Selling England by the Pound by The Musical Box - Oct 20th 2016

Second time I've seen these French/Canadian musicians and their attention to detail is very impressive. One of the Genesis members is quoted as saying it is carried out as though it was a play. Not so much a concert as a play with original costume and back projected slides and probably instrumentation; judging by the authentic sound quality.

Impressive as this is, its also rather irritating, along with the jobsworth who interrupted the three photo's I took on my mobile with a tap on the shoulder. The origin of Peter Gabriel's aside to the audience in his day's with the band is to fill in whilst the band tune or re-tune their instruments. Here it seemed like a script carried out with dubious necessity and for historical effect only. Lover's of early Gabriel wordplay would be disappointed at the diction which may have been word for word, but I couldn't tell, I couldn't hear it.

And there for me is their biggest problem. I'm not sure but the vocalist is a long standing member of the tribute collective but he is also their weakest contributor. Gifted flautist he may be but he exudes none of the presence that Gabriel had, has nothing like the strength of voice and appears to me to be tiring of a well rehearsed display going back years.

Genesis tired of the praise Peter got in contrast to their input and I suppose the friction undermined relations to the point of his eventual departure. Here I feel that the shoe is on the other foot as the focal point is definitely the music and not the theatrics of the vocalist who I feel is letting them down badly.

The 'Selling England' set was interspersed with classics like Supper's Ready, The Musical Box itself and the show stopping opener Watcher of the Skies. Impressive displays by the resident drummer and keyboard player made the night an enjoyable one. The lead guitarist was good but no Hackett and Rutherford's role was always rather in the wings during the early period of Genesis and likewise here. To say that they were note perfect is just about right and perhaps the lighting display was as of 73' but it could do with more attention to the drama of each song. 

Coming back for an encore they played The Knife to a less than full auditorium, the wings upstairs were sparse but I believe the Stalls were well attended. 

A good night but not a great night, maybe I'm not so stuck in an historical past as I thought?