Never Forget Jesus (Highland HL315/316)
Royal Albert Hall, London, England – November 16th, 1992
Disc 1 (65:55): Land Of Confusion, No Son Of Mine, Driving the Last Spike, Old Medley, Fading Lights, Jesus He Knows Me
Disc 2 (73:55): Home By The Sea / Second Home By The Sea, Hold On My Heart, Domino, drum duet, I Can’t Dance, Tonight Tonight Tonight, Invisible Touch, Turn It On Again. Bonus track, Knebworth, August 2nd, 1992: Throwing It All Away
After releasing We Can’t Dance in late 1991, Genesis’ first album in five years, they spent most of 1992 touring the world in support. In the UK they played a big gig at Knebworth on August 2nd, 1992, several dates at Earls Court in London and a few small venues scattered throughout the country. The final gig scheduled gig was at the Royal Albert Hall for the Princes’ Trust. It broadcast on the radio and has lead to some excellent quality boots over the years including Live In London (Alien Sound Music Alien 003).
Royal Albert Hall is significant because it is one of the final Genesis shows with Phil Collins before their 2007 reunion. Genesis would play a makeup gig in Wolverhampton on November 24th and would play three songs on September 18th, 1993 for the charity Concert At Cowdray Ruins.
BBC broadcast the Prince’s Trust gig and several stations carried the feed. Highland use a tape from the broadcast on Capital Radio (London) where the DJ has a few words throughout the show like mentioning Collins’ crooning of the front row and how great the light show was during “Fading Lights,” but mostly he remains quiet to let the listeners enjoy the show.
Genesis are in fine form instrumentally, but for whatever reason Collins sounds disinterested throughout the performance. His between song banter sounds tired (especially the “audience participation time” before “Home By The Sea”) and his delivery of the music sounds bored. It makes one wonder if he’s just exhaustion at the end of several month’s worth of touring or if he’s thinking about his solo career.
The show starts off with “Land Of Confusion,” and it is followed by shouts of “Supper’s Ready” from people in the audience. The newer material sounds better than the older with great versions of “No Son Of Mine” and “Driving The Last Spike.” The “Old Medley” is twenty minutes long and includes “Dance On A Volcano,” “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” “The Musical Box,” “Firth Of Fifth,” “I Know What I Like,” “That’s All,” “Illegal Alien,” “Follow You Follow Me,” “Stagnation” and ending with more “I Know What I Like.” Although it’s a clever way of including the older songs, it would have been interesting to hear latter day interpretations of some of these songs.
“Jesus He Knows Me” is one of the better known songs from the album but, coming out in 1991 seems a bit late since the reference to the televangelist scandals occurred in the mid eighties. The ending of the show is rather strong as Collins seems to really enjoy the drum duet leading into “I Can’t Dance.” Finally “Tonight Tonight Tonight” segues directly into “Invisible Touch.” It is interesting how Collins changes the words to “And she will FUCK up your life” for the radio audience.
For the encore they play a straight version of “Turn It On Again” which has a band introduction instead of a medley in the middle. The tape ends with Collins making an appeal on the radio for the Prince’s Trust. Highland include a performance of “Throwing It All Away” from the show at Knebworth as a bonus. It was a regular part of the set but was omitted for the Royal Albert Hall broadcast. Never Forget Jesus is the best silver pressed edition of an historic Genesis show. Given the sound quality and that this is one of the least intrusive radio broadcasts in circulation makes this worth having.
