A film of the Genesis Concert on January 10, 1973 at the Bataclan in Paris, France, has been circulating in the fan community for years, but the good people at the Genesis Museum recently shared a 4K restoration that is a beautiful improvement in terms of of all that has been seen before. Simply put, this is the most pristine video of a Peter Gabriel era that has ever surfaced.
“It was a very big project,” the Genesis Museum remarked on YouTube. ‘Not that the source was bad; the source was actually very beautiful. The source, however, had many deviations, but was enough ‘clay’ to shape it into something better. The whole process was greatly aided by Ikhnaton, [the user name of the person who uploaded the concert], which provided material as well as suggestions and many previews. ”
Unfortunately, the concert is incomplete. The only complete song is ‘The Musical Box’, and even that contains a short soundtrack from the 1973 LP Genesis Live since sound was missing from the beginning of the recording. This is followed by the first half of ‘Supper’s Ready’ and big tracks ‘Return of the Giant Hogweed’ and ‘The Knife’. It ends with a backstage interview that is hard to hear because a narrator translates their words into French.
Despite these limitations, the film still captures the incredible energy and intensity of an early Genesis show. The camera crew wanders on stage and presents the action from all angles, even behind Phil Collins ‘drum kit and Tony Banks’ keyboard. Their show at Shepperton Studios in October of the same year was fully captured, but the lighting is poor and it lacks the intimacy and aggression of this concert in Paris.
It was the Foxtrot tour and Gabriel has just started recording costumes in the show. After the point of seven minutes, he comes out with his wife’s red dress and a fox head to sing the highlight of ‘The Musical Box’. He had just started doing it four months before, and it had him on the cover of Melody Maker, the band’s first major press.
“I think very few people at that time saw a man in a dress,” Gabriel says in the official Genesis book Chapter & Verse“And certainly not one who also wears a fox head. There was a feeling of shock and it was very exciting. And I thought, ‘We’re doing something.’ ‘
Gabriel leaves Genesis at the end of 1974/75 Lamb goes to bed on Broadway tour. The program has a complete performance of The Lamb 104 tour stops was the most extensive production they ever tried. In a decision they regretted, they never bothered to film it. Fortunately, they were better able to document earlier periods. Let’s just hope they do not ask YouTube to record this concert in Paris. It deserves to be seen far and wide.