medley (19:48)
1-07 Throwing It All Away (6:09)
1-08 Fading Lights (10:55)
1-09 Intro: Jesus (1:42)
1-10 Jesus He Knows Me (5:17)

2-01 Intro: Home (3:27)
2-02 Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (11:49)
2-03 Hold on My Heart (5:54)
2-04 Intro: Domino (2:48)
2-05 Domino (11:13)
2-06 Drum Duet (5:33)
2-07 I Can't Dance (7:05)
2-08 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:45)
2-09 Invisible Touch (5:27)
2-10 Turn It on Again (7:59)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: At Hornet Field at the California State University in Sacramento. This is a somewhat special show. This version came by a somewhat indirect course, pretty much straight from a very low generation tape. It was given to Susan Skutt, then transferred onto CD and those CDs given directly to me. The original CD show was on three discs--all I did to it (and I mean all) was take the tracks off and burn them onto 2 discs instead. I also made artwork for it. This artwork was updated and replaced because of the remastered version of this show, which is in the next entry and which is a marked improvement over this version. The artwork is available on The Movement.

As to the show itself--the sound is really quite excellent. As you can tell by listening to the Domino Principle intro, the recorder was down in front, which certainly helps. There's a girl nearby who screams a lot at the beginning of the show, but she calms down after a minute or so. There are two rather irritating tape errors on this show, one during the FOF section of the "Old Medley" and one during "Fading Lights." The recording seems to disappear, then comes in and out at very low volume. It's very jittery for a while, but eventually recovers. I estimate these patches last for about 10 seconds each. This however is the only problem the show has--otherwise, all of the songs are represented in great quality.

I do disagree a bit with the way this show has been edited--the person who transferred it was a little, shall we say, "fade happy." Almost every song fades out at the end, and many fade in at the beginning. I suppose this was an attempt to remove the superfluous applause and waiting between songs, but I'd rather have the whole show without the fades given a choice. The intros appear to be intact, except the first one which seems to have gotten cut off at the beginning--either due to the transfer or the original taper, I do not know. The fades do give one the impression of listening to a very professionally made recording, and other than the two tape errors (which were almost undoubtedly on the original tape and are quite irreparable, short of doing a splice from another show) I'd say this was a very well put together show.

As for the performance, Genesis seem in normal mode--I suppose this was a bit early in the tour for them, as they do make a few noticeable screw-ups, all during songs from the then-new album. Tony seems to miss his cue and comes in late during the instrumental bridge of "Fading Lights." Phil screws up lyrics in both "Jesus He Knows Me" and "Hold on My Heart." Other than that, a fantastic experience (and even the screw-ups are unique and interesting to hear). This is a well-recorded, low-generation show, complete and (at least at the time I acquired it, in early 2003!) slightly rare.


	We Walked on Hornet Field (CF) 19/6/92

1-01 Land of Confusion (5:32)
1-02 No Son of Mine (7:03)
1-03 Intro: Spike (0:50)
1-04 Driving the Last Spike (10:34)
1-05 Intro: Old (1:13)
1-06 Old Medley (19:32)
1-07 Throwing It All Away (6:32)
1-08 Fading Lights (10:49)
1-09 Intro: Jesus (1:37)
1-10 Jesus He Knows Me (5:33)

2-01 Intro: Home (3:39)
2-02 Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (11:55)
2-03 Hold on My Heart (6:06)
2-04 Intro: Domino (2:36)
2-05 Domino (11:29)
2-06 Drum Duet (5:43)
2-07 I Can't Dance (9:32)
2-08 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:38)
2-09 Invisible Touch (5:39)
2-10 Turn It on Again (8:01)

Type/Quality: Audience/Very Good-Good

Comments: This is a Coaster Factory remaster of the previous entry. The fades between songs have been removed, and the complete audience stuff in between has been put back in. Also the show's overall sound has been improved. The tape errors described in the previous entry are still present, but they've been glossed over so that they don't sound as ugly. This version of the show was transferred directly from fourth generation tapes--one generation better than those of the previous version, and the best available. A final touch to this show was provided by me--all I really did was fiddle with the track breaks a little. Quite a good show, this one; very good audience stuff, up there with the best I have.

