BBC Broadcasts

Product Information

Tracks SACD7-5, DVD6-5: Anthony Banks Ltd/Anthony Phillips Productions Ltd/Michael Rutherford Ltd/EMI Music Publishing/Realworld Music Ltd. The album marks the first release of the band's 1980 Lyceum Theatre (which includes the entire "Duke Suite") and 1987 Wembley Stadium concerts in an audio-only format. The box set is rounded out with performances from the height of the band’s popularity—Wembley in 1987 and the 1992 edition of Knebworth (along with two songs from 1998 featuring Collins’ replacement Ray Wilson). Excerpts of these concerts first appeared officially in 1988 on the VHS video cassette Invisible Touch Tour, then again in 2003 on the DVD Live at Wembley Stadium. They have sold an estimated 100 million albums and have played to sold-out stadiums and arenas all over the world for decades, most recently with their global sold-out The Last Domino?

The CDs themselves (see picture) are all printed in a different color and each have a different Genesis lettering ( Trick Of The Tail for the Gabriel era, Lamb/And Then There Were Three for Knebworth 78 and Lyceum 80, Shapes for Lyceum 80 and Wembley 87, Invisible Touch for Wembley 87 and Birmingham 98 and We Can't Dance for Knebworth 92). 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.The three London concerts at the end of the 1980 UK tour took place on 5 May at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and on 6 and 7 May at the Lyceum Ballroom Theatre. With only a handful of these tracks previously officially available, BBC Broadcasts spans the band's career from 1970 to 1998, featuring all three of the group’s vocalists, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Ray Wilson. So, there is BBC stuff coming out, especially that Lyceum gig, which is very good," he told Fairfax City Music.

A slightly stronger compression (also due to the quite loud mastering) and a slight lowering of the treble make the CD sound a bit less clear and fresh compared to the archive material. Discs two and three showcase a full set’s worth of material culled from two concerts in ‘78 and ‘80. The press release says "curated by Tony Banks", plus the info (from the official promo clip) that Nick Davis remixed and remastered the original master tapes. A close comparison between the DVD soundtrack and the available recordings of all four Wembley concerts revealed that the DVD mainly used the 3rd July concert, with several shorter inserts from 2nd July.

With only a handful of these tracks previously officially available, Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts’ acts as both a collector’s cornucopia and an alternative “greatest hits”. Genesis played the last European concerts of their Invisible Touch Tour on four consecutive nights at the sold-out Wembley Stadium in London (1-4 July 1987). CD edition featuring performances ranging from their 1970 lineup of Banks/Gabriel/Mayhew/Phillips/Rutherford to the 1998 tour with Ray Wilson as vocalist. If the band’s forward lurch towards a skeletal, glossy sound with 1981’s Abacab still seems drastic in retrospect, in truth the transition played out gradually.

There's also debate there about what the BBC actually have the rights for, since they broadcasted Knebworth '78, Earls Court '77 and the 1975 Lamb show from Wembley Arena in a 60 minute set, and then there's loads of 1970s stuff, which is easily available as a 2 CD download. At least The Way We Walk – Longs/Shorts from the 1992 tour contained a better representation, but again, gathering the music into longer/shorter songs collections was a puzzler. BBC Broadcasts will be released on March 3 in 53-track five-CD and 24-track three-LP versions, collecting sessions recorded by the band between 1970 and 1998. A box set makes sense in many ways: there are some early treasures included and complete live shows, even from the later years. Presumably they didn't want to make the set too expensive and decided to create a best-of of the 5CD set.By this point, Genesis’s transformation was just about complete, but their heart and soul was apparently still intact onstage. Nothin' like a ratty looking fox mask or a creepy old man mask to scare the stoned university students into submission. from the early years through London Lyceum 1980, according to producer Nick Davis in this interview (it's in the last 5 minutes). In a recent interview with Fair Fax City Music, Nick Davis has revealed that a Genesis at the BBC-boxset will be released in the forthcoming weeks.