GenesisTributeAct Slippermen at Opera House Sat 11/5

[TimmyB]

SLIPPERMEN

THE OPERA HOUSE

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5 2005

8PM DOOR

$22 AT THE DOOR

I'll be heading to the Opera House to see yet another Quebec Band tackle the great music from the 1970's era Genesis songbook.

Unlike the Musical Box who only focus on Genesis from the Peter Gabriel era, the Slippermen focus on Genesis from 1970's 'Trespass' to 1980's 'Duke.'

And the Toronto show will be a bit of a hybrid of the Musical Box and the Slippermen reading this off the Opera House and Slippermen web pages.

Nov. 2, 2005 Update regarding Toronto show !!

Due to illness, our lead guitarist is not be able to make the Toronto Show. We are proud to announce that he will be replaced by a special guest, Denis Champoux, ex-guitarist for The Musical Box. Denis has graciously accepted to fill-in on very short notice and only a few days of preperation. Thank you Denis. It's very appreciated.

Oct. 28, 2005 Opening Act for Toronto !!

Seven Virgins and a Mule, a tribute to Emerson, Lake & Palmer will open for us at

the Opera House show next Saturday Nov. 5th.

The doors will open at 8:00 pm with Seven Virgins hitting the stage at 8:30 pm followed by

Slippermen at 9:30 pm.

If anybody is interested in going to this show let me know as my friend that was supposed to attend this with me bailed. I'll be leaving from Hamilton sometime before the doors, possibly early enough to have dinner in Toronto? So if anybody needs a ride from the Hamilton area and any city in between Hamilton and Toronto let me know?

Tim

[ollie]

I saw the first Slippermen show in Montreal and it was very good. They have since added a second drummer and having Denis Champoux on guitar should make them all that much better. He's my favourite among the rotating axemen of The Musical Box.

Have a great time tonight. Wish I could be there!

[TimmyB]

Thanks ollie,

I'm very much looking forward to tonights gig. I'm sure I saw Denis Champoux at one of the Musical Box shows I have attended as I have seen them four of five times since the late nineties.

I seem to remember seeing only one guitar change in the Musical Box has there been more?

I do remember a drummer change in the Musical Box as the new drummer drums left handed like Phil Collins and sings like him too, since they even gave him "More Fool Me" at the last 'Selling England By the Pound Tour' I saw.

Do the Slippermen perform a lot from 'A Trick of the Tail?' I'm really hoping to hear "Dance on a Volcano," "Ripples" and "Robbery, Assault and Battery."

Tim

[ollie]

Denis Champoux was with The Musical Box when they had two guitar players but he had left the band by the first time I saw them in late 1996. Christian Hebert was the lone guitarist at that point.

Hebert stayed with the band until the end of their first set of tours for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, in August 2001. He left the band to focus on school and Denis Champoux re-joined the band for the upcoming Selling England By The Pound tour in the fall of 2001.

The band had their breakthrough in Europe shortly therafter and toured with Selling England until late spring 2004. At the end of that European tour there was acrimony between Champoux and the band and he left and/or was fired. Christian Hebert, who was the band's business manager by now, was called into emergency action to play a handful of North American dates to complete the tour.

That summer the band started rehearsing for another go round with The Lamb and recruited their current guitar player, François Gagnon.

The Musical Box is currently on a tour for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway that started at the end of September with their debut in Brazil!

I will be going to the Montreal and Quebec City shows at the end of this month.

Maybe next time I will recount the history of their keyboard players.

[TimmyB]

Hey ollie,

Thanks for that, now I think I need to look at my ticket stubs to see which guitarists I have seen in the Musical Box?

But I believe I have seen all three of those guitarists then, minus their manager.

I just looked at the slippermen website to see what songs they are going to perform and I am all the more excited for the show.

I really hope I hear "Deep in the Motherlade," "In That Quiet Earth" into "Afterglow" and "Ripples." As I'll never hear that material with many other groups, whereas I've heard so much Peter Gabriel era stuff with the Musical Box. Though I'll be happy to hear it all I'm sure.

Tim

Edited November 5, 2005 by Guest

[ollie]

Oh yeah, the Slippermen show. When I saw them they did two sets. It had a very Seconds Out feel but I can't remember the setlist. With two drummers there's no doubt they will play a great Dance on a Volcano > Los Endos. And I believe they've added Supper's Ready since I've seen them.

[TimmyB]

Ah "Dance on a Volcano" and "Los Endos" As this day is going on and I'm blasting out some old Genesis I'm getting very excited about this gig.

It makes a lot of sense to me that the show has a very 'Seconds Out' feel to it as the Slippermen play Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins era Genesis from 1970-1980.

