Genesis – BBC Broadcasts

Good, but far from perfect

Genesis fans aren't really used to getting a lot of value from their favourite band. It's been years since the last interesting release, so BBC Broadcasts came as something of a surprise, and a pretty nice one at that. But Genesis fans are also discerning and easily found ways to poke holes into this product.

A lot of the set's issues have to do with the fact that it's limited to 5 CDs. This necessitates leaving tracks off and splitting concerts awkwardly over discs. You're almost forced to listen to discs 2, 3 and 4 in one go if you don't want to take them out and re-insert them later. The other option is ripping them to files, which is necessary anyway for mobile listening or in an environment without a CD drive/player since this set, atypically, has not been released as an official or on streaming services.

Disc 1 doesn't have that issue and is a pretty decent compilation of the Peter Gabriel era, with only the weird choice to mix up the chronological order of songs sticking out. Biggest omission is "Return of the Giant Hogweed", which was played at two different sessions in 1972. Runner-up would be "Looking for Someone", especially since there isn't much Genesis with Anthony Phillips officially available.

Knebworth 1978 isn't great sounding, although the performance quality makes up for that - Burning Rope is great to have in particular.

The Lyceum show sounds good for the most part, but the sound quality gets noticeably worse near the end. By the time of "The Knife", there's a lot of distortion in the mix. "Follow You Follow Me" is the exact same performance as on Three Sides Live. Other duplicates with the Archive sets are more understandable, but that song is from one of the "canon" albums and surely could've been eschewed in favor of something else.

From the 1987 and 1992 shows, it's hard to understand why so many hits are missing, which surely would've attracted some of the more casual fans. I'm thinking of "Land of Confusion" (played both in 1987 and 1992), "Jesus He Knows Me", "Abacab" and most egregiously "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" - the latter was played at both concerts, but the 1987 version was the full nine minute song, unlike the abridged 1992 arrangement we already have represented on The Way We Walk.

The 1998 tracks are almost like an afterthought, but I guess we should be happy that the Ray Wilson era did get a little bit of recognition. Nevertheless, I would have welcomed more songs with him singing, particularly "Calling All Stations", "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and "Carpet Crawlers". But I can see that it would've looked strange to include the latter two with Ray singing and not Peter Gabriel ("Carpet Crawlers" at least exists from the Wembley 1975 broadcast). Plus they're both already represented within the performances selected (sung by Phil).

All in all, I still recommend this release, since it's the first official release of most of these performances and its success will also show the band that there is an interest in archival material of perhaps not the highest technical standard.

Pure garbage release and a waste of money. Can't recommend this release.

FGS Tony - Why do you always omit Dreaming While You Sleep from the official 1992 live shows??! Can you just stop pretending it doesn't exist? It's on the DVD so we all know it was part of the setlist, but it has NEVER appeared on any full official concert CD release besides on the Tell Me Why CD single...! Please can you finally just reinstate it to a full 1992 concert CD release? Just ONCE fa cryin out loud! :)

I would definitely recommend going for the CD version over the vinyl, since you're paying less for over twice as much content, seems like a no-brainer to me unless you're just interested in record collecting.

It would be nice to see a more comprehensive collection at some point though, as there's still a ton that didn't make the cut on this release.

On the EU release the Made In small white hype sticker is attached to the shrink wrap cellophane, on the rear. The main hype sticker is attached to the front of the cellophane shrink wrap.

On the “U.S.” release the Made In sticker is not on the cellophane, it’s applied directly to the back of the box. I would assume the same is true of this one, so the Notes may have to be corrected.

This is a great-sounding collection of live tracks from Genesis. Some of the earliest songs on disc one show their age, but this is as good as they have ever been. I don't think it was ever meant to be a box of live concerts more a sample of the band, and how their sound changed, and improved through the years. Genesis were always better live than in the studio, where they always sounded professional and very talented but there was a spark an X-factor they never really got down on tape or into the hard drive. Sorry anyone who never got to see them but that's true. The trick is capturing that on a live disc. Seconds out (not a full concert either) was damn close and there are several instances here when they transport you to the venue. One of the very few box sets that I own that makes sense when it's played right through from start to finish.

So, the set starts with an error... first track is listed as Shepperd, but in fact is Pacidy (listed as track 2).

A really sloppy beginning, hope this is the only mistake...

Strange that NEC 1998 2 tracks are not at the end on CD5 and that Mama and Domino from the 1987 show is not on CD 4, any logical explanation to this?