sent to Paperlate by David Dunnington, June 4, 1996.
Received: from gm3.delcam.co.uk by delcam.com; Tue, 4 Jun 96 02:10:07 BST
From: drd@delcam.com (David Dunnington)
Subject: Radio shows
To: paperlate@ansto.gov.au
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 96 2:04:34 BST
Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85]
Sender: paperlate-owner@ansto.gov.au
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: drd@delcam.com (David Dunnington)
Hello Everybody,
My pet topic is Genesis radio shows, so I have prepared this article in the hope that my fellow Paperlate subscribers will find the information interesting. At best, it may stimulate discussion which can contribute to our collective knowledge of this subject; at worst, you can simply ignore it!
My quest for bootlegs of outstanding sound quality has lead me into the world of "radio shows". Radio show transcript discs consist of material prepared for broadcast, usually on LP or CD. Being of broadcast quality, the sound and mixing of such items is comparable with that of officially released material. In terms of sound quality, a live radio show transcript is the ultimate bootleg.
2. Who manufactures radio shows?
The king of the radio show is _King_Biscuit_, a transcription service owned by the US broadcasting company DIR. King Biscuit distribute their radio shows to the various radio stations in the DIR broadcasting network. Genesis have been recorded on most of their major tours by King Biscuit, but tantalizingly some of these concerts have not turned up (to my knowledge) on transcript sources (see section 14). King Biscuit have various series of live shows, including "The King Biscuit Flower Hour" (55 mins) and "Supergroups in Concert" (100 mins).
Second in line are _Westwood_One_ who distribute their radio shows on a commercial basis to US local and independent radio stations. Their most famous series are "In Concert" and "Superstar Concert" (80 mins). Other outfits which operate on the same basis as "Westwood One" exist and will occasionally pop up in this survey.
An honourable mention must also go to the _BBC_Transcription_Service_ who produce the "BBC In Concert" series (60 mins) for UK national radio. When bootleggers became wise to the fact that BBC discs could fetch up to 150 pounds (sterling) they began to manufacture inferior copies which can be identified as having black labels rather than the authentic BBC green label.
Initially, the legitimacy of radio show transcripts were seen as a "grey area" from a legal standpoint. Now, however, regulation has become tighter; for example "Record Collector" will no longer accept adverts offering to sell such items.
3. Scope
In the sections which follow, I will concentrate on live material (some radio shows are interview-only) and will focus on band material: there are also a significant number of radio shows involving individual band members. By way of acknowledgement, I would like to thank my fellow conspirator Brother Jon for steering me in the right direction, and good friend Dave Carlin for access to his comprehensive radio show collection.
4. Wembley 1975
One of the most bootlegged radio broadcast in Genesis history was recorded at the Empire Pool, Wembley on 15th April 1975. Originally owned by the BBC, sections of the show have been broadcast in the USA and (reportedly) in other parts of the world. To my knowledge, about 70 minutes of the concert have received air play. The classic 70s bootleg "Awed Man Out" contains 50 minutes of an early airing of the show.
4.1 BBC "Vintage Concert"
On the 2nd of February 1986 60 minutes of the set were rebroadcast as part of the "BBC Vintage Concert" series. To my frustration, the series was broadcast only on Medium Wave - in inferior mono. However, the material is reproduced in glorious stereo on a BBC transcription LP (show 313). The 1986 broadcast contains the tracks which did not appear on "Awed Man Out": the opener "Watcher of the Skies" and "In the Cage", though "Lilywhite Lilith" was omitted.
Tracks:
4.2 Westwood One "In Concert Special"
Soon after the vintage concert, a subset of the material made an appearance on a Westwood One radio show. On this item, 45 minutes of the Wembley set is coupled with a portion of a concert played at Nassau Coliseum in 1981 (section 9.2). The Westwood One material is available on (at least) two bootleg CDs: "Live in London" and "The Waiting Room".
Tracks:
4.3 Westwood One "BBC Classic Tracks"
Westwood One have also produced a series of transcription CDs entitled "BBC Classic Tracks". Show 91-31 made in 1991 mixes tracks taken from Genesis' Knebworth Festival performance in 1978 (section 7.2) with two tracks from Wembley 1975. Especially important is "Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging" which is unique to this source.
