"The Story Of Albert Day One As Good As Gold" Genesis in concert at the Lyceum Ballroom, London 6th and 7th May. DVD and CD reviewed by Alan Hewitt.

Finally, to round off our retrospective feature on the Duke tour, I thought it might prove useful to take a closer look at a possibly unique pairing of recordings from this era which have recently surfaced.

Fans have long bemoaned the lack of visual material from the band prior to 1981 and thankfully, this has gradually been put right by the efforts of various groups of fans who have invested a considerable amount of time, effort and in some cases, money too to bring many items from the band's visual archive to the wider fan base. Fortunately, the same can now be said of the Duke tour itself.

Fans had treasured the 40 minute TV broadcast which the BBC made from the band's gig at the Lyceum on 7th May 1980 without realising that the BEEB had in fact recorded both the gig on the 7th and the one the night before too! The recording from 6th May was a test run for the actual broadcast recording from the following night's show and as such was not intended for broadcast. Nonetheless, its very existence in the BBC archive was the subject of much speculation; and longing among fans eager to see a proper film from this tour. Tantalisingly, about a year ago; one of the diffusion films shot at this gig appeared on DVD. Taken from the camera stationed on Tony Banks' side of the stage; this was evidence that footage from all three cameras present at this gig had indeed survived and it was rumoured that the final diffused print was also available. This indeed proved to be the case and the DVD version; "The Story Of Albert Day One" began to circulate among collectors earlier this year.

Here at last was the diffused version combining the footage from both the Stage Right; Stage Left and Centre Stage cameras fully diffused to provide the finished result. Now, fans who were at the 1980 gigs can relive their memories and those of us who were not fortunate enough to catch the shows can see what we missed! The film presents in crystal clear quality a picture of a band in fine form; enjoying themselves and determined to ensure that their audience do too! It is marvellous to see Phil's Music hall antics exhorting the audience to "Boo, hiss or make alternative noises; but as there's rather a lot of us; lets stick to booing" during his introduction to The Lady Lies. Or indeed one of his few "costumed" moments when he relives the story of "Joe" the local drunk, complete with trilby and flasher mac.

As if that wasn't enough; the gig from the second night; the much bootlegged 7th May performance has also now been "re-mastered" by the diligence and patience of a particularly devoted (or insane!) fan who have given us what must be the DEFINITIVE (and we all know how much I hate using THAT word, don't we?!) version of this recording on CD. When originally broadcast, the BBC edited the gig, removing all between- songs stories to compress the show into their broadcast time slot. Needless, to say this was extremely irritating to many fans. Well, here at last we have the recording in remixed broadcast quality COMPLETE with all the stories which adds immensely to the enjoyment of this classic show.

The mere fact that here we have a perfect combination of both visual AND audio recordings of these gigs makes the pair an essential addition to any self respecting Genesis fans' collection and I have thoroughly enjoyed the "Duke audio/visual experience" enormously. I must admit I had reservations about the re-mastered audio; after all the existing versions (Musica etc) were excellent quality but this new recording gives the final veneer to these superb recordings and I am sure that any fan hearing or viewing these releases will join me in thanking those concerned in bringing this material to us for doing such a fantastic job!

"The Story Of Albert Day One" Genesis in concert at the Lyceum Ballroom London 6th May 1980.

Track Listing: Deep In The Motherlode/Dancing With The Moonlit Knight/Carpet Crawl/Squonk/One For The Vine/Behind The Lines/Duchess/Guide Vocal/Turn It On Again/Duke's Travels/Duke's End/Say It's Alright, Joe/The Lady Lies/Ripples (Edit)/In The Cage/Raven/Afterglow/Follow You Follow Me/Dance On A Volcano/Los Endos/I Know What I Like.

Source: BBC TV diffusion film. Quality: Excellent. 1 DVD.

"As Good As Gold" Genesis in concert at the Lyceum Ballroom London 7th May 1980.

Track Listing: As above (Ripples is complete on this version) second encore: The Knife is included too. Source: Pre-FM broadcast tapes. Quality: Excellent. 2 CDs.

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