Tour Summary and Menu

Abacab Complete, 1981 (Fisher Lane Farm Studios)

Me and Virgil, 29/9/81 (Arenes de Frejus, Frejus France)

Essen '81, 6/10/81 (Grugahalle, Essen Germany)

Wuerzburg '81, 10/10/81 (Karl Diehm Halle, Germany)

Hanover '81, 13/10/81 (Eilenriedhalle, Hanover Germany)

Hamburg '81, 15/10/81 (Congresshalle, Hamburg Germany)

Cologne '81 Soundcheck, 16/10/81 (Sportshalle, Germany)

Cologne '81 (first night), 16/10/81 (Sportshalle, Germany)

Paris '81 (first night), 19/10/81 (L'Hippodrome Pantin)

Brussels '81, 22/10/81 (Vorst Nationale, Brussels Belgium)

Zurich '81 (second night), 25/10/81 (Hallenstadion, Swtzrlnd)

Live at Frankfurt (GASP 012), 30/10/81 (Festhalle, Germany)

Berlin '81, 2/11/81 (Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Germany)

Milwaukee '81, 16/11/81 (Civic Arena, Milwaukee WI)

Cincinatti '81, 21/11/81 (Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati)

Cincinatti '81 (SAB03), 21/11/81 (Riverfront Coliseum)

Cleveland '81, 22/11/81 (Richfield Coliseum, OH)

Spectrum '81 (second night), 26/11/81 (Philadelphia, PA)

Abacab to the Savoy, 28/11/81 (Savoy, NYC)

The Way New Yorkers Walk (CF), 28/11/81 (Savoy, NYC)

FIABA, 29/11/81 (Nassau Coliseum, NY)

Perpetual Soundwave, 29/11/81 (Nassau Coliseum)

ABaCab (CF), 28-29/11/81 (New York)

Like It or Not, 30/11/81 (Capital Center, Landover MD)

Hartford '81, 2/12/81 (Civic Center, Hartford Connecticut)

Montreal Forum '81, 4/12/81 (Forum, Montreal Canada)

Wembley '81 (third night), 19/12/81 (Wembley Stadium)

Birmingham '81 (second night), 21/12/81 (NEC, Birmingham)

Birmingham '81 (second night, alt), 21/12/81 (NEC)

Birmingham '81 (third night), 22/12/81 (NEC, Birmingham)

Birmingham '81 (last night), 23/12/81 (NEC, Birmingham)

Abacab Complete

1981

01 Abacab (7:05)
02 Jangley (You Might Recall) (5:41)
03 Nationwide (No Reply At All) (4:47)
04 German I & II (Dodo/Lurker) (7:27)
05 Sub (Submarine) (4:21)
06 Vocal 3/4 (Naminanu) (3:51)
07 Chunky (Me and Virgil) (6:29)
08 Odd (Keep It Dark) (4:38)
09 Spike (Me and Sarah Jane) (6:04)
10 Westside (Another Record) (4:45)
11 Weirdsynth (Who Dunnit?) (3:42)
12 Lonely Man (Man on the Corner) (4:32)
13 Don (Like It Or Not) (5:01)
14 Paperlate (3:39)
15 Abacab (single version) (4:15)

Type/Quality: Studio/Excellent

Comments: This is supposed to be a nearly-finished version of the album Abacab. As you can see, it includes all of the album tracks, though in a shifted order, plus all of the other session tracks that ended up as b-sides. Most tracks are labeled by their working titles, though it's hard to believe that at this stage in the recording real titles had not yet been assigned. The sound is utterly excellent, exactly like the official album release. In fact I've heard from one trader who claims this sounds better than the official re-mastered version. The only possible problem I can hear with it is a few clicks in "Weirdsynth (Who Dunnit?)." Though as I said the versions of these songs are very close to what they would be on the finished album, there are various very interesting differences. I understand that all the songs have a slightly different mix than the final versions, plus one or two effects had yet to be added. There are also various songs that still have their count-ins and/or have not been faded out yet. I'll go through in order.

"Abacab" takes a bit longer to fade out, so you hear more of the instrumental. "You Might Recall" sounds like a different mix to me, especially at the beginning, and the backing vocals seem more audible on the chorus. "No Reply" includes a short drum machine intro, in the same way that live versions of this song started. "Dodo/Lurker" begins with a count-in from Phil, then actually segues into the b-side "Submarine," which comes to an end instead of fading out (as it does on the Archive). "Virgil" also includes a count-in, as does "Keep It Dark." Instead of fading out, "Another Record" comes to a rather abrupt end. "Who Dunnit?" is actually longer than its album counterpart, featuring more vocal improvisation near the end that will please all the fans who have always wanted more of this song (both of you). I didn't notice anything really different about "Man on the Corner." "Like It Or Not" takes longer to fade out, and Phil stops singing before it does. "Paperlate" includes a count-in and it ends instead of fading out. The last track claims to be a "single version," but I don't remember ever having heard it before. Maybe my radio station is weird, but when they played this song it was either the whole thing or a version that simply faded out once it got to the instrumental ending section. This version omits the entire instrumental section and returns to the beginning theme at the end. Then it fades out. Probably this is the single version and I just don't know what I'm talking about. All in all, a nice studio boot and an interesting look at what the album might have looked like had Genesis decided to release it as a double album (or if CD technology was already at the fore and they didn't have to worry about vinyl time constraints). It's nice to have all the session tracks put together on one CD.

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Me and Virgil

29/9/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:30)
1-02 Duchess (6:02)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:22)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (6:55)
1-05 Abacab (9:19)
1-06 Misunderstanding (4:00)
1-07 Me and Virgil (7:05) (27/9/81)
1-08 Firth of Fifth (8:53)
1-09 No Reply At All (5:18)
1-10 Me and Sarah Jane (6:07)

2-1 Man on the Corner (4:20)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (4:22)
2-3 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:44)
2-4 Afterglow (4:11)
2-5 Turn It on Again (4:28)
2-6 Dance on a Volcano (4:33)
2-7 Drum Duet/Los Endos (7:26)
2-8 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (9:54)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Arenes de Frejus in Frejus France. When I originally set up the trade that got me this show, I was under the impression that it was going to be from one of the first nights in Spain of this tour, where Genesis actually played the song "Me and Virgil." Unfortunately, and I want to make this very clear, this is NOT one of those shows. This is a (as far as I can tell) complete audience recording of the show right after the Spain shows, 29 September 1981, with a live version of "Me and Virgil" from Spain inserted in the middle. The quality of this show, however, is much better than that of the Spain show, so maybe it's all for the best. The sound is a little tinny, and there are lots of tiny pops (actually they may be audience claps, but they're probably pops), but generally it's a very clear and good-sounding audience recording. The date for the show "Virgil" actually comes from used to be shaky (sometimes 26 and sometimes 27 September), but evidence of a TV broadcast at a different venue on the 26th in addition to ticket stub evidence points to 27 as the right date. I have this version of the song already on one of my compilation discs, and honestly I think that version sounds better than this one. The compilation version has been de-hissed, which usually isn't a good thing, but in this case I think it was beneficial.

The ordering for this show is rather odd--this is only the third show of the tour, and they hadn't settled on what would become the standard set list yet. However all the standard songs are here, except "Carpet Crawlers," which would be added later. It's possible that a good deal of the intros have been edited out, although you do get to hear some of Phil talking to the crowd in French. There is a short error near the end of "Man on the Corner," and the opening 2-3 seconds of "Volcano" are missing. As this was early in the tour, and Genesis had not played live in over a year (again, this was only the third show of this tour), you can expect the playing to be a little rusty and rough around the edges--and it is. I'll allow Phil a few mess-ups since it's been a while. He flubs up the lyrics to "Dodo" quite a bit, but this is understandable, as (hard as it may seem to me) this song was actually brand new at the time. But what is almost unforgiveable is Phil's vocal mishaps in "I Know What I Like"! They'd been playing this song for years, and he still messes up the words! Tsk, tsk.

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Essen '81

6/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:29)
1-02 Duchess (6:02)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:34)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (8:30)
1-05 Abacab (8:47)
1-06 Supper's Ready in 10 Seconds (0:44)
1-07 Misunderstanding (5:05)
1-08 Man on the Corner (5:13)
1-09 Who Dunnit? (3:13)
1-10 The Carpet Crawlers (6:10)
1-11 No Reply At All (5:07)
1-12 Firth of Fifth (10:41)

2-1 Me and Sarah Jane (7:13)
2-2 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (14:00)
2-3 Afterglow (4:36)
2-4 Turn It on Again (incomplete)(3:52)
2-5 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:30)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany. This is an interesting recording as it features the rarely performed Phil Collins comedy skit, "Supper's Ready in 10 Seconds." The crowd chants so enthusiastically for the song that Phil decides to do a very quick vocal speed-singing of it. There's also "Carpet Crawlers," a song which was not played every night of this tour; in fact, this is the first recorded playing of it on this tour. The sound here is not bad. Phil speaks a lot of German. The guitar at the end of "Abacab" sounds a bit different than it eventually would--I imagine that at this point in the tour they hadn't yet settled down into the new numbers yet. There's some mic fumbling during the intro to "Man on the Corner." Most of "Who Dunnit?" sounds a bit more muffled than the songs before it. I believe there's a small cut in the transition between "Man on the Corner" and "Who Dunnit?" Phil warns the audience that they "can't dance to" FoF. He tells a typically bizarre story before "Me and Sarah Jane," a "fairy story" which seems to consist of Sarah Jane being raped by her father--which, Phil claims, was himself! Certainly one of his less likeable stories. There used to be a small hitch or break near the beginning of "Afterglow," and additionally the track transition from the "Cage" medley to "Afterglow" was slightly off. I have repaired these problems in this version.

