In My Opinion...
It was brilliant. We got to the arena quite early and got our merchandise,
we talked
to some of the stewards who said it was not a sell-out, this quite
disappointed
David, we went for a look in the concert hall itself and we could see that
they had
screened off some of the seats, so that the band didn't have to look out
on to a lot
of empty seats I suppose. We came back out into the foyer and had a drink,
(coca-
cola by the way) soaked up some of the atmosphere, listened to what people
were
saying, there were lots of people with "WCD Tour t-shirts on. David had his
camera
stuffed down the front of his trousers, as they were searching people, and
looking
in women's handbags. We went and took our seats at about 7.45, brilliant
seats,
second row right in the middle. David was disappointed in the size of the
stage, quite
small compared to other concerts, the arena started filling up, David was
getting quite tensed up waiting for them, I was a bit nervous as I didn't
think it would
be as good without Phil. The crew were on the stage testing guitars, putting
drinks out, David was craning his neck so he could see where they would come
out from.
They were due to start at 8.00 but its usually about 8.15 anyway the crew
were still
tinkering about, then at about 8.20 the stage was empty, the lights went
out and
the intro to NSOM started playing, in the darkness we saw Tony come and take
his
place and then Mike was right in front of us, well David just exploded, six
years of
waiting just poured out, he was on his feet whistling, shouting applauding,
but so
were all the other die-hard fans, you could tell the true Genesis fans. Ray
came on
last and everybody applauded, he launched straight into NSOM, when it
finished
he got a brilliant ovation and some people at the back started chanting "Ray,
Ray,
Ray", the he stood right in front of us and he said "If any body shouts out
wheres
Phil........" and David shouted out "Who?" and Ray looked down at him and
smiled and winked, from then on he visibly relaxed when he knew he had been
accepted.
He doesn't do as much talking as Phil, he doesn't use any bad language and
he
doesn't try to copy anything that he did, he just does his own thing. He
made jokes at the expense of Mike and Tony regarding their ages, when he
was given a stool to
sit on to sing "Carpet Crawlers" he joked that he was the last person on
stage that
needed a seat being as he was the youngest, when he was making the jokes
about
the towers at the back being the bands girlfriends he cracked a joke at Tony's
expense about him being to old to "get it up" when it comes to sex. He performed
all the songs brilliantly, he got a standing ovation every time from the
"proper"
Genesis fans, "mama" was great, when it came to the laugh he dropped to his
knees
and the stage went dark and just an eerie green light shone on him, and he
did it
brilliant, pulling the face and sticking his tongue out at the end of that
song I couldn't
contain myself any longer and I was up on my feet. When it got to IT I jumped
up and
started dancing so everybody else behind me had to do the same cos I
wasn't
going to sit down! When they went off everybody just went beserk, even though
we
knew they would come back, they came back for the encore, he
encouraged
everybody to join in with WCD but everyone was anyway, he forgot some words
but
everybody just laughed even Mike. All in all a brilliant night, I had to
eat my words
he was excellent, you just completely forget about Phil. From a woman's point
of
view Ray is GORGEOUS and so is Nir, he doesn't have the drumming skills of
Phil
but he gave it his all and his solo got him a standing ovation. At the end
of the night
everybody was saying the same, Ray is an excellent front man, David had lost
his
voice from all the shouting and singing, it was an emotional night for him
and only
a true Genesis fan will understand that, he has waited six years to see this
group that he has followed for over twenty years.
As a little aside, we had a couple sitting in front of us (man and woman)
who never
got out of their seats once, they never danced or sang, I can't see the point
of going
to a concert and paying for front seats if you are frightened to let yourself
go, so as
I was up and dancing I hit the man on the head with my little purse that
I had over my
shoulder, purely accidental you understand!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boring farts!!!!