GENESIS - CD
CLEVELAND UPGRADE

LABEL:
Sirène -064
SOURCE:
Music Hall, Cleveland, OH - April 15th, 1976
FORMAT:
2CD
RUNNING TIME:
47:55, 53:37
SOUND/SOURCE:
stereo soundboard
PACKAGING:
double slimline jewel case
 

Sirène-064

***image2***

SOUND 9 / PACKAGING 9 / PERFORMANCE 8

 
TRACK LIST:

Disc 1:  Dance On A Volcano, Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Fly On A Windshield, Carpet Crawlers, Cinema Show, Robbery Assault & Battery, White Mountain

Disc 2:  Firth Of Fifth, Supper's Ready, I Know What I Like, Los Endos, It/Watcher Of The Skies

 
REVIEW:

That Genesis chose to broadcast several of their concerts on the Trick Of A Tail tour in 1976 was a very bold decision.  They had just pulled through the loss of singer and star Peter Gabriel and the process of writing, rehearsing and recording the new LP left drummer Phil Collins as the front man.  Genesis broadcast two of their concerts on the same week, in Pittsburgh on April 13th and in Cleveland on April 15th.  This show was scheduled to replace a postponed show in Columbus (subsequently played on April 19th) and broadcast over Cleveland's famous free-form radio station WMMS and for the longest time only an hour was available and was utilized on many releases.  "Squonk" and "Entangled", two newer tunes interestingly enough, have never surfaced.  On October 30th, 1998 WMMS broadcast the entire show (still missing the two songs, however) and was booted by Highland as Two Down Three Left Twelve Complete (Highland HL 265/266). 

Ayanami, Sirène's predessesor label, issued this tape again on A Trick Of The Band with the missing tracks taken from the Pittsburgh tape and also including various tracks from the following two tours.  Cleveland Upgrade, the newest version of this show, comes from a rebroadcast on WMMS from 2002 and mastered by the Sirène people to be much louder and clearer than previous releases with some minor static present.  "Dance On A Volcano" is much heavier in this performance than in others I've heard despite a keyboard malfunction.  "Good evening to all those taping in radio land...we know it goes on" Collins says before the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway suite called "Lamb cutlet" tonight.  "Cinema Show" is strong and "Firth Of Fifth" contains yet another classic Steve Hackett solo, one of the best ever.  The "It/Watcher Of The Skies" encore is very clever and well executed.  Thankfully it isn't cut like many tapes from this era.  The band also make some obvious errors and lose some time signatures. 

The most well known mistake here occurs in "Supper's Ready" when someone presses the wrong button in the "we will rock you little snake" portion and some unrelated music comes pouring out.  The temporary drummer for this tour, Bill Bruford, is perhaps the biggest asset for the band.  He plays Collins' parts, but adds many different fills throughout the show breathing new life into the classics.  Bruford also adds many different "all-sorts" on percussion giving Genesis an almost Jaimie Muir-King Crimson vibe.  Genesis' Trick Of The Tail tour is very well documented with several radio broadcasts, soundboards and excellent audience sources to listen to.  Cleveland Upgrade is one of the better shows to listen to and this release could only be improved if the two missing tracks would someday see the light of day from the soundboard, or if an audience source were to surface and used to fix the gap. 


A small correction about the radio station in Cleveland. The call letters of the station are actually WMMS. The station was (and still is) known as "the buzzard". WMMS broadcast a significant number of live concerts from the famous Cleveland Agora Ballroom (and to a lesser extent other venues such as Music Hall) during the 1970's & 1980's. WMMS is important in bootleg lore, as many of those live concert broadcasts are now available as bootlegs in excellent sound quality.
Comment by Scott+Shallcross wrote on 2006-04-16 01:27:33

Thank you for the correction. I lived in Philly for two years and have WMMR on my mind. A great resource for all of Genesis' radio appearances is written by David Dunnington and can be found at Genesis - The Movement.
Comment by gsparaco wrote on 2006-05-01 14:15:26

The best toys are the ones that are both educational and multi-purposeful.
Great Toys For Tots

 

Don't miss our new Top Vinyl List of the Departed
you’ll find something to tickle your fancy and your ears

 


 

Jun 14, 2005 - 8:51:00 AM


RoboForm: Learn more...


Copyright© HotWacks.com