Live in Vienna

16/7/92

1-1 Land of Confusion (5:04)
1-2 No Son of Mine (7:04)
1-3 Driving the Last Spike (10:16)
1-4 Old Medley (20:00)
1-5 Throwing It All Away (6:37)
1-6 Fading Lights (10:49)
1-7 Jesus He Knows Me (5:15)

2-1 Hold on My Heart (4:56)
2-2 Home by the Sea (5:02)
2-3 Second Home by the Sea (6:53)
2-4 Domino/Drum Duet (17:44)
2-5 I Can't Dance (7:09)
2-6 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:38)
2-7 Invisible Touch (5:45)
2-8 Turn It on Again (6:51)

Type/Quality: Radio/Excellent-Very Good

Comments: At the Wiener Pater Stadion in Vienna, Austria, this is one of several radio shows available from the WCD tour. This one is very nice. The quality is about as good as it gets for my ears--the only thing I thought I noticed was that the cymbals and hi-hats and clashy sounds like that sounded particularly high in the mix. Unfortunately, for the sake of the radio broadcast all of Phil's song intros have been edited out of the recording; also, to remove announcer talking, the opening lines of "Hold on My Heart" are cut, and the song fades in. Another thing edited out which other people don't mention is a section of "Turn It on Again"--for some reason, the second time Phil says "down on my luck again" has been removed. This sounds slick enough that it may have been done on purpose, but I can't imagine why. Perhaps the band screwed up somehow. Or perhaps this error is only on my particular copy--it does have one other weird thing about it that is not on other versions, which is that HBTS and SHBTS come after "Hold on My Heart"--they should come before.

A couple other things: Phil sounds like he's about to say "Chester" right before he corrects himself and introduces Daryl. He uses the "F" word in "Invisible Touch," which I think was usual on this tour. Also, there appear to be two different available versions of this recording: this one, called either Vienna or Live in Vienna, and an upgraded version called Fading Lights in Vienna which is supposed to sound slightly better and also includes the announcer talking in a couple of places.

Munich '92 (DD)

17/7/92

1-1 Radio Intro (0:20)
1-2 No Son of Mine (7:01)
1-3 Intro: Spike (1:36)
1-4 Driving the Last Spike (10:23)
1-5 Throwing It All Away (6:36)
1-6 Radio Travel News (0:39)
1-7 Intro: Old (0:39)
1-8 Old Medley (19:42)

2-01 Hold on My Heart (6:16)
2-02 Land of Confusion (studio)(4:46)
2-03 Radio Intro (0:12)
2-04 Intro: Jesus (1:28)
2-05 Jesus He Knows Me (5:15)
2-06 Fading Lights (11:05)
2-07 I Can't Dance (7:11)
2-08 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:35)
2-09 Invisible Touch (5:27)
2-10 Turn It on Again (7:16)

Type/Quality: Radio/Very Good-Excellent

Comments: At the Olympic Stadium (or Olympiastadion) in Munich, this recording was apparently transferred from third generation tapes of the radio broadcast. The sound is quite nice. This recording is unique in my collection, as it is the first show I have which includes a traffic report--in German, no less (see disc 1, track 6)! Another unique part of this recording is that, due to technical difficulties of some kind, the radio station was unable to broadcast the first number in the set ("Land of Confusion"). So later in the show they played the studio version! The real show would have included several more songs, but this is the complete broadcast. My version is referred to as the DD version, but I'm not sure why--perhaps David Dunnington provided the tapes?

The Last Dance (I4Detail03)

2/8/92

1-01 Land of Confusion (5:37)
1-02 No Son of Mine (7:07)
1-03 Intro: Spike (1:52)
1-04 Driving the Last Spike (10:26)
1-05 Intro: Old (1:06)
Old Medley:
[1-06 Dance on a Volcano (2:09)
1-07 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (2:56)
1-08 The Musical Box (closing section)(3:00)
1-09 Firth of Fifth (4:20)
1-10 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe)/That's All/Illegal Alien/Your Own Special Way/Follow You Follow Me/Stagnation (7:32)]
1-11 Throwing It All Away (7:01)
1-12 Fading Lights (10:55)
1-13 Intro: Jesus (2:10)
1-14 Jesus He Knows Me (5:19)

2-01 Intro: Home (4:01)
2-02 Home by the Sea (5:21)
2-03 Second Home by the Sea (6:22)
2-04 Hold on My Heart (6:01)
2-05 Intro: Domino (2:46)
2-06 Domino (part 1)(4:21)
2-07 Domino (part 2)(7:14)
2-08 Drum Duet (6:20)
2-09 I Can't Dance (7:54)
2-10 Radio Announcer (2:06)
2-11 Intro: Tonight (1:04)
2-12 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:36)
2-13 Invisible Touch (5:41)
2-14 Turn It on Again (8:34)

