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Dont like it at all!!! looks cheap and nasty Sorry But then its the music that counts right... they can wrap it up in a co-op carrier bag as long as it sounds good.... Milliontown good that is

Hoorah for return to Milliontown.... Wasnt a fan of EIMA or Decs Vocals (too light for me) though I understand the vocals will remain. Am excited by this news. Absolutely adored Milliontown... One of my fave albums of last 20 years.  

I'll save the show commentary for the other thread.  I just wanted to take a moment to personally thank you guys for (1) making the long trip over and working your asses off preparing for the show; but more so for being so accessible and friendly afterward.

It was a huge thrill to meet Nick D'Virgilio, being that he is one of the most talented people on the planet.  He was gracious enough to do the meet 'n' greet thing and I did my best not to blather on and on about his sheer awesomeness.  I'm sure he gets enough of that.  Anyone who hasn't heard his 'Rewiring Genesis' album, buy it.  Buy it now.  Thank you, Nick.

JJ - Great to meet you, finally, after all of our forum correspondence.  You waved and mugged for my camera before you even knew who I was - signs of quality.  Or mental disorder.  Either way, much thanks to you, kind Sir.

JM - While I didn't get to speak to you personally, it was great of you to be seated at the table I happened to be standing behind when the camera flashes started going off.  How many people take time out of their day to do that? =)  You had to have been exhausted, so let me just say your presence was greatly appreciated.

Dec - I didn't get to speak to you at the table (my wife did), so I'm glad I got to hang out with you back at the hotel lounge.  My wife had fallen asleep, as we'd been up 20 hours straight by then, and my eyes were completely bloodshot, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Even when I steered you to the VIP party you ended up back in the lounge with us lowly commoners.  Thank you for the bonus chat time and for being a most pleasant, down to earth guy.

Jem - Great to meet you at the table and again in the hotel lounge later.  I was searching for something clever to say when we were standing at the bar, but it seems I'm used to having hours to think something up!  It's just astonishing that you pulled off this immense undertaking  :shock: working the schedule you worked, flying here and practicing endlessly, buying flowers, playing for two hours, meet 'n' greet, after party... How you manage to do all the things you do is one of the world's great mysteries.  And just when you think Jem couldn't possibly do anything more: custom band member intros!  

It was all well worth it for me.  An excellent show and fine gentlemen, all.

I agree with you totally that Nick is very talented. However, his Rewiring Genesis album is the biggest obscenity I have ever heard. If I were part of Genesis I'd insist it was removed from sale THATS how horrible the thing is... Horns and Brass for gods sake and an obscenely poor vocal over an unnecessarily reworked piece of dung (sorry but I really do feel this strongly about the assault on one of the greatest prog albums of all time). He should be shot for what he did to that.


On a brighter note... his work on Kevin Gilberts Shaming of the TRue was excellent, but his solo work was best described as poor and his work with Spocks Beard largely uninspiring... He's no Neal Morse put it that way.

Sure he's a lovely guy... dont really care... Its the product that matters to me and with the exception of finishing off one of the most missed and beloved musicians masterwork (for which I will be eternally grateful to him), he's just another drummer...

Jem please ban me for gods sake...

Hi,

Well here it is....a video for Toys.

I finally managed (at 6am this morning) to get the thing to roughly hang together and what you can now see on YouTube is a rather resolution-crushed version of my epic! (Well, it's nearly the time for crushing resolutions, isn't it?   )

Anyway, like I say, it's rough, there are things you just can't read (writ too small ) and things I wanted to do but either couldn't get to work or had to bin cos of the time limit I forced on myself.

Don't look for any character development or sub-plot...just some groaning visual puns and ropey associations!  

Consider this my Christmas Card to you all wherever you are and I demand that you have a Merry Christmas and a ridiculously Happy New Year!  

Right, to The Peel!!  

West Bishes,
Pedro

PS Ooh, and that brings up the 400!!  

That was unbelievably.... UNBELIEVEABLY......INCREDIBLY!  Superb!

I actually think this is a very generous review and DPRP are actually being very 'modern' in their thinking. I have grown off this album quite a lot over the last couple of weeks. Clumsiness like the lumping together of DDD with falling down and that stupid buzz during saline do contribute (for me) to the fact that EIMA just isnt as good in any way as Milliontown (Production, Content, Performance, Writing) and I dont think anyone should kiss ass just to appear popular to be honest. I dont think any track really develops significantly to leave any lasting satisfactory taste in the mouth (with the possible exception of Saline)... but its 'catchy'. Toys is a very strong bouncy track and actually one of the high points on the album. Pocket Sun too, though not particularly developmental is full of hooks and is very enjoyable.

