Posts by squonkduke

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.

Quote from Backdrifter

Ah yes, the Whistling Artifacts. I saw them supporting Gang Of Four at the Electric Ballroom in 1981.

good for you

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.

Quote from Christian

On other services as wll. Interesting: Follow You Follow Me seems to be the North American single remix version

Yes it is indeed!

Many thanks Jonathan for your very informative and comprehensing article.

That BBC session is a very important piece of Genesis history and you made it justice gathering all the possible details surrounding it.

Can i ask you, if possible, to share a better quality pic of the Radio Times billing for the (then) forthcoming Night Ride broadcast?

I discovered Genesis with the release of the Abacab album, and Three Sides Live was their first album i bought on release day after having anxiously waited for it to be out in the shops.

It still remains my favourite live Genesis album.

I bought the european edition and in that pre-internet days i didn't know the 1980 songs were Duke b-sides, just as i didn't know the Abacab outtakes had been already released as an EP in the UK the month before. That european studio 4th side really caught my attention. It was so good.

Now, 40 years later, i still listen to Three Sides Live from time to time. I always put on an early W. Germany cd edition (fatbox) which has great dynamics and it reproduces the sound just like i remember it on my old 2LP italian pressing.

I avoid the 2008 remix. Too much compression.

I just wish they originally included the Dance On A Volcano/Los Endos medley, which fortunately is available on various King Biscuit Flower Hour / Westwood One radio shows. It's the last time they performed that medley on tour and the Nassau Coliseum performance (Three Sides Live outtake) is outstanding.