Unfortunately near the end of the show the taper seems to have had some kind of problem. The end of "Turn It" is cut and so is the entire "Volcano/Drums/Endos" medley. The recording comes back in for the encore. In a rare variation, Phil sings snatches of "Who Dunnit?" at the beginning of IKWIL!

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Wuerzburg '81

10/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:38)
1-02 Duchess (5:49)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:28)
1-04 Intro: Dodo (1:17)
1-05 Dodo/Lurker (7:02)
1-06 Abacab (8:41)
1-07 Intro (0:56)
1-08 Misunderstanding (4:01)
1-09 Intro: Man (1:02)
1-10 Man on the Corner (4:28)
1-11 Who Dunnit? (3:14)
1-12 Intro: Crawlers (0:20)
1-13 The Carpet Crawlers (5:39)
1-14 No Reply At All (4:59)
1-15 Intro: Firth (0:42)
1-16 Firth of Fifth (9:12)

2-1 Intro: Sarah (0:57)
2-2 Me and Sarah Jane (5:59)
2-3 Intro: Cage (1:23)
2-4 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:59)
2-5 Afterglow (4:10)
2-6 Turn It on Again (4:57)
2-7 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (12:28)
2-8 Crowd Cheering (0:29)
2-9 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:05)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Fair

Comments: At the Karl Diehm Halle in Wuerzburg, Germany. A bit of the opening instrumental section of "Behind the Lines" is missing. I noticed right away that Phil was delivering some swaggering vocals that night, giving some extra personality to the performance. He mentions to the audience that it is the band's first time in Wuerzburg (and, most likely, their last!). When Phil does his usual line about playing some old songs and some new songs, the people around the recording device boo quite heavily at the "new song" part. The same people would later boo at the songs "Who Dunnit?" and "No Reply." This concert comes only a week after the famous booing concert--this show might have only a very small incidence of booing, however, since Phil does not seem to notice it (or chooses to ignore it). All the booing on this tour does make one realize what a turning point the Abacab album was for them musically.

Not surprisingly considering the person recording does not seem to have liked the song, there is a cut in "Who Dunnit." Phil mentions that "Firth of Fifth" is a song that you can't dance to. He also does his terrible incest intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" (which would later metamorphose into the much more amusing Cinderella/breast fairy tale intro for FoF). Tony fumbles his solo in the bridge of "In the Cage" and actually has to restart it. The first line of "Afterglow" has been cut; the song fades in.

I gave this show what I consider to be a fairly low quality rating, but I did enjoy listening to it, the intros were quite audible, and there were very few cuts.

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Hanover '81

13/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:09)
1-02 Duchess (5:57)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:53)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:10)
1-05 Abacab (9:59)
1-06 Misunderstanding (4:06)
1-07 Man on the Corner (4:40)
1-08 Who Dunnit? (4:14)
1-09 The Carpet Crawlers (6:07)
1-10 No Reply At All (6:19)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (9:07)

2-1 Me and Sarah Jane (8:57)
2-2 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (12:00)
2-3 Afterglow (4:38)
2-4 Turn It on Again (5:13)
2-5 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (12:22)
2-6 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (partial)(1:07)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Eilenriedhalle in Hanover, Germany. This is not a bad recording, but I think the people taping it were a bit too chatty. The audience in general has the tendency to chant as well. Most of this is confined to between songs, but for the first two numbers and from time to time afterward it can be a bit annoying. After the first few numbers, Phil asks the front of the crowd to move back. He does his intros in German and English, as he would for many of the German shows on this tour (and there were many of them!). The crowd chants heavily for "Supper's Ready" before "No Reply," and picks it up again after the song is over. Phil obliges them by performing his ultra-fast, lame version. Unfortunately the last two tracks of disc one have lots of pops on them for some reason, but disc two is clean of them.

"Volcano" starts just a few seconds in, and as you can see the encore is very partial--just an instrumental chunk from near the end of the song. The recording is a bit hissy, but it is quite complete apart from the partial encore.

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Hamburg '81

15/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:11)
1-02 Duchess (5:41)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:22)
1-04 Intro: Dodo (1:20)
1-05 Dodo/Lurker (6:49)
1-06 Abacab (8:41)
1-07 The Carpet Crawlers (5:29)
1-08 Intro: Sarah Jane (1:09)
1-09 Me and Sarah Jane (5:30)
1-10 Misunderstanding (4:29)
1-11 Intro: Firth (0:41)
1-12 Firth of Fifth (9:20)
1-13 Intro: Man (0:44)
1-14 Man on the Corner (4:27)
1-15 Who Dunnit? (3:12)

2-1 Band Introductions (1:20)
2-2 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:21)
2-3 Afterglow (4:35)
2-4 Turn It on Again (4:33)
2-5 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (13:31)
2-6 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:11)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Congresshalle in Hamburg, Germany. I don't have much to say about this one, which is a good thing, because it means that there are no problems! I didn't hear any cuts, and I didn't hear any errors. Just a full recording in pretty nice quality. Nothing out of the ordinary happens. Phil does not tell any kind of intro for "Crawlers," but does tell his dirty old man/incest story for "Me and Sarah Jane." Typically for the German shows, he speaks German but also translates to English.

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Cologne '81 Soundcheck

16/10/81

1 Soundcheck (30:11)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Fair

Comments: At the Sportshalle in Cologne, Germany, this is a rather rare occurrence of one of the band's rehearsals/soundchecks before a show having been recorded. I also have the actual gig from this date (see next entry). I believe the date above is the correct one. The general "official" gig guides place the Cologne gigs of 1981 at 17-18 October, whereas bootleggers claim to have Cologne recordings from 16 October (a date on which, according to Hewitt and the official site, no gig was played at all by the band) and the 17th, and none from the 18th. I've noticed these kinds of discrepancies quite often with consecutive gigs like this. Simon puts his soundcheck confidently on the 16th and comments, "date verified by TS." I don't know who or what TS is--could it be Tony Smith? I don't know. I've decided to give Simon (and TS) the benefit of the doubt. I apologize for spending so much time considering the date--this show came as part of a trade of four shows, three of which had questionable dates!

Anyway, the disc itself consists of various band jamming, some of it seemingly improvisational in nature, but some of it actual bits of songs. The sound is a tad hissy and not perfect, but quite listenable all the same. In the beginning there is just some general messing around by the band, especially Chester on the drums, and Phil says "one, two" a lot into the microphone (this is real soundcheck stuff!). This is followed by some fumbling and talking, presumably by whoever was recording this. Then more improvs, including some nice guitar work, and some bits of songs (someone along the line encouragingly declares, "get down, get funky"). Eventually the band get down to business and start really playing songs--there's a partial instrumental "Abacab" which devolves back into messing around. Then there are partial instrumental versions of "Turn It on Again," "No Reply At All," "Misunderstanding," and "Behind the Lines." Phil eventually sings bits of "No Reply" and the beginnings of "Behind the Lines."

Nothing earth-shattering here, but it's an interesting part of the band's touring life to have committed to disc. And some of the jamming is impressive. It reminds one that a lot of their later composing came mainly out of jam sessions very much like these.

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Cologne '81 (first night)

16/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (7:38)
1-02 Duchess (4:12)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:07)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (6:56)
1-05 Abacab (9:25)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:02)
1-07 Intro: Sarah Jane (0:53)
1-08 Me and Sarah Jane (5:42)
1-09 Misunderstanding (4:59)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (9:32)

2-01 Intro: Man (0:59)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:37)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (3:59)
2-04 Band Introductions (1:18)
2-05 In the Cage (medley)(7:42)
2-06 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:38)
2-07 The Raven/Afterglow (5:24)
2-08 Turn It on Again (5:22)
2-09 Dance on a Volcano (4:39)
2-10 Drum Duet (1:41)
2-11 Los Endos (6:21)
2-12 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:43)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Sportshalle in Cologne, Germany, this is probably the first of a two-night engagement at that venue (see above entry, the soundcheck from this day, for more info on dating quandaries). It's rather ironic that a soundcheck exists from this date, because this show has an incredible amount of technical difficulties in it--showing how little soundchecks really help when the real show begins. Most of the problems occur near the beginning of the show; in BTL, for instance, it sounds to me as if the keyboard is gone for part of the song. Tony then has to restart the instrumental bridge linking BTL with "Duchess." The start of "Duchess" is also screwed up--somebody doesn't seem to want to start the song, resulting in Phil coming in late with the lyrics.

Later, Phil begins talking in German about Sarah Jane. Then there is a long pause, after which Phil says rather exasperatedly to the crowd: "I fucked up...I fucked up...This is called 'Carpet Crawlers.'" The actual story for "Me and Sarah Jane," which Phil humorously begins again after CC, is very similar to the one he told a few days before in Essen, Germany (about an incestuous relationship). He does not tell a story for FoF--the Cindy Lou story did not seem to have been developed yet at this point--but does say that it is a very old song. Continuing in the theme of fuck-ups, Phil messes up the ending verse of that song, beginning with "He rides majestic..." instead of "Now as the river..." He comments afterward that the audience probably know the words better than he does.

On several of my players, there was some bad skipping on disc two, but it only occurred between songs, and only interfered with the band introductions. Strangely enough, I am listening to it right now and hear absolutely no skips, so maybe I was hallucinating. "Turn It" sounds like it might have a splice in the opening: the sound changes and then chages back again. Still, if there really is a splice, it's a pretty good one, because the tempo is not disrupted at all during the sound changes.

