The Phil Collins–led incarnation of Genesis announced a reunion tour this morning. So far it’s just 10 arena dates in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but that’s almost certainly merely the first leg. The band hasn’t toured in any capacity since 2007 and can easily fill stadiums and arenas all across globe. Nothing is certain, but 2021 will probably be a very good year for Genesis fans.
The lineup this time is the 1978–1993 and 2007 incarnation of the band, minus touring drummer Chester Thompson. In his place is Phil’s teenage son Nic. He’s been playing in his dad’s solo group for years now and is more than ready for the job. Phil and Nic will be joined by founding keyboardist Tony Banks, founding guitarist-bassist Mike Rutherford, and touring guitarist Daryl Strummer, who has been with the band since 1978 and also plays in Phil’s solo group. Collins basically hasn’t played a concert of any kind without him in 43 years.
After Genesis started scoring massive radio hits like “Land of Confusion,” “That’s All,” and “I Can’t Dance,” they shied away from playing songs from their Seventies catalog, outside of a lone medley each night where they’d mash together as many vintage tunes as possible. That changed on the 2007 tour where they broke out prog-era gems like “Ripples,” “In the Cage,” and “I Know What I Like.” The show ended with an emotional rendition of the 1974 Lamb Lies Down on Broadway classic “The Carpet Crawlers.” Here’s video of them playing the song that year in front of an enormous audience at Rome’s Circus Maximus.
The group has yet to talk about what sort of songs they’re going to do this time. The big Eighties and early Nineties hits are basically a given, but we’d love to also hear things like “The Knife,” “Watcher of the Skies,” “Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974,” and “Dancing With the Moonlight Knight.” All 23 minutes of “Supper’s Ready” would be heavenly for prog fans, but we’ll probably have to wait until the day that Peter Gabriel finally fulfills his destiny and returns to the band he started all those decades ago.
