You are allowed to enjoy this…

I love Genesis. And I love the Lamb album. In fact, “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” was the very first Genesis album I ever bought. It was around the time of the Peter Gabriel “So” album and I heard that he was in this other band before he went solo. So I read up in the NME Encyclopaedia of Rock and discovered that the Lamb was regarded as their pinnacle recording and that PG left soon after. I bought my copy on cassette from WH Smith in Romford during the Whitsun school holidays. I hate Romford, but the record shops made it bearable for a 15-year-old me. I played the album obsessively trying to figure out what it all meant, not having the luxury of an inner sleeve or the background story that came with the album. But it had me hooked and I became a Genesis fan.
I’m a (relatively) young whippersnapper when it comes to Genesis and I never saw them play live in the 1970s. I saw them on the “We Can’t Dance” tour and the highlight was always the old medley. In 2002, we caught “The Musical Box” when they performed at The Royal Albert Hall. I am not a fan of tribute acts, but I heard that this band were something else. And they are. They aren’t a tribute band as such, they are more a theatrical recreation of a moment in time. The moment in time is a Genesis concert from the 1970s. The “Selling England By the Pound” gig we saw that the RAH was fantastic and we even got to see Steve Hackett play an encore with the band, so when I heard that they were performing the Lamb, I was really excited. I didn’t want to see them at the RAH again, instead I opted for the Cambridge Corn Exchange, thinking it would be a more intimate performance.
Cambridge is about 45 minutes drive away from us and after getting lost on the Cambridge Ring Road, we arrived at the venue with 15 minutes to spare. However, we soon discovered that the band would be going on stage 15 minutes later than planned. Not a problem as we would slink off into a nearby pub for a drink to waste the extra time. The pubs were thrumming and we had a quick pint of cider, before taking in a few of the sites of the shopping precinct/square near the venue. We headed back in time to buy a programme and take our seats. I wasn’t too pleased with where we were, as the balcony at the Cambridge Corn Exchange is angled slightly too shallow, so you can see the top of people’s heads blocking the stage. If the angle had been a degree or two sharper, things would have been fine, but they weren’t. So I did a bit of stretched and discovered that my slouching was hiding an extra inch or two of neck length. Click! I could see the stage. The Missus wasn’t so lucky, lots of craning left and right for her.
The opening tinkles of The Lamb began and everyone cheered. Except me. I quickly realised that this was the worse sound system that I had ever heard. There was no PA system serving the balcony, so it felt that we were watching another audience enjoying The Musical Box. A lady behind me was very annoyed by the low level of the music and went downstairs to complain. It’s a shame because The Musical Box are a top band, but where we were sitting, their attempts to recreate sonic history was reduced to musical mush. Cup your hands over your mouth and sing “And the Lamb…lies down…on Broooaadwayyy!” and you’ll understand what we were hearing.
Not to be disheartened by the poor view and crappy sound, I began to tap my legs and jigger in my seat and sing along. Unfortunately, the sound was so low that everyone could hear me and not the band. The Missus asked me to stop – I was making a scene. “But I always sing along,” I replied. Not tonight…I was too loud. So I found it hard to get behind the music. But I still tapped and jiggered and enjoyed the unfolding story of Rael and his journey through the Underworld.
I thought it was all very clever, the way the projections worked with the songs, the props and the energy of lead singer Denis Gagne. The music was good too with only a few duff guitar notes and keyboard fluffs along the way. But with the sound mix as it was, it was barely noticeable. I must say that the drummer on this tour is spectacular. He is absolutely amazing and from our vantage point, looked like Phil Collins. He had the moves and the swagger down to a tee. Superb.
The stage show went well and I couldn’t get over how complex it all was. It was simple in its execution, but there was a lot of ideas being thrown at the audience. Do you listen to the words, the music, take in the projections, watch the lead singer…boy, it was a real sensory overload. The music was absolutely top-notch, but there was a few moments when I couldn’t hear the singer – there was an audible drop in sound. I loved the use of the fire effect during Back in NYC and this has to still be one of my favourite Genesis tunes. Of course, the Lamia and Slipperman costumes steal the day…very clever stagecraft, even if it is a little cheesey in the 21st century. I thought the final flash and the two Peter Gabriels before “IT” was superb. I briefed the Missus to look out for that and we tried to guess which one was the dummy. It was impossible to tell. And then the show was over – it was the quickest 90 minutes of concert I had ever seen. Highlights were the guitar solo for “Fly on a Windshield”, “Broadway Melody of 1974” and jamming on “The Waiting Room.” Singing along to this stuff and getting a mental picture of that tour was splendid. I’d waited a long time to put the imagery to the music.
The band returned to the stage to perform an encore. It consisted of “The Musical Box” and “Watcher of the Skies”. I’d heard them perform these songs before, but to keep authenticity, the arrangements seemed a little different and Gagne’s performances were more muted than during the “Selling England by the Pound” performance. I wasn’t sure if this was part of the act or whether he was worn out. Anyway, I loved those two old tunes and was surprised to see the amount of people who left before the encore…mind you, the record for people leaving was broken tonight by the four men who left soon after “Fly on a Windshield” – they left never to return. Obviously they didn’t like the sound either.
I had a quick toilet break during one of the instrumental pieces and had a listen on the floor to the sound and it was completely different. It was much better, in fact. I wish we’d got tickets in the stalls and not in the balcony, because the Cambridge Corn Exchange as venue did The Musical Box a great disservice tonight. A great gig, shame about the lack of PA in the balcony.

