I was just trying to find out about tickets for PFM in Montreal in July, and Leonardo at Prima Fila wrote back saying that apparently Musical Box's Denis Gaigne (?) will be appearing with them on stage at the Montreal show.  He said he they would perform the song 'Harlequin' together, but as PFM and Genesis fans will know, BOTH bands have a song called Harlequin - so which band's song it is, is anyone's guess.  Perhaps Musical Box fans may know whether Genesis' 'Harlequin' is a staple of Musical Box shows!!

Anyway, obviously I'm hoping its the Chocolate Kings song, although they rarely played it live in the 1970s, and to my knowledge have not done it live in the current incarnation.

Further news from the PFM camp is that apparently they are releasing album based around the story of Dracula.  I took this news with equal measures of excitement and fear, firstly because PFM have been in the studio again and it sounds like a concept album, but secondly, because he used the words 'Rock Opera'....

In the words of Luke Skywalker:  "NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The only rock opera I've ever liked has been Jesus Christ Superstar, although the re-worked version done recently was truly atrocious.  Proof (if it were needed) that you really shouldn't meddle with gems from the past...

Didn't mind the Jerry Springer opera though - dont know if you've seen it yet, but it caused a bit of moral hoo-hah over here.  The BBC received a record number of complaints about it, BEFORE it was even shown.  I actually thought it was quite funny, especially when the devil sang a full 4 minute aria of "FU...", before finishing with short "CK OFFFF".  Dont know what the fuss was about!!!

Worth bumping up.I would love to see PFM and The Musical Box together.Any chance of some UK gigs?

The Dracula thing sounds interesting.Maybe they are following a similar path to the dutch band Kayak who recently did a 'rock opera' type show based on Merlin and are currently working on a similar idea for Nostradamus.

No UK dates unfortunately - PFM failed to sell out the Astoria 2 in London the last time they were here in 2003 (with Peter Hammill singing!) so I dont think they're keen to return.  They just played to 35,000 in Italy, and draw similar crowds elsewhere.

By the way (excuse me if I'm wrong) I'm assuming that you're the same 'richardh' from the Greg Lake website?  I posted there for a while as sgdavidson, and remember talking to you about that show on the site afterwards!  I haven't been back to the Lake site for ages, not since finding this site anyway - a tip-off from you I believe!!!  I think you said you'd just reviewed Chocolate Kings, and I immediately logged in to see what you'd said - and promptly discovered folk actually talking about PFM. I imagine its all the same people anyway, is it? 

Anyway, good to know you're posting here too,   even though we'll always disagree about Paper Charms!

Never a good idea to force it, although I do have a tale of my own in that respect.

Dont know if you remember my opening post on the Lake web site, something along the lines of "Genesis' entire back catalogue is awful" (or something).  Well, after a similar tiff here, I decided to force myself to listen to a few of their early (and fervently recommended) albums, and somewhat predictably, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway has become one of my favourite albums .  The other Gabriel stuff is variable in quality, though much of Foxtrot has had a similarly positive effect.  More interestingly though,  I have also followed the paths of Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips with great returns from both - I really like their early albums.

What a turnaround!  Anyway, have you seen Musical Box, as I understand they are a pretty good Gabriel-era Genesis tribute?  I'm assuming Denis Gaigne is the singer (are they Canadian?), and if he sounds anything like Gabriel, he may actually do a decent job of mimmicking Lanzetti.  He should just put on some Demis Roussos albums beforehand and warm his voice up 

I'm going out to Montreal for the show (if it goes ahead - they're still finalising it apparently) - my brother now lives in Ottawa, and I'm just back from 2 weeks there.  What an amazing place - as I said on another thread, the first bar I walked into was playing ELP's From The Beginning!  Dont get that much over here....

"Hallowed ground for ELP fans" ??

Whats the link?