When I entered the venue to see former Genesis front man and lead singer Ray Wilson, I noticed that a lot of people were there, but it wasn't too crowded. The ambience was great. There was a cool big banner at the back of the stage and I noticed that there were a lot of guitars on the stage too.

When the band entered the stage they started to play the well known composition Turn It On Again. Wow, what a great start, one of my favourite Genesis songs! The audience gave a big cheer and sang along. I noticed that it sounded great in the venue. After Turn It On Again the band started to play That's All,

Ray Wilson

another great Genesis track! The audience clapped along spontaneously. The saxophonist gave away a cool solo at the end of the song. Ray told the audience that he loves the venue, and especially the PA sound. After playing the first two Genesis tracks Ray started to play Wait For Better Days, a song from one of his solo albums. Very beautiful! After that he played some Genesis songs again, starting with Land Of Confusion, one of the tougher Genesis tracks. No Son Of Mine was superb, during this song you could hear that Ray's vocal powers are fantastic. The audience clapped along again during American Beauty, a song from his band Stiltskin. Before announcing the next one he told this song was about a failed actor. The audience laughed when Ray told them that the song was called The Actor anyway. Follow up after The Actor was Alone, another beautiful track. Ray even sat down for a moment while playing on his guitar. After those two songs he and the band started to play Not About Us, a song from Calling Our Stations, the album when Ray was the official lead singer of Genesis. The last song before the break was Mama. Ray really made a performance during Mama, I loved it! The light show was also helping making it look spectacular.

After the break Ray spoke to the audience. He told us that the songs they were going to play are more acoustic. The band started to play Follow You Follow Me. The audience sang along with the chorus. After Follow You Follow Me he had a big surprise. He played Solsbury Hill, which isn't a track from Genesis but from Peter Gabriel. The audience loved it, sang and clapped along. After playing this beautiful song Ray asked the audience if they went to see Steve Hackett, who did a gig a month before at the same venue. Some people raised their hands, and so Ray continued his speech and told he once toured with Steve Hackett and really loved it. The band started to play Ripples, a Genesis song Steve Hackett plays on. It was a big surprise

L to R: Steffi Hoelk, Marcin Kajper, Lawrie Macmillan and Ali Ferguson

for me that they played this song and what I really liked was that they played the song in its entirety. After Ripples Mr. Wilson spoke again. When he was young he thought that Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight was a Genesis track. The audience laughed about it of course, but I'm sure more people made that mistake. Ray's version of In The Air Tonight was very beautiful. The band didn't play along, it was only Ray singing and playing on his acoustic guitar. The audience sang along, but when Ray stopped singing the audience didn't know if they needed to sing any further or needed to stop singing, leaving the people in the audience who sang along a bit embarrassed. Ray laughed amusingly and started to sing again. The next song Ray was going to play was a song he wrote for Armin van Buuren, he told the audience. It's called Another Day. I didn't know the song, but a lot of people in the audience sang along with it. After Another Day the band started to play Congo, a Genesis track. It was spectacular to see, the band really enjoyed playing this tune. The next song Inside, another Stiltskin track, still carried the same energy. After this musical explosion the band played an acoustic song again called Take It Slow. Last song before the encore was Calling All Stations, Ray Wilson's most famous song when he was in Genesis.

When the band came back on stage for the encore Ray started to talk about his tour with Steve Hackett again. Ray was involved with Steve Hackett's new version of Carpet Crawlers on Hackett's album Genesis Revisited II: Selection. To my big excitement Ray and band really played Carpet Crawlers as an encore! The last song of the evening was No Dreams Are Made Of This. Ray said that this track was about the things you want to focus on in life. It was a very sweet song to end the gig with. The band took a big bow and left the stage, getting a big cheer from the audience.

This was one of the best gigs of this year so far. Ray Wilson and band knows how to perform. I really hope I will see him and band perform again soon.

Iris Hidding (edited by Astrid de Ronde)