“Great way to start the show”: The disturbing concert that made Genesis superstars
Not every rock and roll show is supposed to be fun from start to finish. If an audience went to their favourite acts expecting them to bang out the tunes for a few hours, it would get pretty boring after a while, so it’s worth it to liven up the arrangement every now and again. Once Genesis took to the stage with Peter Gabriel behind the microphone, though, this disturbing scene brought them from prog rock hopefuls to one of the most eye-catching bands in England.
Granted, every single prog rock band usually had to do a little something extra if they wanted to get the audience’s attention. Most people can’t tap their feet to an odd time signature and don’t have time to listen to 20-minute epics on their way to work, so that meant making things a bit more theatrical, whether that was Pink Floyd turning the concept album into their forte or Rick Wakeman dressing like a wizard every time Yes took to the stage.
Even in a scene that was still pretty green, though, Genesis didn’t stand out compared to everyone else. Their debut, From Genesis to Revelation, sunk without a trace on the charts, and despite the band surviving to make their next album, Trespass, it was clear that something wasn’t translating to the audience.
Let’s say you were going to see this band for the first time. Considering the most dangerous thing around at the time was Alice Cooper, seeing these posh English kids singing about fanciful stories could elicit either an eye-roll from some disgruntled fans or, at worst, a few people walking out of the venue.
Since Gabriel didn’t play an instrument onstage, though, that meant having to improvise, which led to absolute genius when they made the album Foxtrot. In prog-rock fashion, the cover art had a surreal image of a woman in a dress with a fox’s head, but no one thought that image would be on full display when they got onstage.
Without telling anyone, Gabriel donned a fox mask when they started performing the song, which garnered the best reaction that he could have hoped for, telling Behind the Music, “You could tell that the majority of the audience found it very disturbing. It was a great way to start the show.”
Genesis had been bubbling under the radar, but while Foxtrot had cracked into the Top 40, this turned them into one of the best live acts of the time. While Phil Collins was still seated behind his drum throne, he realised that there was something magical that came from how the audience reacted, saying, “It was far easier to put a picture of him on the cover of Melody Maker than the five of us who pretty much looked like any other rock group.”
But why stop at a fox’s head when you can have different costumes for every song? Although it wasn’t always the most pleasant thing to look at, seeing Gabriel dress in a flower mask or becoming the theatrical equivalent of an STD was far more compelling than anything that King Crimson was doing during their shows.
At the same time, it’s no real surprise why Gabriel had to go solo following The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Because, really, when you hit the ceiling in terms of costumes, it’s better to go off on your own instead of treating everyone else as a backing band to a prog-rock Broadway show.
