Calling All Stations Tour

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Calling All Stations Tour

Genesis promoted their 1997 album Calling All Stations with a European tour in early 1998, playing 49 shows (93 were planned) across three legs in large arenas. The European run lasted from late January to late May 1998, ending with a performance at Rock im Park in Germany and marking the end of that wave of activity before a hiatus.

The lineup for this tour was Ray Wilson on vocals, Tony Banks on keyboards, Mike Rutherford on guitar and bass, with Nir Zidkyahu on drums and percussion and backing vocals, and Anthony Drennan on guitar and bass. This was the only tour featuring Wilson, Zidkyahu, and Drennan, and the first since 1978 not to include Phil Collins or touring members Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson.

Rehearsals took place at Bray Film Studios in Windsor and at a Working Men’s Club in Chiddingfold, England, near the band’s recording studio. To suit Wilson’s vocal range, many older Genesis songs were transposed to lower keys, and the set included a mid-show acoustic medley of 1970s songs.

A planned North American tour of 23 dates in November 1997 was canceled due to insufficient ticket sales, and a revised 20-date plan in smaller venues was also scrapped. After the European leg, Genesis went on hiatus, and Banks and Rutherford informed Wilson that the band would not continue. This would be Genesis’s last full-length tour until Phil Collins returned for the 2007 Turn It On Again reunion.

The tour is remembered through the promotional live album Calling Radio Stations and various unofficial releases.