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| Invisible Touch World Tour | |
|---|---|
| Concert tour name | Invisible Touch World Tour |
| Artist | Genesis |
| Album | Invisible Touch |
| Start date | 1986 |
| End date | 1987 |
| Number of shows | 100+ |
Invisible Touch World Tour The Invisible Touch World Tour was the global concert tour accompanying the Invisible Touch album by Genesis in 1986–1987. The tour supported the commercial peak of Genesis alongside contemporaneous hits by Phil Collins, featuring extensive staging, multimedia elements and an expanded touring schedule that reached arenas and stadiums across North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and South America. Management, record label strategy and festival appearances by acts such as Peter Gabriel-era contemporaries influenced routing and promotion.
Planning began after the commercial success of the Invisible Touch singles including "Invisible Touch" and hits on Billboard Hot 100 charts influenced decisions by Charisma Records and Atlantic Records for a large-scale tour. The band—Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford—consulted with longtime manager Tony Smith and promoter Bill Graham-style production teams to map stadium dates, negotiate with international promoters like Live Nation-precursor partners and coordinate with festival organizers such as those behind Glastonbury Festival and Monterrey Jazz Festival. Production designers collaborated with firms experienced on tours for U2, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Michael Jackson to scale lighting rigs, sound reinforcement and video projection for arenas and stadiums. Visa, union and routing logistics involved liaison with bodies including British Phonographic Industry, music unions in Germany, and customs authorities for equipment transport.
The itinerary encompassed multiple legs: a European arena leg that included dates in United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy; a North American leg featuring major markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto and Atlanta; an Asia–Pacific leg with shows in Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland; and limited South American dates in São Paulo and Buenos Aires. The schedule intersected with major events like the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Olympic-era stadium availabilities, and was punctuated by television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Top of the Pops and MTV. Ticketing was managed through agencies like Ticketmaster alongside fan club pre-sales coordinated by the band's official office.
Setlists combined tracks from Invisible Touch and earlier Genesis catalogues such as selections from Selling England by the Pound, A Trick of the Tail, Duke and And Then There Were Three.... Concerts typically opened with anthemic material, mixed with elaborate medleys referencing pieces from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway era and chamber-rock arrangements echoing Tony Banks compositions. Production incorporated large-scale Robert Lepage-style video projections, moving lighting rigs reminiscent of Ronald Rebbeck-era designs, and stage choreography influenced by contemporaneous productions for Genesis peers including Phil Collins solo shows and Peter Gabriel’s theatrical staging. Drum risers, key rigs for Tony Banks, custom double-neck guitars for Mike Rutherford, and backing vocal arrangements drawing on techniques used by The Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac were part of the live presentation.
Core personnel consisted of Phil Collins (lead vocals, drums), Tony Banks (keyboards) and Mike Rutherford (guitars, bass), augmented by touring musicians including long-term guitarist/keyboardist collaborators and backing vocalists who had worked on sessions for Eric Clapton, Sting, Paul McCartney and Elton John. Support acts varied by territory and included contemporary artists such as Peter Gabriel-adjacent performers, established rock and pop acts like Genesis peers, and rising acts who later became prominent on MTV and VH1. Local openers were sometimes drawn from national music scenes in Australia, Japan and Brazil and coordinated with regional promoters and festival lineups.
Critical reception ranged from praise in outlets such as Rolling Stone, NME and Melody Maker for musicianship and stagecraft to mixed assessments in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times focusing on pop orientation versus progressive roots. Commercially the tour was a success, selling out venues in Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena, Sydney Entertainment Centre and large stadium dates comparable to tours by U2, The Police and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Box office tracking akin to Billboard tour tallies showed high grosses, boosting catalog sales for Genesis and solo catalogs for Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford; merchandise sales and sponsorships with brands similar to those partnering with MTV increased tour revenue.
Selected shows were documented through professional multitrack recordings and filmed for broadcast segments on MTV, BBC Television and European syndication. Audio and video excerpts circulated as promotional materials, and some performances were included in later compilation releases and deluxe reissues of Invisible Touch or box sets chronicling Genesis live history. Bootleg recordings also proliferated among collector networks and were discussed in fanzines and on early online forums that later evolved into communities on platforms akin to Reddit and dedicated Genesis fan sites.
The tour marked a commercial apex for Genesis and influenced large-scale arena production standards, informing staging choices for acts such as U2, Madonna, Prince and R.E.M.. It reinforced the crossover of progressive rock acts into mainstream pop markets alongside solo careers like that of Phil Collins, while contributing to the band's enduring catalog presence on radio formats including Adult Contemporary and Classic Rock programming. Subsequent retrospectives in publications such as Q, Uncut and career anthologies have cited the tour's role in shaping late-1980s concert economics and multimedia concert design.
Category:Concert tours Category:Genesis (band) concert tours