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Phil Collins Rejoins Genesis

The Genesis lineup that gave the world hits like "Invisible Touch" and "I Can't Dance" is getting back together next summer for a 20-city European tour, to be followed by a U.S. tour whose dates have not yet been announced. The reunited trio of Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks has dubbed their 2007 jaunt the "Turn It On Again Tour" (bet you didn't see that one coming).

Despite a few hopeful rumors circulating on fan sites, founding band member Peter Gabriel will not be joining the group on this tour. The band admitted that they had been in discussions with Gabriel and former guitarist Steve Hackett to join the tour, but that the talks broke down. Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 and has not performed with the band since a reunion show in 1982.

If you're really a hardcore Genesis fan, you'll be happy to hear that longtime Genesis sidemen Chester Thompson (drums) and Daryl Stuermer (guitar) will be back for the Turn It On Again tour. Will the Thompson-Collins drum duets be back in full effect? You'll just have to buy your tickets and see.

So what inspired the big reunion tour, the band's first with Collins since he left the group in 1992? Collins insists that it's not about the money. "If money was the issue, we'd be doing more than 20 shows," Collins said during a press conference yesterday (November 6th) announcing the tour. "We're all loaded enough not to worry about where the next million is coming from. To satisfy the demand that I suspect is out there, we'd be doing multiple dates in stadiums right across the world. "This is just us getting together and playing some songs. It's fun."

Whether or not money is part of the reunion equation for the band, it's clearly on the agenda for the band's label, EMI, which plans to reissue 14 Genesis studio albums in SACD/DVD double-disc sets throughout 2007. The band has no plans to record new material, but Rutherford added a coy "we'll see" when the subject came up at yesterday's press conference.

Genesis 2007 European tour dates:

June 11: Helsinki (Olympic Stadium)
June 14: Herning, Denmark (Messecenter)
June 15: Hamburg (AOL Arena)
June 17: Berne, Switzerland (Stade de Suisse)
June 18: Linz, Austria (Gugglestadium)
June 20: Budapest (Puskas Ferenc Stadium)
June 21: Katowice, Poland (Slaski Stadium)
June 23: Hannover, Germany (AWD Arena)
June 26: Dusseldorf, Germany (LTU Arena)
June 29: Stuttgart, Germany (Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium)
June 30: Paris (Parc Des Princes)
July 1: Amsterdam (Arena)
July 3: Berlin (Olympiastadion)
July 4: Leipzig, Germany (Zentralstadion)
July 5: Frankfurt (Commerzbankarena)
July 7: London (Twickenham Stadium)
July 8: Manchester, England (Old Trafford)
July 10: Munich (Olympiastadion)
July 12: Monaco (Louis II Stadium)
July 14: Rome (Telecomcerto at Colosseo)

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.07.06