The Return of the final Hogweed in Osnabrück & Selling Hogweeds by the Pound in Münster 1973-09-23 and 1973-09-25; Aud remaster by Andrew Skeoch from master tapes (TRAP 07/08)


These tapes have been my personal holy grail. I've been successful in hiding them for 34 years, not making any copy before... 

Here is my 'contrast clause':
 
1. This is not the fourth nor the fifth concert but the 2nd and the 3rd of the Selling England Shows back in 1973 (according to the database). 

2. These 2 Shows have have a setlist and order different to the other Selling-Shows. The Giant Hogweed returned to Germany as encore. Both shows miss Horizons and More Fool Me not being performed. IKWIL was set on the 2nd place - not as at Paris/Quebec(?) e.g.

3. Not the later concerts but esp. these two concerts are GENESIS as I know them: powerful and nearly perfect (just in my opinion) performing (a lot of) their greatest, beautiful stuff!

4. The intros of Peter are mostly very short - so the equipment must have been still ok at the beginning of the tour :).

5. These audience recordings are not the very best from this tour (which is HOGWEED 07) - but are very listenable and the remaster has achieved a very good sound.

6. The recordings are not compressed - but kept the full dynamics of the music. 

7. This is not a new Hogweed release (definitely not) - but an Andrew Skeoch remaster with artwork in the tradition of the Hogweed releases!


Dates: 1973-09-23 Stadttheater Osnabrück, Germany
and 1973-09-25 Stadttheater Münster, Germany
	
Type: audience, mono
	
Quality: A- (just the tapers own opinion)

Lineage:
magnetic micro > BASF-Tape-Recorder CC-9200 > Karstadt-Cassette C-90 “HiFi Low Noise”

Transfer (July 2007): Master tapes > NAD Deck 602 > azimuth alignement > Soundblaster PCI > Audacity 1.3 Beta (stereo, 32 bit, 44100 Hz) > wav 

Remaster: Andrew Skeoch
Artwork: Harold Barrel (picture by Peter Wood)

The artwork is suitable for one 4-CD Box or two 2-CD Boxes.
Newspaper articles are also included. 

The Band:
Tony Banks - Keyboards, 12 String & Backing Vocals
Phil Collins - Drums, Percussion & Backing Vocals
Peter Gabriel - Lead Vocals, Flute & Percussion
Steve Hackett - Lead Guitars & Effects 
Mike Rutherford - Bass Guitars, Guitars, Bass Pedals & Backing vocals


Stadttheater Osnabrück, Germany, 1973-09-23

The first ever released recording of a GENESIS “Selling” show
including the rare “Hogweed” encore, probably only ever
performed on the initial leg of the tour. This is the second show
of the tour that started in Paris (where no encore was played).

TRAP 07 DISC 1 time 72:32

1. audience ambience 1:08
2. Watcher of the Skies 8:15	
3. Lawnmower intro 0:28
4. I Know What I Like 5:58
5. Romeo & Juliet intro 0:57
6. The Cinema Show 12:22
7. The Battle of Epping Forest 12:02
8. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (intro cut) 8:24
9. 5 Rivers intro 1:35
10. Firth of Fifth 8:48
11. Henry and Cynthia intro 1:05
12. The Musical Box 11:22


TRAP 07 DISC 2 time 34:08

1. Supper's Ready intro (cut) 0:28
2. Supper's Ready 22:59
3. applause 2:03	
4. Return of the Giant Hogweed 8:34


Stadttheater Münster, Germany, 1973-09-25

The second recording of a GENESIS “Selling” show including
the rare “Hogweed” encore. This is the third show of the tour
(following Osnabrück).