The Missus and myself enjoyed the Steve Hackett Trio at the QEH so much that when we realised that he was playing a mere 30 minutes drive away, we snapped up tickets immediately (and they were considerably cheaper than the QEH tix). We’d never been to the Broadway Theatre before, but I had heard that it was a relatively new building. Despite our complete lack of knowledge of the Barking area, we found the theatre quite easily and were a good twenty minutes early for the performance. This gave us time to check out the lavatories (in very good condition) and the rest of the facilities (there was a bar and a little cafe area and balcony). The venue itself is rather nice, if a little “blocky” and modern in construction and I was a bit jealous that Barking should have such a building when our local council can barely manage to keep the over-budget, over-schedule public swimming pool from closing down. 🙁

Anyway, we were in row C, which gave a nice view of the stage, just above eye-level of the performers. There was plenty of leg-room and I was surprised just how many people had turned up for this concert. Then I noticed a familiar looking chap and his lady friend take a seat next to the Missus. After much sideways looking and discreet peeping, I whispered to the Missus that “it’s that bloke…that bloke from the Steve Hackett Band”. Basically, Terry Gregory, the current bass player from the electric Steve Hackett Band was sitting right next to her. We argued in whispers whether it was him or not (until later, when SH himself put us right by announcing Mr Gregory’s presence).

Just after 8pm, SH took the stage and I immediately noticed that the atmosphere was very different from the QEH show. It wasn’t as supporting…in fact, the audience felt nervous, not knowing how to respond to SH’s little anecdotes. At the QEH, there was plenty of applause and laughter, at Barking, there were little applause for the anecdotes and just a little laughter. Of course, this could just be a volume thing as there was only a fraction of the audience present compared to the QEH gig.

The setlist was almost identical to the previous show. The guitar seemed to keep its tune a bit better too. I was just getting into the music, when a gruff voice came from over my left shoulder. Some oaf who was as pissed as a fart, was effing and blinding during the show. So in the right ear I had the gentle strains of SH’s acoustic guitar and in the left ear, a stream of coarse, East-End styled, expletives. Now don’t get me wrong – I am an East End boy myself and I like to swear just like the next man (you bunch of bloody buggers, you <--- SEE) but this was SOOOO wrong. There were kids present and I could feel the energy just disappearing. Terry Gregory seemed visibly riled by the man and I thought at one point he was going to say something. Eventually the man calmed down, but throughout the evening the show was punctuated with phrases such as "fucking twat" and "he's a fucking cunt". Astounding...never heard anything like it, even at a "proper" rock concert. After forty or so minutes, SH retired and we had the interval. We went out to stretch out legs and check out the rest of the theatre before returning to our seats. The second half seemed much more pumped up and the audience seemed to get behind the music a lot more (plus the increased volume drowned out Mr Beery Sweary behind me. Again, the setlist was almost identical with a few tweaks here and there. "Hands of the Priestess" and "Jacuzzi" are still my favourite songs of the night, along with "Gnossienne #1". By the end of the concert, the crowd was well into the music and we coaxed them back for an encore. This gig was very different from the QEH, it seemed a lot more relaxed and the banter between SH and Roger King and his brother, John Hackett was a lot funnier. There were some corking gags, like the one from Roger King comparing Steve Hackett to "Jasper Carrott on Horlicks" and that SH has pioneered "sit down" comedy. It was very funny. They even managed to have a sly dig at Terry Gregory saying that they could make bass sounds without the need of a bass player. Ouch! Terry Gregory's lady friend replied to Roger King's little knock with a spirited "The bastard!". Yes it was that kind of concert. I don't normally see the same gig twice, but hearing SH a second time really got me into the music (despite the services of the swearing oaf in row D) and I am glad we did it. Afterwards, I went to the merchandise stand where Alan "Super Genesis Fan" Hewitt was hawking some SH goods. I bought a copy of the DVD "Hungarian Horizons", shook Mr Hewitt by the hand and wished him well with his biography of Hackett. Then we stumbled off into the night for the return trip home.

