Genesis @ Old Trafford on 7th July 2007

Legendary bands like Genesis have the privilege of being able to sit back and never work again - let's be honest they must all be multi-millionaires by now, so money is certainly not going to make them decide to tour. Whatever the reason, Genesis decided to reform (without Peter Gabriel) and perform a gig at Manchester United football stadium, Old Trafford.

Being such a hugely successful band, they decided that they would not require any support bands for these gigs. As soon as you walked into the stadium, you were greeted with a stage that seemed rather intimate for such a world-class stadium-filling band.

Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford and long time Genesis drummer Chester Thompson made their way to the stage to a deafening roar of approval from the awaiting fans.

Opening with ‘Behind The Lines’ which reverberated around the stadium with such precision that for once here was a band that were able to keep the sound well balanced in a stadium, as all too often the sounds just seems to get lost when a band play such huge stadiums but Genesis had clearly took the time to make sure the sound was perfect.

Phil Collins was the perfect frontman, sometimes he would go and play drums as he had a drumset set up opposite Chester's drumkit, and although at times drum solos can be boring, when both Phil and Chester were doing a drum duel, it was an awe inspiring sight.



Sure the crowd favourites were included in this epic show, songs such as ‘No Son Of Mine,’ and ‘Hold On My Heart’ got the crowd gently swaying along as the songs bring back poignant memories for some of the fans.

‘Home By The Sea’ was introduced by Phil as a song that was about “the ghouls that lurk beneath the floorboards and in the walls of our homes.” Mr Collins was thoroughly engaging with the audience and certainly earned his money, even if at times he was trying to play the crowd by saying things such as “It’s great to be playing at the world's greatest football ground.” This got a disapproving boo from the audience who clearly disliked Manchester United football team.


The rest of the band seemed to be almost in a sad mood, I don’t think Mike Rutherford cracked a smile once, and he hardly ever moved from the same spot on the stage. But despite the lack of movement and smiles from the rest of the band, the music more than made up for it. Golden oldies such as ‘Invisible Touch’ are undeniably infectious and will always get you out of your seat and jigging about in the isles.

It was during the encore that ‘I Can’t Dance’ was performed with the band members actually doing that walk that they do to the beat of the song on the video, they walked to and from both sides of the stage, and demonstrated that even at their age they can still put on a show which is hard to match.

Setlist:-
Behind The Lines / Duke’s End
Turn It On Again
No Son Of Mine
Land Of Confusion
In The Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels
Afterglow
Hold On My Heart
Home By The Sea / Second Home By The Sea
Follow You Follow Me
Firth Of Fifth / I Know What I Like
Mama
Ripples
Throwing It All Away
Domino
Drum Duet
Los Endos
Tonight Tonight Tonight
Invisible Touch

I Can’t Dance
The Carpet Crawlers

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