IN CONCERT 1976

I knew about the existence of this film when I read Pete Frame`s "Rock Family Trees" book in 1984. After listening many times to "Cinema Show" and to "It/Watcher of the Skies" which were released in the "Seconds Out" and "Three Sides Live" albums, respectively, and considering them as very good live versions recorded duing their 1976 tour, I wanted to listen to more live recordings from this tour. I saw a Laser Disc version of this film, made in Japan, in 1994, but sold at a very expensive price, so I didn`t buy it. Years later I had the chance to listen to three Radio Shows recorded during their 1976 tour, with Bill Bruford on drums. My opinon about his playing with Genesis changed. It was until recently that I saw this film several times in youtube.com . Later, I discovered that this film was recently released on DVD in the Genesis`"1976-1982" Box Set by Rhino Records in the U.S. I expected an expanded and re-edited version of this video, but it wasn`t expanded and/or re-edited .

Track by track:

-"Opening": shows the roadies doing their job on stage while the credits are shown on the screen.

-"I Know What I Like": marred a bit by more images of the roadies doing their job and by showing the band walking their way to the stage. Finally, the band is shown playing the song. Collins looks confident and funny while singing the song, playing his "tambourine routine" during an instrumental section of this song, despite being his first tour as front man. The version of this song played during this tour was shorter than the live versions played in later tours. Bruford`s playing in this song is irregular at the start of the song, improving in the rest of the song`s parts.

-"Fly on a Windshield" (which also includes an instrumental version of "Broadway Melody of 1974" not listed in the track list). Played with Collins on drums and Bruford on percussion and later on drums too, with a very good lead guitar by Hackett, 12 string guitar and bass pedals by Rutherford, and mellotron and organ by Banks.

- "Carpet Crawl": very good vocals by Collins. Rutherford plays 12 string guitar. I thought that he played bass in this song, but the bass notes are played by Banks on the electric piano. Bruford again doesn`t play the start of the song "as it was originally recorded", but his playing improves in the rest of the song`s parts.

-"The Cinema Show": this film only includes the instrumental section of this song, with Collins on drums while Bruford plays percussion and later drums along with Collins. This song is marred a bit by the inclusion of comical silent movie images ( I only want to see how they play the song!). Hackett is out of the stage for this section of this song.

-"Entangled": Hackett plays electric six string guitar and bass pedals, Rutherford and Banks play 12 string acoustic guitar and sing backing vocals (with Banks also playing keyboards at the end of the song), Collins sings lead vocals and plays maracas, while Bruford plays a xylophone very well. This song is played very well, but again it is marred a bit by the images of a sea and a beautiful woman dancing on the sand. These images are good, but again... I only wanted to see how the band played this song in concert!

-"Supper`s Ready": the film only shows this song played from "Apocalypse in 9/8" until the end of the song. Collins sings in a microphone put behind and above his drum kit, and later he "jumps " to the drum kit to play along Bruford during the organ solo. The drums are played very well. Again Bruford plays irregularly in some parts, but he also does very good things, while Collins plays "lead drums" too very well. After the organ solo is finished, Collins goes to the front of the stage to sing the final part of the lyrics very well. The camera focuses in him during Hackett`s lead guitar part, and in the screen there also appear images of ruins (from Greece?) and clouds. Why the cameras were not focused on Hackett after Collins finished singing? Again, I saw Hackett playing some bass pedals parts, so I think that he shared the bass pedals parts with Rutherford, who was the "official bass player" then. The film also shows some images of atomic bombs falling on earth, which, in this case, work very well with "Apocalypse in 9/8", but again...I only wanted to see the band playing the song!

-"Los Endos":marred a bit by images of the lights on stage and the audience clapping. Bruford plays percussion and drums, Collins plays very good drums.The song is marred again by the showing of the final credits!