Overall, this is quite a good show, with no song cuts, and the technical difficulties make it fairly interesting. It does have one problem, that the sound can get somewhat wavery at times, but this isn't too terrible or too frequent. One interesting thing to note is that, because this was the first night of a two-night run, the band varied their set from night to night to give the people who came to both shows something different. Tonight, for instance, the band did not play "No Reply," but did play "Crawlers;" the next night, this situation was reversed (perhaps explaining Phil's misplaced intro for "Sarah Jane"--perhaps he was thinking that this was the night they were skipping "Crawlers").

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Paris '81 (first night)

19/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (partial)(1:33)
1-02 Duchess (5:48)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:16)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:11)
1-05 Abacab (9:29)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (7:04)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (5:26)
1-08 Misunderstanding (4:22)
1-09 No Reply At All (6:02)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (9:40)

2-01 Intro: Man (0:49)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:33)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (3:30)
2-04 Band Introductions (1:58)
2-05 In the Cage (medley)(7:54)
2-06 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (3:50)
2-07 Afterglow (2:26)
2-08 Afterglow (ending)(1:44)
2-09 Turn It on Again (5:22)
2-10 Dance on a Volcano (4:39)
2-11 Drum Duet (1:40)
2-12 Los Endos (6:47)
2-13 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (10:32)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At L'Hippodrome Pantin in Paris, this was the first in a three-night engagement at that venue. I very much enjoyed listening to this show, but I can see how a beginning collector might not like it. The people recording the show, who appear to be Italian, are very excited to be there and are very, very noisy, especially in the first half of the show. There is lots of noise, chatter, screaming, and--what I found most amusing--singing along. The most singing along happens in "Carpet Crawlers." Now sometimes this kind of stuff can be really annoying, but I enjoyed hearing the enthusiasm, and the singing is just hysterically awful.

There are some cuts in here, most notably in the very first number: the first minute of the song is there, then it fades out and doesn't come back in until the end transition into "Duchess." There is a small cut in the middle of "Me and Sarah Jane," and then a few lines cut near the end of "Afterglow" (the reason for the song being separated onto two tracks), but that's it.

Phil does his nasty incest story for "Sarah Jane" in French. One of those crazy audience members has the gall to call for "Blood on the Rooftops" right before "No Reply." Phil sings his "Paris in the springtime" bit during IKWIL. I thought the band put in a nice, energetic performance and were supported by a great audience, making for an enjoyable listening experience.

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Brussels '81

22/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:30)
1-02 Duchess (6:25)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:33)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:15)
1-05 Abacab (10:08)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (5:40)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (9:13)
1-08 Misunderstanding (4:13)
1-09 No Reply At All (6:17)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (10:12)

2-01 Man on the Corner (5:41)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (5:51)
2-03 In the Cage (medley)(8:29)
2-04 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:59)
2-05 The Colony of Slippermen (The Raven) (0:59)
2-06 Afterglow (4:52)
2-07 Turn It on Again (4:53)
2-08 Dance on a Volcano (5:01)
2-09 Drum Duet (1:58)
2-10 Los Endos (7:04)
2-11 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:40)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Vorst Nationale in Brussels, Belgium, this is a pretty good show. I don't have much to say for it besides that. The sound is pretty good, the main problem being that it's wavery off and on for the whole thing. Parts of it sound sickly. But the actual sound captured by the recorder is not bad at all, and there are no noticeable cuts of any songs, and no big errors or unwanted noises. The original copy of this that I was sent was out of order (a tape transfer with the transferer asleep at the switch), but I fixed that pretty easily; the careful listener may hear some slight pops at the track edits, but there are no pauses.

At Phil's first intro to the audience, it becomes apparent that there are a lot of people in the audience who came over from England to see the show. Phil wonders why the band bothered to play in Belgium. He says he will speak French and also translate into English. There are some boos from the crowd when Phil says he's going to speak French. Interesting to note that the story for "Me and Sarah Jane" begins in a way that's almost identical to the way the eventual Cindy Lou story would begin: with a young, innocent girl who is always sad because she has two gigantic breasts. But then it devolves into a story of incest, as all of Phil's stories for "Me and Sarah Jane" seem to do.

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Zurich '81 (second night)

25/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:14)
1-02 Duchess (5:56)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:25)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:09)
1-05 Abacab (11:18)
1-06 Me and Sarah Jane (6:32)
1-07 The Carpet Crawlers (6:12)
1-08 Misunderstanding (3:57)
1-09 No Reply At All (4:18)
1-10 Intro: Firth (1:19)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (9:30)

2-01 Intro: Man (1:13)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:21)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (3:19)
2-04 Band Introductions (2:14)
2-05 In the Cage (medley)(8:17)
2-06 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (3:58)
2-07 Afterglow (4:30)
2-08 Turn It on Again (4:47)
2-09 Dance on a Volcano (4:39)
2-10 Drum Duet (2:04)
2-11 Los Endos (6:35)
2-12 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:58)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: At the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland (the second of two nights in a row in Zurich), this is a fun show that's in pretty good quality and only has a few minor cuts. The source of a lot of the fun comes from the fact that there is a large Italian contingent in the audience. Phil has carefully memorized all of his stories in German, seemingly not expecting the big Italian showing, and there are multiple humorous intros as Phil throws in scraps of French, Italian, German and English in an attempt to please the cosmopolitan audience (whenever he uses his very slim Italian the audience cheers). Unfortunately Phil only really seems to know how to say "thank you," "you're welcome," and "this song is called..." in Italian, leading him to cry, in exasperation: "I don't know bloody Italian!"

I was very impressed with Phil's singing on the opening numbers of this concert--I don't usually say this, but he belts those songs out with a lot of feeling and they sound pretty great. Phil tells the dirty story before "Me and Sarah Jane" which begins the same way as his later "Cindy Lou" story for "Firth of Fifth," with a girl who is seventeen, very innocent, but always sad because she has huge breasts ("tits," Phil says, is a universal word). However, the story then declines into incest--eww. Phil tells it in German and English. As mentioned on the Movement, this song was usually played after "Crawlers," which means the ordering may have been changed after the fact here, though I did not hear an obvious break between the tracks. It's possible that the band was simply still messing around with their set order.

As for the cuts in the recording, the first is in the middle of "No Reply." There is a small break in the middle of the "Cinema" section of the "Cage" medley, but no discernible cut. The beginning of "Turn It on Again" is a little clipped, but not too much. I really enjoyed listening to this show, and the cuts aren't big at all (except maybe the one for "No Reply," which is somewhat annoying), so this is a pleasant '81 show.

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Live at Frankfurt (GASP 012)

30/10/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:25)
1-02 Duchess (6:20)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:34)
1-04 Intro: Dodo (1:46)
1-05 Dodo/Lurker (7:09)
1-06 Abacab (9:13)
1-07 The Carpet Crawlers (5:37)
1-08 Intro: Sarah (2:11)
1-09 Me and Sarah Jane (6:35)
1-10 Misunderstanding (3:59)
1-11 No Reply At All (5:06)
1-12 Intro: Firth (0:57)
1-13 Firth of Fifth (9:27)
1-14 Intro: Man (2:21)
1-15 Man on the Corner (4:31)
1-16 Who Dunnit? (3:22)

2-01 Intro: Cage (2:25)
2-02 In the Cage (7:44)
2-03 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:47)
2-04 The Raven (1:11)
2-05 Afterglow (4:34)
2-06 Turn It on Again (4:52)
2-07 Dance on a Volcano (4:37)
2-08 Drum Duet (1:44)
2-09 Los Endos (6:08)
2-10 Applause (0:33)
2-11 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (10:33)

Type/Quality: Soundboard/Very Good-Excellent

Comments: At the Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany. This complete soundboard recording (not a cut that I heard in the whole thing) surfaced in late 2007 and is a nice addition to the very small amount of other soundboard shows available from this tour. The boys put in a nice energetic performance with a full set. Phil does have one slight altercation with a seemingly drunk American fan when he says something in "American" during his intro for "Man on the Corner." He tries his old "I remember my first beer" gag, but it doesn't help. Instead of introducing Chester on the drums before "Cage," Phil humorously introduces Mike, who was just at the kit for "Who Dunnit?" Chester does eventually get his due.

Not much to say about this one--it's just good and complete.

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Berlin '81

2/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (6:26)
1-2 Duchess (5:45)
1-3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:58)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:01)
1-5 Abacab (9:34)
1-6 The Carpet Crawlers (5:20)
1-7 Me and Sarah Jane (9:03)
1-8 Misunderstanding (3:53)
1-9 No Reply At All (5:20)

2-1 Firth of Fifth (11:44)
2-2 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:30)
2-3 Afterglow (4:22)
2-4 Turn It on Again (4:41)
2-5 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet (6:19)
2-6 Los Endos (7:58)
2-7 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:17)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. Phil asks the audience if they speak English during his first intro, then tells the crowd that he will speak German and translate into English. He also mentions that this is the last night of the European tour; after this show, the band would take a short break and then march through America before hitting the UK for the last few shows of '81. There is a lot of chanting from the audience, especially at the beginning of the show when they still have lots of energy to burn off.

Phil eventually asks the audience to identify whether they are English or American, by shouting numbers. "4" means American and "10" means English. I'm not sure why he did this. Tony comes in late on the opening of "No Reply." The band seem a bit off for the whole rest of the song, and have trouble ending it as well.

By the time we get around to "Volcano" the sound seems farther away than when the show started. But as with most of the German shows from this tour, this is a solid recording and has no cuts and no real errors. Phil says "I like Berlin in the springtime" during IKWIL.

