Tony Banks, Phil Collins e Mike Rutherford si sono concessi alle domande e alle foto dei giornalisti.
Presenti anche i rappresentanti dei tre piΓΉ grandi fanclub: Mario Giammetti di DUSK (Italia), Alan Hewitt e Stuart Barnes di THE WAITING ROOM (Inghilterra) e Christian Gerhardts di IT (Germania).
Ecco la trascrizione integrale della conferenza stampa, tratta dal sito webΒ genesis-news.comΒ (per la versione italiana CLICCA QUI):
David Baddiell:Β Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen – good afternoon everybody and also good afternoon if youβre one of the thousands – who knows – millions – logging in on the live-webcast on genesis-news.com.Β Perhaps I could begin by explaining why I am here.
Let me take you back to 1977. A rough time in London, the time of skinheads and punk rock, a year in which I myself was beaten up twice on the streets of London – once for being Jewish, once for being a Pakistani – true story – I tried to explain to the bloke who was beating me up for being Pakistani that I was Jewish but it made very little difference. Anyway, like many 14 year olds I was trying very hard to prove I was cool and not somebody should be beaten up by being into punk rock, so I dyed my hair, I ripped off all my t-shirts and then my mate Richard Gerald played meΒ Blood On The RooftopsΒ fromΒ Wind And WutheringΒ and I just thought – this is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. And I went out to buy that album, andΒ Trick Of The Tail, then all the earlier albums and comitragically for me I became a huge fan of Genesis just at the point in time when they were probably least fashionable – I mean you try and get it off with girls in 1977 by playing themΒ Supper’s ReadyΒ fromΒ FoxtrotΒ – I mean they were out the door before “a flower”. So it’s been written in blood for me – liking this band – I’ve actually seen the Genesis tribute band The Musical Box twice, twice β and cried while watching them, theyβre that bad β so, the truth is: I am still a fan, they are still unfashionable – but who cares. They are a group who over 30 years created some of the most amazing songs in the history of popular music, so let’s just remind ourselves of how good Genesis are.
>> Genesis video presentation <<
Okay, and now to tell us exactly where Genesis will be playing on theΒ Turn It On AgainΒ tour, please welcome the European tour promoter John Giddings.
John Giddings:Β Hello – I grew up on the music of Genesis, I was one of millions who bought their albums the day they were released, took them home up to my bedroom and learned every word to every song. Along with Pink Floyd, they created a depth and emotion to music way beyond the three minute single. I saw them at the Culham College, at Hemel Hampstead, I think the support band was Medicine Head, I promoted them at University on theΒ FoxtrotΒ tour, I saw them at Wembley stadium five or six nights, then at Knebworth – and now, 15 years later, I’m really pleased and proud to announce theyβre going to start a European tour in Helsinki on the 11th of June, they are then going on to Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, they are going to play the first ever show in Monaco in the stadium there and theyβre going to finish the tour in front of the Colosseum in Rome to 300.000 people – a free show. They’re going to play Twickenham in England and Manchester for the Northern fans. It’s gonna be a fantastic tour –Β Turn It On Again, thank you very much. Back to you, David.
David Baddiell:Β Thank you very much, John. Okay, now could you please welcome to the stage – the main act, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins – ladies and gentlemen – Genesis!
Q: Hello guys, are you alright?
Mike:Β Oh dear…
Q:Β Chaps, why have you waited 15 years for this reunion? What have you been doing?
Phil:Β Why have we waited fifteen years? β¦ we just sort of felt that now was the kind of right time to have a go, really.
Q: How exactly did it come about? When did you first start talking about it?
Phil:Β Well I guess I left in β94 and I did some things on my own, Genesis carried on and you know, I used to listen to the odd bits and pieces at home, missed cameraderie a bit, you know… Anyway I was on tour on my own when theΒ first boxsetΒ came out with the Peter Gabriel stuff and I remember thinking that at some point someone would ask us to do something, and no-one did. That was how it went, and I was just talking about it, then theΒ next boxsetΒ came out and I thought someone would ask us and, again, no-one did.Β Meanwhile, just talking about it and us three weβve seen each others many many times since I left and we kind of bring it up every time we sat down together to talk about it – and sometimes we talked ourselves out of it and we just decided that this was as good a time as any to sort of actually do something.
Q:Β Itβs one of the interesting things about Genesis, I think, is – I mean the history of rock music is littered with bands who all hate each other but you lot, you don’t, do you. So it seems to be very little rancour. It just seems to be very quiet, very friendly despite the fact that you’ve come and gone over the years.