Tracks:
4.4 King Biscuit "Peter Gabriel Retrospective"
More Wembley 1975 is available on a CD produced by King Biscuit. Thirty minutes of the concert appear together with solo live material by Peter Gabriel to form a retrospective view of his career. The retrospective is reproduced faithfully on a bootleg CD called "From Genesis To ...".
Tracks:
While the Wembley 1975 radio shows contain the oldest live Genesis material to appear on transcript (to my knowledge), they were made relatively recently and so none of them have the distinction of being the oldest source: that honour goes to the next entry.
5. Cleveland 1976
On 15th May 1976 Genesis performed at the Cleveland Music hall in Ohio and 110 minutes of the show was recorded and broadcast by WMMS radio in Cleveland. I doubt whether WMMS themselves made any transcripts of the show, but amazingly some of the material *has* been preserved on transcript: 5.1 RATW Radio "Rock Around the World"
A transcription outfit called "Rock Around The World" had a contact at WMMS who supplied them with material from the Cleveland gig. A bootleg of this show later surfaced in the form of "Two Down Three Left", though the sound quality on the bootleg is not great. To my knowledge there is only one original transcript (which is owned by a private collector in the US) though I have heard rumours of a second.
Tracks:
6. Rainbow Theatre 1977
Soon after the recording of "Wind and Wuthering", parts of the album were performed on the 1st and 2nd January 1977 at the Rainbow Theatre.
6.1 King Biscuit "The British Biscuit"
The second Rainbow concert was broadcast courtesy of King Biscuit as part of their "British Biscuit" series. An excellent bootleg LP entitled "A Living Story" was spawned. The transcript itself takes the form of two reel-to-reel tapes and includes additional tracks to the bootleg: "In That Quiet Earth" and "Afterglow" (Afterglow is included in the track listing of "A Living Story" but is not on the record). These priceless reel-to-reel tapes are now the property of a private collector in Germany. Disappointingly, the sound quality is only marginally better than "A Living Story".
Tracks:
6.2 King Biscuit "The Genesis Event"
The opening number "Squonk" is also reproduced on King Biscuit's "The Genesis Event", a four part (8 transcription LP) extravaganza which contains excerpts from their various Genesis shows together with King Biscuit recordings of solo concerts by band members. The sound quality of Squonk on this radio show is superior to the reel-to-reel tapes, and it is *very* frustrating that King Biscuit have not put out more of the Rainbow material on other retrospectives.
Tracks:
7. Knebworth Festival 1978
Genesis headlined the annual UK Knebworth Festival on 24th June 1978. BBC recorded the show and soon afterwards broadcast 90 minutes on Tommy Vance's "Friday Rock Show". It received a second UK airing on 17th February 1984 (also on the "Friday Rock Show"). The broadcast has been bootlegged in various forms, including 65 minutes on the CD "Live in Knebworth". None of these bootlegs can compete with transcript sources for sound quality. Songs which were broadcast but do not appear on any transcript are: "Squonk", "One For The Vine", "I Know What I Like".
7.1 BBC "In Concert"
60 minutes were used in the production of a BBC transcription disc, but to my knowledge the disc was never used as the basis of a broadcast.
Tracks:
7.2 Westwood One "BBC Classic Tracks"
Across the atlantic, the Westwood One "Classic Tracks" transcript CD (see also section 4.3) included three songs from the Knebworth concert.
Tracks:
7.3 London Wavelength "The BBC Rock Hour"
A rival US transcription service, London Wavelength, produces the "BBC Rock Hour" concert series. Material for their 50 minute transcript discs are obtained from the BBC and feature introductions by BBC DJs - Richard Skinner, in the case of Knebworth 1978.
Tracks:
8. Lyceum Ballroom 1980
Another much bootlegged Genesis gig was their show at the Lyceum Ballroom, London on 7th May 1980. 120 minutes were broadcast by the BBC on the "Friday Rock Show" and spawned numerous bootleg LPs and the bootleg CD "Musica". London's Capitol Radio also broadcast the material but, for reasons best known to themselves, claimed that the concert was recorded at the Drury Lane Theatre. (It is certain that the venue was the Lyceum Ballroom because the show was filmed and 40 minutes shown on BBC TV - a bootleg video of the entire show (never broadcast) has appeared recently).