TRAP 08 DISC 1 time 71:07

1. audience ambience 0 :35
2. Watcher of the Skies 8:17
3. I Know What I Like 5:18
4. Romeo & Juliet intro 0:57
5. The Cinema Show 11:58
6. The Battle of Epping Forest 12:42
7. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight 8:59
8. 5 Rivers intro 1:04
9. Firth of Fifth 8:43
10. Henry and Cynthia intro 1:56
11. The Musical Box 10:30


TRAP 08 DISC 2 time 38:06

1. Old Michael intro (cut) 2:20
2. Supper's Ready 23:21
3. applause 4:02
4. Return of the Giant Hogweed 8:20


The Concerts

We were a small bunch of young GENESIS fans (fans of the albums from TRESPASS to FOXTROT) and one of us got aware of these concerts. As my brother was the driver and the concerts had more worth than school to me, I could see both shows and was lucky to record them. At that time you wore a parka, army bags, and so the recorder was well hidden.
The theatres had about 900 seats and were probably sold out. The SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND record was not out yet, and so the GENESIS-music was a new experience. As Peter Gabriel said in an interview before this tour, the band wanted to change the music into some more (!) dynamic style at that time, including gentle parts. And so they did!
The theatre was just the right place for the show. In my opinion the performances were very good, close to the studio versions, powerful (e.g. Battle Of Epping Forest, also TMB-Münster! - don't miss it - and others) but yet without most of the epic stories by Peter that I got to know recently. The voice of Peter here is still in a very good condition and I think the audience was not reserved (as it is often reported about the German SELLING tour), but really enthusiastic.
The poster of one of these concerts used to hang in my room for some time, but then I had lost it unfortunately. 

The Recording

For both concerts my place was on the balcony, first or 2nd row. So the music has reverb, there is some hiss due to the cheap tapes – and you will need proper headphones or a very good hifi system to enjoy the bass pedals properly! I tried to get the recording as clean as possible – so I didn’t like clapping so much...
After a few years the first of my three tapes got damage by playback with a recorder that caused regular bends on the tape. The 6 songs after Watcher of the Skies (Osnabrück) were affected. You can’t hear the periodical loss of treble anymore for most of the time (fortunately), but it’s still sometimes noticeable.
The first transfer to harddisk in 2003 by my son was done just to save the recordings. In July 2007 I realized that it was done without azimuth and I was happy to be able to make a new and better transfer (still) of the original tapes. I sent the files of the new transfer to Andrew, who thankfully had meanwhile promised to remaster them.  

The remaster (by Andrew Skeoch)

The GENESIS community will enjoy these recordings greatly I feel. Poor Tony Banks may not want to hear these shows again though, as I think he must have been having a bad tour, especially at Münster where he starts playing The Knife instead of Hogweed! Ooops!

Osnabruck Notes
The better of the two recordings, for unknown reason: through original venue acoustics (most likely as all three tape sides are of equal quality.) or subsequent tape deterioration. Mic bumps and tape gaps removed/edited (those in intro to Supper's Ready were particularly difficult to completely remove). Patch of second chord in Watcher. Fade ins/outs. Reduced to mono. Equalisation balance applied. No denoising. Volume optimised.

Munster Notes
More mushy and distant-sounding than Osnabrück. mic bumps and tape gaps removed/edited. Fade ins/outs. Compression of bass feedback/booming at around 136Hz. Reduced to mono. Equalisation balance applied. No denoising. Volume optimised, 'pushed' slightly harder than Osnabrück to get the most out of the recording.

Artwork
Peter Wood (who is an internationally acclaimed artist and lifelong GENESIS fan) especially created the cover artwork for thisrelease.
You are free to print and use it for your personal copy of the CDs and to include it with all non-commercial trades and/or uploads of this release, but please keep in mind that it is a copyrighted piece of art and must not be modified or re-used for any other purpose.
For more of Peter’s beautiful artwork (including several GENESIS related items) please visit his website: http://www.hugobia.co.uk
  

From these recordings exist also two raw versions, the transfer and a version of the edit files: "These can be described as cleaned up raw files; they include edits such as mic bump removal, but are pre-eq and volume optimising. (Actually Osnabruck had some further mic pops removed after this edit...)"(AS). If there is any further interest to these versions, just send me a pm.

Many thanks to Andrew Skeoch for his very fine remaster; Many thanks also to Peter Wood for his beautiful painting; Special thanks to Harold Barrel for his enthusiasm, many detailed commentaries and finally his work on cover and booklet!

Recorded, transferred and uploaded (Jan 2008) by Trapper

This is a fan appreciation recording.
Under no circumstances may it be offered for commercial sale.

Enjoy!