Mike:Β Yes – I can’t imagine being on the road with people I don’t like and we had a great time just recording and writing stuff and touring.
Q:Β We saw some footage of rehearsals – how have the rehearsals been going, do you remember the songs?
Tony:Β Yes, we remembered the songs …
Phil:Β He asked the wrong guy here –
Tony:Β …but we wondered if we could still play them. A few things had to be worked through, get the fingers moving, get the drummer on speed, things like that. But after a few days we kind of β¦. The songs are so much part of our lives so we obviously still remember everything and weβre doing songs right back from as far as 1973 in the shows, so, after a little bit of memory jogging you find your hands just slip back exactly where they were at that time.
Q:Β So it’s a big European tour. Are you going to be touring in the US next year?
Phil:Β Yeah, there are plans to do a selection of shows rather than a tour – which is the way I like to look at it. I stopped touring, so I donβt call it a tour, it’s a selection of shows, which we will do all over Europe and then another selection of shows in North America – and thereβs only 20 of these, and thereβs only 20 in America., that doesn’t seem like a tour, it seems more like a selection of shows, really. Shall I say it again? A smorgasbord of shows.
Q: Are you rugby lovers, as you’re playing Twickenham, arenβt you? Do you like rugby or do you like football more? βCause youβre playing Old Trafford the next day.Β What will it be like to play a stadium like that?
Mike:Β I think it will be quite good – no one is too far away – I mean the old Wembley with guys at the very back you know.
Phil:Β When I was at school I ran at Twickenham – I lived in Hounslow and went to school just a stonethrow from Twickenham and I lost many a race at Twickenham.
Q:Β I was told to ask you this, so donβt be offended, but do you have Peter Gabriel’s phone number, did you ask Peter about joining you?
Tony:Β Well, I have. Well when we first started talking about it the original idea was actually to doΒ The Lamb Lies Down On BroadwayΒ with Peter and Steve and we had lots of talks about it and then we finally had a meeting which I thought was gonna be the day where we say “yes let’s do it today” but Peter said – this is a meeting of thinking about talking about things in the future. And we thought at that point, this is gonna be quite a long way away – 2, 3, 4 5 – 10 years – in Peter’s schedule 25 years. So we thought at that time – we were still in the same room, why not doing this tour, the three of us with Chester and Daryl on drums and guitar – and that’s why we’re here.
Q:Β But do you think that there is a chance in the future of doing something with Peter?
Mike:Β The idea of doingΒ The LambΒ is quite fun and appealing, I mean Peter has an album coming out next year and he may be on tour the same time as us.
Phil:Β Well sometimes you read that he is into it, sometimes you read he is not. I think he is far more sensitive than we are about what it means, you know. This is just music, us getting together and playing some songs. I think that certainly from my point I have done as much as I can, and this is, I think, great fun to do, whereas Peter, since he left, has very much been doing his thing, albeit lots of things under that umbrella. I think heβs just a little overcautious sometimes about going to back to doing something that, basically, fundamentally, is just fun.
Q.Β So can you give us any clues about the set list? I would like you to a song calledΒ More Fool MeΒ fromΒ Selling England By The Pound, which you sung, which I really love and itβs just you and acoustic guitar. Will you be doing that?
Phil:Β No.Β But if you would come along, Iβm sure Mike will accompany you. Weβve started to run through things. Weβve had two weeks rehearsals already which was actually a layover from the Peter thing becauseβ¦ We were going to doΒ The Lamb, we were talking about doingΒ The Lamb Lies DownΒ and having seen The Musical Box as well, actually, Iβd kind of forgotten most of it and got terrified at having to play it. And I think they both felt β¦
Q.Β Is it just really hard to play?
Phil:Β Yes. The person that you were thirty-two years ago played differently than now. We all did, you know. But these two weeks we had in New York was mainly just to get our feet wet with playing that stuff, and that kind of fell out of the window with all thatβs been happening round the Peter thing. So we just used the time to play through the songs that we may do.
Q.Β So thereβs going to be a huge range of stuff going back, as you said, Mike, to 1973, right up to the last album you released?
Mike:Β Definitely. We rehearsed far too much, as usual, but weβll play with Daryl [Stuermer] and Chester [Thompson] again. Weβre doing a fair amount of the longer instrumental stuff, and the double drum stuff I kind of missed, you know. The sound you get when you got two drummers. The racket you get when you got two drummers.