To begin, I am not the biggest ELP fan around. Granted I own all the albums on vinyl and thought that they were pretty cool when I was a younger man, but like all things you enjoyed when you were younger, you grow, develop, broaden your tastes. My main problem with ELP is that it demonstrates all that’s bad in progressive rock. The music is overblown, pompous and like a quickie at McDonald’s, ultimately unrewarding. But saying that, I still enjoy Greg Lake’s vocals and the songs that he brought to the group. It’s a shame that he was never allowed to shine in ELP – instead Keith Emerson decided that it was his ego trip.
So will this opinion flavour my review? No. And I’ll tell you why. The people who put this DVD together got the package right on the button. The first disc contains all those old live performances from Beat Club and snatches of live material taken from the group’s hey-day in the 1970s. It’s all good stuff and seeing as I wasn’t witness to ELP’s shows, it was a real insight to how the band operated on stage. Of course, the real gem on the first disc is the 60 seconds or so of black-and-white footage snatched at the 1969 Hyde Park performance of King Crimson. I already have this in another form, but it is nice to have a complete, DVD quality snapshot of that footage. It is slight and it is gone in a flash, but if you are a KC fan, you will want this collection just for that brief dalliance with 21st Century Schizoid Man.
The rest of the material covers 1970 at Beat Club through to a 1992 performance at the Royal Albert Hall, so you get a good snapshot of the band through the ages. There are even promos for “I Believe in Father Christmas” and a really naff 1970s TV performance of “Tiger in the Spotlight” featuring a real tiger tethered up, right next to Greg Lake. What would the animal rights crusaders think of that now? When Emerson comes clunking in with his god-forsaken Hammon organ, the poor tiger gets startled and you can see that he wants to try and take Emerson out…and I was cheering for the tiger. But alas, that doesn’t happen. J
The second disc is a game of two halves: the first is the full 44 minute performance from the California Jam of 1974. It’s good to see an entire performance rather than the patchwork of material that you get on disc one, but my minor criticism is that there is some crossover of material with edits of Still You Turn Me On and Karn Evil 9 appearing on both discs. This was wasteful – but that’s ELP, I guess. The performance at the California Jam is fascinating to watch and when you think of what the other prog bands were doing in 1974, going to an ELP show must have been something else. You even get to see Keith Emerson performing his hammy “spinning piano” trick at the end. Hilarious…I’ve never laughed so much in my life. Genesis had theatricals and flash powder, Yes had Roger Deans organic stag set and ELP had a rotating piano. Amazing.
The second part of the second disc is given over to the “Beyond the Beginning” documentary that lasts an hour. It’s interesting to hear the band talk about each other so candidly and the reasons why and how the band imploded. (It’s also interesting to hear about Love Beach and why it is such a dog’s breakfast). I really enjoyed the documentary, though I thought it could have been longer. It left me wanting more, so I guess that’s a good thing. There are some extras too including a nice short interview about the ELP artwork (did you know that three artists that worked on Greg Lake-related album artwork all died prematurely? It’s the curse of Greg Lake, I tells ya).
I think that this is a fantastic package of material and hope that band’s like Genesis, Yes and King Crimson take note. Bring out a DVD of all that old live material from the 1970s that appeared on TV to stop those bootleggers flogging it on eBay. And do a second DVD with an interview…it works so well and ELP have set a good standard with this package. Heck, it even got me playing Tarkus this morning while I type this review. And that’s got to be a good thing!
To get you in the mood and all juiced up for the release, here’s Greg Lake talking about the “In the Court of the Crimson King” album cover:

