GENESIS - BBC Broadcasts - details, BBC archive info and evaluation

  • No 1 in the UK Rock & Metal charts.


    For my dear fellow Backdrifter, this comment is dedicated to you from all of my heart: So Genesis are officially a rock & metal band? I guess I learned something today. (I'm so gonna make this a forum meme)

  • The only way to make the band (or record company) understand that there is a market for more releases is to support what they do put out.


    For everyone that takes the high road and doesn't purchase a particular item it makes it even less likely that whatever "perfect" release you're holding out for will actually be considered.


    I also recall how many people loudly let everyone know how they passed on the 2007 boxed sets for similar "not perfect enough" reasons. I guess they're the ones now paying four or five times the original price for them because they didn't, for whatever reason, get them back when they were $50...I have no doubt this BBC box will have a similar trajectory.


    I'm not sure if the BBC set will follow the same path as the 07/08 boxes, but your general point is valid. No-one in the band or organisation is going to think "Hmmm, sales aren't as high as we expected... why, it must be because of disgruntled fans being dissatisfied with incomplete shows. WE MUST PUT COMPLETE SHOWS OUT IMMEDIATELY! WHAT WAS WRONG WITH US!" Before, of course, going on to exclaim "And while we're at it, we must also - in a show of shame and contrition - release every minute of rehearsals and recordings of the band having conversations over lunch. And going to the toilet!"


    Obviously it will be argued at length, by certain people here, that that's exactly what will happen...


    I get where you are both coming from. But with respect, I'm not going to purchase something that's not what I would've preferred or hoped for just in order to show those offering the product that there's still a reason to put out material. As the consumer, I am the one who holds the right to choose whether or not I will purchase an item-and my reasons for not doing so are my own. And I agree with you, that's not going to make them think "we better put out better material!" But honestly I don't expect them to either really, so no harm no foul IMO.


    I actually enjoyed the boxsets, and love the 5.1 surround mixes and bonus content (much of which I'd never seen before) to this day. But if I'd prefer spending my $ on a live collection that's a little more...complete, I'd say that's my prerogative. When all is said and done, "to each their own" really...

  • Got my copy yesterday, am enjoying it immensely. Funny combo of listening to this awesome music and reading all the online comments in this forum and elsewhere of people ceaselessly complaining how no release is ever up to anybody's expectations.

  • Yep, I got it on release and I liked it. My one and only disappointment was that they didn’t release the full shows.


    I’d still like them to release more ‘official bootlegs’. There are some great recordings from the US, for example.

  • Been listening to it all the last weeks, it is actually running right now in my CD player.


    I spent nearly an hour last night reading through reviews, in the end I found myself trying to find any positive reviews at all. This box set got an overwhelming number of negative reviews, the common complaint is "why didn't they release the full shows". Nearly every reviewer moans about what this release is not instead of enjoying it for what it is. On the other hand, wasn't this on #1 in the German album charts? I wonder if this is because people actually had to buy it to have a listen to it since it was never released on any streaming service. A 5-CD box set with unreleased material is definitely not what any "casual" fans would purchase in 2023.


    Anyways, I enjoy this a lot.

  • I considered it, but didn't buy it. This was mainly due to the cost. If the CD box had been at least £10 cheaper I probably would have picked it up.


    The vinyl box I consider a big missed opportunity. If it had matched the tracklist of the CD box (maybe over two volumes) I probably would have paid whatever ridiculous money they asked for. Having Shepherd and Pacidy on vinyl for the first time would have been amazing.


    Overall I would have much preferred a series of individual releases, with complete sessions / shows and the same tracklist on CD and vinyl.

  • This set, sadly, has pretty bad sound quality, at least to my ears.

    Just to give some examples, listen to the the following Lyceum '80 tracks: Duke's Travel's/Duke's End has whistling artifacts from 4:20 onwards, and the same thing happens to I Know What I Like (5:20 onwards, it's worse towards the end) and The Knife (the whole of it).

    The most evident part to detect those artifacts is on The Knife, listening to the high frequencies when Phil starts to sing, around the 0:36 sec. mark onwards.

    There's something like a whistle, an annoying sibilant high frequency.

    That's what spoils a great part of that show.

    Once noticed it can't be avoided anymore.

    It's not like that on The Source 2LP radio show or some of the other FM broadcast recordings.


    The Knebworth '78 tracks are very unpleasant to my ears, due to the amateurish EQ settings applied.

    While not perfect, they sound much better on the raw BBC Rock Hour reels transfers that have been around for years.


    Knebworth '92 isn't better than the various circulating FM recordings.

    The near-complete show also exists in pre-fm form, and it is slightly better and than the box set version.


    The only upgrades to sources already out there are One For The Vine on the Lyceum '80 show - Nick Davis must have come up with a new, different source than the rest of the show - and Harold The Barrel and Harlequin from the 1972 BBC Session, which both sound less compressed than the previous BBC pre-FM source.


    All the other songs included in the 5-disc set are less than or at best equal to what we already had for years.

  • I noticed this too, I was actually wondering if something is wrong with my sound card when I was listening from my PC or if those are MP3 artifacts? Strange thing.

    That aside, I can live with non-perfect sound quality since these are radio broadcasts. The '78 recording has a strange stereophony, the audience appears to be phase-shifted. I am curiuos which way this was recorded.

  • That aside, I can live with non-perfect sound quality since these are radio broadcasts. The '78 recording has a strange stereophony, the audience appears to be phase-shifted. I am curiuos which way this was recorded.

    Exactly. We are not having board tapes with post production here, so the sound is indeed a bit rough.

    Concerns about sound quality made them withdraw their board tapes plans years ago, remember?

  • The thing is: Nick Davis quite surely has the 'right' tapes for the London 5-7 May 1980 shows, in fact One For The Vine on the BBC box is flawless, as opposed to the BBC pre-fm transfer which suffers from tape flutters, also Duke's Travels from Archive #2 is flawless, same rule applies to Motherlode (Drury Lane 5/5/80), Ripples and Lady Lies (Lyceum 6/5/80), all of them on Archive #2.


    Instead, for last year's box he used the BBC pre-fm transfer which has all sorts of problems and therefore doesn't sound as good as their in-house recording.