|
|
|
| CD Cover | CD Back | CD 1 Label |
|
|
|
| CD 2 Label | CD Inside Cover | CD Tray |
Artist: | Genesis |
Title: | We Are The Lamia Of The Pool |
Date: | April 15th 1975 |
Venue: | Empire Pool, Wembley, London |
Tracklisting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personnel | |
| Steve Hackett | Lead Guitars & Effects |
| Peter Gabriel | Lead Vocals, Flute & Percussion |
| Tony Banks | Keyboards & Vocals |
| Mike Rutherford | Bass Guitars, Guitars & Vocals |
| Phil Collins | Drums, Percussion & Vocals |
In October 1974, Genesis were about to release their magnum opus, 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. An eleven date warm-up tour of the UK had been planned when tragedy struck in the form of a bad hand injury suffered by lead guitarist Steve Hackett. Since a major North American tour was due to start at the end of November, the UK concerts had to be postponed, meaning that the 'Lamb' show would not be performed in Britain until April the following year.
On November 20th 1974, Genesis were booked to play the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, the first concert of what would become their most colossal tour to date and, unbeknownst to the fans, their last with Peter Gabriel fronting the band. The early American shows were a challenge for band and audience alike, as Phil Collins recalls: "We went to America, where the album had not been released yet, which was pure suicide, and were playing the whole thing to audiences who were just sitting there wondering, 'What the hell is going on?' !" However, as 'The Lamb' became a more familiar set piece, the situation improved during the second half of the US tour and the European dates that ensued.When Genesis finally reached the UK in April 1975, they were at their performing peak. The 'Lamb' show had already been played in its entirety some 75 times by this point and so British audiences were treated to some of the finest performances of the entire tour. Only Peter Gabriel's impending departure cast a cloud over the band's mood, something that went unnoticed by the enthusiastic audiences. On April 14th 1975, Genesis performed 'The Lamb' at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London, the first of only 15 'Lamb' shows to be performed on British soil.
The following night's show was recorded by the BBC, but only highlights of this recording ever reached the airwaves, leaving fans to wonder whether or not the complete soundboard recording may still be in existence in the vaults. That famous partial broadcast gave birth to what is probably the most 'bootlegged' Genesis concert ever. From the original vinyl LP bootleg, 'Awed Man Out', to 'The Light Goes Down on Empire', a Japanese CD release, this recording has undergone a string of different versions, varying in quality as well as content.
Thanks to the efforts of a fan who recorded the Empire Pool concert on April 15th 1975, we can now offer this great remaster of the performance, presented in its entirety at last. Only a small section of Peter's second part of 'The Story Of Rael' is missing from the original tape but the rest remains intact. Now you can hear each and every song that was omitted from the radio broadcast. The pressure on Peter must have been terrible at this point, but that did not keep him from cracking a few jokes with the audience. He even included some typical British humour when describing Rael's discovery of "hundreds of people crawling on a thick-carpeted corridor" by adding "Carpets by Cyril Lord at prices you can afford !", a reference to a famous British carpet wholesaler from way back. Overall, the band really shone that night, as you will hear on this great recording. Listen to Steve's flaming guitar licks in 'Fly On A Windshield' and Tony's delicate keyboards arrangements in 'The Lamia', Mike's growling bass lines in 'Broadway Melody Of 1974' and Phil's inventive drumming in 'The Colony Of Slippermen', all wrapped up with Peter's distinctive and charismatic vocals. Every element helps to make this performance one of the most powerful ever delivered by Genesis. The awesome improvisation that they engaged in for 'The Waiting Room' that night is proof enough of how inspired the band could be when their incredible individual talents were combined. Enjoy this amazing piece of rock history !
PRRP StaffThere are many versions of this concert available among Genesis Fans. The BBC recorded the show and those tapes were used to produce limited versions of this concert. This recording as based on an audience tape which is essentially complete. Only a couple of sentences during the Story of Rael part 2 are missing. This was likely when the original tape was turned during the show.
The quality of this stereo recording is quite good. For some reason, the right channel volume was consistently 25-30% lower than the left. This was corrected. The recorder was probably near the front of the stage at the time of the concert. This allows us to appreciate the ambience of the concert hall acoustics without suffering from the “airplane hanger” effect of recordings made from the back row of an auditorium. This close proximity may also explain why treble was overemphasized in this recording and needed to be reduced. The last two songs also seem to be different in their tonality with even less bass and more treble. They may have been recorded onto a different tape, hence different characteristics. All of this was fixed. Further, the last two songs suffered from constant crackle, the source of which is unknown. Fortunately, it was easily removed. Hiss was quite prominent throughout the recording but was removed without too much trouble. Because it was an audience recording, removing the hiss made audience talking more obvious, and at some point distracting. Nothing could be done about this. Again, because of the audience placement of the recording device, applause was quite overpowering at some points and needed to be reduced. Pops and clicks were also quite frequent. 53 were manually removed and others were corrected using algorithms.
Peter was quite dynamic with the vocals during this performance. At some points the vocals are quite soft and needed enhancement. At other times they were overwhelming and distorted at their peaks. This was corrected as best as possible. The letter 'S' when sung loudly produced a hiss that needed to be reduces on many occasions. For some reason, during the last song, Watcher of the Skies, for about 50 seconds the volume of the Left channel drops to about one third of the original volume. The cause for this is unknown but this was also fixed.
The Tracking of the concert was quite curious. Disc one track placements did not correspond well at all to the known tracking of the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway studio version. So, most of the first disc tracking was reworked. On the second disc the 'Lamb' tracking was correct. The only change that was made was to separate the 'Story of Henry' from 'The Musical Box' within the “Musical Box” track, thereby adding an additional track.