GENESIS: Turning It On Again – Designing The 2007 World Tour

TURNING IT ON AGAIN Designing The 2007 World Tour

ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA CREATION

Mark Cunningham

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October 2006: Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins & Tony Banks reunite at SIR Studios in New York.

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THEIR OWN SPECIAL WAY It’s sacrilege, I know, but with the exception of hearing regular plays of ‘I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)’ on Radio Caroline, the Peter Gabriel-fronted era of Genesis passed me by. In fact, the penny didn’t drop until early 1976, when I borrowed a copy of a new album called A Trick Of The Tail and finally embraced the band’s musical majesty, just as punk was rearing its spiky head.

A year later, at the Rainbow in north London, I marvelled at my first sight of Genesis onstage during their Wind And Wuthering/Seconds Out phase. They possessed the rare ability to send this wild eyed teenager to places in his mind he didn’t know existed. It was the start of a love story that would continue over the course of many tours into the future – a journey that notably included an unexpected Genesis date whilst holidaying in Barcelona in 1981. Thanks to a helpful concierge, I scored a pair of tickets and unwittingly saw the first-ever concert to feature the revolutionary Vari-Lite automated lighting system, a technology in which the band had invested heavily.

Genesis was one of a select number of high-flying live acts that helped this fan develop an obsessive hunger for detail – the kind of hunger that would not be fully satisfied until my career as a writer gained pace in the ’90s, when the backstage environment became a second home. Throughout my 13 and a half years as the co-founder and editor-in-chief of TPi (Total Production International) magazine, I was able to experience the development of live production technology and design on a monthly basis. Occasionally, I would have the opportunity of gaining a close-up technical view of the artists who had awoken my interests as a youngster.

Finally, in 2007, the chance to immerse myself in ‘Genesis World’ came along and my limitless exposure to the production in Linz, Austria was an experience I did not take lightly. Some of the greatest names in show design, staging, live sound, lighting, video and special effects pulled together to form a peerless support network for this extraordinary band, and writing it all up for the summer 2007 edition of TPi magazine was a genuine labour of love.

When I noticed that this story had vanished from the digital domain, I decided to revise the original text and match it with a wider pool of my own photography, some of which did not make the final edit in 2007.

I hope you’ll agree it was worth the effort.

Mark Cunningham February 2020

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AUSTRIA, June 2007 The music is as sublime as it ever was. Fifteen years on from the last tour by this line-up of Genesis, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford – and their ever-present sidemen of 30 years, Daryl Stuermer 6

and Chester Thompson – are back on the road once again in Europe and America, appearing rejuvenated as they enjoy every minute of what is expected to be a brief live reunion.

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“If Peter [Gabriel] had been able to commit, we would have been looking at a very different tour that brought us all together again, along with Steve Hackett, to play the earlier material, such as The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” said Mike Rutherford. “By the time Peter had to decline, we were too keen to drop the whole thing and so we picked up from where we’d left off in ’92.”

For a show that makes even their most outlandish productions of the past seem minuscule, Genesis have delved into their rich catalogue of 15 studio albums to compile a set that pleases prog rock and pop fans alike.

Fronted by Phil Collins, Gabriel-era classics such as ‘In The Cage’, ‘The Cinema Show’, ‘Firth Of Fifth’, ‘I Know What I Like’ and ‘The Carpet Crawlers’ remained, rubbing shoulders with the pastoral charm of ‘Ripples’, the dark, brooding menace of ‘Mama’ and chart-friendly rock-lite numbers ‘Turn It On Again’, ‘Land Of Confusion’ and ‘Invisible 8

Touch’. Throw in an obligatory Collins/Thompson drum duet and the net is cast wide, spanning almost the full extent of the band’s recording career.

I jumped onboard the Turn It On Again tour in Austria, in time for their June 19th concert at the Gugglestadium in Linz – the fourth show on a journey that traversed Europe through to July 14th, before tripping over the pond for a North American leg in September and October.

Judging by the comments of various crew and a brief, informal chat with the band members, the Genesis organisation is delighted with the style and smoothness of the production which, it must be said, has been executed brilliantly despite a near-impossible schedule.