The concert was retrieved from the BBC archives for a 45 minutes broadcast on 27th April 1991, on Alan Freeman's "Saturday Rock Show". This rebroadcast contained a bonus song, "Say It's Alright Joe", which was cut out the first time around.
8.1 DIR "The Source Concert"
The Lyceum Ballroom concert has also had air time in the USA. "The Source" are another transcription service from the DIR stable, and they produced two transcription sets containing the same 70 minutes of Genesis music but augmented with different adverts. In fact, The Source presenter quotes the venue as Drury Lane Theatre, indicating that The Source may have negotiated with Capitol Radio for the tapes. Although "Musica" is commendable for its sound quality, the sound definition on The Source is superior.
Tracks:
9. Nassau Coliseum 1981
Recordings attributed to this concert turn up all over the place - so much so that it is difficult collate all the information. To begin with it is not entirely certain that the material came from a unique venue, since the official live offerings "Three Sides Live" (LP/CD and video) containing part of the show claim that the songs were "recorded live in Europe and America". Furthermore, "Firth of Fifth" from this source appears as the b-side to a 12" single of "Taking It All Too Hard" where it is claimed that the venue was "The Savoy" in New York.
The bootleg CD "Fiaba" is the most complete item of the many sources. Sound-wise, "Fiaba" is superb, but is nevertheless surpassed by the excellent mixing and sound of the "Perpetual Soundwave" bootleg CD.
9.1 Westwood One "In Concert"
To obtain a fantastic recording of this material, hunt down a copy of "Perpetual Soundwave", which was probably mastered directly from the double LP transcript set.
Tracks:
9.2 Westwood One "In Concert Special"
Since all of the 1981 songs on this radio show are available on the original "In Concert" show, these LPs are more noteworthy for their Wembley 1975 material (section 4.2).
Tracks:
9.3 King Biscuit "Supergroups In Concert"
This fine radio show contains all available tracks from "Nassau Coliseum" except "Who Dunnit?" (on the official video) and "Follow You Follow Me" (on Westwood One and "Three Sides Live"). The sound production on these LPs is not quite as clean as the Westwood One LPs. Before paying a small fortune for this radio show, consider the option of "Fiaba" which is a fraction of the price and just as good sound-wise.
Tracks:
9.4 King Biscuit "King Biscuit Flower Hour"
A subset of the tracks from "Supergroups In Concert".
Tracks:
9.5 King Biscuit "The Best of Genesis Live"
This transcript CD is another compilation from the various Genesis shows owned by King Biscuit. Although largely redundant, it does have the advantage of being a digital source and includes that blistering performance of Volcano/Los Endos. Another track on the compilation is "Abacab", which King Biscuit claim is from 1981 but is in fact from Philadelphia Spectrum 1983 (section 10). This is typical of King Biscuit - in a manner reminiscent of bootleggers, they are prone to alter dates and venues to suit their own purpose. The entire compilation is reproduced faithfully on the bootleg CD "Illegal Alien", where it is augmented with additional tracks from Philadelphia Spectrum 1983 (section 10.1).
Tracks:
10. Philadelphia Spectrum 27th November 1983
It is necessary to include the full date in the title to this section because there are in fact radio show sources for two different nights at the same venue.
10.1 King Biscuit "King Biscuit Flower Hour", 2 shows
110 minutes of this concert were broadcast by King Biscuit over two consecutive "Flower Hour" shows. Again, it is not necessary to own the radio show to get this material: the bootleg CD "Three Nights In Philly" is just as good, and was probably mastered directly from the transcription discs. Don't be fooled by the fact that the cover of "Philly" claims it was recorded in 1981, or by the that a few songs from Nassau Coliseum 1981 are mixed in ("Behind The Lines", "No Reply At All", "Dance On A Volcano").
Tracks:
10.2 King Biscuit "Best Of The Biscuit"
This comprises half of King Biscuit's Philadelphia Spectrum material, selected on a "greatest hits" basis. I do not have a record of the track listing, but from memory it was something like this:
Tracks:
11. Philadelphia Spectrum 29 November 1983
Two nights later, the transcription service "Captured Live" recorded 90 minutes from another of the Philadelphia Spectrum gigs. The material is definitely different from King Biscuit's recording and the mix is a little lighter on bass. Phil's vocals are on top form: his performance on "Mama" is the best I have heard.