Actually if the show was a recreation of 'Seconds Out' I wouldn't walk away disappointed.

Hey ollie, sorry for all the questions but do you feel it has a 'Seconds Out' feel because the vocalist sings more like Collins than Gabriel, therefore creating that mid to late seventies Genesis sound of Collins singing Gabriel era material as well as Collins era material as well?

Tim

[ollie]

I can't recall the singer's voice too vividly but you're probably right. I meant the comparison more in terms of the slightly modified musical arrangments of the Gabriel-era songs that were showcased on Seconds Out.

[ollie]

Hey Tim,

How was the show? What was the turnout like?

I took the following setlist from The Musical Box mailing list. Is it accurate?

11 Earl Of Mar Intro-Squonk

Firth Of Fifth

Entangled

In The Cage-The Colony Of Slippermen-In That Quiet Earth-Afterglow

The Cinema Show

The Musical Box

---- 20 MINUTE BREAK ---

Watcher Of The Skies

Dancing With The Moonlit Knight

The Return Of The Giant Hogweed

Supper's Ready

I Know What I Like

Dance On A Volcano-Drum Duet-Los Endos

[TimmyB]

Hey ollie,

Yep that's the setlist.

The crowd was bigger than I expected. Let's put it this way, there were more at the Opera House for the Slippermen than their was for the Steve Hackett Acoustic Trio at the Studio Theatre in Hamilton a few weeks ago. I always find it funny when a tribute act can pull off a bigger crowd than one of the former band members.

The audience was also way into it during the performance.

Here's what I wrote on a thread thanking the Slippermen on the official Genesis site.

It was great to see the Slippermen for the first time last night in Toronto at the Opera House.

It was made all the more special with seeing some early Phil Collins era material performed live for the first time by anybody, as the only other Genesis Tribute Band I have seen have been the Musical Box.

Here is a question to anyone that has seen the Slippermen perform live before, or the band themselves if they are on here? Since former Musical Box guitarist Denis Champoux replaced Martin Robert due to illness, was there more Peter Gabriel material performed as a result?

I ask the question as I felt that Michel Sergi, who was great by the way, sounded a lot more like Collins than Gabriel, therefore I expected after "Squonk" to hear more or at least an equal amount of Collins lead vocal tracks to Gabriels.

Instead out of the 18 songs performed in part of full, 8 were Collins tracks and 4 of those were instrumentals. While only one of the 10 Gabriel tracks was an instrumental.

It would make sense to me that more Gabriel songs were performed because of the change at the Steve Hackett spot with Champoux filling in on such short notice.

If this is the case than I'll be all the more excited to see the Slippermen the next time they are around Lake Ontario, as I would love to hear more early Collins era material and Michel really pulls it off.

Tim

Edited November 8, 2005 by Guest

[TimmyB]

Also here's what the Slippermen keyboardist and originator of the band had to say about the gig in the same thread where I made my reply.

I found it interesting because it answered my question and he goes into details about what happened to the band with Denis Champoux joining on such short notice.

Here it is:

Hi,

Joseph is correct, we did not change the set list because of Denis. He agreed to do the job because he didn't have too much to learn with only 72 hours notice, but had to review material that he also hadn't played in a year and a half. He also told me that part of what attracted him to doing the gig was that he had never played material from Trick and W & W.

We actually only had a single 2 hour practice on Thursday night and reviewed the songs that he had not played before as well as some of the longer songs.

A 'misunderstanding' on my part, was the reason Denis didn't play 'In the Cage' part of our Medley.

One thing that totally blew me away on Sat. was that there were several songs that we didn't have time to practice, ie TMB, Watchers, DWTMK, Hogweed, IKWIL and for the most part, we just fit together like a hand in new leather glove !! I don't think anyone else other then Denis Champoux could have pulled this off within 72 hrs.

That and the energy we were feeling from the crowd, and the people singing and dancing and really getting into it, outside the other things, made this gig. for me something that I will never forget and it will always have a special place in my heart.

Thanks to Joseph and Kanada Kev for their incredible promotional work, as well as organizing the pre show party. Too bad there was only one chef

By the time my supper arrived, I had to leave to prepare for the opening of the hall, so I never got to eat it. Oh well.

A big thanks also go to Dave Bolton and Luke McDonnell for helping with the promo. work.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself sat. and I hope everyone else did too.

cheers !!

M.

keys

[ollie]

Thanks Tim. Sounds like I missed a great show.

I know Marc from attending so many The Musical Box shows in Montreal. So I got to hear all about the Genesis cover band he was planning well before they had their first show. I'm happy that he is now being rewarded so generously for his hard work.