The Musical Box Recalls the Magic of Genesis

The Musical Box Recalls the Magic of Genesis

Exactly 30 years after the groundbreaking tour of Genesis’s “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, Montreal based The Musical Box has set out on a world tour to re-create in exact detail that original masterwork. The Genesis tour was to be Peter Gabriel’s swansong with the legendary rock group, and in it he pushed the contemporary bounds of music by combining theater-style staging and costumes with progressive rock. It was the birth of a new musical genre often referred to as “art-rock”.

The Musical Box has been licensed by Gabriel and Genesis to reenact the landmark show in which they perform the entire “Lamb” album, exactly as it was 30 years ago. In fact they use the exact slides that were used by Genesis on the original tour. The reproduction is so authentic that veterans of the original concert have commented that it’s like taking a trip back in time.

On a world tour that includes the eastern US, Canada and Europe, 4 stops have been added in the west, making this their first time to play this region ever.

December 1 – The Center Stage Theater in Whittier Calif. (tickets at www.calprog.com)
December 2 – The House of Blues in Las Vegas
December 3 – The Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood (tickets at TicketWeb.com)
December 5 – The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco

The Whittier show is at a 400 seat community theater making this the smallest and most intimate venue on the tour. This captivating musical and visual production promises to be a nostalgic goldmine for Genesis fans from the 1970’s while providing a slice of musical history for those who were too young at the time to experience the hey-day of progressive rock.

 

Hello all,

I thought you might be interested to read the text that Phil Collins (Genesis drummer turned front man) wrote for the program of "The Musical Box's" new Lamb tour:

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 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 and 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)

 

If I have the funds I wouldn't mind checking it out. It's being performed in my area on Nov. 20th. I would have like to have gone to the Foxtrot performance(I think that's the last one they did).

 

They are in the middle of a world tour. I'm pretty sure that anyone who liked Genesis when Peter Gabriel was in the band would love this show!

 

i saw the foxtrot and selling england by the pound tours. they were perfect. i cant wait to see the lamb, i got tickets to see them soon.

 

This tour may be your last chance EVER to experience the magic of the Lamb. It's an extensive world tour, but I imagine once it's over, that'll be it. A significant part of our musical heritage will be retired.

 

That's just awesome... that era of Genesis blows me away still... thx for the info, I'm definitely going to have to check this out!

Baltimore, here I come!

 

Just a few weeks away now. Be sure to check out this show if you're a Genesis fan. Entire tour schedule here: http://www.themusicalbox.net