"Not everything in the forest is from Epping!" - A look at some of the non-EFDVD releases that are currently available.

The guys at EFDVD are doing a good job in getting DVD/Video material to the fans but they have placed their emphasis firmly on TV footage which is understandable but restricts the choice of material available to them. Let us not forget that theirs is not the only source of DVD/Video goodies if you choose to look and here are a few of the other interesting items which are available from alternative sources and also to remember that in many cases, "audience" recordings have been and still are the only documents (audio and video) of many of the band's gigs over the years.

Phil Collins: Philadelphia 23rd September 2004

Track Listing: Percussion Intro/Something Happened On The Way To Heaven/Against All Odds/Don't Lose My Number/You'll Be In My Heart/One More Night/Can't Stop Loving You/Hang In Long Enough/True Colours/Come With Me/A Groovy Kind Of Love/I Missed Again/Another Day In Paradise/Misunderstanding/Separate Lives/In The Air Tonight/Dance Into The Light/You Can't Hurry Love/Two Hearts/Wear My Hat/Easy Lover/Sussudio/It's Not Too Late/Take Me Home

1 DVD

Source: Audience
Quality: Good

The first leg of Phil's recent First Final Farewell Tour has generated a few privately recorded DVDs which although obviously are no match for the official product are nonetheless of interest to fans and collectors especially if you were at the show(s) in question. One of the more enjoyable efforts is the recording from the show in Philadelphia on 23rd September 2004. Ingeniously enough, the cameraman decided to opt for filming the show predominantly from the video screens which means that the picture quality for the most part is excellent, and the sound is clear and well balanced a nice addition to any fans' collection.

Peter Gabriel: Convention Center Anaheim CA 10th December 2002

Track Listing: Here Comes The Flood/Darkness/Red Rain/Secret World/Sky Blue/Downside Up/The Barry Williams Show/More Than This/Mercy Street/Digging In The Dirt/Growing Up/Animal Nation/Solsbury Hill/Sledgehammer/Signal To Noise/In Your Eyes

1 DVD

Source: Audience
Quality: Very Good

Peter Gabriel's massive series of tours between 2002 and 2004 have also generated some gems in the DVD area beginning with the recording of the gig at the Convention Center in Anaheim CA. It is obvious from the very start that this is a massive arena and the cameraman (or woman!) has managed to capture the sheer size of both the arena and the stage show which was displayed for these gigs. Visually this is an extremely enjoyable recording and the audio soundtrack is of excellent quality too.

Peter Gabriel: "A Walk Along The Beach" Jones Beach New York 24th June 2003

Track Listing: Red Rain/More Than This/Secret World/Games Without Frontiers/Mercy Street/ Darkness/Digging In The Dirt/Don't Give Up/The Tower That Ate People/Growing Up/Shock The Monkey/Solsbury Hill/Sledgehammer/Signal To Noise/In Your Eyes/ Come Talk To Me/Father Son

1 DVD

Source: Audience
Quality: Fair/Very Good

Peter's tour continued into 2003 and this leg of the tour is captured by a recording from Jones Beach New York which once again is taken from a single camera shot from the auditorium. Camerawork on this one is exceptional apart from the expected interruptions from fans which thankfully only occur in the last couple of songs. Another complete recording and a nice one for fans to have.

Peter Gabriel: "Rock In Rio" Bela Vista Park Lisbon 29th May 2004

Track Listing: Darkness/Red Rain/Secret World/Games Without Frontiers/Burn You Up, Burn You Down/The Tower That Ate People/San Jacinto/Growing Up/Solsbury Hill/ Sledgehammer/Signal To Noise/In Your Eyes/Biko

1 DVD

Source: TV Broadcast
Quality: Excellent

The final leg of Peter's tour took in further shows in the UK and Europe including this rather confusing performance. The organisers of the "Rock In Rio" Festival usually held in Brazil brought that event to Portugal in 2004 and Peter's performance was captured by TV for a rare concert broadcast. Even more unusual, the entire show was captured and broadcast and it is an essential addition to any collection.