11.1 Captured Live, 2 shows
Each show consists of 2 LPs.
Tracks:
12. LA Forum 1984
Later on in the 83/84 tour, Genesis played at the LA Forum and the concert was recorded by Westwood One. There is a bootleg CD of the gig called "Straight In My Eyes", though it is no substitute for the radio show and was almost certainly made from a tape of the broadcast rather than from the radio show transcription itself. There is some doubt as to the precise date of the gig: I have seen it quoted both as 14th and 28th of January 1984.
12.1 Westwood One "Superstar Concert"
Tracks:
13. LA Forum 1986
King Biscuit have provided us with another classic, this time from the "Invisible Touch" tour. It features the closing sections of "Supper's Ready" at the end of the "oldies medley" which was subsequently dropped when Genesis reverted to their standard ending of "Afterglow". Sadly, the bootleg CD "Afterglowing" does not match up to the sound quality of King Biscuit's source material, and was probably made from a tape of a broadcast of parts 3 and 4 of "The Genesis Event". To get an idea of the sound quality of the radio shows, listen to "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "Turn It On Again" from the "Illegal Alien" CD (despite what the cover says, these are the only two songs from this gig on the bootleg CD).
13.1 King Biscuit "The Genesis Event"
As mentioned in section 6.2, "The Genesis Event" contains excerpts from King Biscuit's archive of Genesis and solo material, broadcast over 4 shows. Parts 3 and 4 of "The Genesis Event" are dedicated entirely to LA Forum 1986.
Tracks:
13.2 King Biscuit "King Biscuit Flower Hour", 2 shows
Even better than "The Genesis Event" is the digital quality of this 2 CD radio show set. If you are in the right place at the right time, you can pick up a copy of this superb collectors item for a surprisingly reasonable price (I saw a couple at $50 apiece recently).
Tracks:
14. Lost in the Bowels of King Biscuit's Archives
King Biscuit have recorded several Genesis shows which have not been made available as radio show transcripts (if you know differently, PLEASE tell me). I live in constant hope that King Biscuit may one day release some of the following material which currently languishes in their archives:
14.1 Manchester/Leicester 1973
Originally, "Genesis Live" was to be a double album containing the additional track: "Supper's Ready". According to Armando Gallo in his book "I Know What I Like", Charisma obtained the tapes for "Genesis Live" from King Biscuit and remixed them. As further evidence, an old bootleg tape "UK Tours 71/72/73" includes a version of the Manchester/Leicester "Supper's Ready" which has a different sound to that on the official release.
Although it would be interesting to hear the King Biscuit tapes, this is perhaps no longer so important now that we have the excellent "Some Of You Are Going To Die" CD which was made from a source close to one of the legendary double LP Dutch test pressings of "Genesis Live".
14.2 Wembley 1975
As detailed in section 4.4, we have 30 minutes of this gig from King Biscuit, but it is a strong possibility that they have more of this gig in their archives - some of which may not be currently available on transcript source.
14.3 London 1976
The classic bootleg LP "White Mountain" was made from a King Biscuit broadcast of Genesis at the Hammersmith Odeon, London on 11th June 1976. In fact, we do have a single track from this show on transcription source, namely "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" which appears on both "The Genesis Event" and "The Best of Genesis Live" (also available on bootleg CD "Illegal Alien"). The sound quality of this lone track is excellent and it is galling not to have more of this show at the same quality.
"White Mountain" tracks:
14.4 Rainbow Theatre 1977
As mentioned in section 6, it would be wonderful to have a top quality recording of this King Biscuit material.
14.5 Houston, Texas 1978
I have a tape of a King Biscuit broadcast of this show, but the sound is only that of an average collector's bootleg tape. I have never seen or heard of any transcription source of the same material.
Bootleg tape tracks:
15. Summary
There is a wealth of really excellent live Genesis material available on radio show transcription discs. I have written the basics of what I know about Genesis band material: if you have any additional or corrective information, please let me know so that I can improve this document. If there is further interest, I would be happy to do more in depth reviews of any of the material described here, or to prepare another survey on Genesis Solo radio shows.
Read also:
More about Genesis FM/soundboard recordings, sent to Paperlate by David Dunnington, August 23, 1996. 
