Genesis - Brush Back Your Hair - Ford Auditorium, Detroit, Michigan, USA - April 16th 1974 (PRRP 014) (VG AUD)

Artist: Genesis
Title: Brush Back Your Hair
Date: April 16th 1974
Venue: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Tracklisting
Disc One
01. Watcher Of The Skies 08:50
02. Story Of Britannia 02:05
03. The Nick & Michael Sketch 02:36
04. Dancing With The Moonlit Knight 08:55
05. Story Of Romeo & Juliet 02:28
06. The Cinema Show 11:41
07. I Know What I Like 06:13
08. Story Of Five Dead Bodies 02:12
09. Firth Of Fifth 10:19

Disc Two
01. Story Of Henry & Cynthia 02:11
02. The Musical Box 11:35
03. Horizons 02:26
04. The Story Of Old Michael 04:09
05. Supper's Ready 24:35

Personnel
Tony Banks: Keyboards, Guitars & Backing Vocals
Steve Hackett: Lead Guitars & Effects
Peter Gabriel: Lead Vocals, Flute & Percussion
Mike Rutherford: Bass Guitars, Guitars & Backing Vocals
Phil Collins: Drums, Percussion & Backing Vocals

Liner Notes: An Eventful Evening
Genesis was on a roll. They were in the middle of the “Black Show” leg of the Selling England by the Pound Tour. This trip had begun on March 1st in New Jersey, taking them to Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City and Detroit before moving on to Canada. The present performance features the band's stop in Detroit, one that would be quite memorable for musicians and audience alike. The Motor City was always a prominent stop for all progressive rock bands of the time. In fact, the city had hosted the band Yes just 6 weeks earlier; a show that we at PRRP featured in release #013. Genesis were quite eager to make their mark there as well.

Unfortunately for the band, many problems occurred during the show. Equipment failure for one thing became a major problem for the guys that night. But Genesis was used to equipment problems, so Peter Gabriel was experienced in the art of improvising and joking around with the audience. In fact, there is good evidence that the telling of stories between songs originated as a way to allow time for equipment warm ups and tuning and the correction of problems. The stories would reach unparalleled length that night in Detroit! Right after the telling of the Story of Brittania a buzz started to emanate from Mike Rutherbord's equipment which prompted Peter's improvisation narration of the “Nick the Roadie and Michael the bass guitarist sketch”.

As Nick and Mike frantically tried to remove the offending sound, Peter made their job even more difficult but providing the audience with a very amusing play-by-play. Gabriel was just about to direct Phil Collins in the renowned 'one-handed drum solo' to buy some more time but this was not necessary as the buzz was just then dismissed. Equipment failure would keep on plaguing the band throughout the entire show, but the most disturbing event of the evening came in the form of a very rude verbal attack from a member of the audience. In the middle of the Story of Henry and Cynthia, someone shouts out “your mother eats shit, shut the fuck up”. Always quick witted and unflustered, Peter calmly assures the man that his mother does no such thing. Then, Phil suggests that the gentleman find the nearest bar if he wants to continue such behaviour. To this point in their career, this was probably the most inappropriate audience behaviour the band had ever faced.

Fortunately for the rest of the audience, and ultimately for us, this incident, in addition to all the equipment problems, did not seem to disrupt the band's concentration. Genesis offered a stellar performance of each and every song that night. The set was well known by this time in the tour and therefore the timing and cohesiveness were quite remarkable. So enjoy this wonderful show. It is somewhat unusual for its many problems, but certainly noteworthy for its performance quality.

Notes from the Re-Master
This show was taken from two second generation cassette tapes of good quality. Viable music signal was found up to 10,000 Hz. Highs are crisp and clear as evidenced by the tonality of the flute and small cymbals during Firth of Fifth as well as the small cymbals used during The Musical Box. A tape flip gap of over 70 seconds was found in The Musical Box. This was patched to provide a complete song. Another gap was found in I Know What I Like and also needed a patch. The first tape ended in the middle of Supper's Ready but tape two had the complete song which was grafted onto the rest of the show. The general noise level of hiss was moderate but there was also a separate rolling hiss which varied in volume and also needed to be reduced. A combination of techniques was used to address both of these problems and reduce the level of noise to an acceptable level. Unfortunately for the band, the show was marred by a number of technical problems. After Dancing with the Moonlit Knight a buzz develops. This was left in the final version of this show because Peter Gabriel comments on the buzz and this leads to the “Nick and Mike Sketch” which we labeled Track 3. When it recurs, it was diminished as much as possible. Intermittently, the left channel lost volume and needed correction. Tonality within the left channel also needed to be corrected within these low volume sections. Occasional pops and short drop-outs were fixed and applause was lengthened at the end of some sections.