PhilCollins, Genesis
Photo: Redferns, Gina Wetzler. All rights reserved.
“When we started the tour,” says Phil Collins on stage at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, “‘Land of Confusion’ was the song that went with the madness of the Covid pandemic.” Then he becomes very serious and the people in the hall become very calm. “Now the song has a different meaning for us. Putin marched …” here Collins pauses, “… in Ukraine.” Finally he points to spectators in the front rows of the hall: “And we also have people from Ukraine here.”
“Land of Confusion” live in Berlin:
It is Genesis’ second concert evening in Berlin when Phil Collins makes this explicit speech for the first time before “Land of Confusion”, a single from the 1986 album “Invisible Touch”. The song was written in the 1980s in response to growing tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. In the accompanying video, heads of state Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev (and a few show business celebrities) are teased Spitting Image style.
The cinema year 1986 in the podcast check:
You can read the criticism of the first Genesis evening here.