A lot of the DPRP points were valid and for people here to claim it as a 'great' prog album shows an unbelievable lack of understanding. Yes it is a brave album. In my opinion it's poor prog value for money and roots itself closer to pop than prog. It is a prog album but a weak one. 100% valid performance and composition wise I just feel that its 40% prog and 60% contempory pop/rock.

In listening I got to like the rhythms... I think the drums are great and the few standout Guitar bits that are allowed to Mr Mitchell/whoever are great but as a prog album it is characterless and shallow. I also agree with the attempt to back off keyboards in favour of the other instruments just hasnt worked as it sounds far more keyboardy than Milliontown. The excellent Mr Jowitt has also been largely hidden on the album. With the exception of Mr Edwards, the album wasnt a great showcase of anybodys abilities when compared with Milliontown and the members respective main bands.

As an 'Experiment in mass appeal' it may well work... as does Pink... as do Sugarbabes.... as do Coldplay.... As a Prog experiment it fails masively for me. DDD sounds cramped in its time limit and though I dont advocate that a song has to be long to be a prog song (hence the stupid hobbit calls) I think it needs to develop. Toys is 3 mins and works far better as a track... DDD has too much for its 6 mins and is truly difficult to enjoy because of it.

To hear people lambasting DPRP when they clearly do a great job and have done for the last so many years is disgraceful. I agree Barts stupid comments were well out of line after hearing 30 seconds, but having heard the album about 50 times now myself, it has to go down as the most dissapointing album of 2008 (as an anticipated album). I'd have given it between 5 and 6. 7.5 is generous and 8 borders on hysteria as far as I'm concerned.

This message board doesnt work if people just slag off people who are respected individuals in their field because they are 'outside of the club'. Its not a church! Its not a place to come worship the band and deny all other religions.

Mines for sale on Amazon... but I'll be looking for the next release and hoping that the direction taken by Jem next time moves on in a way thats' more lastingly satisfying to me' and if it does... You betcha I'll be buying Frost again!

Feel really bad having started this thread now...

Lets just say we all love Jem and Andy and Johns and Dec.

But the chap who said you could stick Mick Pointer in.....

I assume that was meant to be a hilarious joke....

We are talking about THE Mick Pointer who STILL (Sorry John) cant beat a drum with any more profligacy than a small child hammering shapes into one of those toolbench things...

he was even worse than Paul Cook (Sorry other John).

I was soooo excited about new IQ and then Mr O had to go and leave

Gutted.... The most talented member of a super talented band....

I'd find it hard to pick a 'most talented' in the band to be honest... seen Jem's keyboard chops? Ever watched JJ running about the stage? Ever seen Dec sing live? Ever seen... well, JM?

 

Yes... yes.... yes.... I have (apart from Jem and Dec)... still stand by it. I can remember Martin Orford saying that his one regret of leaving IQ was that he didnt get to play more with Andy before moving on.... I love them all, but at what he does I find Andy most talented.

So Jem really did bury Andy  

Gutted.... The most talented member of a super talented band....

Still... he's still recording with them I suppose  :|

I'm about 12 plays in and though my initial analysis was not that great... i do have to say this...

Saline is lovely.... it really is...
You/I is really nice too....
I'm even liking Dear Dead Days now....

but Toys is really f*cking with me... there are so many hooks in the thing that it wont leave me alone now... its like Jem set it on me when i said I was dissapointed by the album and now it has me by the throat... call it off please.

Still dont like the drum machine in secret song but like secret song... still dont like the drum machine in welcome to nowhere but quite like welcome to nowhere...

So the only thing I really dont like is the awkward way that Dear dead Days flows into Falling down... but part of that may be due to me having a 'not quite gapless' mp3 player... Like the new start to Wonderland... for some reason it makes the 2 parts of it sit together nicer, which is bizarre. Still not a fan of the non instrumental bits on EIMA but at last i think i finally 'Get' Dec and the wonderful Job he actually does on this album in contrast to the other vocals... note contrast... not harmonies which I still dont like much. But I do like Jems vocals very much... and the others.

and I still dislike the sodding Drum machines!

It may not be what I'm used to but it is the very nature of Prog to change, to move,  is it not... We progsters spend far too long standing still and licking the wounds caused by the modern generation of music.

apologies again.... now will you call off Toys please....