Type/Quality: Radio/Very Good

Comments: At Knebworth Park in the UK, the casual listener will easily be tricked into thinking this is the last show of the WCD tour. Indeed, Phil is hinting as much during the recording, which is a complete and quite good quality radio broadcast of one of the bigger and more famous shows of the tour. However there did turn out to be quite a few gigs after this one, played mostly in smaller English halls from late October to mid-November of '92 (this bank of gigs was initiated with a show at the Mayflower Theatre which featured "Carpet Crawlers" and which I have a partial recording of--see the next entry). And even what was technically the last gig of this tour was not Phil's last gig with Genesis, as my last entry on this page can attest.

This particular gig was a huge gig, which was broadcast on several British radio stations as well as on TV (this version comes from a BBC Radio 1 broadcast). It was subsequently bootlegged in many different versions of varying completeness and quality. This one, a release by the short-lived I4Detail group, is probably one of the better ones, though the sound is still kind of weird (and they have deeply aggravated one of my main bootleg pet peeves by overtracking the whole show--if Phil had stopped to sneeze, it would have been on its own track). On the first song, the guitar seems too low in the mix and there is some strange reverb. After that it seems to get more natural, and though there is always a bit of roughness to it this is definitely a very complete and clean radio show which certainly deserves my Very Good rating.

The show itself is complete and features all of the intros. Phil points out that the show is going out all over the radio and on the television over all Europe. He tells all of the typical stories. During the standard audience participation before HBtS, Phil gets them all to raise their hands in the air and declares that they are a "true Genesis audience," because there are no cool people among them. There are no advertisement interruptions on here, and the only time you hear the radio announcer is when that person attempts awkwardly to fill up the space between the last number and the encore, and then adds some words after "Turn It on Again." Phil at the end of the show thanks the road crew and dedicates the encore to Dixie, a member of the crew who had passed on. This is probably among the best couple shows of this tour.

The Carpet Crawlers

23/10/92

1-1 No Son of Mine (7:09)
1-2 Driving the Last Spike (11:08)
1-3 Old Medley (18:44)
1-4 Throwing It All Away (6:06)

2-1 Fading Lights (11:48)
2-2 Jesus He Knows Me (5:41)
2-3 The Carpet Crawlers (8:32)
2-4 Home by the Sea (5:11)
2-5 Second Home by the Sea (6:26)
2-6 Hold on My Heart (5:51)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Fair

Comments: At the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, England, this is the only gig on this tour featuring "Carpet Crawlers"--hence the title. The band had just started the ending leg of their tour, playing smaller clubs in the UK, and for this gig they decided to pull out an oldie but a goodie. The quality could be better, but then again it could be worse. Unfortunately the recording is quite incomplete. The first number is missing as are the last several. There is a huge cut in "No Son"--the end of the first chorus and the entire second verse are gone. The show also has some digital stutters. In "Spike" when Phil sings "We worked in gangs" there is a small stutter. There's also a small stutter in the intro for "Jesus" and probably one in the very first note of SHBtS.

Phil tells the normal story for the "Old Medley," mentioning the bands' well-preserved torsos and the fact that the song is a "trip down memory lane." There's a big cut in the first verse of "Fading Lights," followed by a mic bump and some crackles. During the intro for HBtS, Phil makes the humorous assertion that "We don't allow any cool people to Genesis shows." After "Hold on My Heart" is over, he just starts discussing the "Domino Principle" and the recording cuts off. Not a particularly stellar show all in all, but possibly worth it for the rarity of "Crawlers"--though I already have that song on one of my compilation discs.

BURP 11

16/11/92

1-1 Introduction (2:33)
1-2 Land of Confusion (5:24)
1-3 No Son of Mine (8:25)
1-4 Driving the Last Spike (13:16)
1-5 Old Medley (19:47)
1-6 Fading Lights (13:01)
1-7 Jesus He Knows Me (5:30)

2-1 Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (15:15)
2-2 Hold on My Heart (9:19)
2-3 Domino (11:25)
2-4 Drum Duet (6:04)
2-5 I Can't Dance (9:04)
2-6 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:39)
2-7 Invisible Touch (5:20)
2-8 Turn It on Again (7:00)
2-9 Conclusion (0:36)

