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.