Q.Β Thatβs all the questions that Iβve got, butΒ [adressing the press]Β youβve probably got some questions. I will take my leave now, but I think Claire is going to come and field questions from the audience.
Q.Β Iβd like to know if the dynamics between you have changed in the intervening years, what it feels like to be back together and are you also trying out new material?
Tony: The funny thing is: When you get back together itβs just like youβd never been apart, really. You just slip back into the same way you used to behave. Thatβs half the appeal, really, youβre going back it. Itβs the same thing with old friends, school friends β you might meet even 20 years later and itβs funny how quickly you slip back into it. So I donβt think the dynamics have changed from that point of view. To answer the second part of your question, there is no plan at this point in time to do anything new.
Phil:Β We do see each other quite a lot, you know, for various reasons, like when both box sets came out. There were birthday parties, weddings, all kinds of things. We see each other quite a lot, itβs not like we havenβt seen each other. We havenβt played together, well, actually we did play together at my 50th and we played at my wedding. But we actually see each other quite regularly. We played at Peterβs wedding, didnβt we? So itβs not really that special in terms of us getting back together. We just havenβt been working in the same office, as it were.
Q:Β You are playing eight gigs in Germany, more than any other country. Is there any reason for this? Do you love Germany or β¦?
Phil:Β [laughs]Β We knew weβd be asked this. Germany is a big country, and trying to get from A to C we have to go through B. For a variety of reasons weβre playing places that, historically, have been very good for us as well as some places that we have never played before. Just trying to find a balance, really.
Tony:Β Germany attracts from the neighbouring countries as well. Weβre not doing Denmark, weβre not doing lots of other places. It is that sort of central point that people can come to. And it would be fair to say that, of all countries, probably Germanyβs always been the place that wants to see us most. So thatβs why weβre paying a little more time there.
Q:Phil, youβve talked about the hearing loss youβve suffered in your left ear. What sort of advice to you have medically about going on a tour? Will you be playing drums at some point each night during the tour? Will you be able to protect your hearing on this tour?
Phil: Oh, I donβt go for the protection.Β [laughter]Β My hearing is no better and no worse than it was six years ago when it happened. At one point I was advised not to do any more live shows because β why take the risk of buggering the other one up? But it wasnβt music that did it, it was a viral infection which could have happened to anybody and unfortunately happened to me. I went on my last tour because I realized that it wasnβt actually going to suffer, I could perform without it really taking any toll. So I will be playing drums, oh God, yes, I will be playing drums, but as soon as I practised I realized that β¦ Those two weeks in New York I realized maybe Iβve got to practice more. Thereβll be lots and lots of drum moments. It doesnβt really get in the way. In a loud environment, like in a loud restaurant I find it very difficult to hear, but normally itβs fine. Itβs levelled off, my brain has adjusted β which is good for drumming.
Q:Β Turn it on again β The tour. Was this a long-term plan of you coming together, going on tour again or did it just happen to be?
Mike:Β It just happens to be. Weβre not very good at long-term planning. Sometimes you make these big long plans and they donβt happen and people just get a bit annoyed. We just do what comes along. As weβve said, this is the right time for us, for many reasons, and then weβll just see, really. For years when we were asked about touring, and I would say βneverβ, but then here we are. Thereβs nothing planned, but who knows?
Q:Β How important is the fun part?
Mike:Β Fun part? God, itβs really important. If we couldnβt make this fun to do, why do it? We get on great and I think it will be great. Iβm really looking forward to it.
Phil:Β I know itβs hard to believe right now, but we spend an awful lot of the time laughing. This isnβt the most natural environment for us, but we do get on really, really well. We just had two weeks in New York, and it was fifty percent laughing, well, 25 percent laughing, 25 percent playing and 50 percent hanging around. It was great fun.
Q:Β We talked with each other two years ago at The Farm about the box set, and the material ofΒ Wind And WutheringΒ andΒ A Trick Of The Tail. Are you going to do some material of that because thatβs the most likely, lovely to play, I guess. Are you going to do that old stuff?