“Working to tight time schedules has always been the way with Genesis,” said production manager Steve ‘Pud’ Jones, a regular touring crew member for the band and Phil Collins since 1978. “Phil was adamant that he didn’t want to do too many dates, and so we’ve packed them into a very intense period.”

Pretty tough, then, for all involved. “Yeah, it’s tough alright!” agreed co-production manager Howard Hopkins – another Genesis veteran, who joined the crew 21 years ago. “But we’ve made it work by employing two advance teams with four stages leapfrogging ahead of us so that it’s not a single load-in day. Around 60-70% of the lights are rigged on an advance day, and then the universal production team arrives with all the video, backline, staging, sound and the remaining lights on show day morning.”

As a production, this fits neatly into the ‘Class A’ category occupied by the Stones, U2 and Robbie Williams, which isn’t surprising given the creative heads behind it.

Dominated by a massive, curved Barco O-Lite video wall, and featuring seven high steel ‘ribs’ linked by silver cargo netting, the elegant, regal-looking set was conceptualised by Mark Fisher, design engineered by Jeremy Lloyd, and constructed by Stageco using 60% custom-made elements with fabrication by Brilliant Stages.

When I arrived in Linz, the 200-strong entourage included a number of familiar faces such as Robbie Williams supremo/self-confessed Genesis fan, Wob Roberts, and production ‘princess’ Helen ‘Hels Bells’ Smith. Along with Gary Currier, Roberts is an advance production manager for this tour and came on board after Christmas to handle all the advancing work, including site visits, initial contact with promoters and liaising between Stageco and Jeremy Lloyd.

Roberts explained that the late confirmation of the tour from the band’s management meant that the delayed go-ahead to suppliers and crew pushed everything to the wire.

“It was all a bit panicky right up until we went to Tildonk in Belgium for two weeks at the end of April where the set was assembled for the first time on a patch of land adjacent to Stageco’s HQ. I looked after the test building there and ran the production rehearsals for three weeks in May, in Hall 5 at Brussels Expo, after which I handed the project over to Pud and Howard, our universal production management.

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Above: Production supremos Howard Hopkins, Wob Roberts and Steve ‘Pud’ Jones.

Opposite, from top: Design heads Mark Fisher, Jeremy Lloyd and Patrick Woodroffe.

“However, I’m still heavily involved in the dayto-day running of the tour because of my original role, but my primary job is to run one of the advance production teams with Gary Currier running the second team on the flip-flop as well as co-ordinate the American tour.”

It was last October at New York’s SIR Studios that Genesis originally re-grouped to rehearse and plan their 2007 tour, and after further sessions in Lausanne, they joined the touring crew in Brussels for the final run-throughs. “Brussels Expo is a wonderful building but it’s still not big enough to do a full production rehearsal with the lighting and sound control

at a realistic distance from the stage,” said Roberts.

“So the first time we actually saw the show properly was on the second date in Hamburg, because the opening show in Helsinki was in daylight.”

According to Roberts, Genesis are the most rehearsed band he’s worked with in years. Considering that Robbie Williams cares very little for the concept of rehearsal, this must have been a very different experience for the PM. “Genesis want to know exactly what’s happening when they leave production rehearsals,” he said, “so for the last two weeks in Brussels, they would play a set every day, then review a video recording of that set with Patrick and Dave, and talk to the “Jeremy Lloyd has to be congratulated video crew. They were very involved with every for designing a stage that can go into aspect of the presentavenues within a tiny set-up window” tion.”

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CHALLENGE One cannot over-emphasise how difficult the challenge has been to get this show on the road, given the near-impossible tight schedule. A team of four site managers – Klaus Hoffman, Chris Organ, Steve Iredale and Tom Armstrong – have been leapfrogging around Europe, and arriving two days before each show to ensure that each venue is ready for the arrival of nine trucks of Stageco’s steel systems the following day.

The steel is manned by Stageco’s four low steel rigging teams and three for the high steel. “In total we have 55 trucks of steel darting around Europe in flip-flop fashion, and I believe Stageco are now completely out of steel,” laughed Roberts. “It’s been a bit of a nightmare putting the schedule together. Both Dirk De Decker from Stageco and I have worked hard to ensure that the right steel and crew are in the right place, on time.