What can I say now about Bruford`s playing with Genesis? I think that he is a very good drummer, but I also think that in 1976, without being a permanent member of a band and working with other bands not as member show that he needed to work and agreed to play with them, doing his job. Maybe he wasn`t very motivated by Genesis`music, so, him being a musician who likes to improvise, kept himself interested while playing the songs with some variations concert after concert. These variations sometimes worked very well with the songs, but in other cases they didn`t work properly. It is good to see him in this video playing with very good technique and doing very good things in some parts of the songs. But, I also think that Chester Thompson was a better choice as tour drummer for Genesis in later years. Bruford, listed as a "special guest" in the end credits did his job, and it was interesting to see and to listen to him playing with Genesis. He said in one interview that the band let him play the songs as he wanted to play them, never criticizing him. But now I kwow why Genesis didn`t release more songs with him on drums in their official albums (apart from "Entangled" which was released in the "Archives 2: 1976-1982" Box Set in the year 2000). I think that his playing was irregular most of the time. One thing is to add variations which work well with the rhythm of the songs, and another is to play things which sometimes made the band lose the rhythm and concentration. Bruford`s style sometimes didn`t fit in Genesis`music. His best place as a drummer was being part of King Crimson or of his own Jazz-Rock bands. In those bands, his improvisations on drums sound and fit very well. But, to say positive things about his plaing in Genesis, I have to say that he regularly played very well songs like "Dance on a Volcano", "Robbery, Assault and Battery", "Squonk" and "Firth of Fifth", songs which were not included in this film but I heard in those Radio Shows recordings which I mentioned above.

Collins looks confident and enjoying his new role as front man with Genesis. The other members of the band also look confident. Peter Gabriel was out of the band, but they still had a lot of quality as musicians. The audience also looks happy with this new version of the band.

In conclusion, this is a very good concert video. Short, but very good, and marred a bit with images which don`t belong to the concert.

In the splendid book Opening The Musical Box - A Genesis Chronicle (by Alan Hewitt) you can read that "this concert was shot at Glasgow and Stafford during the A Trick Of The Tail tour, it's the only visual record of the band with Bill Bruford on drums. The film was shown in the UK cinemas in 1977. You can obtain if from laser disc in Japan." Well, I have still very mixed feelings while watching this footage: on one hand it's excellent material with outstanding performances by all members but on the other hand, I missed the concert because our football team captain decided to give back our tickets, he wanted to be democratic after he only got four tickets for eights persons... I have never hated democracy so much at that moment and it still hurts!

The lightshow was obivously less extravagant than the next Wind And Wuthering show (with the 48 Boeing landing lights), at some moments even a bit dark. It's really exciting to see Steve Hackett playing Fly On A Windshield with his distinctive use of the volume pedal, so moving and creating a very compelling atmosphere. Another highlight is The Cinema Show featuring a very dynamic rhythm section and sensational synthesizer flights on the ARP Pro Solist, Banks his favorite synthesizer. It's a pity that the director decided to spoil the wonderful experience of watching Genesis in concert by using 'silent movie' images, really disturbing, especially during The Cinema Show, brrrr! During Supper's Ready I want the camera to focus on Hackett but the camera crew had other instructions, food for a conspiracy theory? Anyway, despite some irritating 'silent movie' images', it's a thrill to watch this 1976 Genesis line-up with duo-drums and some very delicate Hackett guitar play, my progrock guitar hero!

This DVD captures a version of Genesis that only existed for one tour, and in the words of the Comic Book Guy, it is "the best Genesis ever". The instrumental sections are always the best part of a Genesis record and on this tour the band really displayed their ability to sound like a small electronic orchestra. This concert captures a breif moment in modern Genesis history when Phil Collins still felt more attached to the drum kit than the spotlight. The icing on the cake is the additional drum talents of Bill Bruford who only did one tour with the band.

The band had just recorded two of their best albums, Lamb Lies Down and Trick of the Tail, albums that showed the band progressing in both musical style and sound production. Genesis at this point had developed a full rich elctronic sound that they were able to reproduce live. I saw this tour in Arlington TX and they were one of the best sounding bands I have ever heard in concert. Musically the band had re-energized themselves by looking to jazz fusion bands for more aggressive and modern rhythms. Both Phil and Bill are jazz fusion drummers at heart and you can really hear it in all the inventive and high energy beats they play on this DVD.

The visuals don't seem particularly important on this DVD. Mostly you see shots of the guys playing, which is the way it should be. If you want to see Genesis at their peak, before Hackett split and Collins became a pop star, playing their unique brand of instrumentals, do check this out. Warning: this DVD does contain some Phil Collins vocals.

