Thanks for posting that, apart from some of the cringey questioning I enjoyed it, the performances are great except for the horrible keyboard sound in TIOA. RW sounds really good, especially on NSOM, and he's very assured and natural during the chats.
What an odd venue. I gather it was the Berlin Telecom Tower.
I remember when this was on TV at the time. So much excitement for the band. To hear them bringing out Supper's Ready was really something, made me think they'd explore the old catalog more as they went on. It was an odd set up and the video is a real curio now. Thanks for posting it!
The performance is really great, I'd just say TIOA doesn't lend itself as an acoustic version but they did the best of it. The interviewing is cringe indeed. Ah, the nostalgia, good old days of music television in Germany when some ill-informed guy switching between German with English accent and English with German accent would ask stupid questions, trying so hard to be 'different'. For all you viewers who don't understand the German he talks: he tries to translate every answer of the band but he misses most information and messes up the rest of it. You really have to understand English to get sth out of the interview.
I also remember watching this on TV (and being annoyed by Alan Bangs' presentation) and I was really stunned how Ray sang "No son of mine" and "Lover's leap". I wasn't that convinced regarding "Turn it on again", but of course he had quite big shoes of two singers to fill. He did it well.
For all you viewers who don't understand the German he talks: he tries to translate every answer of the band but he misses most information and messes up the rest of it. You really have to understand English to get sth out of the interview.
precisely. That's wasn't good. At least not for a German audience.
What might have been. I still look at that brief period and think "right voice, wrong material" and a second album with better writing and a stronger influence from Ray (and others if really brave) could have been special. Rather like Marillion needed a little time to find a new groove after Fish's departure, Genesis needed to work on this and treat it as an entirely new beginning.
Interesting performance just the same.
What might have been. I still look at that brief period and think "right voice, wrong material" and a second album with better writing and a stronger influence from Ray (and others if really brave) could have been special. Rather like Marillion needed a little time to find a new groove after Fish's departure, Genesis needed to work on this and treat it as an entirely new beginning.
Interesting performance just the same.
Precisely this. They had a good foundation to build on. The thought that both Ray and Tony wanted to do a second album but Mike didn't is never far from my mind. What might have been if he'd said yes.
I totally agree that a second album would almost certainly have been an improvement.
I also really (really!) wish Mike and Tony had chosen to re-record all of the songs on Calling All Stations once they had hired all of the musicians that played on the album. Making everyone just overdub on top of the duo's demos led to the album feeling a bit stiff and flat. Had they gone back to five guys playing in a room together I think those songs would have taken on a bit more life.
I totally agree that a second album would almost certainly have been an improvement.
I also really (really!) wish Mike and Tony had chosen to re-record all of the songs on Calling All Stations once they had hired all of the musicians that played on the album. Making everyone just overdub on top of the duo's demos led to the album feeling a bit stiff and flat. Had they gone back to five guys playing in a room together I think those songs would have taken on a bit more life.
Agree. I think they thought their jams would work without Phil, but then of course something was missing. Joining that process late was difficult for Ray and I also was curious to see what would have happened on a possible follow-up album. Shame that did not happen ...
