Northern Europe Tour blog 2 - Time Travels and Festival Fun - July 2024

Following our fabulous time touring through France, Belgium and Netherlands, we headed north via mini van and ferry to the wonderful city of Copenhagen. We always love playing at the Amager Bio, where once again there was a fantastic crowd.

Then on to Hamburg, where Jo and I met our lovely pals Martina and Wolfgang, photographers Angéla and Maurizio plus Ada and Mario who runs the Italian Genesis Dusk magazine. Following another successful show there, the band van rolled on to our next destination of Leipzig, followed by Dresden. Both cities have the most beautiful and atmospheric old city centres, where several exquisite buildings have been perfectly restored. It was heartwarming to hear that Dresden and Coventry (UK) support each other as they were two of the most heavily bombed cities in World War II.

Between Leipzig and Dresden, pals Christian and Carsten took us to visit the picturesque old town of Belgern on the River Elbe, where Jo's German ancestors lived. There were so few people there that you could really feel the spirits of the past silently walking close by. We were taken to see the Fairytale Moritzburg Castle as well.

We enjoyed visiting the old town of Nuremberg too, with its atmospheric Medieval bridges, houses, churches and towers.

The shows in Leipzig, Dresden, Nuremberg and Winterbach all went fabulously well with band on top form and totally enthusiastic crowds. The massive tent at the Winterbach festival held a large number of people, and along with the screens, it felt like a huge event!

Finally, there was the Night of the Prog festival at Loreley... It was the last time for this iconic festival, which I've performed at several times ever since I first came here decades ago with Genesis. I will miss it... We played to the biggest crowd ever there and the band were amazing! My thanks to Winfried Volklein for keeping this amazing festival going for many years.

This tour has been a fabulous experience altogether... Many thanks to Brian, Adrian, John & Solo, German agent Klaus Peter, the promotors & their teams plus all our team!

I look forward to the next part of the European tour including Italy, Spain and Portugal later this year...