IN LONDON

The status of this release is a bit strange: is it a legit release or not? Sold in legit record shops in my city and in well-known websites dedicated to sell CDs and DVDs around the world- I bought it in a legit record shop in my city five months ago. I asked then in the Forums in this website about to include this DVD the Prog Archives database. Finally, after a brief discussion with other Collaborators I didn`t include it. But what happened? For my surprise, it has been added to the Prog Archives database, so I`m going to write a review about it.

GENESIS was a very important band for me when I was a teenager. In fact, in 1980 I was becoming a big fan of the band. After buying for the very first time in 1979 their album called "...and then there were three...", by 1982 I had all their albums released until then. I also read in a Mexican Rock Magazine (now defunct) a review from a "Duke Tour" concert from the Hammesrmith Odeon in London. I hoped to one day to see a video from this tour. In December last year, I visited several of the legit websites dedicated to sell CDs and DVDs, Mexican and from foreign countries, and I was surprised to find at last a concert video from their 1980 tour. I didn`t buy it online because the price was higher due to the transportation to my house, and I couldn`t go to buy it then due to a second episode of sciatica (the first was in late 2004, when I joined Prog Archives as a Prog Reviewer) which didn`t let me walk long distances and even to stand up for more than 15 minutes! So, it was until late January this year that I could go to a record shop and buy this DVD.

Now, writing about this video, I`m going to write some commentaries:

"Deep in the Motherlode": as I wrote before, this song in this DVD has bad mixing, because the drums and the bass guitar are louder than the other instruments, and the keyboards are almost lost in the mixing.

"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight": a fragment from this song only.

"Carpet Crawl": a good version.

"Squonk": Rutherford has some problems to play the bass pedals during the first part of the song, but finally he resolves this problem for the rest of the song.

"One for the Vine": good electric piano playing from Banks, good drums too by Thompson and Collins.

The "Duke Medley" ("Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn it on Again", "Duke`s Travels", "Duke`s End"): each songis played in its entirety one after the other with little time passing between them. Collins`"Story of Albert" told before the Medley starts is funny, but weird, bizarre!

"Say It`s Alright Joe": with Phil acting the character of a sad drunk in a Bar. Very good interpretation, but this acting makes the song longer than the studio version, and a bit boring at the end.

"The Lady Lies": with Phil again acting characters of the Lady who tells lies and her villain friend. Very good guitar solo by Daryl Stuermer, great drums by Chester Thompson and very good synth solo by Tony Banks.

"Ripples": it is a shame that a very good song like this was cut due to a cameras` power failure. In this video, only the last part of the song is shown, while Mike Rutherford plays a guitar synth and Stuermer plays a very good guitar solo. It seems that Collins also played a bit on a little keyboard, because he can be seen briefly doing it.

"In the Cage" / "Slippermen" / "Afterglow": vey good versions, but with the "Slippermen" medley is shorter than in other tours.

"Follow You, Follow Me": good version similar as the one released in the "Three Sides Live" album.

"Dance in a Volcano" and "Los Endos": good versions too, but a bit different to other live versions.

"I Know What I Like": a good version, too.

In conclusion, this is a very good concert DVD, despite the quality of the images and sound is not as similar as in other concert DVDs from this band. It seems that it was recorded and filmed for a TV Broadcast, but I could be wrong.

The Duke of London

Long had I lived under the false impression that Genesis became a commercial pop band straight after (my favorite Genesis member) Steve Hackett left the band in 1977. I now know that I was very wrong about that! This excellent 1980 concert proved it to me. The only songs here that might be considered commercial pop songs are Follow You, Follow Me and possibly Turn It On Again. However, both of these are really good songs anyway! (and nowhere near the blatant commerciality of later things like Invisible Touch).

However, the sound and picture quality is not as good as the actual concert. If it was I would have been happy to give this five stars! Considering my low expectations and the low prize I paid for this, watching it was a true revelation for me (from Genesis to revelation?!) I had heard about half the tracks before and there are several songs here from my favorite Genesis albums A Trick Of The Tale and Wind And Wuthering as well as some Gabriel- era tracks. This led me to check this out.

The biggest positive surprise for me was in the (then) new tracks, especielly the ones from the And Then There Were Three album. The opener Deep In The Motherlode (misspelled on the box as Deep In The Motherlodge) is a great song and I have since bought the studio album from where it originally came - the underrated And Then There Were Three. One For the Vine from Wind And Wuthering is fantastic as are most of the other tracks here! One portion of the concert is devoted to material from the then brand new Duke album. This is another, but sadly the last, very good Genesis album.

Maybe this concert can be made better if it is given an upgrade in terms of picture and sound quality in the future. Until then, this version is recommended! Genesis is currently re-releasing all their studio albums on hybrid SACD/DVD-Audio. On the DVD-Audio version of Duke there is, as an extra feature, a selection of live tracks from this very show in London in 1980. Compared to this DVD, the bonus feature on the Duke DVD-Audio is presented in much better sound and picture quality. Too bad it isn't the whole show!

