8.

Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

This album is a real folly. I don’t want to defend Phil Collins for a second, and when I see footage of the Slipperman [a naked lumpy monster with inflatable genitalia who emerged onto the stage by crawling out of a giant penis – Ed] I just chuckle at the thought that it just didn’t make any sense to Phil Collins and it really pissed him off. He didn’t like seeing Peter Gabriel in this costume. Gabriel didn’t give a fuck though, he just wanted to do this piece of theatre.

Just round the corner from here is the Palace Theatre, and that’s where I saw them do The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, two nights running, when I was 15. We just used to sneak into all the gigs, me and my mates. We were desperate to get into this one because we’d seen them on the Whistle Test but we couldn’t get in for love nor money. We were stood outside and the guy who ran Virgin Records on Lever Street was there. I used to go to that shop three or four times a week to buy all my albums, and at about five to eight he came to the door and he recognised me from the shop because I used to ask him for advice, and he beckoned me over and put a ticket in my hand.

It was sixth row from the front, and I was just blown away by it. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. It was presented as theatre. There were a lot of props. There was a big mesh cage that Gabriel performed in, there were a load of strobes going off. How did they represent a wall of nothingness sweeping across Times Square? Just a bit of smoke I think.