My original version of this show had multiple repeated passages. It seems that the way the taper got the whole show without cuts was to use more than one recording device and overlap the taping. The finished product was spliced together from these multiple sources somewhat inexpertly, so that there was repeated material before "Cage" and the beginning of "Volcano" was repeated. The end of disc one was also repeated to a certain extent on the beginning of disc two. I think this was more to show to the listener that the recording was continuous across the two discs, but I found the repetition a bit annoying. In my version of the show, I have fixed all of these problems and the whole show rolls along much more smoothly. I also removed an incredible amount of silence that had somehow gotten onto the end of disc two.

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Milwaukee '81

16/11/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:04)
1-02 Duchess (6:01)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:36)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (8:11)
1-05 Abacab (9:04)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:27)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (6:35)
1-08 Misunderstanding (4:48)
1-09 No Reply At All (5:01)
1-10 Intro: Firth (3:51)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (9:17)

2-01 Man on the Corner (6:31)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (3:21)
2-03 Band Introductions (3:23)
2-04 In the Cage (medley)(8:01)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (3:46)
2-06 Afterglow (4:38)
2-07 Turn It on Again (5:07)
2-08 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet (5:03)
2-09 Drum Duet/Los Endos (8:06)
2-10 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (incomplete)(5:10)
2-11 The Knife (3:35) (7/5/80?)
2-12 It/Watcher of the Skies (6:57) (from Three Sides Live)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: At the Civic Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I should mention right away that unfortunately my version of this show has skips on both discs. The worst ones are on disc one and affect "No Reply" and "Firth of Fifth." The ones on the second disc are at the end and are not numerous. This is particularly unfortunate as this is quite a good quality audience recording. If anyone reading this has errorless versions of these discs, please contact me for a trade.

This was early in the American part of the '81 tour, and Phil has wisely dumped his incest-related intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" in favor of a much funnier fairy tale story about breasts before "Firth of Fifth." As Phil starts to tell his story for "Man on the Corner," he mentions an old man. "How old was he?!" shouts a member of the audience. Phil adds that the old man was also lonely. "How lonely?!" shouts the audience member. I think Phil may have heard this and found it a bit amusing.

Milwaukee happens to be Daryl's home town, so naturally there is a lot of long cheering for him when he is introduced before "Cage"--Phil quips that he was going to introduce the rest of the band, but there is not enough time. The drum duet fades out and fades back in again on the next track--I don't think anything is missing. In fact there may even be repeated material on there, but it's very hard to tell with the drum duet.

The encore is incomplete and cuts off suddenly. The two tracks after this I believe to be bonus cuts from other sources. I thought at first that "Knife" might be from Milwaukee, but have changed my mind and now believe it to be from the famous Lyceum show. "It/Watcher" is almost definitely pulled off of someone's vinyl version of Three Sides Live with the fourth live side. I don't know what these tracks are doing here really--Simon's version does not have these.

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Cincinnati '81

21/11/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:50)
1-02 Duchess (6:10)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:56)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (6:59)
1-05 Abacab (8:59)
1-06 Me and Sarah Jane (6:58)
1-07 Misunderstanding (3:47)
1-08 No Reply At All (5:10)
1-09 Intro: Firth (4:55)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (9:05)

2-1 Man on the Corner (4:22)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (3:08)
2-3 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:05)
2-4 Afterglow (4:13)
2-5 Turn It on Again (5:07)
2-6 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet (6:16)
2-7 Los Endos (6:01)
2-8 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:39)

Type/Quality: Soundboard/Good-Very Good

Comments: At the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati Ohio, this is a soundboard boot. After much frustration I can finally say that I have a fairly good copy of this (see my next entry for a much better copy!). Here's the whole sordid tale: the first copy I received had major digital stutters and skips throughout the last three tracks. I therefore went out looking for a new copy. A nice fan offered to give me a copy for free--however, after a month with no word from him except a promise to maybe get it to me in another couple of weeks, I gave up on him and traded with someone else for a new copy.

I soon realized there were more differences between the two versions I now had than just the damaged second disc. Fortunately my new copy did not have the split second pauses that the first one had. However, some of the song intros had definitely been deleted on the second version, and the very first song had an error which the first version's copy did not. I ended up having to do some splices--the version you see here is the second copy I received, with two splices--the very beginning of the first song, and the intro for "Firth of Fifth." You can actually tell when the other, original version kicks in, because unfortunately another of the differences between the two recordings is that the first one was not de-hissed and the second one was. Unfortunately I did not keep the second disc of the first copy, or I might have been able to splice back in a couple of other intros: I believe there was originally an intro for "Man on the Corner," and possibly an intro before "Cage." They are not on this copy.

This copy sounds fuzzy and furry, but I think this is probably characteristic of most versions of the show. The de-hissing makes most of the recording sound a bit dull, but then again, there's no hiss. There was originally a hiccup in both "Afterglow" and the very end of "Turn It on Again"--both have been repaired. There is a very small cut in the beginning of "Turn It on Again" which removes the first phrase: "All I need is a TV show." Also the first phrase of "In the Cage," "I've got sunshine," is missing. The band itself screws up the guitar at the opening of "Abacab," and has to reset a little. This is still a soundboard show, though, and no matter what little problems it may have it is basically a full show in pretty good quality. This show is actually quite good--the music is right in front, with no audience getting in the way. It's one of the only soundboard shows of this tour, and it has a pretty good version of "Me and Sarah Jane."

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Cincinnati '81 (SAB03)

21/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (5:48)
1-2 Duchess (6:13)
1-3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:59)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:01)
1-5 Abacab (9:02)
1-6 Me and Sarah Jane (7:02)
1-7 Misunderstanding (3:50)
1-8 No Reply At All/Intro: Firth (10:11)
1-9 Firth of Fifth (9:10)

2-01 Intro: Man (2:39)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:26)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (5:43)
2-04 In the Cage (medley)(7:38)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (medley)(4:02)
2-06 Afterglow (4:26)
2-07 Turn It on Again (5:13)
2-08 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet (6:24)
2-09 Los Endos (6:10)
2-10 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:53)

Type/Quality: Soundboard/Very Good

Comments: At the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati Ohio, this is a major upgrade to the above show, finally the "perfect" version I was seeking for so long. After some soul-searching, I have upped its quality to a flat Very Good rating because it is so much better than the hissy, muffled, incomplete original version. This is real good soundboard stuff, people. Unlike my other version, there is a full story for MOTC and a band introduction before "Cage."

Someone on Simon's site has pointed out that this is not a complete show, because it is missing "Carpet Crawlers." This is a good catch (I mention it on my best bootlegs page). The sound is still a bit rough, but it's very clear and loud. The cuts in the other version--one in the "Cage" medley, one in "Turn It on Again"--have been patched here, to create a smoother show. There have also been some edits between songs to take out silences and keep the show moving. This is a nice remaster and is certainly among the more valuable recordings from this tour--a very nice alternative to the Three Sides Live material. Phil does some pretty funny intros, mostly due to the fact that he doesn't always know what he's supposed to be saying.

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Cleveland '81

22/11/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:47)
1-02 Duchess (6:28)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:13)
1-04 Intro: Dodo (1:48)
1-05 Dodo/Lurker (7:15)
1-06 Abacab (8:36)
1-07 Intro: Crawlers (1:28)
1-08 The Carpet Crawlers (6:04)
1-09 Intro: Sarah Jane (1:17)
1-10 Me and Sarah Jane (5:55)
1-11 Intro: Misunderstanding (1:17)
1-12 Misunderstanding (3:50)
1-13 No Reply At All (4:53)
1-14 Intro: Firth (6:04)
1-15 Firth of Fifth (9:09)

2-01 Man on the Corner (6:20)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (3:42)
2-03 Band Introductions (3:05)
2-04 In the Cage (medley)(7:49)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (medley)(3:47)
2-06 Afterglow (4:13)
2-07 Turn It on Again (5:31)
2-08 Dance on a Volcano (5:07)
2-09 Drum Duet (2:35)
2-10 Los Endos (6:26)
2-11 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:24)

Type/Quality: Audience/Fair-Good

Comments: At the Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland Ohio, this is an audience recording which, aside from having a serious case of overtracking (each song intro has its own track and each medley is broken into its component pieces), also suffers from various sound quality issues. As the show begins, the sound is particularly crappy--it seems that the recorder has the device on, but it is hidden inside his coat or something. When he pulls it out, a couple minutes into BTL, the sound improves slightly. There is a cut after "Duchess" and a bit of the "Lamb"'s intro is missing. The sound is sickly throughout and probably suffers from speed problems.

Another odd problem the show has is that of repetition. The recording stops at certain points and then picks back up a little before where it left off. This results in several rather massive hiccups, though they usually come between numbers. The first happens after "Crawlers" (you can hear repeated audience noises and Phil says "Thank you" twice). The sound fades out, then comes back in at an earlier point. This is probably due either to the digital transfer process, or to the fact that the original taper used more than one recording device to avoid cuts, and spliced the overlapped recordings together somewhat sloppily.

Phil's intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" is very short: he says it is about two people--me, and Sarah Jane. Before "Misunderstanding," in an interesting rarity, Phil seems to receive a pair of shoes from an audience member. He mentions a bra acquired at a previous gig, and encourages the crowd to undress if they want to. During his extended Cindy Lou story before FoF, Phil does not make the breast-bouncing noise he would make in other tellings of the story. This actually seems to be one of the earlier versions of this story, so maybe he hadn't invented that humorous sound effect yet. There is a cut in the FoF solo. The recording's second big hiccup happens after "Who Dunnit?" The last hiccup happens near the end of the show and causes "Volcano" to begin twice. A more conscientious person might try to remove these hiccups--I know I could do it--but the overall quality of the show doesn't seem to make it worth the effort, since even without the hiccups the sound is not that great.

