In 1982 the basic line-up of Genesis reunited for a one-off present at England’s Milton Keynes Bowl. They humorously billed it as Six Of The Finest – a reference to the normal punishment for naughty schoolboys in mid-Twentieth century England, wherein the trainer disbursed half a dozen strikes with a cane to the fingers or backside.
Their goal was to lift cash for Peter Gabriel’s then debt-ridden WOMAD venture, mentioned to have personally price the singer round £200,000. “Ambition obtained forward of actuality,” he later mentioned of the world music pageant he’d helped launch in 1980.
“We went in there with evangelical fervour, and we thought everybody else was going to be as excited as we have been. It grew to become a nightmare after we realised there was no means we have been getting the tickets to cowl our prices.
“The money owed have been means above what I may handle; however individuals noticed me as the one fatcat price squeezing, so I obtained loads of nasty telephone calls – and a dying risk.”
Though the live performance was by no means recorded, it holds a particular place within the hearts of Genesis members and followers alike. That is an abbreviated account of Prog’s 2022 function.
1. It begins
At round 6pm Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Chester Thompson and Daryl Stuermer took to the stage. The sixth member, as ever, took a special method. Virtually 10 years to the day after he’d appeared onstage in a gown sporting the top of a fox, with out warning his bandmates, he was as much as his previous methods. 4 pallbearers carried a white coffin to the centre of the stage, and out got here Gabriel within the black leather-based jacket of his Rael character from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
Rutherford: All of us smiled when the coffin got here on. It was like, “That’s our Pete!”
Stuermer: I don’t suppose any of us knew that was going to occur. They put the coffin down and it was like he got here again from the useless. It was loads of enjoyable!
Collins: If he’d informed us he was pondering of approaching in a coffin we might in all probability have mentioned, “Is that actually one of the best factor?” However he did it and it was humorous.
2. They’re going to get away with it too…
Gabriel rapidly proved he’d accomplished his homework; he remembered all of the lyrics and even introduced again the flower masks for Supper’s Prepared. Whereas many within the 60,000-strong viewers had seen him with Genesis earlier than, many others hadn’t – however the band satisfied all of them.
Gabriel: It felt a heat event, there was a pleasant feeling up on stage.
Hackett: I watched the live performance from the wings, and I believed it was very emotional. It was as packed backstage because it was onstage. The magic began to occur simply at that second when Pete began to sing, ‘Are you able to inform me the place my nation lies’ – that open-ended assertion of constructive perplexity.
3. …Even the bits they get mistaken
“A few of you might be questioning what we’re doing right here,” Gabriel informed the group. “Truly, it is a sequence from a earlier occasion by the identify of WOMAD – an amazing occasion that misplaced a pile of cash. However I’m very fortunate to have a gaggle of people that assist these beliefs, so in return on your money we’ll provide you with what we predict you’ll like from this mixture.”
Collins: All of it got here flooding again – falling over issues, pulling microphone leads out of sockets… it was chaos!
Thompson: They arrange mics across the stage the place Peter mentioned he was going to be. Come the day of the present, Peter was wherever he was in the mean time, and it wasn’t the place he’d mentioned he’d be the day earlier than!
Banks: I used to be sporting a tracksuit that had “kamikaze” written on it, which underlined my perspective. It was odd, and never pretty much as good musically as we had been used to. Pete went on to the second drum equipment for Flip It On Once more, however he couldn’t maintain time as a result of he didn’t realise that there was an additional beat in it. It was fairly amusing, actually!
4. The return of the Hackett
Hackett, who’d left Genesis in 1977, returned to participate within the encores – I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) and The Knife. Stuermer, who’d joined the band on a touring foundation in 1978, had no downside with it, regardless of suggesttions to the other.
Stuermer: I knew he was there. Loads of occasions I’m studying YouTube feedback and folks pit me and Steve in opposition to one another. They’ll say, “I feel Steve is healthier” or, “I feel Daryl is healthier.” I get together with Steve rather well. I feel he’s a superb guitar participant. It’s humorous that individuals are making an attempt to make out we’re enemies.
Hackett: I’d met Daryl earlier than. He was a really good man, and clearly an amazing participant. I used to be touched that there was a giant roar from the group once I got here on – it was the whole crew, so far as it was doable, at that time. To not neglect my predecessor, Anthony Phillips. He was of large significance to the band’s growth and success. They have been massive sneakers to fill once I first joined.
5. After the present
By 8.30pm it was throughout. Because it was extremely unlikely all these individuals can be in the identical place once more for a substantial time, nobody was in a rush to depart.
Rutherford: These items are all the time so surreal; they go by so quick, and earlier than you already know it, the occasion is over. Your thoughts is so taxed with making an attempt to get the elements proper, you miss what’s happening.
Gabriel: It was a bit like going to highschool while you haven’t been there for 30 years. On this case it was solely six years, but it surely nonetheless felt like a lifetime.
Banks: It felt like a little bit of a dream. I used to be very glad when it was over as a result of I hadn’t significantly loved taking part in that stuff on the time!
Hackett: I obtained riotously drunk afterwards. I’ve to say everybody was. It was such a celebration, such a vibe. I feel I used to be actually carried out of the place on the finish – a mix of the thrill, jetlag and one bottle of pop too many. We have been all out of our brains, hugging one another; as emotional as a Genesis crew can get.
6. Job accomplished
Six Of The Finest stays an exceptionally fond reminiscence that achieved its goals – though among the band lived to remorse the choice to not report it, because of doubts over how good it will really be.
Banks: That present did go some approach to finding out Peter’s monetary downside; WOMAD grew to become a monster factor.
Collins: Importantly, we helped cease our mate being jailed – or worse.
Hackett: It was beautiful to be concerned, and beautiful to do it for Pete and WOMAD. Everybody got here collectively for all the appropriate causes: it wasn’t in regards to the precision of the night time. It was the spirit that was so vital.
Gabriel: Though they’re typically portrayed as very unhip, exploitative capitalist males of the rock world, it’s completely right down to them that the WOMAD motion can transfer, or battle, or crawl ahead. They usually didn’t get something out of it.
7. And one of many worst – the ‘Genesis curse’
No account of Six Of The Finest will be made with out recalling simply how terrible the climate was. Everybody was not simply soaked – they have been sodden. Sopping. Drenched. Saturated.
Gabriel: It began at about 6am and went on to 2am. Stable rain.
Hackett: It poured all day and all night time. Everyone remembers that. Legendarily moist appears to be the Genesis curse. If there’s one thing happening outdoor, it should rain – that was definitely true of my time with the band. I feel a great deal of individuals caught colds and flu, as a result of if you happen to didn’t have an umbrella, you have been actually sunk.