“Jeremy Lloyd [at the Mark Fisher Studio, or Stufish as it is now known] has to be congratulated for designing a stage that can go into venues within a tiny set-up window.

He did all the engineering work along with Koon Peeters at Stageco to enable universal production to roll up at 8.00am on show day with 22 trucks and have everything in place for a show that evening.

“However, what this doesn’t take into consideration is any problems with the venue infrastructure, such as barriers, concessions, that you’d normally deal with on the morning of a show, because we don’t have the time to deal with it.

“We nearly came unstuck in Hamburg at the AOL Arena, because they’re handing over the venue sponsorship to HSH Nordbank but nobody told us, so when we arrived with steel, the load-in bay was filled with cranes because they were taking down the AOL signage. In fact, the venue management were incredibly unhelpful to the point where a number of irritating issues slowed us down. In contrast, Linz is a major improvement!”

HEALTH & SAFETY Using the services of The Event Safety Shop (TESS) to manage health and safety – and promote safe working practice amongst the crew – proved to be such a success on Robbie Williams’ Close Encounters tour in 2006 that Roberts was keen to invite the company back for Genesis.

“Jake Piper and Mike Herbert from TESS are touring with us to look after safety matters and doing a great job. Unfortunately, resistance from the dark side has been strong and it’s not been so easy to get this crew to comply with the safe practice guidelines as it was on Rob’s tour,” said Roberts.

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Left, from top: Jake Piper from TESS; production travel co-ordinator Jane ‘Foxy’ Finn and production princess Helen ‘Hels Bells’ Smith; video director Ruary Macphie.

“It’s been difficult to get crew to wear hi-vis gear around forklifts and trucks, and hard hats when riggers are in the air. And the problem is that if production doesn’t set the right example as a whole, it becomes harder to impose those rules on local crew.

“This is really all about applying common sense without turning a tour into a nanny state. But what people don’t realise is that at some point a disaster may happen, the eye will turn on us, and someone will be sued massively. I think this is how it’ll be for the next couple of years until these standards become fully established.”

LIGHTING Working closely with Stufish and assistant Adam Bassett, Patrick Woodroffe has designed an outstandingly attractive light show, with Jonathan ‘Sell’ Sellers leading a crew from lighting contractor Neg Earth.

Woodroffe, who is enjoying yet another busy year with such projects as The Police and The Concert For Diana, teamed up with programmer and lighting director Dave Hill, and as he told us, it’s rare on a production of this scale that all of the technology works out of the box.

“On this occasion it did, and it meant that Dave and I could start work immediately on the task of creating a visual and musical performance,” he said. “It is also rare in these instances to have so much time, in such controlled circumstances and with a such a disciplined and discerning client as Genesis.”

Working with Genesis proved to be a fulfilling experience, commented Woodroffe. “They have always been very involved with the lighting and the staging of their shows, and as everyone knows, their commissioning of the Vari*Lite all those years ago radically dictated the way that lighting looks today.

“So although it was unusual, it also felt quite comfortable for them to be such a part of the collaborative process.

They understood not only the technical aspects of the video and lighting systems, but were also very generous and supportive of the creative process. The result is a show that is carefully considered and completely connected with the music. That’s very satisfying for all of us.”

More and more rock’n’roll stage sets aspire to be standalone objects, and as Dave Hill observed, this has been achieved with the Genesis set whereby the structure remains impressive even in broad daylight.

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Said Hill: “It’s been a wonderful structure to light because with the seven steel ribs and the silver cargo nets in between, it’s like one gigantic cyc. It’s lit in many different ways and the effects of the strobes on that back net are really powerful.”

On each of the ribs there are six Coemar Infinity Wash lights along with Robe 2500 Profiles. Running up and down at speed in between each rib is a motorised lighting pod containing four Atomic strobes on the top, 12 clustered PARs and (underneath) two 4.5kW BigLites. All of the pods are individually circuited so they can act independently of each other for chase moves and blasts through the video wall.

There are more Robe 2500s and six additional BigLites on the floor behind the stage area which provide silhouette effects.

At the extreme top left and right of the set is what Hill referred to as ‘defence towers’ from which the main PA is hung. Each tower contains six Molefay units for long-range audience lighting and three 3kW LittleBigLites which are Hill’s main ‘punch’ lights into the side of the stage.

