There were a lot of great live films in the 70s and I’m sure we all went to a late night showing until 8am at a cinema, to see films like Song Remains The Same, Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii, Slade In Flame and many others. They were always fun drunken riotous nights.
I loved them all but the very best film I’ve seen to date was broadcast on the BBC in 1979 when I was at college. We all crammed into the TV room and commandeered the TV to watch Genesis In Concert. Filmed in 1976 and originally released in 1977, for some reason, it was never shown on our local cinema’s rock nights. So this was a real occasion.
The movie combines film of two shows: one at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 9 July 1976, and one at Bingley Hall in Staffordshire, England on 10 July 1976 with Bill Bruford as a percussionist and occasional second drummer.
The song featured are I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" (includes a snippet of Stagnation, Fly on a Windshield (Instrumental section), Broadway Melody of 1974 (Instrumental version), The Carpet Crawlers, The Cinema Show (Instrumental section), Entangled, Supper's Ready (Apocalypse in 9/8 / As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs) and a stirring Los Endos which features some jaw-dropping drumming from Phil Collins who is absolutely brilliant. It is perhaps the best drumming I’ve ever seen and I saw Simon Phillips with Jeff Beck.
Remember this is played at a time when prog rock was beginning to be sneered at, rather stupidly. And many of those critical voices were in that student lounge who thought such music was old fashioned and boring. But I don’t know how, it’s absolutely thrilling. These audiences certainly seem entranced. Seeing it now, I have to smile at the unkempt long haired boys in raptures at the music. That could so easily have been me. Taking it all intensely seriously. They play so tightly and imaginatively, it is staggering. Steve Hackett even stands up in his long boots!
It’s a reminder just how incredible they were and what stunning musicians they are when you think that live music like this was in its relative infancy and bands didn’t have sophisticated sound systems like now, as you’ll recall. I’m so glad it captured them at their peak in this era because it would have been a crime to let it all pass by without note. Much of the same set was captured on 1977’s Seconds Out which was mostly recorded in Paris with Cinema Show from Glasgow in 1976. So complex and sophisticated, I don’t think it can be bettered. And check out that amazing drumming!
