Day One Saturday 27th May 2006

This convention was organised by non other than Doug Melbourne the former keyboard player with Regenesis.

I made myself known to Doug and I got an invite from him to be the event photographer, I did do my very best.

Although on the Wednesday before the convention I was asked to arrange the collection some of the prizes for the quiz which was arranged by Alan Hewitt who set all the questions some of which were very hard, alas I had to travel to the offices of Hit and Run (Now known as Tony Smith Personnel Management) the Genesis management company to collect the prizes they had generously donated.

I had also managed to obtain a prize for the quiz from Peter Gabriel which was a deluxe road case of his Still Growing Up tour on CD.

So on Friday I set off to London (near Putney Bridge Underground Station) and I met up with the staff at the offices and collected some of the prizes. I then drove all the way back to Coventry, and then the following Day I drove back down south to Epping Underground station and I made my way to the Astoria on Tottenham Court Road where the event was being held.
The audience start to arrive! (Photo Credit, Mark Kenyon - Editor)

I arrived so early that the band Face Value, were setting up there equipment and starting to sound check which I was very lucky to witness, The band also were discussing lighting arrangements with the venue staff. I was later to learn what a stellar band they all are and how friendly they all are. I met up with Doug, and I spoke with the venue staff as I was permitted to film some of the event, I was given a triple AAA pass and then taken to the crows nest (above the lighting and sound desks) upstairs to set up my camcorder.

That task done, the venue wasn’t yet open to the public so I made myself familiar with the venue so that I knew where the facilities were etc, I also bumped into Steve Puddick whom was there with a charity raffle the prize of which entitled the winner to visit the Genesis personal studio in surrey and to listen to the new remixed and remastered 5.1 surround sound recordings.

I had read on various forums that just around the corner in a public house was the pre event meet up, sadly I missed it and by all accounts it was great fun and an ideal way to warm up for the afternoon’s event and performances.

John Mayhew the drummer who played on Trespass (the first Genesis album when they signed to Charisma Records) was present well he was actually invited by convention organiser Doug M, John had never been to a Genesis convention before he had recently been discovered by a Genesis fan up in Scotland.

Alan Hewitt of the fanzine TWR had also managed a master stroke of arranging a special guest, non other than Anthony (Ant) Phillips one of the original founding members of Genesis and whom left after the Trespass album and tour. Alan had a big hand in reuniting both Ant and John after over 35 years of them not being in contact with each other both of whom rekindled a friendship and whom shared war stories and all amongst each other in the privacy of the backstage area of which I was not privy to, As I mentioned previously just because I have a triple A pass I will not venture into area’s I class as out of bounds with one either.

They both would later appear for a signing session and photo session for the fans, which again would not have been possible without Alan Hewitt’s intervention.

Time marched on and it didn’t seem that long before Tony Patterson and Doug Melbourne where on stage performing an unplugged set of Peter Gabriel songs. Tony was on the vocals, and Doug making use of the Face Value keyboard rig to play the keyboard parts of the Peter Gabriel solo set.

Tony and Doug perform Humdrum (Photo Credit, Mark Kenyon - Editor)

The songs they performed were as follows,

Here Comes The Flood,
Mother Of Violence,
Humdrum,
Solsbury Hill,
Family Snapshot.

Personnel

Tony Patterson – Vocals
Doug Melbourne - Keyboards

(I am lead to believe this performance was captured onto DVD)

Then the audience seemed to grow in numbers, and it was time for Face Value to appear on stage, they had travelled all the way down from Widnes to the venue at some ungodly hour of the morning and had arrived at the venue and set to straight to it. Yet there performance did not give the game away that these guys had already done a days work by driving so many miles and setting up there own equipment.

For many fans who had seen Face Value before it was also a chance to see the latest addition to the line up in the form of Wrexham Thompson there new live drummer complete with very expensive and hi tech Roland Electronic drum kit.

Face Value’s set list

No Son Of Mine,
Land Of Confusion,
Domino,
Many Too Many,
Misunderstanding,
Fading Lights,
In The Air Tonight,
Throwing It All Away,
Home By The Sea & Second Home By The Sea,
Afterglow,
Mama,
I Know What I like (includes an Old Medley with parts of Stagnation, Illegal Alien, Follow You Follow Me etc).

(I am lead to believe this performance was captured onto DVD)

Face Value personnel

Wrexham Thompson - Drums and Percussion
John Wilkinson -Vocals
Tony Cole - Keyboard and Backing Vocals
Will Smith - Guitars and effects as well as Backing Vocals
 

Face Value please the Crowd (Photo Credit, Mark Kenyon - Editor)

Although there were a few technical glitches that evening, Face Value shone through these minor problems and performed like true professionals even though they are not full time musicians, Although Face Value seem to cover the more popular Phil Collins era of the band (when I say that it is in regard to the 80’s and early 90’s when sadly to many people Genesis were considered POP). This remains for many tribute bands still uncharted territory that Face Value seem to have mapped out and dare I say it conquered perfectly and quite obviously the crowd loved every moment of there performance.

There performance was one of the highlights of the first day of the convention. Then there was a quiet period in the event whilst Face Value’s equipment was hurriedly taken down and moved off stage, and the equipment belonging to Genesis In The Cage (also known as GITC) was put in to place. Whilst this went on many fans carried on chatting and getting to know each other better over a few beverages.

Sadly I am unable to recall most of the set list that GITC played, but I do recall it was radically different to the songs that Face Value had played earlier that evening. I do recall GITC playing mainly Peter Gabriel era Genesis complete with Supper’s Ready which I really enjoyed.

GITC personnel

Andy Smith - Drums and Percussion
Trevor Garrard -Vocals
Henry Dagg - Keyboard and Backing Vocals
Pat Heron - Guitars and effects (this includes a whistle) as well as Backing Vocals
Maurice Hendricks – Bass Guitar

With GITC set finished I was awfully tired and I made my journey back to my mum’s in Harlow who was putting me up for the weekend.

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Genesis in The cage give a amazing rendition of Carpet Crawlers (Photo Credit, Mark Kenyon - Editor)