| Identifier | 8987657 |
| Created At | Tue May 23 2023 23:54:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Media Type | cdr |
| Media Count | 2 |
| Sound Rating | a+ |
| Note | Hogweed release HW02
I gave this an A+ because, for an audience, this is top notch. If this were a soundboard, this would be an A-. There are no cuts that I could hear. The bass is way up there, but that's what equalizers are for. Palace Theatre, Manchester, 27th April 1975 This is a recording of the complete concert from the triumphant British leg of the Lamb tour. It is a beautifully clear and undistorted recording, which I have been able to remaster from the master tapes (many thanks to Colin Dodd for providing them). As Colin points out in his essay, the concert began late, and the venue curfew meant that only Musical Box was played as an encore. The music is immaculately played (as always), and the concert features an outstanding Waiting Room. By this stage in the tour they were stretching out a bit more on this improvisation, and both the frightening first part and the driving build up are extended, and have many different elements not heard previously. Perhaps, knowing that they had done their BBC recording of the tour (at the 15th April London concert), they felt freer to experiment a bit more in front of a very supportive home audience. Hackett seems to be refining his solos on Fly on a Windshield and Arrival. One moment of distraction; at the conclusion of Cuckoo Cocoon, Gabriel finishes his final flute phrase a bar early, and quickly repeats it. He then misses the first lyrics of 'In the Cage'. The British audiences were some of the most enthusiastic of the Lamb tour (rivalled only by the Italians, who sadly only got that one show at Torino). Not only did the band extend their improvisations, but Gabriel responded with elaborating and humourising his stories, to which the crowd respond energetically. There are some great interactions; I love his "...a huge roar on my right" at which a few members of the crowd (presumably on his right :-) roar! There is another noteworthy moment in Counting Out Time; during this song (as for the whole concert), slides were thrown onto 3 projection screens behind the band. Some images during this song show diagrams of female anatomy with arrows and numbers pointing out relevant parts. The audience can be heard laughing at these as Gabriel sings "...digesting every word the experts say" (about 36 secs into the track). There is also some audible amazement during 'Arrival' as Gabriel appears as the Slipperman. This show has not been commercially bootlegged, and has only been circulating among traders either on CDRs from Colin's masters, or low generation tapes. Hence, although it is one of the better recordings and performances of the Lamb, it has not been widely known. Colin recorded the concert on 2 Maxell C120 Low noise cassettes. He captured the entire concert, flipping the tape during the applause at the end of Chamber of 32 Doors, and again during the beginning of Arrival. I have edited some applause into the first flip, and taken a section from Colin's recording of the 28th to patch the intro of Arrival (it is interesting how similar Hackett & Colin's 'improvisation' is one night to the other). I have then chosen to place the edit between CDs at the end of Waiting Room - not only does this give 2 discs under 70 mins (preferable for duplicating), but it allows me to include the full recording of the audience calling for a second encore at the conclusion of the concert. Due to this recording coming from a low noise tape, the treble was a little muted. On the CDR of this show that has been in circulation, the tops are boosted considerably, giving a rather hissy recording. So the challenge (as often the case) was to attenuate this hiss while keeping the treble detail. The result (I hope you'll agree) is an open and clear recording with considerable top end detail. There are a few moments when lack of detail in the master leads to a graininess in the treble. Sorry, but there just wasn't much there, and to smooth it off would remove what subtlety was to be heard in Phil's drumming. I've chosen to preserve as much as I could of the music, at the expense of 'textbook' audio. The bass end of this recording is lovely and rich, showing Rutherford's bass and pedal work. If you're a Rutherford fan, this is the lamb show for you. If anything I have had to soften the bass off a little, but otherwise the equalisation balance on the master was very natural. The recording was made on a machine with automatic record levels, so I have manually restored the true volume dynamics. For instance; if you have the original version of this, you'll notice that Tony's solo keyboard intro at the beginning of the concert gets louder, until Peter's "And the Lamb..." and Phil's first drum splash knocks the levels down again. I have reconstructed these levels to sound more natural, and the rest of the band now come in powerfully as they should do. Fortunately the response of the auto record was quite long, 10-15 secs before responding to a quieter section in the music, so the short-time dynamics, the 'punch' of the recording, are not affected. Lastly, the tape was in mono. I have added subtle early reflections to add depth and space to the final sound. If you're listening on headphones, you may notice the effect, but the stereo field is still predominantly centralised. |
| Trades Allowed |
Performance
| Genesis 1975-04-27 Palace Theatre, Manchester, England | |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Fly On a Windshield Broadway Melody of 1974 Cuckoo Cocoon In the Cage The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging Rael Story, Pt. 1 Back in N.Y.C. Hairless Heart Counting Out Time Carpet Crawlers The Chamber of 32 Doors Rael Story, Pt. 2 Lillywhite Lilith The Waiting Room |
| Set 2 | Anyway
Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist Interlude The Lamia Silent Sorrows in Empty Boats Arrival The Colony of Slippermen Ravine The Light Dies Down On Broadway Riding the Scree In the Rapids It! Henry Story The Musical Box Applause and Play Out |
| Set 3 | |
| Comment | |