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The
Musical Box |
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Genesis Tribute Band |
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Review by Martin Jakeman March 2007 |
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Is this the greatest
tribute band in the world – the one all others aspire to? I don’t
know as I have not seen that many others, but I was very impressed
along with the hundreds of other fans who virtually packed out the
Albert Hall in London.
That is saying something when you can sell tickets like that.
The rest of the tour of this Canadian based Genesis tribute band
takes in Europe and North America. |
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Rewinding a bit – the Musical Box are one of a number of Genesis
tribute bands paying homage to the 70’s mega band (now partly
re-grouped to go on tour again). The Musical Box take their work
very seriously – they aim (and succeed) in re-creating the Genesis
shows of the 1970’s when Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett were in the
line up. |
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The
show I went to see was a complete re-enactment of the “Selling
England by the Pound” tour. They followed the exact same set
list of the time kicking off with “Watcher of the Skies” and
ending with “Supper’s Ready” followed up with the encore “The
Knife”. |
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They
were completely convincing; and I think I am qualified to say so, as
I saw Genesis put on the original show at the Theatre Royal, Dury
Lane, London in 1974. I will always remember it as one of the best
gigs I ever saw, and was delighted when the Musical Box were able to
bring back all those memories. |
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The
Musical Box not only play some complex music exceedingly well, but
they also do it using the original instruments of the time.
So the keyboard player (David Myers) uses a Mellotron, Hammond
Organ, ARP Synth and RMI Electric Piano. The drummer (Martin Levac)
is even more remarkable – he uses a replica of Phil Collins’ kit of
the time, and plays it left handed (same as Collins) and looks like
him too.
If that was not enough, he even sang a solo number (More Fool Me) –
sounding and looking just like Phil Collins (ala 1974). |
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The Show itself used exact copies, or in some cases the original
background projection slides that Genesis used. These images were
projected on hour glass shaped screens (made from a special gauze)
that allows the sound of the back line amps to pass through (the
amps being hidden away behind the screens). |
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Denis Gagné, playing the part of Peter Gabriel is fantastic – he
looks and sounds like him and plays all the flute parts too. He has
also somehow managed to piece together the way Gabriel acted and
moved on stage. In fact the real Peter Gabriel saw the show with
his kids – so that they could see what Daddy used to do in his
youth!
At
times I wondered if they were taking it too far: Denis Gagné recites
the same surreal stories in between the songs that Gabriel did while
the rest of the band tune up. Sébastien Lamothe (Mike Rutherford)
in particular spends some time tuning between numbers, |
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This
was actually done in the 70’s as there were no auto-tuners and you
had to tune by ear. Often the guitars were re-tuned to another
tuning and to cover for this, Gabriel told these long stories to the
audience. |
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The real Genesis are clearly fans of the Musical box too – so much
so that they granted the band the only official licence to perform
their material. In addition to this, Steve Hackett (original
Genesis guitarist) joined the band on stage at the Albert Hall
taking over from Francois Gagnon for a encore of Firth of Fith,
and on another occasion Phil Collins joined the band at the end of
the set to play a complete version of The Musical Box at a
gig in Geneva.
I
have now seen the band three times including a recreation of the
Lamb Lies down on Broadway tour and have never been
disappointed. Sadly it is rumoured that this is their last tour, so
get in quick if you want to see them.
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The Musical Box Web Site |
