Notes: |
EAC detects errors on this disc! Not a good source.
Sound editor's notes, from Andrew Skeoch
The Concert
This was the second last concert of the Selling England by the Pound tour. The band had been performing this music since October the previous year, some of it for much longer. What we hear is not only a finely honed rendition of some of their best music, but an exhilarating performance. And what adds interest for us was what plagued the Genesis crew at the time - equipment problems. Not only is Phil's One-handed drum solo routine given an amusing airing, but later in the concert, Phil leads an impromptu improvisation while covering for another running repair.
And their equipment woes didn't end with the gig. Phil comments at one point during the concert "even the unexpected happens tonight..." Little did he know. Later that evening all the band's guitars were stolen, to be returned the next day after a little bribery, allowing the performance of the 6th May to go ahead. On that last concert of the tour, Peter describes the incident, in typically amusing fashion - however I'm sure they didn't feel that way the day before.
In my opinion this concert may be regarded as one of the finest Selling England shows they performed, and it is a great fortune that we also have one of the best recordings of the tour to document it.
From a New York friend, I have been told about the venue: "its offical name was 'Howard Stein's Academy of Music', the place where so many famous bands played, Nektar, Renaissance etc. I think it was on 14th Street. It was sold in 1976 and renamed 'The Palladium'."
The Recording
This audience recording is absolutely superb. Clear open detailed sound, with good dynamics and very little hiss or distortion. Given this quality of sound, the matter of it being a mono recording becomes irrelevent.
The recording documents nearly the whole performance. However, there are two major gaps; the first, a minute and a half missing during from middle of the instrumental section of Cinema Show, and the other, the last third of Battle of Epping Forest. These would be tragic losses from an otherwise great recording, if it wasn't for the existence of an almost comparable quality recording from the same venue on the 6th. This recording, to my knowledge, is incomplete, cutting the end of Cinema Show, and finishing with Epping Forest and so missing Supper's Ready. However by good fortune, it does cover those sections missing from the tape of the 4th. So I have spliced in the missing sections from this 6th May tape.
Hence this recording gives the complete show, to the extended applause and playing of Albinoni's Adagio that conclude the concert. |