Genesis – BBC Broadcasts

I am kind of surprised the box went out like this. The sequencing is daft. (The Knebworth show should've had its own disc as an example.) The omissions are understandable, but frustrating (since it is likely the completist that really wants this set). Lastly, it is kind of frustrating as someone who had heard the original BBC broadcasts to know some of these performances have been edited (including stage banter). Obviously, it is a sonic improvement over what I've heard among the ROIO's, but still a bit unsatisfying knowing what it could have been.

Technically this has a mastering error, not a misprint. Shepherd is supposed to be first as listed. The mastering of Disc 1 is incorrect for this release.

I will come back to revise this with a more detailed review but this is the main point. Every bit of this is an improvement to the previously available versions of these that have been circulated among the fans for all of these decades. Harlequin and Harold The Barrel are the most dramatically improved but they are all better. Even the ones that have been previously officially released. And that is great but it makes it painful when you see what they chose to not include in this collection. This has selections from most but not all of the broadcasts, and is missing songs from each broadcast. In some but not all cases this was because the same song was recorded on multiple broadcasts. The true fans want all of them not just the edits. And speaking of edits, some of the tracks have been edited removing some of the in between song radio chatter, announcers, Peter Gabriel's Musical Box story, and also in at least one case, Phil Collins doing a count in to start a song. Yes, you want this box very much, if you are a fan, even if you already have the previous bootleg versions and boxed sets. Just be prepared to be needlessly left wanting more. They could have put all of it in this box and they chose not to.

Tracks 1&2 (Shepherd and Pacidy) on disc 1 are reversed and therefore incorrectly listed on the back covers of the box and cd sleeve. This is not the case with the European release on EMI.