Genesis - Live In Chicago, 1978 (1997)

(U.K 1967 - Present)

Recorded near the start of their 'And Then There Were Three' tour Genesis played at the Stadium in Chicago. They were unhappy about their sound at the Stadium and so returned to play the smaller venue the Uptown Theatre by the end of the tour. WXRT in Chicago broadcast the concert on the air that night and the two and a half hour show ended with a seven-minute interview with Phil Collins discussing the tour and the broadcast.

The broadcast resulted in a great sounding early release on vinyl called From The Mouth Of The Monster on Atlantis (GTT 78), a ninety-minute recording spread over two LPs. Compact disc releases include Follow You Follow Me on Great Dane Records (GDR CD 8918), Live In Chicago 1978 on Golden Stars (GSCD 2104/1-2), Live and Alive with Genesis and Phil Collins (IMT 900.019/20) on the infamous IMTRAT label, Live at Uptown Theatre Chicago International Pop (INP023, INP024), and the 2nd half of the show by AMCOS (EML 136) under the title Genesis (featured here).

A source that claims to be from the WXRT reels, including the post-concert interview, surfaced and was released on Master Of Chicago (HL446/447) on Highland.

Between 1976-1981 Genesis were almost always on the radio with each tour producing at least two or three excellent quality broadcasts. This is one of the best concerts from the “interim” period between the “progressive” Gabriel and the “eighties pop” Collins eras. They have always excelled in narrative song writing and they sing about a whole host of interesting characters and take the audience through several different vignettes.

Phil Collins goes go great pains to teach the audience when to cheer and boo to his pantomimes before “The Lady Lies” (“People are going to think we’re not going down well!” he quips).

“The Cinema Show” segues seamlessly into “In That Quiet Earth” which runs into “Afterglow” as per the studio version. The majestic “Afterglow” is followed by the Brazilian beats of “Follow You Follow Me” which was their big hit of the day. The finale begins with an aggressive version of “Dance On A Volcano” where Collins really spits out the lyrics (“Holy mother of GOD!) and leads into the drum duet between him and Thompson. This feature does not translate well on boomy audience recordings with the duet becoming lost in the general mush of sound.

But the clarity of this recording offers a detailed glimpse into Thompson’s and Collins’ contribution. This leads into “Los Endos” and “I Know What I Like”, which includes the “Stagnation” interlude, is the encore [extract from classicrockreview.wordpress.com]

Genesis 1978

Chester Thompson (Drummer)

When Chester Thompson joined Genesis as a drummer for the Wind and Wuthering tour in 1977, he had every reason to think it would be a short-term gig. He’d recently wrapped up stints with Frank Zappa and Weather Report that lasted about two years each, and Genesis’ previous touring drummer, Bill Bruford, bailed after just four months on the road.

But not only did Thompson stick with Genesis all the way through their Turn It On Again reunion tour of 2007 — Collins also brought him over to his solo career in 1981 and used him for nearly all of his tours between 1981 and 2010. During this time, the drummer somehow also found time to tour with Santana and the Bee Gees and maintain a solo career.

Chester Thompson 1978

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Thompson recollects when he first joined Genesis in 1977:

Andy Greene: Did you take a crash course in Genesis before you went in?

Thompson: They sent over some cassettes. I was leaving straight from San Francisco. And even though I listened to the cassettes, I didn’t get a real feel for what was going on before I got there. Unfortunately, they never really had to change drummers before. They brought in Bill Bruford for that one tour [in 1976], but it was a fairly short tour. Apparently Phil and Bill grew up near each other and knew each other fairly well. It was kind of like asking your buddy to come cover your band because suddenly you’re doing something different.

Chester Thompson 1977

Bill knew that world. He didn’t know all the tunes, but obviously he was pretty familiar with the whole prog-rock thing. They didn’t find out until pretty late in the game that Bill wasn’t going to do the next tour. They kind of assumed that he would. By the time they reached out to me, they allowed 10 days for rehearsal and it was a two-and-a-half–hour show. Basically, after the first day, I was like, “The only way this is going to work is if you give me a list of which tunes you want to go over the next day — I’ll have them ready.”

Basically, I literally transcribed everything Phil played on those early prog-rock albums. I’d come in and read it down the next day, which was pretty new to them because none of them read [music] at all. They felt that was pretty interesting, but it was the only way we got through it. It was another situation of me not getting any sleep since I was up all night writing charts.

Genesis-1978-Phil-Mike-Tony

Andy Greene: Did they audition you?

Thompson: No. When Phil called, the first thing he said was, “There’s no audition. I’ve already played stuff for the guys. If you want the gig, it’s yours.”

Andy Greene: How was it for you culturally? For lack of a better word, they are really, really British.

Thompson: Oh, my goodness! Where do I start

Andy Greene: And they’d never had an American in their ranks.

Thompson: Right. And much less, a black American. [Laughs] Culturally, we were on opposite sides of the world. It was quite an adjustment for me. It was the biggest adjustment I’ve ever had to make, musically and culturally.

Andy Greene: How did you manage to bridge that gap culturally?

Thompson: I just basically kept my mouth shut and my eyes open. [Laughs] It’s interesting, I probably absorbed more of their culture than they did anything I grew up with because I was really uncomfortable. The very first tour was a tour of England. You have four guys with British accents [Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett], and there was tour management and a couple of other guys, all with British accents.

L-R: Thompson, Hackett, Banks, Collins & Stuermer

Every night after the show we’d hang out. It was really disturbing because for the first two weeks. I could not follow a single conversation. I was okay one-on-one, but they speak much, much faster than we do. There were all these conversations going back and forth that I’d try to track. I could track one guy, kind of, but then somebody else would jump in. It was a weird, lonely feeling to be in the room with people that supposedly speak the same language and not be able to understand what was going on.

Andy Greene: When Daryl Stuermer joined in 1978, did you have a compatriot that was a little more like you?

Thompson: Well, yeah. And I’d known Daryl for years. He was part of a band in Milwaukee that played a place that was the place to stop and jam when you were on tour. There was a lady with the band I kind of had a crush on and we were very much in touch. And so, we had met and played together on a few occasions.

Andy Greene: It’s an interesting gig musically speaking. Much of the show is just you playing drums, but during a lot of the instrumental breaks, Phil would come back and play along with you. Was that a challenge for you?

Thompson: Not at all. Phil and I, from the very first rehearsal when he sat down and we started jamming together, we just locked. It was just there.

And Phil and I had a lot of the same roots. He was into a lot of the American jazz drummers. The difference being I wasn’t so much into the English drummers, like Keith Moon, and he was. But he still had that American stuff; it was a big part of his background, and we just hit it off immediately.

Andy Green: After 1978, this must have felt like a long-term gig.

Thompson: I still thought it would just be a couple of tours. I certainly never dreamed it would go on and on like it did.

[Interview from Rollingstone Magazine, Feb 4, 2021]

This post consists of FLACS ripped from my AMCOS CD Bootleg and includes full album artwork. I have also included the front covers of other releases of this concert. This particular release is the 2nd half of the Chicago show.

Track Listing

01 Squonk

02 Say It's Alright Joe

03 The Lady Lies

04 The Cinema Show

05 In That Quiet Earth

06 Afterglow

07 Follow You, Follow Me

08 Dance On A Volcano

09 Los Endos

10 I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

Genesis were:

Bass, Guitar – Mike Rutherford

Drums – Chester Thompson

Bass, Guitar – Daryl Stuermer

Keyboards – Tony Banks

Vocals, Drums – Phil Collins

Genesis Live Link (361Mb) New Link 22/12/2023