Old skool ... Genesis refuse to lie down on Broadway or anywhere else. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
How many of you were aware that the last time Genesis toured with Phil Collins as singer was in 1992? I wasn't. In the outpost of my mind labelled Big 80s Bands, I'd always harboured a vague belief that Collins was still in the group. Well, he's not - it seems he last toured with them in '92, and left for good in '96. Who knew?
I only know now because it's just been announced that Collins has rejoined the band, who will be touring the stadiums of Europe and America next summer. Big news, no doubt, to the fans who bought 130m Genesis albums, and who can now look forward to buying them again, when they're made available in "newly-remastered 5.1 surround-sound" early next year.
Surprisingly, the reason they're back isn't primarily financial, according to Collins. "We're all loaded enough not to worry about an extra couple of million," he said at a press conference yesterday afternoon. (If only all rock stars were so honest - when asked about their wealth, most drag out the boring, disingenuous reply: "I wish I was as rich as the press say I am!") Tony Banks, the keyboardist, maintains that they're doing it to secure their place in history: "We're doing it for fun, and we want to reacquaint people with Genesis," he said. (That's the post-Peter Gabriel Genesis, by the way: their original frontman has declined an invitation to join the reunion).
Notwithstanding the fact that Genesis 2007 will probably be a highly successful venture, the knee-jerk response is: "Not another bunch of old stagers whose solo careers haven't been cutting it lately so they've reneged on all those vows never to play together again." But what else can you think, considering that Collins, when he flew the coop back in 1996, admitted that he didn't even like a lot of their music? "To be honest, I've never been our biggest fan," as he put it.
And yet: I've been humming Turn it on Again all afternoon, and I can't get it out of my head. I've also spent the last 10 minutes trying to remember how Abacab goes. Unbidden, all their songs are coming back to me - Follow You, Follow Me, Mama, even their bizarre 1992 comment on the then-controversial subject of televangelism, Jesus, He Knows Me. The odd thing is that they sound great in my mind, and I want to hear them again. Is it possible Genesis were good all along? Or am I wearing an especially blinding pair of rose-tinted spectacles?
Now it's your turn. What reunion is making you - against your better judgment - yearn to hear music you never thought you'd want to hear again? Name and shame yourselves here.