Just over a quarter of a century after Genesis contributed to the development of the first Vari*Lite automated fixture, the brand continues to be a part of their live shows. Underneath the stage there are 36 VL5s that do the lion’s share of the band members’ pick-up lighting, leaving the fixtures on the ribs and the brow to concentrate on effects lighting.

On the small ‘dino’ ribs underneath the seethrough stage canopy there are a total of 35 “workhorse” VL5s and on top of each of these ribs are two

“ It’s been a wonderful structure to light because with the seven steel ribs and the silver cargo nets in between, It’s like one gigantic eye” 13

Production rehearsals in May ’07 at Heysel Exhibition Park, a.k.a. Brussels Expo.

VL6c fixtures which provide front and side light for the band.

The actual performance area for the band is quite small and so the canopy helps to contain the band lighting very neatly.

Hill commented: “You can’t beat VL5s and VL6s because they don’t have power supplies and so are lightweight, and they’re so reliable, especially in the outdoors.”

Along the brow at the top of the video wall are 35 Coemar Infinity Washes. Hill: “For me, the Coemars are the biggest part of the show because they deliver enormous punch down to the stage, and because of the shape of it there’s ample opportunity for waves and colours sweeping across the stage.

Framing the front of the stage and ramps on a low level is a line of High End Studio Beams which point down at 45° for most of the show with contrasting colours, and occasionally sweep up on to the audience. “Patrick 14

does this on a lot of stadium shows and it really adds definition,” said Hill.

“We also have an iPix Satellite LED fixture at the base of every large rib for colour toning and six 85,000 Watt Hungaroflash units for a few big blasts.

So that’s over half a million Watts every time I hit that button! I’m very impressed with them – they’ve improved a lot over the years.

“Considering that a lot of these lights are fairly new, like the Robes, Coemars and LittleBigLites, we’ve not had any issues to deal with. They’ve all been working very reliably.”

CONTROL Dave Hill isn’t surprised that MA Lighting has gained significant market share of late with its grandMA consoles, and it’s rapidly become his desk of choice.

“This is the first time I’ve used it on a big show and it’s a really great desk,” he told me. “I think MA benefited from the window of opportunity caused by early technical problems associated

Lighting director & programmer Dave Hill and his grandMA control desk.

with the Wholehog III which, although people tell me is now working fine, prompted myself and several other LDs to investigate the grandMA.” Hill was delighted with the support from MA Lighting who sent Oliver Rump to Brussels where he assisted with programming on MA’s 3D design system during rehearsals. “Oliver was very helpful. There was talk of using a Virtuoso on this because I’d got on well with it on some Rolling Stones shows but I just felt that the grandMA was the best and most stable of all the desks out there. I have a spare next to me that’s in parallel with mine, but it’s only a safeguard.

“I built this system in such a way that wouldn’t have to

focus again after the first show, because of our tight schedule and the fact that I’m only seeing the lights about an hour into every show, due to daylight.”

PYRO Initial plans suggested that the Genesis show would feature a great deal of pyro, until the band decided that most of it wasn’t suitable for their music. However, the two pyro sequences that remain are stunning.

Serviced by a four-person crew from Berlin company FFP, the first comes nine minutes into the epic ‘Home

By The Sea’ when a burst of flares emits a powerful red glow up the ribs.

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An afternoon in Linz.

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Clockwise from top left: Loading in an L-Acoustics delay stack; FOH engineer and Digidesign Venue user Michel Colin; monitor mixer Alain Schneebeli at his Yamaha PM1D; Colin and sound crew chief/Pro Tools engineer Bernard Natier.

The ‘big one’ comes towards the end of ‘Invisible Touch’, when more than 600 mine and gerb effects are cued within 19 seconds, giving the impression that the lighting pods, the video wall brow and the PA headers are exploding. It’s not just a big bang – this is a thoughtfully designed sequence that gracefully chases in sync with the music, climaxing with 110 bombettes shooting skyward.

FFP’s Nick Thompsett said: “All of the effects we use are very clean, safe and reliable. For this show, we’ve chosen NextFX gerbs, flares and 80ft mines, along with 80ft mines and 120ft bombettes manufactured by German company Zink. It’s a very small part of the show, but we pack a lot in when it happens!”