This is the best footage of Genesis live. It took a long time coming out of the archives for general release. The material is all vintage. The band had found newfound liberation free from the shackles of Peter Gabriel theme shows. Hackett at his best. Collins sublime on vocals, Banks his usual low profile self but an absolute master on 'Entangled'. 'Supper's Ready' footage is mesmerizing and still up there IMO with the Gabriel version.' Fly On A Windshield' and ' Los Endos' make for highly satisfying viewing and the icing on the top was seeing Bruford behind the drum kit. A definite DVD must if it can be found but You Tube has done a good job too of showing footage from this excellent release. Four and a half stars.

|B| My first live DVD experience, and awesome it was indeed!

I actually came across the footage for this live album upon receiving the A Trick of the Tail album on my nineteenth birthday, which happened to include a DVD of with 1976 footage, to my pleasant surprise! And I got it for about the same price as any other studio album I might happen to buy, so I'd say it was a hell of a deal. The DVD also came with some music video footage, probably the least impressive part of the package (cheesy video effects and such, think Rush's music video for Big Money, only perhaps not THAT cheesy), but this live performance remains one that ought to sit next to my DVD player along side Enslaved's Live in Bergen. And what's more, we have Bill Bruford as a special guest. Genesis plus Bruford, what could be better? Oh yeah, the minus Peter Gabriel makes it a bit less incredible, but really the band was probably better off that way, for by the time The Lamb was released, they had pretty much become a backup band for an entertaining but increasingly egotistical front man (from what I could tell...), so this is probably as good as it gets for Genesis performances, and let's just say it gets pretty amazing.

What I found most interesting about the sound of the performance was that even songs from the bands earlier material, after the various guitar and keyboard effects were put in the mix, have that slightly neo-prog-ish TotT sound, which imo makes the performance even more worthwhile seeing as those songs sound a bit different (I'd almost venture to say better). As well, what I like most and dislike most about the performance was the instrumental sections in which Phil Collins gets back on the drum kit and adds to Bruford's awesome percussive madness. At times it makes the sound of a song just that much more proggy and complex sounding, at other times quite cluttered sounding to these ears. I also became much more aware of the actual vocal harmonies in Carpet Crawlers with this performance, for they seem a bit toned down on the studio version, which I actually like better; in all honesty, Hackett's and Rutherford's vocals aren't the greatest, but more lacking in tone quality than pitch and actual singing ability. I also enjoy the video add-ins on Entangled and Cinema Show Part 2. It's hard to pick out my favorite moments for many of them are quite spectacular, each song it very well performed with few or any even minor mistakes. But Los Endos is probably the best, for it works great as a concluding track to Trick of the Tail, and works even better as a concluding track for this sort of performance.

If you like Genesis at all, you shouldn't go very long without owning this live footage (who wants to watch prog just on YouTube?), and I highly recommend everyone who likes symphonic prog to do what I did, if you can: Buy the remastered A Trick of the Tail album (a fantastic album any symphonic progger ought to have anyways) on CD with the DVD inside, and hopefully for a good price as happened with me. Probably one of prog's most memorable (though certainly not perfect) performances by one of its most popular bands.

Genesis with King Crimson flavor ...

The chief reason of watching this performance is the existence of Bill Bruford at drum stool. I love Bruford since I first listened to King Crimson's "Easy Money" In that track he played uniquely especially with his tight snare drum that sounds differently from any other drummer on planet earth and his nano-seconds advanced beat of his drumming style. That are basically how I categorize the drumming style of Bruford. And I am not wrong at all as throughout his career he kept playing like I describe. Look at his style in his solo album "One of a Kind" or his style with Yes "Close To The Edge" as well as "Fragile". That's basically his unique style and what he demonstrated during his tenure with King Crimson.

Watching Bruford plays Genesis tunes even though only during Tour and never had a studio album with Genesis is an interesting joy for me. I can see his unique style was successfully applied to Genesis during the tour. I really love the voice of "THAK" coming out from his snare drums throughout the Genesis tunes featured in this DVD. Even from the Opening that actually presents the stage erection process to the intro f I Know What I Like Bruford did his role wonderfully and it's becoming main attraction to me. Even though he played differently, the Genesis tracks becoming much more enjoyable compared to studio album.

The song moves seamlessly to the Fly on A Windshield until Broadway Melody of 1974 (without vocal line). He plays in duet with Phil Collins who also played drums excellently using another style. Phil is very good in its varied stick hits at snare and toms of his drumset while Bruford filled with powerful snare sound. The part two of Cinema Show is also wonderful with Bruford as drummer - but most importantly the drum duets with Phil is really great. This version of duo drums appeared also in Seconds Out album. I enjoy the dums solo part even though it's very short. The peak of this live performance lies at the ending track Los Endos. Every musician plays excellently throughout the song and it becomes a very attractive part of the show.