Tony:Β Weβre going to play fromβ¦ Well, we also got sixteen albums so weβre playing a bit from everything. In the case ofΒ Trick Of The Tail, yes, weβre definitely playing some things from that, certainlyΒ Los Endos. We havenβt totally finalized exactly what weβre gonna play. Thereβll be stuff from every era,Β Wind And WutheringΒ weβre certainly doingΒ AfterglowΒ and stuff, you canβt do. You just canβt do too much from any one era. I suppose the era weβre doing more of is the last couple of albums, the last couple of albums we did with Phil, at leastΒ We Canβt DanceΒ andΒ Invisible TouchΒ because it produced a lot of hits, and people coming to the shows would like to hear some of those. Thatβs how weβre sort of deciding.
Q:Β Do you intend to release the shows as an Encore Series, like Peter Gabriel did? What about releasing the soundboard shows from previous tours and the Jackson tape and all that stuff?
Phil:Β Huh?
Mike:Β Dear me, I donβt know. Havenβt though about it.
Tony:Β It has been talked about for the existing tour. Thereβs certainly no technical reason why it canβt be done.
Mike:Β [to Tony]Β What do you think?
Tony:Β Warts and all if people wanted it. In terms of the old board tapes, weβve got stacks of them. A lot of them would be recorded over, I have to say, for other things. Thereβs an awful lot there, and weβve talked many times about doing this. Itβs just a lot of work to do for somebody to get it in a state where it can actually be put of to people who like to have it. If people would like to have it β I know people would, you know, but weβve talked about it for quite a few years and not done anything yet, so donβt hold your breath.
Phil:Β I would have thought there would be some kind of momentum for it in some shape or form. Weβre going to have screens, Iβm sure, because weβre going to be playing outdoors, and if youβre filming every night you may as well record it if youβre doing a live shoot, so itβs probably kind of inevitable. We havenβt actually got that far in talking about it.
Q.Β You are kind of denying the tour because you call it βshowsβ although itβs written on the screen there, βthe tourβ.Β [laughter all around]Β I just wonder if youβre worried about the physical stress β¦
Phil:Β [calls out in mock surprise as he pretends to notice the words on the screen for the first time]Β Itβs wrong, itβs a selection of shows.
Q:Β [continues]Β How do you prepare physically for the βselection of showsβ, then?
Phil:Β I donβt, personally speaking. Tony goes into a very rigid regime when heβs, uh,Β [makes piano playing gestures with his hand]Β all night. The rehearsing does it. Iβm not very good at training, Iβve never been good at just sitting on a bike in the same place. I find I get healthier and fitter doing it, so Iβll be trying my best in the rehearsals. My main thing is not getting fit, itβs actually making sure I donβt get ill, a cold or something, because that would bugger the whole thing up. Iβll be trying my best to do that. Itβs not that strenuous, a selection of shows.
Q.Β How important is the financial element of this tour, or is it a purely artistic endeavour?
Mike:Β Oh, that questionβ¦
Tony:Β Weβre just doing it for fun, and also, hopefully, β¦ Any other area I care about a little thing is that, if Genesis is played on the radio at all these days it tends to be (in England, I canβt speak for the rest of the world) β it tends to be things likeΒ Follow You Follow MeΒ orΒ I Canβt DanceΒ or something. Genesis has another side to it, which is what makes us distinctive, I think, and is probably the reason why weβve lasted all the years I have, which is of a rather more complex area of music. The band is slightly schizophrenic. Sometimes one area gets slightly more attention than the other. So I am very pleased about it that weβre going to play things likeΒ Los Endos, Domino, In The CageΒ and something like this which represent the other side of us as well. Thatβs one of the motives for me for doing it, trying to reacquaint people. Genesis is not a group that is sort of mentioned these days in the papers I read, anyhow. Iβd just like to remind people that we did do a lot of different things.
Phil: If money was an issue, weβd be doing more than 20 shows. If we would just satisfy the demand that I suspect there is out there we would be playing in the Far East, we would be playing South America, we would be playing Asia, we would be playing more shows than we are in Europe, more shows than we are going to be playing in America. I think we are all loaded enoughΒ [laughter]without worrying about where the next million or two will be coming from. No, itβs true, we would be playing multiple dates in multiple stadiums. The reason we put a cap on it is we want to do this for us as much as anything else.
Mike: It also makes it seem more special than the whole year tours we used to do. It becomes something else by being just the twenty shows here and in America. It should feel more special for that reason.
Q:Β I wonder if you have a visual concept for your series of shows.
Phil:Β A visual concept. Weβre still doing that, weβve had meetings where itβs been thought of that area. We owe it to ourselves to try and make it look good. If we are playing some stadiums there are people at the back that wonβt see things, so of course there will be some kind of visual presentation. Bigger isnβt necessarily better. Weβre still humming and hahing about that. Weβre talking about next June so we still got plenty of time, but we have started thinking about it.