Still, this show is fairly complete, and it has a few interesting moments in it. The audience is really into the performance, and reacts to everything Phil says. Before the "Cage" medley, Phil tells everyone to go out and buy the Lamb album. Probably this was a memorable gig.

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Spectrum '81 (second night)

26/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (6:09)
1-2 Duchess (5:48)
1-3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:51)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:22)
1-5 Abacab (9:32)
1-6 The Carpet Crawlers (6:09)
1-7 Misunderstanding (5:15)
1-8 No Reply At All (6:12)
1-9 Firth of Fifth (14:09)

2-1 Man on the Corner (6:38)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (4:08)
2-3 Like It or Not (5:15)
2-4 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (14:56)
2-5 Afterglow (4:55)
2-6 Turn It on Again (4:55)
2-7 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (12:58)
2-8 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (14:43)

Type/Quality: Audience/Fair-Good

Comments: At the Spectrum in Philadelphia. This was the second of a three-day run at the Spectrum--this show took place on Thanksgiving Day of 1981. It also has the distinction of featuring what is probably the first performance of the very rare "Like It or Not." Unfortunately its overall quality leaves a bit to be desired. Phil begins his first talk with the audience by wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving and hoping they all had a nice dinner. "SUPPER!" respond the tapers. "SUPPER!" Ha, ha. If they were really hoping Phil was making a pun and cleverly introducing "Supper's Ready," they were disappointed--in fact, the tapers seem quite pissed with the whole show, not an uncommon reaction of audience members on this tour. During "Abacab" one of them can clearly be heard saying "This sucks!" When Phil introduces "Crawlers" as a song from their distant past, the taper comments: "It's about time!"

Phil tells his Cindy Lou story before FoF. He prefaces "Like It or Not" with the comment that they are going to do something they didn't do the night before. Phil throws in his Richard III and Hunchback of Notre Dame impersonations before the band intros, for no good reason. There's lots of loud fake-sounding laughter from the taper after Chester is introduced--not sure why, I guess he's just being a jerk. Surprisingly, Phil sets up the Lamb story a bit before "In the Cage"--perhaps he's just playing for extra time. He actually says the wrong words at the beginning of IKWIL, a fairly unusual song for him to mess up on.

There is a tiny gap as "Afterglow" begins. This is an easily repairable error which I will probably not take the time to repair. In fact it is the only error on the whole recording, which has no cuts. The only real problem with the show is the overall below-average sound quality.

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Abacab to the Savoy

28/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines/Duchess (12:02)
1-2 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:22)
1-3 Dodo/Lurker (9:16)
1-4 Abacab (8:43)
1-5 The Carpet Crawlers (6:22)
1-6 Me and Sarah Jane (6:45)
1-7 Misunderstanding (5:34)
1-8 No Reply At All (4:52)
1-9 Firth of Fifth (14:13)

2-1 Man on the Corner (7:34)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (3:15)
2-3 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven/Afterglow (20:02)
2-4 Turn It on Again (5:06)
2-5 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (13:10)
2-6 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:34)
Bonus songs (30/11/81, 23/12/81)
2-7 Like It or Not/The Knife (9:28)

Type/Quality: Audience/Very Good-Good

Comments: At the Savoy in New York City, this is one of the best shows from this tour (that I know of). It is a fantastic quality audience show recorded at a small, intimate venue, with no cuts and no errors (well, just a few small ones on my version--but please see the Coaster Factory remaster, next entry, for the ideal version of this recording). This happens to be one of the gigs which was recorded for use on the Three Sides Live album, and probably bits from it are included on the two soundboard shows following this. However I think I prefer this audience recording, which has more energy and is not an exact retread of stuff from the officially released live album.

Let's take a trip through the show, shall we? This being an intimate venue, the audience are a bit rowdy at times. During the songs you don't notice them, but during intros they sometimes have a tendency to yell song names at Phil. Phil's intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" discusses incest. Phil clearly had some very strange and wrong-headed ideas of what this song was about. He plays his trumpet a bit before that song--very amateur trumpet-playing was something Phil sometimes did during this tour, in between songs, albeit rarely. There is a very small disruption right at the beginning of "No Reply" which results in a split-second break in the song. This is the only real error in the show--I'm not sure if it's common to the show or not. My particular version of this show is tracked differently than Simon's or Halley's versions--you'll see that lots of songs that are usually on separate tracks get grouped into one big track. This doesn't really bother me, because it's such a great show.

Anyway, to continue. Phil tells the dirty Cindy Lou story before FoF--he even seems to have a magazine with a picture of breasts (I picked this up from what he says to the audience--if anyone was there and would like to explain this to me, I'd love to get your email!). Phil totally forgets the first few lines of the last verse of FoF, and sort of sings gibberish instead. This reminds me that most soundboard versions of the 28-29/11/81 gigs edit out the final verse of FoF--however I don't think it was to take out Phil's mistake here, as they had several gigs to choose from when compiling the soundboard show and I see no reason why they would have chosen this version--he couldn't have messed up the same bit twice in a row! Also full versions of the soundboard song with the whole last verse do exist, so my guess is that 3SL's FoF at least came from the Nassau Coliseum gig of 29/11, not from this night's gig.

Phil tells his sad story for "Man on the Corner" about the lonely old man who is so poor and destitute that he doesn't even have a Sony Walkman--Phil pretends to cry near the end, to emphasize the story's sadness. He plays some more ill-sounding trumpet notes before "In the Cage," causing the irreverant crowd to boo him! During the band introductions, Phil points out that Daryl's birthday was the day before (27 November--according to the timeline on the official site, he's even right!); and, in a unique occurence, he introduces Mike Rutherford "on the drums" (Mike having just sat in on the drums for the strange "Who Dunnit?", as he was wont to do). Then, not to leave anyone out, Phil goes ahead and introduces Tony as well, prefacing his intro with the comment: "he'll probably kill me afterwards."

The audience are treated to a hefty IKWIL, weighing in at twelve and a half minutes. There's an interesting introduction in which Phil tells the audience they are being recorded, so they'd all better sing along "or we'll kick your ass." The thing about this show that makes me certain that it is the Savoy show that I have titled it (other than the fact that Phil is constantly mentioning New York--and "New Joisie"--during the show, and sings his usual ass-kissing New York-related lines towards the end of IKWIL) is the presence of the two bonus songs at the end (I can't call them "bonus tracks" because they have been stuck on one track). Every version of Abacab to the Savoy has "Like It or Not" from Landover Maryland and "The Knife" from the Birmingham NEC on the end. This was no doubt an attempt by the person who created this show to make it as complete and perfect as possible. Both of these bonus songs were played only rarely on this tour (in fact, this is the only performance of "The Knife" in '81), and having them on the end of this show gives the listener a sample of just about every song played on this tour (excepting only "Me and Virgil" I think, which was only played twice). However in my case these bonus songs are doubly useless: I already have both of them on the complete recordings of the gigs they come from (and in the case of "Like It or Not," in several other places as well), plus these versions are ruined by a series of scratches and pops running through the whole track. I'm not sure why this happened at the end of the show without cropping up anywhere else; I'm only glad that it waited until then, since these songs are superfluous and the rest of the show is truly excellent.

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The Way New Yorkers Walk (Coaster Factory)

28/11/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:58)
1-02 Duchess (6:29)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:26)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:16)
1-05 Abacab (9:49)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:56)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (7:27)
1-08 Misunderstanding (3:59)
1-09 No Reply At All (5:21)
1-10 Intro: Cindy-Lou (4:43)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (9:36)

2-01 Intro: Sad Story (2:20)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:41)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (3:49)
2-04 Phil's Trumpet Solo (0:56)
2-05 Band Introductions (2:10)
2-06 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (12:13)
2-07 Afterglow (4:21)
2-08 Turn It on Again (5:15)
2-09 Dance on a Volcano (4:40)
2-10 Drum Duet (2:03)
2-11 Los Endos (6:54)
2-12 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:34)

Type/Quality: Audience/Very Good-Excellent

Comments: At the Savoy in New York City. You can see my very lengthy description of this show in the entry above--I have nothing to add about the content of the recording. This version was sourced from very low generation tapes and digitally remastered by David Kempler of the Coaster Factory, making one of the best shows from this tour even better. Totally complete and totally awesome.