Genesis: Spodek Arena Katowice Poland 31st January 1998

Track Listing: No Son Of Mine/Land Of Confusion/The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway/Calling All Stations/Alien Afternoon/Carpet Crawlers/There Must Be Some Other Way/Domino/Shipwrecked/Firth Of Fifth/Congo/Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea/Dancing With The Moonlit Knight/Follow You Follow Me/Lover's Leap/Mama/The Dividing Line/Invisible Touch/Turn It on Again/Throwing It All Away/I Can’t Dance

2 DVDs

Source: TV Broadcast
Quality: Excellent

With Genesis now no more, it is still exciting when footage from previous tours emerges and at last a couple of complete broadcasts from the band's final tour in support of Calling All Stations have emerged. One has recently been released by EFDVD and will be covered in the next review of their releases. The other is a complete satellite broadcast of the concert from the Spodek Arena in Katowice Poland on 31st January 1998. The re-broadcast available here, does not suffer from the poor synchronisation of sound that the original did and this is a welcome addition to the Genesis archive; especially with the release of any official visual document of this tour being very unlikely.

"Tony Stratton-Smith Presents… Genesis In Concert" - Shepperton Film Studios 30th October 1973

Track Listing: Watcher Of The Skies/Dancing With The Moonlit Knight/I Know What I Like/Musical Box/Supper's Ready

1 DVD

Source: 16mm film print
Quality: Excellent

One outstanding item which has finally emerged on DVD from the band's archives is the famous "Tony Stratton-Smith Presents… Genesis In Concert" film from 1973. Taken from a 16mm print, GMDVD; the US equivalent of EFDVD have finally presented us with a definitive version of this classic film in both PAL and NTSC versions. Great care has been taken to restore the film to as near its original quality as possible and I for one am delighted with the results. This footage is a vital element in the band's story and one for which an official release was looking increasingly unlikely!

While there has been a relative dearth of new (or not so new) video/DVD material by Genesis, the opposite is true of the hyperactive Steve Hackett who has kept his fans happy with a series of excellent official videos and DVDs which are nicely complemented by the increasing number of privately recorded films which in some cases fill in gaps in Steve's live visual record quite nicely.

Earliest among these is a marvellous re-broadcast of Steve's performance at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival. This was broadcast on Japanese TV and has recently been transferred to DVD with excellent results and is certainly a must for fans of this era of Hackett's career.

Steve Hackett: Grand Casino Montreux. Montreux Jazz Festival 13th July 1980

Track Listing: Slogans/Everyday/Spectral Mornings/Time To Get Out/The Steppes/Narnia/ Acoustic Set/Jacuzzi/A Tower Struck Down/Clocks

1 DVD

Source: TV Broadcast
Quality: Excellent

Steve Hackett: San Jose Cabaret 12th November 1993

Track Listing: Intro/Myopia Medley/Please Don't Touch/Camino Royale/A Vampyre With A Healthy Appetite/ Shadow Of The Hierophant/Take These Pearls/Sierra Quemada/Depth Charge/In The Heart Of The City/Walking Away From Rainbows/There Are Many Sides To The Night/Acoustic Set/Drum-Bass Duet/The Air Conditioned Nightmare/Lost In Your Eyes/Everyday/Spectral Mornings/Clocks/Acoustic Reprise/Horizons/Cinema Paradiso/In That Quiet Earth

Video Cassette

Source: Audience
Quality: Fair

Next up is a rare complete audience film of one of Steve's gigs from the US leg of the 1993 Guitar Noir tour. Only one edited official film from the 1992/93 tours has surfaced and so this and any other recordings that may be out there, are vital visual documents of this extremely enjoyable tour. Visual quality is not exceptional on this one due to the poor position of the cameraman (no doubt trying to avoid the eagle eyes of Mr Budis!) but nonetheless, it does give a flavour of what it was like to attend one of these gigs.

Steve Hackett: Patriots Theater Trenton NJ 30th June 2002

Track Listing: The Floating Seventh/Mechanical Bride/Medley/Serpentine Song/Watcher Of The Skies/Hairless Heart/Firth Of Fifth/Riding The Colossus/Pollution B/The Steppes/Gnossienne #1/Walking Away From Rainbows/In Memoriam/The Wall Of Knives/A Vampyre With A Healthy Appetite/Spectral Mornings/Lucridus/Darktown/Camino Royale/Everyday/ Horizons/Los Endos.
1 DVD.

Source: TV Broadcast (?)
Quality: Excellent

A further nine years separates this recording from the next one. Steve undertook his first US tour since the Guitar Noir tour in the summer of 2002,performing a handful of shows to road test material for the as yet unreleased To Watch The Storms album. Fortunately, a visual record of one of those gigs is available with the recording of Steve's performance at that year's NEARfest Festival.

