VH1 Rock Honors

VH1 ROCKS SIN CITY!

"VH1 ROCK HONORS" RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS AND WILL PAY TRIBUTE TO GENESIS, HEART, OZZY OSBOURNE AND ZZ TOP PREMIERING THURSDAY, MAY 24 AT 9:00 PM*

The Second Annual Event Will Feature Tributes To Rock Music's Elite

From The Mandalay Bay Events Center In Las Vegas
NEW YORK, NY, March 8, 2007 - VH1 pays homage to the legends who influenced the sound of rock with the second annual "VH1 Rock Honors." This year's celebration will honor the music and influence of Genesis, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne and ZZ Top. Additional performers, presenters, and special guests will be announced as they are confirmed.

Premiering on Thursday, May 24 at 9:00 PM*, "VH1 Rock Honors," will be taped at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 12. The 2 - hour tribute will salute the groundbreaking bands of rock, the once in a lifetime events and the influential people who made a lasting mark on the history of rock.
The influence of these honorees will be felt through spoken tributes, filmed packages and performances by some of today's hottest rock acts as well as the legends themselves.

Last year, VH1's inaugural show honored KISS, Queen, Def Leppard and Judas Priest and was hosted by Jaime Pressly with tribute performances by Foo Fighters, Godsmack, The All-American Rejects, Paul Rodgers, Tommy Lee, Slash, Scott Ian, Gilby Clarke, Rob Zombie and surprise guest Ace Frehley. Making special appearances were Kiefer Sutherland, Gina Gershon, Jaime Kennedy, Natasha Henstridge, Brittany Snow, Jim Breuer and Penn Jillette.

If the show format is the same as last year, then a well known band will cover one tune, and then the inducting band will perform a few songs. The show will be taped on May 12th and aired May 24 on VH1.

Ticket Pages

Here are some links to sites listing and/or selling tickets for the NA tour.

Live Nation and

Ticketmaster

Press Conference media coverage

Here are just a few links to articles covering the announcement of the NA tour dates:

Billboard

Rolling Stone

ABC News

Starpulse.com

cbc.ca

Live Daily

NME

Reuters

And here are some photo's:

Rex Features

Getty Images

North America: The Dates

With the NY Press conference/live Webcast now over, here are the current 13 dates and venues where they will be playing:

• Sep 07, 2007 Toronto ON CA BMO Field
• Sep 11, 2007 Boston MA US TD Banknorth Garden
• Sep 14, 2007 Montreal QC CA Olympic Stadium
• Sep 16, 2007 Hartford CT US Hartford Civic Center
• Sep 18, 2007 Philadelphia PA US Wachovia Center
• Sep 22, 2007 Columbus OH US Nationwide Arena
• Sep 23, 2007 Washington DC US Verizon Center
• Sep 27, 2007 East Rutherford NJ US Giants Stadium
• Sep 29, 2007 Cleveland OH US Quicken Loans Arena
• Sep 30, 2007 Detroit MI US Palace of Auburn Hills
• Oct 02, 2007 Chicago IL US United Center
• Oct 09, 2007 San Jose CA US HP Pavilion
• Oct 12, 2007 Los Angeles CA US Hollywood Bowl

Click here for detailed information on ticket sales.

There are gaps in between dates, so additional cities maybe added at a later date (Collins did mention in the press conference there would be 20). This leg of the tour does not have any corporate sponsorship, but is being handled by Canadian company, Concert Productions International.

As for the conference, no new relevant information about the tour popped up during the Q&A session. The setup was fraught with microphone problems which made it hard to hear questions being asked.

More dates filtering through

A couple of more venues and dates have been spotted on the net. First is on Ticketmaster.com of all places, jumping the gun a little prior to tomorrow's press conference.

Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH on Saturday September 29th. According to the site, tickets will be priced between $57 and $202 and general sale will start March 16th at 10am EST.

The second was found on a ticket broker site and it lists the band playing in Boston on Tuesday September 11th at the TD Banknorth Garden arena. However, please ignore the prices on this site.

So to sum up what we've got in the last few days, although unconfirmed officially:

• 09/11 - TD Banknorth Garden, Boston MA
• 09/14 - Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Canada
• 09/18 - Wachovia Center, Philadelphia PA
• 09/29 - Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland OH

Only 13 cities??

This posted this morning on the PR Newswire website:

Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford of the band Genesis will unveil the dates for their first N. American tour in 15 years at a live, online press conference to be held in NYC on Wednesday, March 7th at 11 a.m. ET. The press conference stream can be seen at http://www.genesis-music.com.

The band will trek through Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, Holland, UK, Monte Carlo and Italy before heading to 13 different cities across N. America.

The trio will be joined on stage by long-time Genesis sidemen, Chester Thompson on drums and Daryl Stuermer on guitar. Two of the world's greatest show technicians, award-winning lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe and acclaimed set designer Mark Fisher are working on plans for what promises to be one of the most impressive stage shows to tour this year.

The elite British band has achieved global success with over 130 million albums sold. Formed in 1966 by Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, while still at school, the most successful incarnation was the late 70's early 80's line-up of Phil Collins taking on lead vocals and sharing song writing, with Rutherford and Banks. The Duke album topped the UK charts in 1980 with the hit single, Turn It On Again monopolising the airwaves. In 1987, Genesis played sold out stadium shows across the globe, including four consecutive Wembley Stadiums.

Another unconfirmed date and venue

Just got this in from a discussion on the (current) Genesis Forum. It appears that Genesis are to play the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, September 18th.

From a fax notification received, it appears that prices listed ($137.50 and $237.50) for the club boxes are aimed at corporate sponsors and are not a reflection of what ticket prices will be for general seating.

All Change Part 2

In an effort to redirect visitors to the main site, I programmed this blog to automatically direct you after 5 seconds (enough time to read this post!). However this web address will still continue to be updated concurrently and will only be used if there is problems with the main site due to server overload or technical difficulties.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Official site update

Part of the new website, designed by Ultrastar, has already been uploaded to the existing site address. Currently there is a just a main page, with the opportunity to purchase the $35 Premium Membership (which yours truly has already done). If you are an existing member of the Genesis Forum, then you should have/will be receiving an email with details on how to sign up with free activation to site. The full site will be available before the Press Conference this coming Wednesday (7th).

http://www.genesis-music.com

NA Tour to include Montreal on September 15th???

A couple of local Montreal Radio stations have suggested recently that Genesis will be making a stop in Montreal on September 15th to be staged at the Olympic Stadium (Big Owe).

However a news article written in the La Presse newspaper say the show is going to take place on the 14th.

If this information turns out to be true, then it would suggest that the band would either be playing at stadiums on the North American leg or a mixture of arenas/stadiums. It will also mean that Genesis will be the first band to play at this venue since U2 back in 1997. All will be revealed on March 7th.

You can view an English translation of the La Press report here.

On another note, Rolling Stone magazine has reported that the band have been confirmed to appear at Al Gore's Live Earth 24 concert event on July 7th. Genesis are appearing in Manchester on that day, and the only feasible way they could be included in this global concert is via a satellite link-up.