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SOUND BY THE POUND Having successfully serviced a number of Phil Collins tours, sound company Hyperson of Lausanne, Switzerland was automatically in the frame to provide the systems and crew for Genesis. “If it ain’t f**ked, don’t fix it,” explained the wise Pud, a touring regular with Genesis and Collins since 1978. “It’s probably the biggest tour that Hyperson have ever done but they are handling it very well.”

Mixing at front of house is French freelance engineer Michel Colin who performed the same duties for Collins on his last three solo tours and the launch of his Testify album, for which he specified a Midas XL4 console with a Yamaha DM2000 ‘sidecar’. However, when it was mooted that each Genesis show

would be recorded, the combination of the Digidesign Venue system and Pro Tools showed itself to be the favoured route.

These recordings are being made available to the public either as individual double CDs or a boxed set of the whole tour, collectively known as the Genesis Encore Series Europe 2007. Sound crew chief Bernard Natier (a familiar face from the Montreux Jazz Festival) engineers the multitrack recordings on a Pro Tools system via a split from the FOH Venue D-Show consoles, and passes the files to resident Genesis recording engineer Geoff Callingham for mastering.

Colin was full of praise for Venue. “It’s so easy to use and the pre-amps and All Access and Oxford plug-in packages are very good, so it was a good choice. I still use a few outboard devices though, such as Avalon vacuum tubes for Phil’s vocals, an SPL Kultube compressor for the overall left/right mix and an SPL Transient Designer which shapes the dynamic response of the drums for more impact. I also have a TC 6000 which I use to replicate the old AMS program effects.”

Very little time was spent finding his way around the D-Show console, said Colin. “It’s very intuitive – it’s not like you need to study the books for months to get what you need from it. Plus, Bernard was very helpful in showing me certain features and short cuts, so in general it’s been a very positive experience.”

In addition to the main D-Show console, Colin has a small extension desk that handles Collins’ drum kit. “Although have my channels assigned in layers on the main desk, I need to have plenty of faders instantly available for Phil’s kit, and this was the best solution. The band play an identical set every night, which means that the settings I stored for each song during rehearsals give me a good head start during the show. From there, it’s just a case of making fine adjustments according to the venue.”

AND THEN THERE WAS V-DOSC Hyperson is supplying an L-Acoustics V-DOSC line array system, processed by Lake Contours and powered by L-Acoustics-badged Lab.gruppen amplification. Supplementing the four main hangs at each side are dV-DOSC and ARCS cabinets for front fill, a column of 12 SB218 subs. The system is set up using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision 3D modelling software under the direction of system tech Manu Gares.

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The curved video wall displayed a range of artistic content commissioned by Sam Pattinson, Tom Lowndes, Luke Halls & Damien Hales at onedotzero, with strong direction from Mike Rutherford & Tony Banks.

The video animators included Run Wrake, Nils Porrmann, Chris Cousins, Jan Urbanowski & Tal Rosner.

Genesis made the decision to not tour with delay loudspeakers, and instead they chose to hire V-DOSC systems from a number of local rental companies, including German firm Soundhouse for Linz and three shows in Germany, and Britannia Row in the UK. “We wouldn’t normally use delays with the V-DOSC,” said Colin. “There are certain corners of the venues, however, that need extra coverage and precision sound is what Genesis are all about.”

On stage, the band universally use Sennheiser in-ear monitoring systems but there are some wedges in evidence. For example, Tony Banks has a pair of L-Acoustics 115XT HiQ wedges by his keyboards and Collins has a dV-SUB behind his kit. Their stage mixes are piloted by Hyperson director and monitor engineer Alain Schneebeli on a Yamaha PM1D console.

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All the drums and backline amps are miked with a selection of Beyer microphones. Collins uses a Shure Beta 87 for lead vocals and a Crown CM-311A headset mic behind his kit, and Shure Beta 58As are on backing vocals.

VIDEO There’s hardly a straight line to be found anywhere in the set anatomy and nowhere is this more apparent than in the real estate occupied by the overwhelming video wall – a 65m wide surface containing 18,500 Barco O-Lite tiles (possibly the biggest O-Lite screen ever assembled) with varying resolutions across the surface including a hi-res section to carry live images.