Q:Β Β Iβm a little bit surprised that Steve Hackettβs name hasnβt come up so far in this discussion because he was very proactive, so Iβm led to believe, in the reunion. Whatβs the score with that?
Mike:Β That was one of two combinations. One was as the five-piece with Peter and Steve doing something from that era, and the other was obviously the three-piece. The three-piece comes with Daryl and Chester, really.
Q:Β Is he upset that heβs not involved in this?
Tony:Β I think he would have liked to do, certainly if we were doing the thing with Peter. And this era, the four-piece if you like, was a very short period of time. +It is not really malleable to think that we would tour for years after that with Daryl.+ Thatβs how I see it. It would get uncomfortable to go back to a hybrid kind of situation.
[transcriberβs note: Tonyβs answer is very difficult to hear. The sentence marked by + in particular is hardly intelligible. Readers who can make out better what Tony says are heartily invited to improve on my version]
Q:Β Classic Rock readers would hate me if I didnβt ask this, but are you perhaps planning to do Supperβs Ready?
Tony:Β Weβre notΒ planningΒ to do Supperβs Ready. Wellβ¦ you asked were weΒ planning!
Q:Β I would like to know if there is any chance that you perform any songs from theΒ Calling All StationsΒ album?
Mike:Β No. At the moment weβve rehearsed a lot of music, way too much already. We look forward to playing it, really. At the moment weβve got far too much material to play so nothing comes first really.
Q:Β So β have you guys lost it?
Mike:Β What do you think?
Tony:Β Come and judge for yourself when weβre playing, I think, is the answer to that. Iβve been playing quite a bit, to test my fingers, did a classical project three years ago. Itβs just getting back to playing that kind of music, itβs just those parts again, really. It shouldnβt be a problem, but who knows?
Q: Apart from yourselves, another band, All Saints, have reformed. Whatβs your take on that?
Tony:Β Iβm afraid I donβt know they split up. Youβre asking the wrong person. I havenβt really listened to very much since about 1968.
Q:Β You mentioned that youβre actually playing songs this time so does that mean that weβll actually have complete songs rather than conflated medleys this time round?
Phil:Β Picky, picky, picky!Β – We are only too aware, I think, that you try and please everybody and you end up pleasing nobody sometimes. We used to put these medleys together because they referenced an era as well as anything else. Sometimes we realized that they kind of fall between two stools and donβt satisfy anybody because theyβre just little bits. We are addressing that problem and the committee is meeting. No, we have sorted that out. And weβre doing more of them. Thereβll be a couple.
Tony:Β Instrumental medleys, anyhow.
Q:Β Phil, a couple of years ago there was a rather surprising hip hop tribute album released by a load of American hip-hoppers and R βn B acts, a tribute to you, obviously. Now, hip-hoppers have a very strong tradition of appearing on stage on each others concerts, so when you tour America you think that 50 Cent and the gang might be doing a guest appearance at your show?
Phil:Β [lost for words]Β If they can drum and sing they can certainly take my place, butβ¦ Weβre much hipper than people think.Β There is a kind of rebirthing interest amongst other bands and sampling stuff. One track,Β Land Of Confusionby Disturbed comes to mind. It was kind of a big hit in the States. If you actually talk to musicians thereβs quite a lot of respect for bands like us. I doubt that theyβd come onstage with us because weβre really not that kind of band. Itβs not as if we do a twelve-bar and everybody would come on and sing along. Itβs very flattering, I gotta say. There had been versions of my songs and also ofΒ Thatβs All.Β Thereβs a track calledΒ Thatβs AllΒ which I played the guys the other day βcause I keep an eye open for this kind of stuff and I grab a copy and I played themΒ Thatβs AllΒ because itβs illuminating. It just means that weβre not stuck in the 80s as some people tend to think of us. People go back and revisit this stuff and they bring it into this day and age. Itβs flattering to be looked at slightly differently from another area of music.
Q:Β A question about the last show in Rome. It is the only show outside a stadium in a public square. Are you preparing something special for that occasion? Phil: Well, hopefully the event itself will be special. Thereβll be a lot of people so obviously thereβs gonna be some changes. Weβre gonna make sure that it works if itβs gonna be that big for that many people. Itβs too early to get specifics on that one. Itβs going to be a fantastic opportunity to play to an awful lot of crazy Italians. Perfect.
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