Steve Hackett: Borders Bookstore Cleveland Heights 8th August 2002

Track Listing: Intro/Smoke On The Water/Classical Jazz/Brand New-Blood On The Rooftops-Horizons/By Paved Fountain/The Journey/The Pool Of Memory And The Pool Of Forgetfulness-This Vast Life/Bay Of Kings

Steve Hackett: Borders Bookstore Bryn Mawr 8th August 2002

Track Listing; Tuning Ritual/Classical Jazz/Black Light/Cavalcanti/Tales Of The Riverbank/Brand New-Mexico City-Rebecca-Horizons/Bouree-Segovia/The Skye Boat Song/Pease Blossom/By Paved Fountain/Black Light/The Pool Of Memory And The Pool Of Forgetfulness/Bay Of Kings

1 DVD

Source: Audience
Quality: Very Good

Steve was back in the States a bare two months later on a promotional tour of stores in the Borders Bookstore chain, armed only with an acoustic guitar for company! Fortunately, a couple of these extremely informal performances were filmed by members of the audience.

Steve's 2003 To Watch The Storms tour and the subsequent outing in 2004 were documented by the Once Above A Time DVD. In addition to that there are a couple of excellent privately filmed recordings from each tour to augment the visual record.

Steve Hackett: Live Music Hall Cologne 6th November 2003

Track Listing: Mechanical Bride/Serpentine Song/Watcher Of The Skies/Hairless Heart/Darktown/Camino Royale/ Pollution B/The Steppes/Acoustic Set/Kim/Walking Away From Rainbows/Slogans/ Everyday/Please Don't Touch/Firth Of Fifth/A Vampyre With A Healthy Appetite/ Spectral Mornings/Brand New/Clocks/In That Quiet Earth/In Memoriam

Video cassette/DVD

Source: Audience
Quality: Very Good

Steve Hackett: Kubo Café Leini (Turin) 25th March 2004

Track Listing: Valley Of The Kings/Mechanical Bride/Circus Of Becoming/Frozen Statues/Slogans/Serpentine Song/Ace Of Wands/Hammer In The Sand/Acoustic Set (Inc: Classical Gas-The Barren Land)/Hairless Heart/Horizons/Kim/Blood On The Rooftops/Fly On A Windshield/ Please Don't Touch/A Dark Night In Toytown/Darktown/Brand New/The Air Conditioned Nightmare/Everyday/Clocks/Spectral Mornings/Los Endos

Video cassette

Source: Audience
Quality: Very Good

The guys at EFDVD have (with my assistance) done a great job of rounding up most of the useable TV footage by Mike & The Mechanics into an excellent six DVD set but there is one item which they have not included in that series.

The bands gig at Sandton Towers Johannesburg was recorded by South African TV back in 1995 and this is the only complete live concert by the band which has been captured by TV cameras, others have been specially staged TV Studio performances in front of invited audiences, the Sandton Towers gig was part of 1995's Beggar… tour. Sadly, the picture quality of the only available copy is marred by interference which is a great shame because this is otherwise an excellent performance . Maybe a better quality copy will eventually surface but in the meantime, here are the details…

Mike & The Mechanics: Sandton Towers Johannesburg 5th June 1995

Track Listing: A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold/Get Up/Over My Shoulder/Someone Always Hates Someone/Plain And Simple/Another Cup Of Coffee/Web Of Lies/Every Day Hurts/How Long?/I Can't Dance/Living Years/All I Need Is A Miracle/I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will be Forever)/Word Of Mouth

Video cassette/DVD

Source: TV Broadcast
Quality: Fair

Ray Wilson Underground Club Cologne 29th September 2003

Track Listing: Another Day/Change/Along The Way/Sunshine And Butterflies/Inside/Gypsy/Ghost/ Shipwrecked/Not About Us/Don't Give Up/Goodbye Baby Blue/Gouranga/I Can't Dance/ Footsteps

1 DVD

Source: TV Broadcast
Quality: Excellent

Thankfully, European TV stations have also managed to capture a couple of Ray Wilson's recent shows including the marvellous performance from Cologne's Underground Club which was recorded as part of the WDR TV "Rockpalast" series. This broadcast captures an excellent show from Ray and his band on the "Change" tour in 2003.

No doubt, by the time this edition of the Magazine reaches the Net, there will be more recordings to catalogue but in the meantime, check out the above recordings if you can obtain them and most of them are circulating FREELY on the various trading sites and enjoyable viewing they are too!