The only lacking is the abridge version of some tracks like Fly on a Windshield, The Cinema Show (Part two with , unfortunately, the appearance of comic film) and also last parts of Supper's Ready. This is not good at all as I expect full version of each song. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Review Nº 165

'Genesis In Concert 1976' is de first DVD of Genesis and was released in 1977. The recording tapes were taken from the concert live tour that Genesis made in 1976, after the release of their seventh studio album 'A Trick Of The Tail'. 'A Trick Of The Tail' was the first album on which Phil Collins assumed also the duties of be the lead vocalist of the group with his usual duties of drummer, following the departure of Peter Gabriel from the band. However, since Collins needed to be focused mainly on his sing duties, during the live show, Genesis decided to invite the former Yes' member and which was also King Crimson's drummer, Bill Bruford, to play drums and percussion during that live tour.

'Genesis In Concert 1976' is a concert film directed and produced by Tony Maylam and the recordings of the film took place during concerts in Scotland and in England, in 1976. So, the movie combines films of two live shows: one at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 9 July and other at Bingley Hall in Staffordshire, England on 10 July. During the songs 'The Cinema Show', 'Entangled' and 'Supper's Ready', the footage is combined with some film images.

'Genesis In Concert 1976' is a DVD with seven tracks. The first track 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' is a live version of a song originally released on their fifth studio album 'Selling England By The Pound'. It shows images of the road crew doing their job and also shows the band walking to the stage. Despite being one of the first times that Collins plays his role as the front man of the band, he seems confident and cheerful. The second track 'Fly On A Windshield (Part 2)' is a live version of a part of a song originally released on their sixth studio album 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. The lead guitar work by Steve is absolutely great, the performance of Mike on his 12 string guitar and bass is perfect, the keyboard work of Tony is excellent and Bill and Phil on drums and percussions are very powerful. The third track 'The Carpet Crawlers' is also a live version of a song originally released on their sixth studio album 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. This is another excellent track with great performance by all members. However, I think deserves special mention Collins's vocal performance, because sometimes, it even makes us forget Gabriel for moments. The fourth track 'The Cinema Show' is also a live version of a song originally released on their fifth studio album 'Selling England By The Pound'. However, this is a shorter version of the song. It only includes the instrumental section of it. This is a very dynamic version of the song, with the use of some funny images of a silent movie. The fifth track 'Entangled' is a live version of a song originally released on their seventh studio album 'A Trick Of The Tail'. This is also another song very well performed by all musicians and again we have the use of a film. But this time, the images are on a beach with a beautiful woman dancing on the sand, which gives us a rare moment of beauty. The sixth track 'Supper's Ready (Part 2)' is a live version of a part of a song originally released on their fourth studio album 'Foxtrot'. Again we are in presence of another great musical moment with a live performance of all musicians absolutely irreproachable. Once more the DVD makes the use of film images. The film shows some war images of military aircraft bombers, dropping bombs. And it also shows some images of apocalyptic explosions of atomic bombs. The seventh and last track 'Los Endos' is also a live version of a song originally released on their seventh studio album 'A Trick Of The Tail'. This track represents the great final climax of the concert and it shows perfectly well why it became one of the Genesis most played live songs, and frequently, became the song that closed their live concerts too.

Conclusion: 'Genesis In Concert 1976' is, in my humble opinion, a great DVD and a rare live document of the band, with excellent quality, until Hackett was a band's member and when still the band remained in their most symphonic progressive roots. This is of course a dated document, in relation to the technical qualities of sound and image, but nevertheless, it has quality enough to be considered a great live document of those times. In relation to the selection of the songs, I've nothing to say or oppose because it's simply superb and excellently representative of the musical career of the band, at the time. Relatively to the use of the images on the DVD, and in contrast with some of my colleagues and reviewers on Progarchives, I've also nothing to oppose to the use of it. So, I disagree with them as it can be seen above, when I wrote about those songs. In short, 'Genesis In Concert 1976' is a rare live document that captures a version of Genesis that only existed just for one tour. It represents also, in my humble opinion, one of the best Genesis' lines up. So, for all what I said before, I only can rate this DVD with 5 stars. This is a worth purchase for all prog Genesis' fans.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)