The show day load-in is dominated by XL Video’s team, led by crew chief Stuart Heaney. Using a

Clockwise from top: Video crew chief Stuart Heaney; video programmer Richard Turner; automation crew Ian Macdonald & John Richardson (centre); Fourth Generation’s ‘Tweed’ Hurlocker; FFP’s Nick Thompsett, Renzo Cargnelutti, Skadi Schulz & Lars Hollstein; lighting crew chief Jonathan ‘Sell’ Sellers & lighting tech Gianluca ‘Gana’ Ganapini.

re-designed XL lifting system, they begin setting up 24 columns of video on 42 motors at 9.30am and heroically have the system up and ready by 4pm, which for a job of this scale is little short of a miracle!

With ‘video scientist’ Richard Turner weaving his pixellation magic, there are two oval-shaped Mitsubishi hi-res side screens, whose resolution is so crystal clear that Tony Banks was reportedly visibly astonished upon first sight.

For the most part, the curved video wall shows a range of artistic content commissioned by Sam Pattinson, Tom Lowndes, Luke Halls and Damien Hales at onedotzero, with strong direction from Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks. The video animators include Run Wrake, Nils Porrmann, Chris Cousins, Jan Urbanowski; Tal Rosner produced a special visual

for ‘Mama’ and archive material was sourced by Riia Jaakkola at Getty Images for the nostalgic backdrop in ‘I Know What I Like’, one of the show’s many highlights.

The job of merging this imagery with live camera material on screen fell to video director Ruary Macphie. “I have points in various songs where I insert live camera into the hi-res window of the video wall, and then there are others where we use the entire video wall for close-ups of the audience or Daryl Stuermer doing a guitar solo,” he said.

There are four D30 cameras – two long lenses, one on a pit dolly and a hand-held on stage – and one hot head in the stage canopy in between the drum kits for close-ups of keyboards, guitar effects pedals and drums.

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Macphie’s Kayak vision mixer sends all the camera and VT material to a Barco Encore which is designed in such a way that it designates when live camera pictures go to the sides or in the centre. From that point it’s all manually triggered.

“The cue points are not driven by DMX, time code or MIDI, which is rare these days,” explained Macphie. “We listen for points in the music and trigger accordingly. I mix this off the aux buss of the Kayak but I’m also sub-mixing the screens at the same time so that the centre image is not identical on the side screens, which can also be independently fed images. So it’s a very flexible system.”

A good example of the system’s flexibility comes in ‘Land Of Confusion’ when the three principal band members’ Spitting Image puppets from the song’s original 1986 video morph into live IMAG. AUTOMATION Lead rigger is Dave Rowe and Neg Earth Lights is providing the rigging systems with additional equipment sub-hired from Summit Steel. There are 56 motors on each advance system and another 42 on the universal production. The main show moves are all automated by Kinesys systems, manned by Ian MacDonald and John Richardson. With all motion control 22

handled centrally by a PC-based Vector program, the automation involves moving the lighting pods up and down on an 800kg winch via Kinesys Velocity drives, while the cargo nets move in between the ribs on 16 Liftket electric chain hoists driven by Kinesys Elevation 1+ vari-speed controllers.

Belgian company Wicreations was commissioned

by Jeremy Lloyd to construct two special types of dolly [pictured centre] to speed up the universal system’s load-in/out. The first – of which there are seven – carries two chain hoists and a winch for lifting the cargo nets and lighting pods. Sixteen of the second dolly type each carry two standard one-tonne chain hoists that lift the video wall into place.

Wicreations’ Hans Willems commented: “To create a thin border on the top of the screen, it’s important to get the lifting system on the ground and work with cable and pulleys.

Inside the dollies, the chains are directed by sheaves to direct them correctly. To load in all the dollies takes just 30 minutes without the need for riggers.”

POWER Amongst the crew and suppliers recommended by Wob Roberts following the Robbie Williams 2006 tour is Anthony Hurlocker, a.k.a. ‘Tweed’, who founded London-based power company Fourth Generation after many years with Show Power.

Fourth Generation is supplying eight twin pack gennies – two are 480 kVA and the rest are 325 kVA. Six go to each venue and two travel in advance.