However, this means that it would be possible to upgrade the Live In London DVD and give it the same sound and picture quality as the selection on the Duke feature. We can only hope that it happens! Until then, this is recommended.

I have seen this DVD on the Japanese edition few years ago and was disappointed with the picture quality and the technical problems that was create because of a bad video transfer. Here the problems have been fixed and there is also a nice 5.1 mix that is not mind-blowing because of the original source of the sound. For those who want a great picture quality will have to pass on this one because it's dark and lacking of clarity. But for a Genesis fan, this is a must have, especially if you want the last really good album by the band, Duke. So the set list is very enjoyable with the songs from that album, with 4 songs of "And Then They were three", mix with some old favorites as well for a complete 2 hours and 10 minutes., concert. The performance is excellent from the band and give you a nice document of where Genesis was 30 years ago.

Review Nº 797

"In London" is one of the many DVD's released by Genesis and that was released in 2007. It was recorded and filmed at The Lyceum Ballroom, London, on May, 6th 1980. It was taken from one of the many live concerts that Genesis performed when they released the live tour of their tenth studio album "Duke", which was released in the same year.

Like my colleague prog reviewer Guillermo says, the release of this DVD is really very strange. And like him, I also bought this DVD in a legit record shop in my town. So, and apparently, it seems to me that it will be an official release from the band, apparently recorded and filmed by a TV Broadcast. However, the quality of the sound and the images of the DVD haven't quality enough in order to be considered made by a TV Broadcast. However, this is a much better version than the initial Japanese edition, released some years ago, where the technical problems were much worse.

"In London" has twenty-one tracks. The first track "Deep In The Motherlode" was released on "And Then There Were Three?". The second track "Dancing With The Moonlight Knight" was released on "Selling England By The Pound". The third track "Carpet Crawl" was released on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". The fourth track "Squonk" was released on "A Trick Of The Tail". The fifth track "One For The Vine" was released on "Wind And Wuthering". The sixth track "Behind The Lines" was released on "Duke". The seventh track "Duchess" was released on "Duke". The eighth track "Guide Vocal" was released on "Duke". The ninth track "Turn It On Again" was released on "Duke". The tenth track "Dukes Travels" was released on "Duke". The eleventh track "Dukes Ends" was released on "Duke". The twelfth track "Say Its Alright Joe" was released on "And Then There Were Three?". The thirteenth track "The Lady Lies" was released on "And Then There Were Three?". The fourteenth track "Ripples (Pt. 2)" is an extract of a track released on "A Trick Of The Tail". The fifteenth track "In The Cage" was released on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". The sixteenth track "Slippermen" is a very short extract of a track released on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". The seventeenth track "Afterglow" was released on "Wind And Wuthering". The eighteenth track "Follow You, Follow Me" was released on "And Then There Were Three?". The nineteenth track "Dance On A Volcano" was released on "A Trick Of The Tail". The twentieth track "Los Endos" was released on "A Trick Of The Tail". The twenty-first track "I Know What I Like" was released on "Selling England By The Pound".

"Deep In The Motherlode" is the opening number. Genesis likes to begin shows with a song from the previous album than the one they're touring for. The opening lines of "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" provides a dramatic link to "Carpet Crawlers". Both "Squonk" and "One From The Vine" are effective pieces of dramatic musical narrative. But the weight of the show falls upon the "Duke" suite. It was a daring decision to play all of the new music in one set, "Behind The Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn It On Again" and ending with the instrumental "Duke's Travels" and the conclusion of the piece "Duke's End". Collins' dramatic sensibilities follow on "Say Its Alright Joe" and "The Lady Lies". After the "Ripples" fragment they play an old medley with "In The Cage" and ending with "Afterglow". The show proceeds with "Follow You, Follow Me" and comes to a great finale with "Dance On A Volcano" and "Los Endos" with the drum duet between Thompson and Collins. "I Know What I Like" is the encore that closes properly this live show.

Genesis always enjoyed playing in smaller venues in London. For instance, "Wind & Wuthering" was released in January 1977 with several shows at the Rainbow theatre. This venue also dictates the style of video made. Watching footage from the late 70's, it's apparent that the light show takes up as much interest and screen time as do the band. But this video has many more close ups of the band and the dramatic narrative of the music is much more emphasized.

Conclusion: "In London" is a great DVD despite some low quality of its sound and images. It has a very good selection of tracks that includes tracks from their last six studio albums until that moment. It has tracks from two albums of Gabriel's era, tracks from the two albums with Hackett era and tracks from their best two albums after the departure of those two members of the band. Sincerely, apart "Follow You Follow Me", that despite be a good track, it should never have been part of the musical catalog of Genesis but only be part of the musical solo career of Phil Collins, all the rest of the DVD is great, even the less progressive parts. So, if it wasn't due to some poor technical quality of the sound and images on the DVD, and I wouldn't have any kind of problems to rate it with 5 stars and considers it truly a masterpiece.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)