Phil Collins about his The Musical Box guest performance in Geneva

Introduction to the Geneva show by Phil Collins

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Fans….
Well 30 years has whistled by and we find ourselves on a celebratory journey back to 1974 to rediscover that ancient work…. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

I remember it like it was yesterday, the writing sessions in the rat infested Headley Grange, near Guildford… Pete in one room with a grand piano with sheathes of blank paper waiting to be filled with lyrics, every now and then joining the rest of us as we thrashed through various jams and unfinished pieces of songs that were floating around. The incredible day we “wrote” what was to become The Waiting Room … then titled Evil Jam, improvising wildly through our dictionary of the nastiest noises we could find, and then, when suddenly our “mood” shifted so did the weather outside, from thunder and pouring rain to sunshine and rainbows….. I guess you had to be there, but it WAS very special!!!

The recording at a Farm in somewhere in Wales. Us set up in a barn, with the Island Mobile parked by the pig sty….. John Burns ever ready with a roll up!!! Having more material than the time to finish it, we ended up doing 24 hour sessions at Island Basing Street Studios, now Sarm West (home of Frankie goes to Hollywood the Band Aid single to name but several). Racing to finish tracks so we could get it all wrapped up in time to go to America and play the entire double album before a bewildered public, who had not heard a note of it as it hadn’t been released yet!!! Now that WAS interesting!!!

It also leads me to why I’m writing this. The Lamb was never filmed for posterity. There are some very short patchy videos, very scratchy quality, taken by fans from an audience P.O.V…. but otherwise nothing to jog your memory, until now that is.

The Musical Box are a group of artists who have, over the years, painstakingly recreated various periods of the early Genesis years, with amazing accuracy and aplomb. In the early days, whenever we were invited to go to a bar to see a band playing some of our stuff, I was always amazed at how they actually played it BETTER than we did. Nowadays there are a few bands out there doing it, but right at the top of the pile are who you have come to see tonight…. The Musical Box.

I’ve heard of them for ages, but never gotten around to ACTUALLY see them. Having done so, I have to say it’s an eerie feeling because they have uncannily captured US BACK THEN in every way. Using the original back projection slides from our old show, they now have the advantage of technology unavailable to us back then. We probably only managed a handful of shows (at most) where everything worked as it should have done.

Tonight, God willing, you’ll see the show as it should and could have been back then if the projector hadn’t caught fire, or if the operator hadn’t pressed the wrong button by mistake and fast forwarded the slides to the next song!!! Hey, this was the 70’s remember!!! Anyway I doff my hat to the lads and their crew…. they’ve picked up the baton and run with it, and it’s there for all to see. Enjoy it.

Phil Collins (the singing drummer)

… go here to read the concert report now. From there, you can get back to this article to read what Phil wrote about his performance after the show.

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Phil Collins about his performance a few weeks after the show

There were many questions about this, so I’ll try to put it all in perspective.

Originally the band asked me to write the programme notes for them. I said this was no problem. I suggested that if they were coming to a town near me, that I’d come to see them. When it turned out that they were playing in Geneva, I suggested that I might play with them.  I

t ended up that we decided that I would play their encore of The Musical Box.  I left it till the day of the show… a dangerous thing to do !!!  I went downstairs to my basement where my drums are, and I tried to play along to the Genesis version…. DISASTER. What would have been a problem for some drummers, the fast bass drum parts for example, were no problem for me… but everything else…. WHOA !!!  I realised that I was trying to play things that I’d played 30 years ago.  This was not going to happen.  

I arrived at the sound check and we played through the tune… I sounded like a complete amateur !!! Likewise the second , third and fourth try. I had to play Martin’s kit. This was something I had not taken into account.  Not only was I trying to play like the “me” of 30 years ago, but on someone else’s drum kit. He had “my kit” alright, but everything 6 inches closer to him than I had…. even when I changed things, it was like wearing someone else’s shoes.  The Band and their crew could not have been more helpful and supportive… it was ME that was the problem.  Eventually we all agreed that it was “OK”… that made me suspicious… they should have been saying “wow… that sounds great…”  Inside I knew I’d bitten off more than I could chew.

When it came to the gig… I watched and listened. They played that stuff better than we ever did… we wrote it, which is a big point of course.  Recreating something that exists is easier than the creation of it… but they DID play it better than us. Especially Martin, who caught ALL of my personal nuances, vocally and drumming wise. All the Timbale fills… so much that I’d forgotten but he’d remembered.
It reminded me that I WAS GOOD !!!  Well it came to my “moment” and having changed into my lucky Converse and into a shirt made for me by them, I took the stage to warm applause.  Then the reality… I dropped 2 sticks in crucial places… generally missed everything I went for.. and emerged sweating and pissed off that I hadn’t lived up to the occasion.  Well… you asked me what happened…..

My wife, who hadn’t lived through the Lamb experience, thought the songs were challenging and interesting. She thought I played great… but I knew…. I realised that I didn’t look like that soldier anymore, I wasn’t that soldier anymore… it was an interesting experience.  The Musical Box were fantastic… they are all fabulous musicians that have a love for what they are doing. They do it wonderfully.  The problem was with me.

source: forum of Phil Collins’ offical web site (now offline)