LIVE OVER EUROPE 2007

In late 2006 GENESIS announced their reunion tour as a trio (with Tony Banks on keyboards, Phil Collins on lead vocals and drums, and Mike Rutherford on bass and guitar) for 2007. It really was a short tour done in some European countries (in June-July 2007) and in the United States and Canada (in September-October 2007), with the usual help from Chester Thompson (on drums and percussion) and Daryl Stuermer (on guitar and bass), and with both musicians playing with the band as auxiliary members on tour since 1977 and 1978, respectively (with the exception of the 1998 tour). This 2007 tour happened after a lot of speculations for some years for a reunion tour of the 'classic' line-up of the band (with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals and Steve Hackett on lead guitar), but this tour never came to reality, mainly because Peter Gabriel could not find the right time to do it. So, without Gabriel, Hackett also did not agree to tour with the band. So, their 2007 tour was done by the remaining trio which became the official line- up of the band since Hackett left the band in late 1977. And this 2007 tour had this trio line-up playing together again on tour, because Collins also left the band in 1996, and the band replaced him with lead singer Ray Wilson for an album ('Calling All Stations', 1997) and a tour in 1998, without much success. The Banks-Collins- Rutherford trio only previously did a brief live reunion in September 2000 to play some songs (with Stuermer) during an awards ceremony for their manager Tony Smith. Gabriel also attended the ceremony but did not sing with the band then.

In this 2007 reunion tour the band mostly played their most known songs from their trio years, plus a few songs from their albums with Gabriel and Hackett. It was more like a 'Greatest Hits Live' tour, with a lot of songs which were taken from their most Pop Rock albums ('Genesis', 'Invisible Touch', We Can`t Dance', with all these albums still having some Prog Rock arrangements in some songs ). I like all musical eras of the band, so I don`t have many objections about the set list. But most songs have appeared on previous official live albums of the band (on 'Seconds Out', 'Three Sides Live', on the 'The Way We Walk In Concert' Vols. 1 and 2, and even in their 'Archives 1975-92' Box Set). The main difference between the previous live versions and the ones which were included in this 'Live Over Europe 2007' live album is that most songs were played in lower keys to adapt them to the natural changes in Phil Collins`s vocals due to the passing of time. But even with the limitations in Collins` s vocals in 2007, the band still sounded very well, maybe playing most songs in a more 'mature' way. Collins also had some hearing problems in the years before this reunion tour happened, so he also played the drums in a more 'quiet' way than in previous tours to avoid damage to his hearing, and the band (as Stuermer said in one interview) even had to do some adjustments in the placing of the amplifiers on stage to let Collins sing and play more comfortably without damaging his hearing. Anyway, as this album and the companion DVD of the same tour ('When in Rome') show, the band played very well, but differently, their songs. But in comparison to the 'When in Rome' DVD (which was recorded in Rome in the last date of their European tour), the songs which were selected for this 'Live Over Europe 2007' album were taken from different concerts recorded during June and July 2007 and were edited them together in sequence to give the impression to the listener that they were played in the same concert. This gave more variety to the listener, and one can think that the band was very consistent in playing all the songs very well in different concerts. I can think that maybe they did not re-record some parts in the recording studio.

In 2011 Collins announced his retirement from music due to some health problems which did not let him play the drums properly. So, maybe this live album could be the last album from GENESIS. But if Collins could play the drums again maybe they could do a reunion tour again in the future (with or without Gabriel and Hackett) and even a new studio album. But, maybe this is very unlikely. One never knows, really.