Firstly, I am a big fan of Steve Hackett and of all the big progressive rock guitarists, I think it is his influence (by osmosis rather than obsession) that has affected my own guitar playing. While I know his electric stuff really well, I am not as familiar with his acoustic work, despite owning the albums. My problem is that I have a mental block when it comes to pleasant instrumental music – I never remember the titles. The same goes for the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I know all the albums, but if you ask me to name their songs by rote, I would fail. Strange innit?
Anyway, we were running a little late, but it was a lovely Spring evening, with the rays of the setting sun illuminating the South Bank as we walked briskly to the gig. We literally arrived with seconds to spare before Steve Hackett took the stage to applause. He talked about the evening and how he was going to be his own opening act, playing solo before being accompanied by his brother John on flute and Roger King on keyboard.
I recognised some of the tracks: Bay of Kings, Calvacanti, etc and there were a sprinkling of songs by other people: an interpretation of Classical Gas and Tales from the Riverbank and a piece as a tribute to Segovia. There was also an obligatory outing of “Horizons”, which was rearranged for this performance. There were a few issues with tuning and Steve explained how the heat from the audience caused the strings to have a mind of their own, but I didn’t hear any major problems. Again, he fluffed a few bits, but I wasn’t complaining. I was held spellbound for 50 minutes as his fingers worked the fretboard. This was the first time I had witnessed this kind of music being played this close-up. It made me feel very inadequate as a musician and I realise that I am just a chancer compared to someone of this calibre. I felt like going home and selling my guitars after that session.
When the first half finished, I turned to the Missus to ask for her opinion and I noticed the man sitting next to her was wearing a very peculiar hat. It was a standard baseball cap, but on the top was a stereo microphone…yes, we were sitting next to a bootlegger. So when SH finished his opening and left, this man took his hat off and hid his minidisc recorder. Oppositely, I put my hat on to hide my bald head and headed out to buy some goodies from the merchandise stall. As usual, it was a bit of a scrum but I picked up the new Hackett album “Metamorpheus”, John Hackett’s “Checking Out of London” album and a DVD “Once Above a Time”. Then we returned to the concert.
For the second half, he was joined by his brother John and Roger King. The first track their played together was “Jacuzzi” one of my personal faves from the Defector album. In a stripped down form, it was bright and bubbly and very summery for this Spring evening. They even wheeled out some old Genesis tunes – “After the Ordeal” was performed live, which was a big thrill because I don’t think this was ever performed by Genesis in a live context. The highlight for me and the Missus was a sublime performance of “Hands of the Priestess” from the “Voyage of the Acolyte” album. The flute playing was amazing and Roger King’s keyboards really complimented the song, and this was sequed into a section of “Hairless Heart” from “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, which kind of caught me by surprise. The trio also played some Eric Satie numbers including Gnossienne #1, but I felt the energy began to ebb through some of the weirder Satie stuff.
I really enjoyed this concert and it was quite different for me as I am used to rock gigs where the music drives you along. In this context, I think the energy and concentration of the audience drives the music. It was nice to hear some old stuff, some new stuff and some stuff I had never heard before. It was a real challenge and I enjoyed it very much.
But thing is that the man in seat D11 didn’t enjoy the gig that much. No he sat for the entire evening with his hat recorder on his head with his face pointed exactly at the PA system, whereas we had to turn 30 degrees to watch the stage. Imagine paying for a ticket and not actually watching the performance…? I couldn’t do that!

Wreckless Eric opened the proceedings and wasn’t too happy about the sound. Neither was I. The Bloomsbury gets my vote for worst concert sound…ever. Using an acoustic guitar, there were so many rogue frequencies bouncing around the place, I could barely follow his lyrics. And this is a great shame because Wreckless Eric is noted for his lyrical content. At 50 years old, this guy still tries to push the punk ethic and belted out numbers from this new album Bungalow Hi.
Despite the sound problems, Eric settled into his stride after about the third song and things began to come together nicely. While not being the most technically proficient guitarist around, he attacks his instrument with such honest, brutal, vim and vigour that you have to give a nod of respect. After one particularly brutal song, he was left with only two strings left on his guitar. Rock ‘n’ roll man!
I am not that familiar with his work, but I shall be investigating further. He also gets my award for “Use of Anglo-Saxon” by using the word cunt in an introduction.
After this belting opening 45 minutes, I already felt exhausted, so we feasted on strawberry ice-cream during the intermission (go on, crack you albatross gags now) – it was that kind of venue.
So then The Rutles appear on stage an immediately open with Goose Step Mama. The sound was still terrible and I could barely hear the vocals. Even the drums were buried in the mix of guitar and keyboards. Despite this, I got behind the music and we lent our vocal talents to the proceedings. Songs from both “The Rutles” and “Archeaology” albums were played. I’ve devised a songlist (in the wrong order, of course) to demonstrate just how much music was performed.
Goose Step Mama
Number One
Hold My Hand
I Must Be In Love
With a Girl Like You
Living in Hope
Ouch
It’s Looking Good
Doubleback Alley
Good Times Roll
Piggy in the Middle
Cheese & Onions
Get Up and Go
Let’s Be Natural
Major Happy’s Up-and-Coming Good Time Band
Rendezvous
Questionnaire
Lonely-Phobia
Hey Mister!
Easy Listening
Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
Joe Public
Shangri-La
Back in 64
So this was 90 minutes of Beatle-inspired musical parody and I loved every minute of it. I especially wanted to see/hear the great Barry Wom/Jon Halsey banging the skins, but my view was slightly obscured by the keyboard player. Not to worry, The Admiral Jon Halsey came to the front of the stage to perform one of the greatest paper-tearing solos I had ever seen (in fact it was the only time I had ever seen someone tear a newspaper to music and make it a solo…it made me laugh a lot).
It was a great evening of music (despite the sound and the butt-achingly bad seating) and well worth it. It makes you appreciate the phenomenal talent of Neil Innes and his fellow musicians for pulling this all together. Even better than the Beatles, I say, and better than the Beatles parodies that bands like Oasis or even Adrian Belew commit to record.