1972 - 1974 Genesis Live TV Appearances 72-Mar-20: Belgian TV 73-Jan-10: French TV - Bataclan, France * 74-Feb-12: Melody TV Show, ORTF Studios - Paris, France DVD1 - 93.18 1 Fountain Of Salmacis 29.19 72-Mar-20 Twilight Alehouse The Musical Box Return Of The Giant Hogweed 2 The Musical Box 33.47 73-Jan-10 Supper's Ready Return Of The Giant Hogweed The Knife 3 I Know What I Like 30.12 74-Feb-12 Supper's Ready * Includes band interviews Notes that came with this recording: I got this from a 2 DVD set that also included the Shepperton 16mm film footage from October 30 1973 which i removed because of the wonderful upgraded version now available. I am unsure of the files' lineage but have suspicions that they have originated from mpegs because the vob files were smaller than expected. But all 3 shows look and sound great. I also created a new menu with unofficial live audio because the previous one contained official audio. Video Bitrate: 1,695 kbps 29,970 frames/s DVD Author: Djas Puhr Audio Codec: AC3 Audio Bitrate: 192 kbps NTSC DVD **************************************************************** 72-Mar-20/21: Comments from the bluesnaggletooth site (based on VCD version): This is another copy of the Belgian TV performance that I have above on VHS; this one is on a CD that is somehow playable on my DVD player. This is totally excellent, because this format is much more reliable than VHS, and much less apt to break down with multiple playings. The quality is not perfect, but it is worlds better than my VHS copy, and I'm thrilled to have it. It's the first in a continuing series of VCDs that are being released by some group like Hogweeds or FAde--RVCD, or Rare VCD. I do like this VCD, but I also have this footage on DVD; I'm not sure which one is better. VCD has a slightly blurry, pixellated effect because it is played off of a CD-R, but it's always possible that this particular footage is cleaner on my VCD than on my DVD (which is naturally only transferred from a VHS source, and which also is missing some of the beginning of the clip). 73-Jan-10: Comments from the bluesnaggletooth site: The Bataclan footage is better than the VCD. For one, it doesn't have the typical VCD pixellation. For another, it has the full opening of the program, including the cryptic scanning shot of the graveyard while the French narrator seems to talk about Genesis' c ontemporaries in the prog music scene. It's just nice to have these clips on DVD, and these seem to be generally stable and clean VHS transfers. Bataclan's picture is a bit jumpy. 74-Feb-12: Comments from the bluesnaggletooth site: Just two tracks here, probably all that was played for this television program (called "Melody"). The band played on what must have been a solid color stage, because it is majorly blue screened and various odd footage is played behind the band, filling up all of the background (in fact, the glowing rod that Pete holds up at the end of "Supper" totally disappears, as it is the same color as the background and gets keyed out). It lends the whole performance a very surreal character which only compliments Peter Gabriel's strange mime-like antics. He is particularly freaky in this show, with heavy make-up, and there is lots of close-up footage shot in slow motion of Pete making strange expressions and gestures into the camera. If the RVCD people were planning on one release from each of the early tours, they chose a rather odd one for this, the Selling England tour, as to me the much more obvious choice is the Shepperton Studios (or "Oxford") footage of October '73. However, I've heard they'll release that as well on VCD. And anyway, the Shepperton footage, while having more music, was always severely hindered by the fact that it's just very, very dark and difficult to make out--whereas in the case of the Melody tracks, the visuals are very strong and interesting. I can't stress enough how nice it is to have these on VCD; even though the video footage is compressed, it lacks any of the bad picture shake and snow that you would get from a VHS. There does seem to be a near breakdown at one point during "Apocalypse," but it resolves itself quickly. At the flash powder explosion that comes at the end of the song, smoke seems to fill the whole studio and there is a hard cut to a smokeless shot which makes me wonder if they did a take of the song without the explosion...