On This Day 26/10/1972 Genesis

On this day, 26 October 1972, prog rock legends Genesis played Cardiff’s Top Rank on their Foxtrot tour. Also featured were Lindisfarne and Rab Noakes.

Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by the English progressive rock band Genesis, released on 15 September 1972 on Charisma Records. It features their longest recorded song, the 23-minute track "Supper's Ready".

The album was recorded following the tour in support of their previous album, Nursery Cryme (1971), which saw them gain popularity, including a well-received slot at the Great Western Express Festival, Lincolnshire in May 1972.

The album was written over the summer of 1972 and combined songs that had already been performed live with new material worked out in jam sessions. Recording began in August with John Anthony, but sessions were prone to tension and disagreements. After a short Italian tour, sessions resumed with Dave Hitchcock as producer.

The cover was the final Genesis work to be designed by Paul Whitehead, featuring a fox wearing a red dress. Frontman Peter Gabriel wore the dress and a fox's head on stage for the following tour, which gathered press attention and raised the group's profile.

Foxtrot was the first Genesis album to chart in the UK, reaching No. 12, and received largely positive reviews. It went to number one in Italy. A non-album single "Happy the Man" was released at the same time. The album has continued to attract critical praise and was reissued with a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix as part of their 2008 Genesis 1970–1975 box set.

Tour

At the end of September 1972, Genesis played a warm-up gig at the National Stadium, Dublin. During the last song, "The Musical Box", Gabriel disappeared during the instrumental section, and re-appeared wearing his wife's red dress and a fox's head, mimicking Foxtrot's front cover. He had not told his bandmates he would do this, but he appeared in this getup on the front cover of Melody Maker, raising the band's profile. His interests and family issues led him to leave the band in August 1975.

The tour covered Europe and North America between September 1972 and August 1973. It opened with a UK leg with Lindisfarne as co-headliners. The group played their first US shows during the tour, including a warm up show at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts followed by a gig at Philharmonic Hall in New York City with String Driven Thing in December 1972. The latter was in benefit for the United Cerebral Palsy Fund. Despite the band's critical opinion of the concert due to a lack of rehearsal time, technical problems, and a perceived unenthusiastic audience, it went down well with the crowd that requested more Genesis songs be played on local radio stations, thus increasing their exposure.