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FIABA

28-29/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (5:29)
1-2 Duchess (6:45)
1-3 Dodo/Lurker (7:18)
1-4 Abacab (8:41)
1-5 Me and Sarah Jane (6:13)
1-6 Misunderstanding (3:58)
1-7 No Reply At All (4:53)

2-01 Firth of Fifth (8:46)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:03)
2-03 In the Cage (medley) (7:22)
2-04 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (medley) (3:09)
2-05 The Colony of Slippermen (The Raven) (medley) (1:12)
2-06 Afterglow (4:45)
2-07 Dance on a Volcano (4:39)
2-08 Drum Duet (2:09)
2-09 Los Endos (6:36)
2-10 Interview (1:06)

Type/Quality: Radio/Good-Very Good

Comments: (Better versions of this soundboard material follow.) This claims to be the show from which the majority of Three Sides Live was taken, played at the Nassau Coliseum in New York. I've compared that album with this boot, and the matching tracks (disc one tracks 1-6 and disc two tracks 3-6) all seem to be identical (the only one I'm not sure about is "In the Cage"). This version of "Firth of Fifth" is identical to one that I have on a compilation disc, and also identical to a b-side from a "That's All" single (basically; see below for more info). "Man on the Corner" is identical to the version on Archive 2. "No Reply At All," however, is NOT identical to the box set version (it is, however, identical to a version I have on a bootleg of the same name, except that this version has had the curses edited out of it). All of these facts present us with a horrible dating quandary, because though it is generally agreed that 3SL was taken from Nassau Coliseum, FoF, "Man on the Corner" and the box set version of "No Reply" are all supposed to have come from the performance of the night before, at the Savoy (actually, this version of FoF has a long history, and two of its different releases have put it at two different venues: Savoy and Nassau!). This means that either my show is not all from Nassau, or that the official dates given for some of these tracks are not correct. There seems to be a lot of confusion/argument over exactly what date 3SL actually comes from. There is an additional problem surrounding the 3SL tour video, which apparently may have different versions of songs than the 3SL album (!!). This show does not come from the video, but from a radio broadcast; this makes sense considering the careful editing that has been done to both "No Reply" and FoF. (See below for more on FoF.) After careful consideration and keeping in mind the habits of Atlantic in regards to live albums, I've decided that 3SL and this bootleg are most likely an amalgam of the Savoy and Nassau shows, and that the official labeling of these tracks is all correct.

However, let's just ignore all of those dating problems for the moment and focus on quality: it's not as good as you might think. There is a sort of digital distortion pervading the whole recording, like the kind of ghostly sound you get on audio files that have been rather heavily compressed in size. It has varying degrees of severity, and seems to get quite bad in the last three tracks of the first disc. There are also small hitches at the beginning of each track, and some small pops every once in a while. The last verse has been edited out of "Firth of Fifth"--it goes straight from the end of the big instrumental section to the last line: "The sands of time were eroded by..." It skips the "Now as the river dissolves in sea..." lines. The other versions I have of this particular song do not edit out that verse. (There are no song intros on here, BTW.) "In the Cage" hiccups in the beginning, so it sounds like Phil says "I-I got sunshine..." The "In the Cage" medley has been split up into its component tracks, as has the "Dance on a Volcano/Drums/Los Endos" medley. The last track is a recording of Genesis in their dressing room after the show--when Scott McMahan talks about this boot, he mentions this part as being "hilarious" and that he wishes there were more of it. It seems like there's some humorous and interesting stuff going on there, and that it involves possibly some record execs and fans, but I for one could not make it out. There were too many different voices overlapping, and few of their words were distinct to my ears. However I happen to have this same track in a slightly more intelligible form on (of all places) the end of my WCD rehearsal bootleg. Also see the Coaster Factory remaster of this material, two entries down.

Perpetual Soundwave

28-29/11/81

01 Dodo/Lurker (7:22)
02 Abacab (8:42)
03 Misunderstanding (3:57)
04 In the Cage (beginning) (0:51)
05 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:13)
06 Afterglow (4:39)
07 Man on the Corner (4:05)
08 Behind the Lines (5:34)
09 No Reply At All (4:49)
10 Follow You Follow Me (4:34)*
11 Turn It on Again (5:12)
12 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (12:57)

Type/Quality: Radio/Very Good

Comments: (See next entry for a better version of this material.) This one is simply an upgrade to FIABA, with a radically different ordering and some different tracks (though many fewer in number). The sound is not perfect, but it's very very good, and much better than FIABA. This bootleg seems to be rather generally regarded as the best version of this show quality-wise. However, this is a lot of stuff that most people will have already heard. All of these tracks but 7, 9 and 12 are identical to their counterparts on the 3SL album, and 7 is identical to its counterpart on Archive 2. Track 9 I have in a couple of other places (this version has the cursing in it). So the only valuable song on here is track 12, which does not appear on 3SL and which is at a lower rung of quality on FIABA. Interesting to note that "Follow You Follow Me," the * track, is actually from the 7 May 1980 show at Lyceum (most popularly known as Musica). This is according to David Dunnington; I haven't compared the songs myself, but he says that the version on 3SL is also from the Lyceum. In an interesting choice of tracking, "Behind the Lines" has been separated from its partner song, "Duchess;" instead "No Reply At All" comes charging in as soon as "Behind the Lines" ends. Even though the tracks are somewhat out of the order of the real set list, they have all been smoothly edited together. There are no intros to speak of. I do not understand the tracking for "Cage;" another case of a severely ignorant person putting together a bootleg. This disc was copied directly from a very professional-looking bootleg which I suppose could be considered "first generation." The track list called "Dance on a Volcano" simply "Vulcano." Genius at work. I could re-burn this disc and track it more to my own sense of propriety, but in this case I'm willing to maintain the original quaintness of it.

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1-1 In the Dressing Room (3:42)
1-2 Behind the Lines (5:33)
1-3 Duchess (6:30)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:36)
1-5 Abacab (8:53)
1-6 Me and Sarah Jane (6:13)
1-7 Misunderstanding (3:58)
1-8 No Reply At All (4:57)

2-01 Firth of Fifth (8:56)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:04)
2-03 Keep It Dark (4:51)*
2-04 Follow You Follow Me (4:33)*
2-05 Turn It on Again (5:05)
2-06 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:51)
2-07 Afterglow (4:46)
2-08 Dance on a Volcano (4:36)
2-09 Drum Duet (2:36)
2-10 Los Endos (6:25)
2-11 Back in the Dressing Room (2:54)

Type/Quality: Radio/Excellent

Comments: This is a Coaster Factory remaster of the famous Three Sides Live material; the source is a pre-FM recording from an ABC radio broadcast (the ABC bit is why ABaCab is written the way it is in the title of this show; which, by the way, may win as the longest Genesis bootleg title). The artwork is by me. There are some rather funny and, for once, intelligible tracks of the band in the dressing room before and after the show, as well as a very short bit of their soundcheck before the show. This is not actually a complete show, and it is not all from the same date--nor can it even be said to be from the same year. All of it is at least from '81 except the two starred tracks, which are from the Mama and Duke tours, respectively. "Keep It Dark" is probably from the Birmingham shows of 25-29/2/84, which were recorded for the tour video. FYFM is probably from the famous Lyceum gig of 7 May '80. "Turn It on Again" is probably in the wrong place, and a few of the normal songs, including "Who Dunnit?" "Carpet Crawlers," "Lamb," and the encore are missing. However, this does not purport to be a complete performance from one date, but a very good remaster of a very good radio show. And that's what it is.

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Like It or Not

30/11/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (4:36)
1-2 Duchess (6:09)
1-3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:09)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:11)
1-5 Abacab (10:23)
1-6 The Carpet Crawlers (4:28)
1-7 Misunderstanding (5:55)
1-8 No Reply At All (3:56)
1-9 Firth of Fifth (9:25)

2-01 Man on the Corner (4:37)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (3:21)
2-03 Like It or Not (4:59)
2-04 In the Cage (7:43)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:34)
2-06 The Colony of Slippermen (The Raven) (1:06)
2-07 Afterglow (4:21)
2-08 Turn It on Again (partial)(1:03)
2-09 Dance on a Volcano (4:35)
2-10 Drum Duet/Los Endos (8:04)
2-11 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (8:39)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Fair

Comments: At the Capital Center in Landover Maryland (though the official site puts it in Largo, New York--I don't think this can be right, as all other sources disagree). The value of this show is that it features one of only two live recordings of the song "Like It or Not." Beyond that, it doesn't have all that much value, because whoever recorded it did a very shabby job. The sound quality in general is not all that bad--fairly standard for an audience boot, with no real pops or clicks or speed problems. However the audience (and probably in particular the taper) are rather intrusive, making comments and singing along and generally talking over portions of the songs. There are also multiple instances of mic fumbling and bumps. And, worst of all, there are multiple cuts, scattered throughout. I will detail them.

The first track and "Abacab" both fade in--the beginning portion of both songs is missing, though not so much that you miss any vocals. At the solo at the end of "Abacab," the sound becomes more muffled, as though the mic had been covered or messed with in some way. After the song is over there is some major fumbling with the mic. "Carpet Crawlers" starts (one person in the audience, who I believe is not even kidding, says "I think I heard this song once before"), but before Phil starts singing there is a major cut--the first verse is missing. "No Reply At All" gets near the ending part of the song where Phil is about to repeat the chorus ("Is anybody listening?" etc.), then fades out. In the beginning of "Man on the Corner" there is more mic fumbling. The very end of "In the Cage" fades out, and the "Cinema Show" part of the medley fades in--not that much is missing in between, I think. If you look at the track time for "Turn It on Again," you'll see that only the first minute is there--the song fades into "Volcano." And, finally, even the last track in the performance fades out without actually getting to the end.

This would have been a very good show if there weren't so many cuts in it, so I have mixed feelings towards the taper. I like him because he recorded one of the only performances of "Like It or Not." But at the same time, I want to slap him for doing such a lousy job of it.

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Hartford '81

2/12/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (6:22)
1-02 Duchess (5:50)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:16)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:06)
1-05 Abacab (10:07)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:30)
1-07 Like It or Not (6:28)
1-08 No Reply At All (4:54)
1-09 Misunderstanding (4:24)
1-10 Intro: Firth (4:53)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (9:17)

2-01 Intro: Man (2:39)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:32)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (6:05)
2-04 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:44)
2-05 Afterglow (4:11)
2-06 Turn It on Again (5:38)
2-07 Dance on a Volcano (4:36)
2-08 Drum Duet (1:56)
2-09 Los Endos (6:45)
2-10 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (incomplete)(8:30)
2-11 Like It or Not (5:20)(26/11/81)
2-12 Like It or Not (5:06)(30/11/81)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Not only does this boot contain a fairly full performance of a show with "Like It or Not," it also includes two of the other recorded versions of "Like It or Not" as bonus tracks. The sound for the main show is a bit thin, but fairly clear, though it does have high-pitched hiss in the back. There are a few pops on "Abacab." Phil tells a pretty funny intro for "Crawlers" about people's ability to sing along to Genesis songs. There are loud pops and scratches after "Crawlers," and the occasional low pop elsewhere.

