The 1972 tour

A strong, lasting love, born in the most rocambolesque of ways. It's a special bond that has always united Genesis and Italy. In our country, Peter Gabriel and co. began making a name for themselves beyond national borders too, and over time the affection for their exploits – both collective and individual – has remained unchanged. A well-known story, in short. What's less known, however, is exactly how this musical passion got started, in a remote provincial location: the Teatro Comunale in Adria, in the Veneto region.

It's 6 April 1972, and Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett's band is just getting started. They'd released "Nursery Cryme" a few months earlier, an album still destined for a niche audience. The UK tour had already met with some success, but their peculiar progressive rock recipe needed to find favour beyond national borders to win over a wider audience. The band's manager therefore organised a European tour, having it kick off in Italy, thanks to the work of promoter Maurizio Salvadori.

The first stop wasn't supposed to be Adria (Rovigo), but Belluno, dropped at the last minute, perhaps due to poor ticket sales. Fate, though, had a hand in it – or rather, magic did. On the stage of the Comunale, it wasn't supposed to be Genesis, but Mago Zurlì.

Cino Tortorella, a much-loved TV personality, was in fact expected in Adria for one of his shows, but a car accident forced him to pull out at the last moment. The organisers, in desperation, hastily sought a replacement, and so an unknown English band, travelling on a European tour put together on a shoestring, was called in to fill the gap. Thus, almost by chance, a legend was born: Genesis's first concert not only in Italy, but outside British borders.

In front of just over a hundred spectators – perhaps two hundred, according to Steve Hackett's account – Genesis climbed onto a small provincial stage and delivered an evening destined to go down in history. Few knew who those long-haired lads were, but the audience was struck by that new, visionary music, steeped in theatricality and mystery. Progressive rock, which in Italy was already finding fertile ground with bands like PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Le Orme, took root that evening with explosive force.

From Adria, in fact, began an adventure that would forever bind Genesis to Italy. After that "date zero", the tour continued with further stops in the Veneto region – Godega di Sant'Urbano, San Martino Buon Albergo and Feltre – before moving on to Rome and Naples, where the English band truly began to build a following. Italy's welcome was warm and passionate: the band found an audience eager to grasp their imagery, their theatricality and their musical ambition.

That episode, long a kind of local legend, is now a recognised part of the history of Genesis and of European rock. Few material traces remain of it: a photo of the stage, a yellowed article from "Il Resto del Carlino", the register of the Hotel Stella d'Italy bearing the musicians' signatures, a few memories handed down by those who were there. On the stage of the Comunale, Genesis shared the bill with Odissea and with Roberto Zola, guitarist of the band from Biella, who recalls Phil Collins asking him to go along to buy a pair of trainers at the Adria market. The episode is recounted by Mino Profumo in his book "Genesis in Italia. I concerti 1972-1975", with a foreword by Richard Macphail and Steve Hackett.

“The members of Genesis themselves never fail to point out how decisive the warm support they received in Italian venues was for their career, especially in 1972, a pivotal year for them – Profumo recalled in an interview with Jam – In particular, they noticed how our fans would sometimes applaud in the middle of songs, perhaps at the end of a thrilling instrumental passage, a kind of reaction that simply didn't happen in England. The size of the crowds was also remarkable, reaching the twenty thousand people who packed Rome's Palaeur in '73, a figure not even comparable to the few hundred (and sometimes even just dozens) counted in English venues at the time. We also shouldn't forget the strong media support Genesis found in Italy, thanks above all to enlightened journalists like Armando Gallo at Ciao 2001 and Carlo Massarini on the radio with 'Per Voi Giovani', outlets that reviewed and championed 'Nursery Cryme' most effectively”.

Historian and fan Roberto Paganin, through patient research work, managed to piece together what happened, and in 2012 organised a "Genesis Day" in Adria with the participation of Steve Hackett, who returned to pay tribute to the place where it all began in Italy.

The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo also decided to dedicate a section of an exhibition on the “Historic Theatres of Polesine” to that one-of-a-kind evening, putting out a call to anyone who might still have photographs, recordings or even just memories of that night in 1972. Because it was then, in a small provincial theatre and on the boards of a makeshift stage, that Genesis began their international adventure, and a lasting, mutual love affair was born between the English band and their Italian audience.

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28/02/2026