Inspiring Ex-Genesis-singer Ray Wilson at Klosterkirche

Remscheid: "Ssssssso, guten Abend!" (so, Good Evening!). Before you get goosepimples from his voice, he strikes you with his mischievous smile, being that of a carefree little boy who doesn't want to grow up. Who simply just does what he wants.
The man who had his first sensational success with his band "Stiltskin" thanks to a cool Levis advert. Who, then in the end-nineties had entered the stage as Genesis’ last singer, before their last curtain fell. Now he was on stage in Lennep’s Klosterkirche on Friday. Some hundred people have found their way to him – all in all smaller, more modest but in some way just right. Wilson plays live. Sings his own songs, Genesis classics and other rock music gems. Songs, evoking colourful images and arise memories. He is accompanied solely by keyboard and two guitars played by himself and his brother. A minimalism in music, which but is everything. By playing “No son of mine” he first of all took care of the many Genesis fans in the audience. They get enthusiastic and even howl on first applauding him – not a very common sight in the Bergisch area. And Ray Wilson, the Scot, whose voice cannot have been made by any whisky in this world, because he inherited it, seems to feel absolutely comfortable. He is smart, funny, without any airs or graces, and is instead telling all sorts of stories – even re the broken foot of his brother, who has to play the guitar whilst sitting: “He had played football for Bayern”, Wilson smirks.

Ray Wilson, the storyteller. His own songs are stories, too, most of them very melancholic like the ballad “Cry if you want to” which alludes to a failed partnership. “I had left myself, too”, he laconically comments. He has found his niche in between the new, the own songs and the many songs simply everyone knows. He portrays a brilliant balancing act full of intensity and deep feeling for the moment, all dominated by a spine-tangling voice. For far more than 2 ½ hours Ray Wilson ties invisible bonds to the audience, because they love these songs just as much as he does. “I can feel it coming in the air tonight”, he quotes Phil Collins in one of the many unforgettable moments of this evening. And with the refrain, the audience is with him: “Oh Lord, oh Lord.” The boy with the mischievous smile. Great. Really great.