Genesis is back - minus Gabriel
2007-03-08 09:17
New York - The rock band Genesis will
tour for the first time in 15 years this summer, but without
former front man Peter Gabriel, the group said on Wednesday.
The European and North American tour will feature vocalist
and drummer Phil Collins, keyboard player Tony Banks and
guitarist Mike Rutherford, reviving the line-up that reached its
peak success in the 1980s.
Gabriel, a vocalist and flutist who helped found the
British band in 1966, will not participate, though Collins left
open the possibility that Gabriel might participate in future
projects.
"It's not like it's a party that we're holding that Peter
didn't come to," Collins told a news conference, declining to
explain further.
Genesis will tour Europe this summer, including a free
concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome, and the band might
participate on July 7 in former US Vice President Al Gore's
"Live Earth" event, which is occurring in cities around the
world.
The North American leg of the "Turn it on Again" tour will
start September 7 in Toronto and finish at Hollywood Bowl on October 12.
The tour coincides with the Rhino Records release of three
boxed sets of material from the band's 13 studio albums. Rhino
is part of Warner Music Group <WMG.N>.
Genesis formed in the late 1960s when Banks, Gabriel and
Rutherford were teenagers.
Collins joined in 1970 and, after
Gabriel left in 1975, took over as front man and lead singer.
The first post-Gabriel album, Trick of the Tail, sold more
than any other previous album.
Reunion tour
Collins remained with Genesis until 1991, when he began
performing as a solo artist. In 1997, the remaining members of
Genesis released Calling All Stations, a commercial
disappointment.
Collins said the band members had stayed in touch, and a
reunion tour was something they talked about "every time we
met."
In previous tours Collins told audiences he would stop
performing but said he decided to tour again with Genesis
because "I didn't want a lid put on my coffin quite yet."