Type/Quality: Radio/Very Good-Excellent

Comments: At the Royal Albert Hall in London; this was the penultimate gig of the tour, a special one-off gig which Genesis agreed to do for the Prince's Trust charity, and the Prince of Wales himself attended. It was also broadcast over the radio, which is how this excellent recording of the show has become available. This version is from Trent FM and features a DJ who talks off and on during the show, but he never talks over an intro or over a song, and he doesn't say anything annoying. He just explains the charity and gives some very basic background on the band (how many albums they've put out over how many years, who's playing). Sometimes between songs he reminds the listeners just what it is they're listening to (Genesis live at the Royal Albert Hall in London; he says that a lot). The DJ gets an introductory track as the show begins and the Prince of Wales enters (I believe a short bit of "God Save the Queen" is played, and the audience laughs as one of their more enthusiastic members continues the song solo). He also gets an ending track featuring a re-cap of what we just listened to, plus a station ID and even the beginning of the next bunch of programming.

This appears to be a complete show, with all the songs, all the intros, and even all the cheering between the last number and the encores (over which the DJ talks, trying to fill up the dead air with vague info about the band). It sounds excellent. There are some slight rough spots during "Invisible Touch," and I thought Phil's voice sounded a tad odd and sort of lifeless for bits of some of the songs, but you couldn't ask for a much better show than this. It's definitely one of the best radio shows I've ever heard. Phil is in good form. He'd been singing for several months and had had to cancel some gigs because of his throat, so he may be a bit hoarse, but Phil is a professional and he doesn't really let it show. His intros are very typical, the same kind of stuff he'd been telling audiences for years: "We're going to play some new songs and some old songs, and maybe some really really old songs...some you'll like, some you won't..." I was a bit surprised that the crowd was composed of some Genesis scholars, who knew enough about the history of the band to scream "Supper's Ready!" repeatedly--to which Phil gives one of his traditional replies, "I remember my first beer, too..." He makes another reference during the "Domino Principle" story to the crowd being drunk. That intro goes off quite well, though, and Phil thanks the audience for their excellent participation afterwards.

I don't have much experience with this tour, and I was surprised to hear Phil tell a variation on the old "Romeo and Juliet" story before the "Old Medley." Other versions I have of this song do not have the Romeo and Juliet tale. In this story Romeo picks up Juliet in a bar and takes her home, only then discovering that she is an inflatable doll. It's a pretty funny story, especially Romeo's moment of realization. At least one member of the crowd (a crowd which as I say had one or two Genesis scholars in it) knows enough about the Romeo and Juliet tale to assume that the song Phil is introducing is "Cinema Show." Sadly, there is not even a bit of that song in the "Old Medley."

I was impressed with the mix on this recording, as I always prefer that radio shows let you hear the audience to a certain degree, during the songs and in between the songs, to give you a good flavor for the live atmosphere. This recording does that well, as you can tell from my previous allusions to cries from the audience. There is one particularly memorable moment where a fan shouts "Genesis!" into the silence and Phil replies, "Yes, that is correct! That was a lucky break, wasn't it?" Really taken for all and all, I think I would rather Genesis had released a full show like this one instead of their odd, 2-disc Way We Walk set (with songs organized by length, as though they were getting ready for their yearbook photos or something). This show is good enough quality to be sold as a live album. The only possible reason I can see to mess with it is the fact that it comes at a late point in the tour when "Dreaming While You Sleep" and "Throwing It All Away" were not played.

Cowdray Ruins '93

18/9/93

1 Turn It on Again (5:25)
2 Hold on My Heart (5:35)
3 I Can't Dance (6:16)
4 Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:34)
5 Invisible Touch (5:18)

Type/Quality: Audience/Poor-Fair

Comments: Another one-off gig played for a charity benefit (in this case, King Edward VII hospice, according to Alan Hewitt). Lots of bands were involved, including Pink Floyd and the remaining members of Queen. Roger Taylor, Queen's drummer, introduces Genesis, and then sits in on the drums. According to one boot site I saw, the band line-up was like this: Phil on vocals, Tony on keys, Mike on the bass, Tim Renwick on guitar, Gary Wallis and Roger Taylor on drums/percussion. I doubt the sit-in players had much time to rehearse or practice the material, and the percussion is noticeably off in songs like "Hold on My Heart." However, this was Phil's last gig with Genesis, and the only gig the band played in the whole year of 1993. A unique line-up playing a unique, shortened set. The recording quality is pretty awful, but it's there. This is the whole set played by Genesis, as far as I know--these particular tracks were taken from the Weston Springs '86 boot. There was originally a hiccup in "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight," which has been repaired here. There are other versions of this boot which also feature a bonus interview track--this is not one of those.