For the rare track, "Like It or Not," Phil tells an interesting story. He says that they've played the song "a few times now," though not often, and that they're "going to keep playing it until we get it right." Seemingly they did not get it quite right this time, since it was definitely played at least once more (see next entry). Phil adds that it is "about love lost"--which he later realizes is the subject of several songs that they play. His intro for "No Reply" explains the song as being about "non-communication"--Phil is again fairly humorous. He tells another good story, the one about Cindy Lou, for FoF. He tells some nice stories and seems in a good mood in general for this gig.

On to an even dirtier disc two. Phil plays some trumpet between songs, as he was wont to do on this tour. There's some before "Man on the Corner" (along with his lonely man intro for that song), and also a bit more before "Cage." Unlike other trumpet bits I've heard, here Phil actually seems to attempt to play a very simple tune--with some little success ("I've got to get this trumpet fixed," Phil quips). The volume during Phil's band intro and the subsequent "Cage" medley is very low, lower than for the previous songs. In fact it is not until after "Turn It on Again" that the volume gets better. There is a small cut in "Endos," after which the sound jumps up in volume again, and yet another small cut or possibly a hiccup in the "Squonk" reprise at the end of "Endos." The sound changes once again after "Endos," because the recording was turned off and on to remove the pause before the encore.

The ending of the show is a bit odd. It sounds almost as though there may be a splice somewhere, because the sound quality changes so drastically for some parts (such as the volume changes noted in the paragraph above). Perhaps this is due only to the recording being stopped and started again, or the recording microphone being moved. IKWIL is definitely still in Hartford, as Phil mentions the venue several times in the song (he sings the unlikely phrase "I love Hartford in the spring time"). That song fades off as it gets into the "Stagnation" theme.

Following the Hartford show, as I mentioned earlier, we get two of the other recorded "Like It or Not"s--one from the Spectrum in Philly and the other from the Landover gig (see above entry). There were only four recorded gigs with this song to my knowledge. These bonus tracks are not very clean and there are definitely some pops on them, especially in the Landover track (which sounds better in the other versions I have of it).

In regards to "Like It or Not," interesting to note that in two instances the song was played at a venue at which Genesis had already played a gig the previous day (Spectrum and Montreal Forum). At the previous gig the song was not played--the band clearly wanted to give people coming to both gigs a treat on the second night. In all instances of the song being played, "Me and Sarah Jane" was not.

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Montreal Forum '81

4/12/81

1-1 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (7:33)
1-2 Dodo/Lurker (7:16)
1-3 Abacab (10:18)
1-4 The Carpet Crawlers (5:36)
1-5 Misunderstanding (5:39)
1-6 No Reply At All (5:25)
1-7 Intro: Firth (4:23)
1-8 Firth of Fifth (10:55)
1-9 Like It or Not (5:11)

2-1 Man on the Corner (6:05)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (6:37)
2-3 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (11:49)
2-4 Afterglow (4:35)
2-5 Turn It on Again (5:44)
2-6 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet (6:36)
2-7 Los Endos (8:28)
2-8 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:36)

Type/Quality: Audience/Fair-Good

Comments: At the Montreal Forum in (you guessed it) Montreal, Canada. The band played two nights here in a row, this night and the night before. The other show is also available on bootleg, in (I believe) complete form. This one is missing the first two numbers in the set ("Behind the Lines," "Duchess"), but is probably the more valuable of the two shows as it has a very rare performance of "Like It or Not." Interestingly, Phil tells an intro about fetish sex before "Like It or Not," which is very similar to a story he told before "Me and Sarah Jane" on another show from this tour--this makes some sense, because close inspection will reveal the fact that Genesis basically replaced "Sarah Jane" with "Like It or Not" when they played that song. As Phil would do more in-depth in later shows, he plays with the trumpet a couple of times here--before "Like It or Not" and after "Who Dunnit?" He basically just blows some random, sickly-sounding notes. During the Cindy Lou story before FoF, Phil mentions the Giant Hogweed, which I think tricks some of the people in the audience into thinking they're about to get a somewhat older number. There is a small, slight error in "Los Endos," right before the "Volcano" riff cuts in. The quality is OK, not fantastic--you can hear the songs all right most of the time, but when the audience gets very appreciative they can drown out the rest of the sound altogether. Also someone in the audience (this is going to sound weird) seems to be playing with a toy drum at various times throughout the show. That's how I interpreted the sound, anyway. It's too bad the first two songs are missing, but this is a good show, and being one of only four that I know of with "Like It or Not," it's worth it.

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Wembley '81 (third night)

19/12/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:43)
1-02 Duchess (6:31)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:34)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:19)
1-05 Abacab (9:24)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:55)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (7:37)
1-08 Misunderstanding (3:55)
1-09 No Reply At All (5:03)
1-10 Intro: Firth (4:56)
1-11 Firth of Fifth (12:03)

2-01 Man on the Corner (4:32)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (3:35)
2-03 Band Introductions (3:22)
2-04 In the Cage (medley)(7:49)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:56)
2-06 The Colony of Slippermen (The Raven) (0:52)
2-07 Afterglow (part 1)(2:17)
2-08 Afterglow (part 2)(1:13)
2-09 Turn It on Again (5:28)
2-10 Dance on a Volcano (4:40)
2-11 Drum Duet (2:06)
2-12 Los Endos (7:00)
2-13 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (12:24)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At the Wembley Arena in London, this recording represents the last of three consecutive gigs in Wembley, played right before the band's four finale gigs at the Birmingham NEC. This is generally considered to be the best recording of the three Wembley shows available. My version is not tracked the same as the usual versions, but I'm fairly certain my date is correct. Phil does greet the audience with a "Good evening, London," and mentions that it's Saturday night. If someone were industrious enough to get on the internet and find a calendar building program which would show one on what day of the week 19 December 1981 fell (like me), that one would find that it was indeed a Saturday. It's interesting that Phil quite often mentions the day of the week to the crowds at the beginning of his shows, apparently to prove to people that he really does know what day of the week it is, even though he's a rock star. Thus: "Saturday night, Saturday night...let's face it, it's either us or James Bond." Incidentally, I also took a trip over to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) and found out that in the end of June 1981 the Bond movie For Your Eyes Only was released in the UK--I guess this is what Phil is referring to.

People give this show a high rating. I would agree that it does sound quite nice, but I was not as enthusiastic in my rating as others. The sound is a bit far away, but the audience is generally quiet during songs and this is a nice recording. There are a few cuts, however. There is a small cut after "Dodo" ends that chops off some of the opening of "Abacab." There is a similar cut after "Misunderstanding" that clips off some of the drum machine beat opening of "No Reply." And a good deal of "Afterglow" is cut. You'll notice that in the track list this song is spread across two tracks--the cut occurs at the end of part 1, and part 2 has the end of the song after the cut. It's also interesting to note that on my version of this show, the story for "Man on the Corner" is at the end of disc one--most versions seem to end the first disc with the story for FoF (so both versions end their first disc at an awkward moment!).

Nothing particularly unusual happens in this show; all the typical intros from this time period are here, including the "festive season" story for CC, the incest story for "Sarah Jane," and Phil on the trumpet (he plays some notes after "Sarah Jane" and what is almost a full-fledged tune after "Who Dunnit?"). Phil does mess up once, during "No Reply At All." He sings a part incorrectly and actually gets off the beat. One other interesting moment comes near the beginning of the band introductions, when a fan shouts something about Steve Hackett, prompting Phil to reply: "Steve Hackett...Where?!" This is a good Abacab show to have.

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Birmingham '81 (second night)

21/12/81

1-1 Behind the Lines (5:32)
1-2 Duchess (6:19)
1-3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (6:35)
1-4 Dodo/Lurker (7:20)
1-5 Abacab (10:11)
1-6 The Carpet Crawlers (7:29)
1-7 Me and Sarah Jane (7:47)
1-8 Misunderstanding (4:00)
1-9 No Reply At All (4:46)

2-01 Firth of Fifth (15:23)
2-02 Man on the Corner (4:35)
2-03 Who Dunnit? (6:45)
2-04 In the Cage (7:47)
2-05 The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree (2:57)
2-06 The Colony of Slippermen (The Raven) (0:58)
2-07 Afterglow (4:41)
2-08 Turn It on Again (5:05)
2-09 Dance on a Volcano (4:39)
2-10 Drum Duet (2:11)
2-11 Los Endos (incomplete)(5:19)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: I'd like to begin the comments for this show with A WARNING: This show circulates in trading circles under the date of 22/12. If you are looking for 22/12 and trade with someone, you may end up with this show instead. A quick and easy way to avoid this is to simply figure out whether the version you're getting has the encore (IKWIL) on the end or not. If it does not have the encore, then it is 21/12. If it does, it may be the correct show (unfortunately this is not a foolproof guide to accuracy, as a version of the 21/12 show apparently exists WITH the encore, though not as good quality as this version and with a soundcheck on the end). I have fallen prey to this misdating not once, but twice, so for what it's worth, I wanted to mention it here. (I now finally have the 22/12 show--probably!--detailed in the next entry.)

