HW09
TV studios 'Pop Shop', Brussels, Belgium, 20th & 21st March 1972
1. Fountain of Salmacis
2. Twilight Alehouse
3. The Musical Box
4. Return of the Giant Hogweed
Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany, AFN Radio, 17th January 1973
5. Watcher of the Skies
6. The Musical Box
'Melody' Programme, ORTF TV Studios, Paris, France, 12th February 1974
7. I Know What I Like
8. Supper's Ready
This is a collection of some of Genesis's TV and radio sessions in Europe during the early 70s. Together with the 1970-1972 BBC sessions, these are the complete recordings we have of early Genesis performing in a studio, apart from their actual albums.
There are two other European broadcasts from this period; the Bataclan TV session in 1973, and a poorer quality French radio broadcast of excerpts from the show at the Olympia on the 7th May 1973. But these, like the later King Biscuit Flower Hour, Capitol Radio and BBC broadcasts, are all recordings of the band live on stage. Whilst Bataclan & Olympia would make a nice companion to this set from the European airwaves, the sound quality on Bataclan, and even more so the Olympia material, is not comparable to the above sources.
Needless to say, each of the above come from the best known sources I could find;
TV studios 'Pop Shop', Brussels, Belgium, 20th & 21st March 1972.
This has been widely circulated as a video for many years, and is well known. Its also been making a video CD appearance on the Hogweeds list. The audio for this has been available on the Chapter One boot CD 'Tango', but I think you'll find the audio on this remaster a significant improvement on that muffled version.
The audio for the Belgium session comes from the master tapes - I know little more than that. Suffice to say it sounds as though it does.
Whilst beautifully clear, the one problem with this audio is that it is quite compressed, sounding brittle and almost to the point of distortion in places. I have endeavoured to open up the sound by using an expander, primarily on the bass. This has toned down the bright sound, and brought some of the dynamics back into the music again.
The audio mix doesn't show Genesis's usual perfectionism and attention to detail. There are times when there are surges in instruments, Pete's vocals fade into the background, or something will leap into the foreground. You'd expect all these to happen in live performance of course. But in a studio session it shows the time constraints they were working under, having only two days, and the likelihood that the visuals took some precedence over the soundtrack.
So what we hear is Genesis live in the studio, never the most easy environment to bring out passion in a performance. Never-the-less, Peter, as can be seen from the video, leads the group in a vigorous rendition of some of their most energetic live pieces.
Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany, AFN Radio, 17th January 1973
This recording was sourced from a low generation cassette of the broadcast, likely a 1st gen. Unlike many poorer versions in circulation, this tape shows the clarity of the original recording. However it still benefitted from quite a bit of cleaning up, denoising to sharpen and bring out the treble.
The recording was made in Jahrhunderthalle (Century Hall) in Frankfurt, and whilst it is a close soundboard recording, it presumably comes from a live concert performance. The alternative, that the band were taped performing only two songs in front of a live studio audience, would only seem likely if other bands were also performing, in which case the announcer's "The last piece of music I'd like to introduce...." may have context.
There is some ambiguity in the dating, as the official Genesis timeline has them on tour in Germany on the 17th January, but not in Frankfurt, and no mention of this broadcast being recorded. Whilst the official timeline is not 'The Bible' of Genesis tour dates (for instance they list UK gigs performed at the beginning of the Lamb tour which were cancelled after Steve injured his hand), it seems the exact date and even location of this performance may be up for review. However the performance almost certainly comes from the January 1973 German tour.
One feature of this recording, and it is unique amongst much of Genesis's recorded legacy, is that for once, Peter is much louder in the mix than the whole of the rest of the group :-))
From Thomas Holter's notes on this broadcast, he translates the introduction as; "The last piece of music I'd like to introduce now is something that we might like to call 'elektolore'. It's folklore and everything mixed into it, and it's electronic; how else could it be called? Anyway it's a very interesting group, which I've already met a couple of times before. So, this is Genesis!"
Thomas goes on to comment that it is unlikely that AFN radio have kept their master tape of this broadcast, and it is likely lost.
Some tape versions of this broadcast in circulation have included a truncated version of Supper's Ready as part of this Frankfurt broadcast. However this comes from the French ORTF 1974 TV session, and is recognisable as SR comes in at "...six saintly shrouded men". This is the version that appeared on the Highland disc "Willow Farm in Rainbow".
'Melody' Programme, ORTF TV Studios, Paris, France, 12th February 1974
...and until recently, that truncated Supper's Ready was all that was circulating of this TV studio session. About a year ago Highland released a video of the full set, SR being preceeded by I Know What I Like, plus some intro soundtrack of the instrumental part of Firth of Fifth from the offical release. However the Highland version is somewhat muffled and not of low generation.
This remaster has been prepared from a 2nd generation copy of the Hifi VHS. The audio is brighter and cleaner than any other available version, including Highland's "Willow Farm". However there is significant overload distortion in places where Mike hits the bass pedals; 'Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man' is probably the worst. This is present on the Highland versions as well, its just that you can't easily hear it as such under the muffled audio. There is nothing I can do to improve this, once the distortion is on there I cannot remove it. However I have brightened the treble and denoised by about 6Db.
The Melody video is notable for the 'star effects' that circle Gabriel and the band during the early sections of Supper's Ready. Stills from this, plus others from the Belgium 72 session, are featured in the cover art by Peter Ohgren for this Hogweed release. And its worth noting that the back tray photo of the band, with Pete and Phil having a friendly cuddle (love em), comes from after the Belgium session.
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