I'm really sorry for you guys who dont have your copies yet.... I hope its all sorted really soon...

Got to be Saline for me.... lovely song... lovely feel to it....

Hi all,

We've had a mental few days, TLD more than most, and we are pretty much up to date now.  We have had to re-order (yet again) the special edition, so there are some more discs to come out on that.

TLD has spent all morning for the past week filling packages and licking stamps.  She then goes to the post office in the early afternoon and she does her best to answer any queries in the evening or following day as time allows.

CRS were not exactly set up to deal with the orders received, resulting in Deb going through each individual order received individually with the CRS to make sure as far as we could that we had the correct details.  She had to go through nearly 100 orders in one phone call to make sure they were correct.

It's fair to say we have been overwhelmed with demand for the disc, and if it hadn't been for Deb, who has given freely of her time above and beyond the call of duty, we would have been absolutely stuffed, so any queries, PM TLD, any problems PM me and we will sort it.

Cheers

JJJ

Yup big thanks from me...

Incidentally... i ordered through CRS and mine arrived Saturday, so I'm sure the orders were passed on okay... I think its just the post office fannying around again (as usual)  :roll:

[yet]

I need to go back and revisit all the early, PG-Genesis.  I came on late, in the middle years, and that's what I love, ThreeSidesLive, Duke, etc., are Genesis to me, and I have trouble with the very early stuff.  but I am very open, just haven't made the effort. yet.

Me and Virgil is an odd song, no doubt, but really sounds like nothing else that I can think of.  very melancholy, and a bit profound, actually.

Mmmm maybe I am a 'hobbit' but i think I'd prefer to be a 'dinosaur' ..46 years and been progging for 36 of them. I can understand how its difficult to go backwards to Gabriel era if you didnt live through it though... it was just EVERYTHING to me back then...

Sorry... I'm off topic again...


I like the sentimental melancholic feel that Jem pops into this album... either in the stringy bits or the piano slices... its almost like a theme running through... I like that.

'In the Air tonight'

that is a great song.  very well constructed.

Wind & Wuthering.

one of my favorite Genesis albums.  I discovered them from this album, after they played on American Bandstand.  no idea of the year.

gotta love Frosties*!!!   8-)

W&W was my favourite 'Collins Genesis' album... Though I did like bits of Duke and 'Genesis' and 'ATOTT'. I think my biggest problem with 'In the air tonight' was that I bought it as a then Genesis fan about the time when they had released 'Spot the Pigeon' (I think) which had the excellent 'Inside & Out' on it... so I was kind of primed for a decent solo ... but when you get that with 'Me & Virgil' I think, on the back I went into a major downer. liked the suspense of ITAT but grew tired of it quite swiftly. I was dissapointed with all the Genesis solos to be honest except for Mr Hacketts first few (Up to Cured) and TB 'Curious Feeling'. I thought 'Acting Very Strange' by MR was hilariously bad. Dont think TB has done anything of note progwise since 'Curious Feeling'.

Going back to almost on topic (did someone shout hooray!). I think fake drums in the way that almost all of the tracks on EIMA and Milliontown are originally written doesnt bother me... Its the horrible ping pong sound of drum machines that gets to me... it just seems akk... makes me think of songs by that horrid little man. I'll be really worried if Jem starts using Phoenix horns on the next album!

As for fading lights... though it came from a slight recovery of an album for the band, it was still a gazillion miles away from even mid quality genesis like Wind & Wuthering... TBH I listened to it and thought to myself 'Thank God they've decided not to sully the name of Gabriels band any further' ... but then they did. I can honestly say that during 'Small talk' on Calling all stations I could feel the bile rising intyo my mouth... i had to swallow really hard then....

Philadelphia cant possibly continue to look that good in the bits beyond the top of the guitar... I reckon its hiding a serious amount of 5 O'clock shadow... surely!!!  

Maybe the bottom half of her face is Jems! maybe she IS Jem... now theres a thought!

Right back on topic.... If you really love the tracks you've already heard then you will adore the album. Drum machine, no drum machine... whatever and I've played it about 7 times now and I'll do the same again tomorrow... because there isnt that much else about that is at least trying to be different. I think that deserves a measure of tolerance from the listener.

Can we please split this blu-ray and peanut stuff into a separate topic? Come on guys...

Why so uptight... Its only a bit of fun! We're ordinary people remember! Well except for the band....

Hey Pedro... methinks you have a fan in Philadelphia  :lol: