UK Release Date: 14 September 2009
Following the reissue of the 14 Genesis studio albums on the stunning box-sets Genesis 1976 - 1982 and Genesis 1983 - 1998 in 2007, and Genesis 1970 - 1975 in 2008, on 14 September 2009 Virgin/EMI will release Genesis Live 1973-2007, a box-set gathering the four live albums recorded by the legendary British group from 1973 to 1992. Featuring brand new stereo mixes*, the box set also includes the long-awaited release in stereo and 5.1 of Live at the Rainbow 1973 only available with this collection.
Genesis Live 1973 - 2007 is a sumptuously presented box-set that includes:
Genesis Live, the band's first Top Ten album in the UK, recorded in Leicester and Manchester and issued in 1973, and featuring the classic line-up of Tony Banks (keyboards), Phil Collins (drums, vocals), Peter Gabriel (vocals, flute), Steve Hackett (guitars) and Mike Rutherford (bass, guitars). Genesis Live, for this box-set release, has been extended to feature 5 bonus tracks recorded at The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles on 24 January 1975 and the full album is also presented in 5.1 for the first time.
The double set Seconds Out, a Top 5 entry in 1977 that documented the group's Paris dates as a quartet with Collins on lead vocals following Gabriel's departure in 1975. The album featured touring drummers Bill Bruford (from the 1976 shows) and Chester Thompson (who began drumming live for Genesis in 1977). Exclusively to this box-set, Seconds Out is presented in stereo and 5.1 versions.
Three Sides Live, a number 2 album in the UK in 1982, mostly showcasing the Banks-Collins-Rutherford incarnation augmented by Thompson and guitarist Daryl Stuermer.
The Way We Walk, finally sees these two live albums re-sequenced as per the original show's set list. Originally released separately and entitled Vol I: The Shorts, which made the Top 3 in Britain in 1992, and Vol 2: The Longs, this was the band's sixth number one album, and their only concert recording to top the charts in 1993.
First formed in 1967, Genesis have sold 150 million albums worldwide and have influenced the likes of Elbow, Flaming Lips and Jeff Buckley. In the early seventies, their ambition in the studio was matched by groundbreaking live shows as they presented such classic albums as Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway to audiences across Europe and the US. Following Gabriel's exit in the mid-seventies, Collins stepped up to the microphone and the group scored Top 5 albums with A Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering. Hackett left in 1977 but the 'remaining three' had their first Top Ten single with 'Follow You Follow Me' and their first US Top 20 album with . . . And Then There Were Three . . . the next year. A simpler, more direct approach to songwriting worked so well that Banks-Collins-Rutherford scored consecutive number one albums with Duke, Abacab, Genesis and Invisible Touch in the eighties, and with We Can't Dance in 1991, and became a stadium act without losing any of their sophistication and attention to detail. This was evidenced again when they returned to the stage after a ten-year hiatus. When In Rome 2007, the DVD of the free concert they gave at the Circo Massimo in Rome in front of 500.000 spectators topped the DVD charts in the UK last year.
Recorded at Leicester De Montfort Hall and Manchester Free Trade Hall in February 1973, Genesis Live was not originally intended for release but rather mixed to be broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour show on US radio. It comprises versions of the dramatic set opener Watcher of the Skies and Get 'Em Out by Friday from Foxtrot, the band's fourth studio album - which had reached number 12 in October 1972 - The Return of the Giant Hogweed and The Musical Box from 1971's Nursery Cryme, the first album featuring Collins and Hackett, and the tour de force quiet-loud dynamics of The Knife, from Trespass, the group's 1970 debut for the Charisma label. Given the band's growing reputation for its theatrical shows, it is no surprise that Genesis Live spent ten weeks in the charts in 1973, paving the way for the release of Selling England by the Pound later that year. The album's iconic cover features Gabriel wearing one of his many costumes, in this case the 'Magog' mask and black cape he donned during Supper's Ready.
Bonus material includes five tracks from the celebrated concept album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, a Top Ten release at the end of 1974, recorded at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in January 1975.
Recorded at the Palais des Sports in Paris with the Manor Mobile studio in 1976 and 1977, Seconds Out stayed on the British charts for four months. The double set was much more in keeping with the times, the increasing availability of bootleg recordings and the phenomenal success of Frampton Comes Alive! Former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford had joined Genesis for the 1976 dates and features on The Cinema Show, one of two tracks from Selling England by the Pound. The other, Firth of Fifth, and the rest of the album, features Chester Thompson, a drummer best known at the time for his work with Frank Zappa and Weather Report. Collins tackles Gabriel-era material like The Musical Box, Supper's Ready, The Carpet Crawlers, the title track from The Lamb Lives Down On Broadway, and I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), the group's first hit, with aplomb. Squonk, Robbery, Assault & Battery, Dance on a Volcano and Los Endos came from A Trick of the Tail while Afterglow originally featured on Wind and Wuthering. Hackett left while Seconds Out was being mixed. The album's distinctive cover and the other pictures used were shot by Armando Gallo, the band's biographer.
Recorded in Germany in 1981, Three Sides Live was originally released in 1982 as a double vinyl set with a fourth side of studio recordings - basically the 3X3 EP and two B-sides - in the US while the European version contained three more extended live tracks. The studio versions of Turn It On Again, Behind the Lines, Duchess and Misunderstanding featured on 1980's Duke while Dodo, Me and Sarah Jane and Abacab first appeared on Abacab in 1981. Follow You Follow Me came from . . . And Then There Were Three . . . and Afterglow and One for The Vine were originally recorded on Wind and Wuthering. The Fountain of Salmacis harked back to Nursery Cryme and the In the Cage/Cinema Show/The Colony of Slippermen medley slotted a track from Selling England by the Pound between two slices from The Lamb while It/Watcher of the Skies - recorded in 1976 with Hackett and Bruford - spanned The Lamb and Foxtrot.
Recorded in 1992 in arenas including London's Earls Court, the two installments of The Way We Walk were first issued in quick succession at the tail end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993, with The Shorts concentrating on the band's run of hit singles, and The Longs delving into the medleys and the more extended pieces from their repertoire. Genesis Live 1973-2007 takes the opportunity to reconcile the two albums and recreate the We Can't Dance tour experience in sequence. Hits from the group's MTV-friendly era include Mama, That's All, Invisible Touch - which charted again in its live version in 1992 - In Too Deep, Land of Confusion, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Throwing It All Away, No Son of Mine, I Can't Dance, Hold On My Heart and Jesus He Knows Me. Driving the Last Spike and Fading Lights came from We Can't Dance, Domino originally appeared on Invisible Touch and Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea on Genesis. The Old Medley rounded up nine tunes from the band's early days and Collins and Thompson's The Drum Thing did just that. Turn It On Again is exclusive to this release.
Recorded in London by the Banks-Collins-Gabriel-Hackett-Rutherford line-up, Live at the Rainbow 1973, expands on the live material first issued on the Archive 1967-1975 box-set in 1998 and will delight die-hard fans of that period in their lengthy career. The concert from October 1973 features most of Selling England by the Pound at the time of its release, along with the conceptual piece Supper's Ready and Watcher of the Skies from their breakthrough album Foxtrot, and The Musical Box from Nursery Cryme, the last two titles on 5.1 version only. It captures the band at a crucial point in their history, before they left the Lewis Carroll-like universe of their early albums behind, before the departure of Gabriel and Hackett, before their time as ubiquitous hit-makers of the eighties.
Genesis Live 1973 - 2007 has been designed to incorporate space for the most recent live Genesis release; the 2-CD set Live Over Europe 2007. All albums feature brand new stereo mixes created by Tony Banks, Nick Davis and Mike Rutherford, whilst Genesis Live, Seconds Out and Live at the Rainbow 1973 all feature 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound versions.
* Excluding The Way We Walk, which has been re-sequenced to the original set list.
For further information and regular news updates on Genesis, go to:
http://www.genesis-music.com Genesis Live
1973-2007
"Live" (Stereo/5.1):
Watcher of the Skies
Get 'Em Out by Friday
The Return of the Giant Hogweed
The Musical Box
The Knife
Bonus "The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles - 24/01/75" tracks:
Back in N.Y.C.
Fly on a Windshield
Broadway Melody of 1974
Anyway
The Chamber of 32 Doors
"Seconds Out" (Stereo/5.1):
1. Squonk
2. Carpet Crawlers
3. Robbery, Assault & Battery
4. Afterglow
5. Firth of Fifth
6. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
7. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
8. The Musical Box (closing)
9. Supper's Ready
10. The Cinema Show
11. Dance on a Volcano
12. Los Endos
"Three Sides Live" (Stereo only)
1. Turn It On Again
2. Dodo
3. Abacab
4. Behind the Lines
5. Duchess
6. Me and Sarah Jane
7. Follow You Follow Me
8. Misunderstanding
9. In the Cage (Medley: Cinema Show/Slippermen)
10. Afterglow
11. One for the Vine
12. Fountain of Salmacis
13. It/Watcher of the Skies
"The Way We Walk" (Stereo only)
Land of Confusion
No Son of Mine
Driving the Last Spike
Old Medley (Dance on a Volcano/The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway/The Musical Box/Firth of Fifth/I Know What I Like)
Throwing It All Away
Fading Lights
Jesus He Knows Me
Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea
Hold On My Heart
Domino (In the Glow of the Night/The Last Domino)
The Drum Thing
I Can't Dance
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
Invisible Touch
Turn It On Again
Mama
That's All
In Too Deep
(Space in the box set for "Live Over Europe")
"Live At The Rainbow 1973" (Stereo/5.1)
1. Watcher of the Skies (5.1 version only)
2. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
3. The Cinema Show
4. I Know What I Like(In Your Wardrobe)
5. Firth of Fifth
6. The Musical Box (5.1 version only)
7. More Fool Me
8. The Battle of Epping Forest
9. Supper's Ready