As the name implies, this was the second of a multiple-night engagement at the famous Birmingham NEC (from 20-23 December). Genesis would also end their Mama tour with a whopping 5 nights at the NEC--this year, they only had four gigs there. This was the second gig (boots exist for every night at the NEC!). At the third gig, on 22 December, Phil would perform trumpet solos (actually it was typical on this tour for Phil to mess around with a trumpet, but on the 22nd he played it a bit more than usual). At the last gig, 23 December, the band would play one of their very last performances of "The Knife" ever, as an encore--the only performance of the song on the whole Abacab tour. This last show was also professionally recorded and some bits of it were used for the Three Sides Live tour video. On this second night, the 21st, nothing particularly special happened, except a great performance. You can always tell when Phil has returned to his home country, and as during the last gig of the Mama tour at the NEC, he is very comfortable and laid back on stage and plays around with the audience. He tells some great song intros. The most entertaining are those for "Firth of Fifth" and "Man on the Corner." "Firth of Fifth"'s story is a sort of Cinderella tale featuring one Cindy Lou. Phil, true to form, alters the tale, replacing the glass slipper with an enormous bra. It's a well told story and I found it very funny.

The quality of the show is quite good; not excellent, but the sound is clear and full-throated, and it has no real problems--perhaps a few low pops. Simon Funnell has a version of this boot whose track times are identical to mine that he refers to as a second generation recording. Unfortunately it is not an entirely complete show, because it fades out near the very end of "Los Endos," and there is no encore. Still the band is in fine form and it's a good show.

A Correllary to the Warning:

When I first traded for this show, I thought I was getting 22/12/81, which I had heard featured some trumpet solos from Phil. I remained under the impression that what I had was 22/12 until I compared my show with Simon's track times and discovered it was the gig of the 21st. I put 22/12 back on my wish list and continued on with my life. Later, I did another trade, again for what I thought would be 22/12. This time, before I even got a chance to listen to the show (but after I had received it), the trader I got it from warned me that it was probably a fake. Sure enough, I now have two exactly identical copies of 21/12, neither of which is the show I wanted.

However, I do want to say, having listened to this show again after receiving my second fake 22/12, that this really is a very nice show from the '81 tour. The NEC gigs are always nice, and as I say above, Phil has a great rapport with the audience. He tells a Christmas-type intro for "Carpet Crawlers" in which he explains the band's policy on Christmas carols, and tries to identify the "old people" in the audience--those who do not immediately respond to the ploy are called "deaf old people." His intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" is a typically wrong-headed one about incest, necrophilia, and rape--"It's about all these things, but at the same time, it's not about any of them." Tony should really have just sat down with Phil and explained to him what the darn song really meant. At one point, an audience member yells out some comment, to which Phil replies: "We don't do that. You'll have to go and see Steve Hackett for that." Ha! Phil also mentions that he "doesn't speak Scottish" in his intro for "Man on the Corner." Really this is a memorable gig, and I'm almost glad I got it again, if only because it gave me an excuse to listen to it again.

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Birmingham '81 (third night)

22/12/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:37)
1-02 Duchess (6:20)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:40)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (8:55)
1-05 Abacab (9:07)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (7:26)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (6:49)
1-08 Misunderstanding (5:23)
1-09 No Reply At All (5:00)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (14:08)

2-1 Man on the Corner (7:56)
2-2 Who Dunnit? (3:20)
2-3 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven/Afterglow (19:25)
2-4 Turn It on Again (5:04)
2-5 Dance on a Volcano/Drum Duet/Los Endos (14:55)
2-6 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:28)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good

Comments: At long last I have received this show, the third gig of a four-gig run at the famous Birmingham NEC at the end of the Abacab tour. I wanted it perhaps more than it deserved to be wanted, on the basis of comments I'd heard from others about Phil's trumpet solos. As it turns out, and as I learned as my collection expanded, Phil actually played the trumpet on many nights of this tour, providing some shockingly amateur and humorously unpracticed notes that never quite became songs. This night may have solos that are slightly, slightly longer than those on other nights. But his trumpet solos are never what could be called by any stretch of the imagination "impressive," and aren't really worth the trouble I went through to get this show (having received the recording of the above gig twice in error). Actually the other gigs at Birmingham all seem to sound better than this one, which is not bad and seems to be complete, but has a thin distortion running through it that I usually like to describe as "furry." This happens mainly on the first half of the first disc. Also the volume level at times can get low, something that seems to happen mainly on the second disc. Because of the volume levels, a hiss can be heard, and there seem to be some pops.

You can hear Phil on all his intros though, and he seems to be in fairly good form as for the other NEC gigs. At his first talk with the audience (after "Lamb") he thanks them for braving the terrible weather, then jokingly adds "Good night! ...For our encore, we're going to do..." He performs an intro for "Crawlers" similar to last night's, mentioning singing along, old songs, and the deaf old fans ("last night the old fans were over there"). His intro for "Sarah Jane," making references to rape and necrophilia and such, was so similar to that of 21/12 that I thought it was spliced in (this suspicion was compounded by the fact that there was a cut right before the intro began and the sound quality noticeably changed; but I have since compared the two intros and they are, in fact, different). Phil tells a pretty good Cindy Lou story before FoF, then tries to tell his typical story for "Man on the Corner," but has to deal with some annoying fans, some of whom are yelling "Supper's Ready!" He seems to pretend to shoot one, to the applause of other audience members, but it doesn't really stop the heckling and Phil's story ends up kind of off. It is right before this intro that Phil plays his trumpet, blowing a few notes. "I learned that today," he claims, and then, "I know 'Alfie,' too." He plays another bunch of notes, which I can only assume are part of "Alfie," though I'm not familiar with the song. There is another cut in the recording after "Who Dunnit?" (similar to the one after "Crawlers") and the sound picks back up a bit into the band introductions and at a much lower volume. The sound eventually improves, but not until halfway through "Cage." A similar cut happens after "Turn It on Again," after which the recording comes in at a low volume just the tiniest bit into "Volcano." The volume does slowly improve as the song goes along.

As I said, there is a kind of "furry" distortion on this recording, but its intrusiveness varies considerably. It gets quite bad during "Crawlers," but after that song (as I said earlier) the recording breaks off and when it starts up again for "Sarah Jane" the furriness is basically gone. Presumably this was where the tape was exchanged or flipped. There is still a touch of the distortion at times later in the recording, but I think "Crawlers" has the worst problems.

As a final ironic note, it's worth it to mention that my track times for this show do not match Simon's version of the 22/12 gig. However, I know this is not the 21 gig, it's not the 23 gig, and it can't be the 20 gig since that was the first night at the NEC and Phil is talking like they've already done at least one show there. So it must be 22/12. (In fact, in his intro for "Crawlers," Phil says to himself: "What's today, what's today, is it the uh, twenty, twenty-second? Well it's getting very near Christmas everybody!") Interesting that Phil tells the crowd at the beginning of IKWIL that they are being recorded. It seems they are recording just audio, perhaps for the Three Sides Live album, though I'd thought that material mainly came from gigs in New York at the end of November.

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Birmingham '81 (last night)

23/12/81

1-01 Behind the Lines (5:27)
1-02 Duchess (6:26)
1-03 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (5:58)
1-04 Dodo/Lurker (7:27)
1-05 Abacab (9:20)
1-06 The Carpet Crawlers (6:20)
1-07 Me and Sarah Jane (7:22)
1-08 Misunderstanding (5:36)
1-09 No Reply At All (4:58)
1-10 Firth of Fifth (14:38)

2-01 Man on the Corner (6:55)
2-02 Who Dunnit? (incomplete)(2:13)
2-03 In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Riding the Scree/The Raven (14:37)
2-04 Afterglow (4:39)
2-05 Turn It on Again (5:11)
2-06 Dance on a Volcano (4:23)
2-07 Drum Duet (2:32)
2-08 Los Endos (6:13)
2-09 The Knife (5:33)
2-10 I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe) (11:58)

Type/Quality: Audience/Good-Very Good

Comments: This is the last night of the Abacab tour, and the last of four nights at the NEC in Birmingham. This gig was filmed and some of the footage is included on the Three Sides Live video. This show also features what was most likely the one and only performance of "The Knife" on this tour. The band would actually not play this song again until the reunion gig at Milton Keynes, and that was the very last time it was ever played. This is a very special gig and it is in good quality (apart from some vague scratchiness in the background) and is very nearly entirely complete. The only thing that seems to be missing is the very ending piano section of "Firth of Fifth" and the ending of "Who Dunnit?" That song fades out during the second verse. This cut could be due to a tape flip, but may be due to the fact that the taper did not like the song. After "Who Dunnit?" you can hear some vague, short trumpeting from Phil. On the previous night (see above entry) he had played some "real" trumpet solos. Here there are just a few sickly notes, after which Phil says apologetically: "It's the thought that counts."

On this bootleg the song intros are actually at the beginning of the track that their song is on. The intro for "Me and Sarah Jane" talks about sexual fetishes--the typical evidence from Phil that he doesn't know what the song is actually about! Before "Firth of Fifth" Phil once again tells the story of Cindy Lou--he had told this story multiple times at this point, but he has another go. The version of the 21st is probably better, but this one has its charms as well (for one, Phil tries to teach the audience some simple French words--"See, you get something different at every Genesis show"). During the band introductions Phil introduces Daryl and Chester not only to the audience but to each other and to the rest of the band. It's goofy!

There is one annoying thing about this gig, and that is the audience. They do some pretty major heckling between songs, and some talking, even during some of the songs. There is particularly this one woman who will not shut up--I think she may have even been the person recording the show. Usually they keep their main chattering to between the songs, and like I said this is a nearly perfect gig.

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