Re-Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down...

G2 - The 2001 Genesis Fan Convention

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Saturday March 31st 2001, at the Guildford Civic in Guildford, UK

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~andyrh/

Jamie Fisher (Drums)
Andy Hyam (Basses, 12-string Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Bass Pedals)
Tony Patterson (Vocals, Flute)
Steve Marsh (Lead and Acoustic Guitars)
Doug Melbourne (Keyboards)

Suppers Ready - http://www.pns.it/sready/
G2 - http://www.g2-convention.co.uk/
So what the hell is 'The Lamb' all about? - http://www.smu.edu/~katy/music/lamb.html

I'm always hesitant about going to any 'fan' convention; maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, but I do find rather creepy the fanatical devotion that some fans have to things like Star Trek, or certain bands - in this case Genesis. I love the music, but am definitely not one to be interested in when Phil Collins last farted on stage, etc….

I'm also not fond of the current UK situation, where it appears that the only live acts you can see are either huge Stadium Rockers or tribute bands. BUT, when I heard that at this year's convention, ReGenesis were, for one night only, going to cover my favourite 'Prog' album of all time, the temptation just proved too much.

As most of the G2 weekend appeared to consist of quizzes, bad quality videos, earnest chats about the chord structure and 'deep' lyrical meaning of Follow You, Follow Me and, shudder, Genesis karaoke! - we decided that an arrival earlier than 4pm was perhaps not a good idea. And so we arrived just in time to see the final round of 'Genesis Mastermind'. This year it was won by Volker from Germany who correctly knew that the guilty party was a bad curry on June 27th 1977 in the Vancouver Tandoori Parlour - or at least something like that… And then it was on with the bands.

First up, from Italy, Supper's Ready.

Instrumentally - rather excellent. Vocalist also very good but, as he admits, his poor English language knowledge showed, in the phrasing and diction, that he really did not know what he was singing about. However, knowing what was to come, the band delivered a well-chosen set consisting mainly of the instrumental tracks from Wind and Wuthering and then various takes from the Collins-era Genesis (Domino etc).

They finished their set with Watcher Of The Skies and also provided, down in the audience, my biggest 'smile' of the evening. Now we all know that Genesis (particularly the Gabriel era) and a female audience do not really mix. Standing in the audience next to me during Supper's Ready's set were two of that rarely-seen breed, female 'Prog Fans' (well at least 'Prog - slightly interesteds'), just listening to the music, minding their own business. At the end of Supper's Ready's rousing 'Watcher' rendition, Mr. Prog Anorak the 3rd, overcome with enthusiasm and lust, decided to rush back and make his move: "Hey girls - you can't tell me that didn't turn you on!" Quite. ;-)…

We spent the subsequent hour's break spent trying, unsuccessfully, to find an open fast food vendor offering anything tastier than a Big Mac. Then it was back to the Civic, and a couple of drinks later it was the moment I, at least, had been waiting 25 years for - a LIVE performance of 'The Lamb!'

Now much as I detest the almost total 'Tribute band' dominance of small UK venues, there is another argument that I sometimes use for justification of the very same thing. When a composer writes a piece of music, it is to be played by different orchestras over hundreds of years. Are we demeaning 'Rock' compositions by not allowing them the same life after the artists that wrote them have either died or ceased to play them? Is a recital of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by a bunch of new musicians any different from, or have any less 'artistic' value than, a performance of Mahler's second symphony?

ReGenesis have always been very good at recreating the sound and atmosphere of a Gabriel-era Genesis concert. Tonight they pulled out all the stops.

Arguably The Lamb is the only progressive rock concept album (with the possible exception of Dark Side Of The Moon) that has stood the test of time, having as much relevance today as in Prog's halcyon years of the early 70's. The album is a lot more song-based than previous Genesis works, a lot less whimsical, and certainly a lot grittier. It's as if in 1974 Gabriel himself could see Punk's writing on the wall and pushed the band to the more 'edgy' sound found on The Lamb.

I'm too young to have actually seen Genesis performing The Lamb, but tonight's performance made me wonder if the rael Genesis could have been any better. Genesis have always admitted that with the technology of 1974 the complete show "only actually worked properly once or twice."

Planned over a year, constantly rehearsed over a month, the band had taken a lot of time and care to find out and authenticate what they could about the original performances. Keyboardist Doug Melbourne performed with a vintage analogue keyboard rig. Tonight's light show was designed and run by Les Adey, who was an integral part of the early 1970's Genesis lighting crew. Tony Patterson in voice, costume and look had Rael down to a tee. In fact, with his voice holding out during the whole three hour show, vocally he almost out-Gabrieled Gabriel! And just in case you didn't know -Tony is also a great flautist!

The band, I'm sure helped by the high quality PA and sympathetic sound engineer, hardly put a foot wrong instrumentally throughout the whole evening. Every note of the piece was played exactly as I remember from the 26-year-old musical score embedded in my brain. The only exemption, of course, being The Waiting Room (which was always written as an on-stage 'jam') and to a lesser degree, Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats. At both points the band took the given opportunities to stretch out and make their own mark on the piece.

But in keeping with their declared intention to "bring this great music forward through time to the present, rather than taking the audience back through time to the past", ReGenesis performed with custom-designed, cavern-like fibreglass stage scenery, and completely new back-screen projections. Starting with still scenes of New York City, the well-timed and highly-inventive visuals were one with the music and proved the evening's highlight. My personal favourites were the animated 'Ken and Barbie porno show' during Counting Out Time, the 'moving' seduction of Rael featuring a buxom Lilywhite Lilith, and the still graphics for Chamber Of 32 Doors. Again, the time, care, and attention taken by the band to go that one step further in projecting the story was shown by the 'on location' filming used to visualize the Riding The Scree / In The Rapids sequence. (Tony / Rael wandering across rocks and climbing waterfalls). So for the visuals alone, the £25 ticket price, as you can see from the photos, was justified and worth every penny.

Musically, even though I'm so familiar with the piece, it was a surprise to me how some tracks, after all these years, made so much more sense live than on vinyl. OK, side one with the interconnecting The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway through the sinister word-play of Broadway Melody Of 1974 to In The Cage will always be, to me, the band's greatest musical statement, but tonight the less-revered side two - Back In N.Y.C. to The Chamber Of 32 Doors - proved a live musical high point.

However the biggest round of applause that evening was saved for the appearance of the famous Slipperman costume. If we were sweating in the tightly packed audience (and WE WERE) what was it like in that costume?!

The hour-and-three-quarter performance of The Lamb was followed by a second set, chosen by internet vote, of crowd-pleasers: Supper's Ready, Cinema Show, Dance On A Volcano - Los Endos (featuring both the current and the previous ReGenesis drummers), and finally I Know What I Like. All in all a three-hour gem of a performance.

I left the concert that evening on a high - OK I wasn't there in '75, but '01 was the year I finally realized one of my musical ambitions - I saw (Re)GENESIS perform THE LAMB LIVE!!
Now if only Jimi could come back and play The Marquee . . .

So the BIG question is, with all this money already spent on the projections and costumes, will ReGenesis, as advertised, only be doing this once?

Ian Oakley April 2001

PS: In the last of his 'Lamb Diaries' on the G2 site ( http://www.g2-convention.co.uk/ld9.htm ), Doug Melbourne (ReGenesis's keyboard player), writing after the event, says:

"So what of the future?

Well, the G2 people have audio and visual recordings of the show so they may want to do something with that in time. I was overwhelmed by the number of people asking me if we were going to play the Lamb again! The answer is that I would like to if we could make it a good experience. If only to get that Scree solo right! So keep watching the page."

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