Andrew's Collection
Genesis 06/28/1972
Watford Town Hall, Watford, UK
| Source | PRRPGS002 & Master Cassette > 1st Gen cassette > WAV > FLAC L6 |
| Media | SHN+Flac 2 discs |
| Notes | "Like a Nun With a Gun" |
| Tech Notes | I have two sources for this show: the PRRPGS002 version and Eeklair's remaster. The Eeklair version is slightly brighter and clearer, at least to my ears, but both sources have their charms. Source 1: "Visit Our Official Website at http://prrp-music.com PRRPGS002- GENESIS SERIES LIKE A NUN WITH A GUN June 28, 1972 (Town Hall, Watford, England) CD1 1-1. Support Act and Introduction 3:15 1-2. Watcher of the Skies 7:30 1-3. Story Of Thomas S. Eiselberg 1:18 1-4. Stagnation 8:36 1-5. Story Of The First Hermaphrodite 1:55 1-6. One-Handed Drum Solo 3:16 1-7. The Fountain Of Salmacis 8:29 1-8. Happy The Man 4:24 1-9. Twilight Alehouse 8:55 CD2 2-1. Story of Old Henry 1:27 2-2. The Musical Box 10:41 2-3. Hogweed Introduction 1:41 2-4. The Return of the Giant Hogweed 9:42 2-5. Improvisation 2:19 2-6. The Knife 9:31 Genesis Peter Gabriel- Lead Vocals- Flute and Percussion Tony Banks- Keyboards- 12 Strings and Backing Vocals Mike Rutherford- Bass Guitars- Guitars and Backing Vocals Steve Hackett- Lead Guitars and Effects Phil Collins- Drums- Percussion and Backing Vocals Wonderful Fun By the middle of 1972, with what would later be hailed as the classic line-up of the band firmly in place, Genesis were ready to forge ahead with their career. The arrival of Phil Collins and Steve Hackett had brought a new confidence to the band and a dynamic energy to their music. But even though their third album, “Nursery Cryme”, had reached number 4 in the Italian charts and their first tour of Italy had been a great triumph and morale-booster for the band, they knew only too well that their was still a long way to go. They needed to gain recognition and expand their fan base in their own country. Towards that end, Genesis set about playing extensively throughout Britain, performing wherever and whenever they could, sometimes to dismally small crowds. Slowly but surely, the band’s reputation as a great live act grew and they started to attract more and more attention. In March 1972, Genesis played a particularly memorable show at the Technical College in Watford, UK. The concert was performed before a very attentive and enthusiastic audience and was a great success but still the band needed to gain more interest from the media. Their albums were receiving no airplay and, apart from a few encouraging articles in ‘Melody Maker’; the rock press in general was not receptive to this very unconventional group. David Stopps, owner of the Friars club in Aylesbury, decided to launch an advertising campaign to help Genesis gain stronger support from the media. He recalls, “1972 had seemed a strange period for Genesis. It was a year when they seemed to be making little progress, but at Friars they were always megastars. I remember talking to the band at this time and there was a certain amount of despondency in the air. They didn’t seem to be making any progress nationally or internationally and I had the distinct feeling that they were thinking of breaking up”. Stirred into action, Stopps instigated a campaign in ‘Melody Maker’, urging readers to listen to the albums “Trespass” and “Nursery Cryme”. But his most effective idea was to stage a special Genesis Convention for their dedicated fans. Peter Gabriel himself had a thousand rosettes made which proclaimed GENESIS ’72, and these he would throw into the audience. Stopps recalls, “We had to pick a large venue so we chose Watford Town Hall where we had previously presented Elton John, The Faces and The Kinks”. The support act on that very special night was Flash, featuring guitarist Peter Banks (of early Yes fame) who remembers, “It was a dreadful night for us as our bass player Ray Bennett broke a string on the first number…and bass players normally never break strings! We had this new PA system which we lent to Genesis that night since we all knew each other well in those days. Phil Collins had his first jamming band called Zox & The Radar Boys in which I sometimes played lead guitar. It was this group that later evolved into Brand X”. Genesis opted to open their set with a brand new song, ‘Watcher of the Skies’, still very much a work in progress. To have a chance to hear this classic number in its still unfinished state must have been worth the price of admission alone that night. Nobody knew at the time, of course, just how Notes from the Re-Master The master was provided as a single CD containing 78 minutes of music. Upon listening, the first thing that was obvious was the overwhelming hiss drowned out much of the subtleties of the recording. Multiple sequential methods were used to reduce this noise and bring out the underlying music. The other big problem was the apparent dynamic frequency response of the recorder. The midrange frequencies were quite in balance during the quiet section of the show but became excessive during the louder section. So, a dynamic, frequency specific compression filter was used to correct this problem. The mid-bass frequencies were also deficient and needed a boost. Separate adjustments were used during Peter’s dialogue to enhance the understand-ability of the text. The dynamics of the show were manually adjusted to enhance the dramatic components of each piece. Finally, by comparing specific segments of each song to known standard recordings it was determined that the whole show ran 5% too fast. Correction of this speed problem put the length of the whole show at 83 minutes, necessitating the use of two discs to provide the finished product." Source 2: "Genesis Watford Town Hall (NC-1701-E) June 28 1972 (An Eeklair Remaster) Lineage: Master Cassette > 1st Gen cassette > WAV > FLAC L6 > YOU! Not taken from a bootleg, but from an italian trader who has asked to remain anonymous. 01 Watcher of the Skies (Pre-Release Version) 02 Peter Talks 03 Stagnation 04 technical probs/Peter Talks/ One handed drum solo 05 Fountain of Salmacis 06 Peter Talks 07 Happy the Man 08 Peter Talks 09 Twilight Alehouse 10 Peter Talks 11 The Musical box 12 Peter Talks 13 The Return of the Giant Hogweed 14 Encore Noises/technical probs/Peter Talks 15 The Knife peter gabriel tony banks michael rutherford phil collins stephen hackett // the matrix number is a play on bootleg matrix numbers in general... Not a big fan of em, but I am a fan of Star Trek (notice any similarities?)... http://www.youbuynow.com/item/2896 As for this amazing recording... It took some tweaking, but I haven't smiled so wide after doing a remaster in a long time. This sucker rocks!! THe show has its technical probs, but it's now able to shine brighter than ever before - as far as within the general trade community is concerned. It's as close to the master tape as you can currently get. OKAY, using Cool Edit Pro ver 2.1 - I applied 30 band Graphic EQ to find some wanted frequencies, and also tone down some bad noise laden frequencies. Then I used a 10 band EQ filter to sort-of corral or rope together the highs mids and lows, then I applied the evil and ever so slightly neccesarry hiss reduction. It worked out because the hall was so echoey the Hiss reduction is barely noticable. I didn't apply TOO much of it as you will hear. Better yet, hopefully you won't hear it, as that was my intent - sort of a Stealth Hiss Reduction!! That's it, enjoy. And if anyone knows Nick Davis, hand him a copy of this and tell him to include it in Box #3 1970-1974 before it goes out to press. enjoy! Eeklair" |
| Trades Allowed | Yes |
| Ratings | Show: A/+ Sound: B/+ |
Owned by Andrew
· Last Updated May 23, 2023
Add Show
View Show