There’s a fair amount of cabling from each gennie to the stage: 7.5 kilometres of the stuff to be precise.

“The world of power generation has always been a competitive market but in the three years since I started Fourth Generation, I’ve been very pleased with the amount and quality of work we’ve done,” said Tweed. “I’ve worked with Wob since 1998 when we were on Robbie Williams, and it’s always a pleasure.”

There are, of course, many other crew and suppliers who deserve recognition, among them tour manager Tim Brockman and assistant Noel Rush, the caterers from Popcorn, James Bartlett and the Stage Miracles crew, carpenter crew chief Mike Humenuik, transport vendors Redburn Transfer and Phoenix Bussing, Tina Waters at The Tour Company, wardrobe mistress Sonja Benavidez, Andy Simpson at Rock Steady Security, Rock-It Cargo, Chapman Freeborn, Tour Tech Support, and Hannah Charlesworth in the media department.

POSTSCRIPT: 2020 Looking back all these years later, Turn It On Again rates amongst the most rewarding tours I had the pleasure of documenting during my time as TPi’s editor. A couple of days spent in the Austrian sunshine was the perfect antidote to the unpredictable British summer, and I had three more opportunities to catch the band in action when I saw them at the all-star Live Earth gathering at Wembley Stadium on July 7th, at Twickenham Stadium the following day, and then on their North American leg at the Hollywood Bowl on October 13th, the last in their 48-show run.

As they closed their European leg, Genesis played a free concert at Rome’s Circus Maximus to an audience of 500,000, where David Mallet directed the filming of the DVD When In Rome.

Included in the three-disc set was Come Rain Or Shine, a fascinating and often hilarious long-form “behind the scenes” documentary covering the tour from its initial rehearsals in New York and discussions with promoter John Giddings, to the opening night and beyond.

The DVD followed the November 2007 release of the double CD Live In Europe.

All in all, a project delivered with absolute precision by an ace squad.

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LOS ENDOS

Four months after the Turn It On Again tour ended, it was recognised as Live Production of the Year at the TPi Awards 2008, when the annual event was hosted by comedian Simon Amstell of ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ fame in the Great Room at Grosvenor House in London’s Park Lane.

While Mike Rutherford and Genesis’ long-time manager Tony Smith were present to receive the award from yours truly, such was the impression left by the tour that further associated accolades were also lined up.

Stageco Staging Group and Brilliant Stages were awarded Favourite Staging Company and Favourite Set Construction Company, respectively. After XL Video won Favourite Video Services Company and Eat To The Beat picked up the catering award, Patrick Woodroffe and Ruary Macphie were honoured in the Lighting Designer and Video Director categories. Finally, at the end of the ceremony, the 1,200 capacity audience rose to its feet to celebrate the recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Contribution Award – Mark Fisher, the industry’s greatest-ever architectural innovator.

Collectively, these awards formed a well-deserved tribute to one of Genesis’ most iconic tours. Twelve years later, it remains their last word as a live act.

Mark Cunningham

Highlights from the TPi Awards 2008.

Clockwise from top left: The Great Room at Grosvenor House; Mike Rutherford; Tony Smith; Rutherford (Mark Cunningham in background); Stageco’s Hedwig De Meyer and Mark Fisher; Cunningham and Rutherford with (centre) Harvey Goldsmith who accepted The Editor’s Award on behalf of the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert; Patrick Woodroffe.

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TURNING IT ON AGAIN Designing The 2007 World Tour

Tildonk Tildonk

written & designed

by Mark Cunningham

Image credits: Genesis cover portrait & rehearsal photography by Stephanie Pistel, courtesy of Rogers & Cowan Publicity (USA) • Stage drawing courtesy of Stageco Staging Group • Linz photography (crew, site, technical & concert) by Mark Cunningham • Additional live photography by Guido Karp • TPi Awards 2008 photography by Louise Stickland • TPi Awards logo by Dan Seaton / Mondiale Media • Genesis tour ephemera from The Genesis Archive & Liveculture Archives • Other imagery courtesy of Hit & Run Music

with extra special thanks to Tony Smith of Hit & Run, Hannah Charlesworth, Wob Roberts & the late, great Mark Fisher

ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA CREATION