I ran a Genesis track earlier this week on the Roundtable. It was a studio/session of Twilight Alehouse, also from 1972. This weekend's concert is from London, via The BBC and features the original lineup of Genesis with Peter Gabriel.

So here's the rundown of what you'll be hearing:

Genesis – Live In Concert At The BBC – 1972

1. The Fountain of Salmacis
2. The Musical Box
3. The Return Of The Giant Hogweed
4. Get ‘em Out By Friday
5. Watcher Of The Skies

I added session versions of Get 'em Out By Friday and Watcher Of The Skies at the end. They were originally from the Twilight Alehouse session I played earlier this week.

Enjoy and Happy Mothers Day to all you moms and mom-wannabes.

By the time the 1970's rolled around, a new and experimental phase of Rock that began life as a hybrid between Psychedelia, Classical and Free-form Jazz in the 60's, burst on the scene and took Europe by storm. In the States, it took a while. Shrugged off in the American press as pretentious, sterile and overly-intellectual, the genre had to find its audience by almost by word-of-mouth.

With such bands as Yes, The Nice (in the later 60's) and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, inroads were made that bridged the gap between a skeptical press and an eager audience. But still, the overwhelming majority of bands in the Prog-Rock genre were the exclusive property of "that" side of the Atlantic.

Genesis had been around since the late 1960's. With one early album (From Genesis To Revelation) showing promise, but lacking that winning spark. They eventually signed with Charisma Records, founded by former Manager-turned Label owner Tony Stratton-Smith and their fortunes soon changed. Getting a word of mouth and popularity in England and all over Europe (especially in Italy), they secured a license deal with Dunhill Records in the U.S. - they had made one or two brief tours of the U.S., primarily in the Northeast and, almost unbeknownst to the U.S. record industry, Genesis were gaining a huge popularity. When Charisma struck a label deal with Atlantic, and their maiden album with the new arrangement, Selling England By The Pound was released in 1973, Genesis took the record industry big-wigs completely by surprise and sold out every venue they were booked in during their first cross-country U.S. tour. Word-of-mouth paid off with dividends.

Tonight it's the opening track from that milestone album, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight.

Maybe you remember it - and maybe you've never heard it before.

Pull up a chair and have a listen for the next seven minutes.

Genesis tonight, when Peter Gabriel was lead singer and the band were truly knee-deep in invention. Here they are, appearing live on the BBC program Top Gear on September 25, 1972, performing a non-lp single, Twilight Alehouse.

Perfect starter for the week.

Enjoy.

and that too . . .

Genesis tonight. Maybe not as you remember them, if you've become familiar with the band after Peter Gabriel left and around the time they became hit makers. This was an earlier incarnation of the band. Not as they were in the beginning when they were signed to Decca in 1968, but that early-middle period before Phil Collins joined and when they were first signed to Charisma Records, the label responsible for much of what became known as Prog-Rock in the UK. in the early 1970's

Trespass was their first album with the new label, released in October of 1970 to good reviews but not good sales in the UK. They did hit almost instantly in Europe where their influence would be felt for many years, if not decades later. Trespass was something of a transition and a honing of what would become their trademark sound. Shortly after the album was recorded there would be some personnel changes, among the most notable would be the replacement of their drummer, the late John Mayhew with former child actor and drummer for Flaming Youth Phil Collins as well as replacement of guitarist Anthony Phillips with first, Mick Barnard and then Steve Hackett.

Tonights track, Looking For Someone, opens the album and gives some hint of what would be going on with their musical direction by their next album, Nursery Cryme. It would be the beginning of what came to be known as The Classic Era for Genesis.

(Genesis' Peter Gabriel during his Flower Period)

Taking a break from the unfamiliar tonight and heading into some familiar territory with one of the more celebrated proponents of the Prog-Rock movement of the 1970s; Genesis. The early 70's would come to be known as the Classic Genesis lineup with Peter Gabriel fronting the band as well as Steve Hackett on guitar, in addition to Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins. They turned out several milestone albums during that period including this one, Selling England By The Pound from which tonight's track Firth of Fifth comes.

A little something to jog your memory tonight. Maybe send it racing.

(Telephone - huge in Europe. Over here? Well . . . )

I recently ran across a French Radio station online (Oui FM, which you should check out) that plays some fascinating stuff - old and new - French and non-French. During one of their sets they slipped in Dure Limite by the French punk/post-punk/new wave/hard rock group Telephone. They were enormous in France and throughout Europe in the late 1970s up to 1986, when they disbanded and went separate ways. They hardly made a dent in the States (again, that language thing), but I remembered the band pretty well, having been familiar with them since their first album, but I really hadn't played anything by them, or heard anything about them until the other day when Dure Limite came on. Not a massive seller at the time, it was produced by Bob Ezrin, who was responsible for a lot of memorable albums in the 70s - Doctor John and Peter Gabriel are two that come to mind. According to a website, the band did reunite in 2003. But what has happened since then is a mystery.

Still, it's nice to be reminded of the not-so-obvious 80s every once in a while.

(Split Enz - There was an audible gasp when they first played The Roxy)

There are certain moments in musical history I shall always cherish - Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine opening for Hendrix in 1968, Peter Gabriel exploding into Santa Claus during a Genesis Tour in 1974 and seeing Split Enz play The Roxy in 1975.

The band you see pictured above is exactly the way they looked during their first tour of the U.S. just as the "Second Thoughts"(released here as Mental Notes) album came out. We went through Glam, went through all the "Hair/sweat bands", went through matching stage suits and haircuts bands - but we never went through anything like this!

When the curtain opened for their first set, there was something of an audible gasp coming from this jaundiced, jaded, somewhat calcified crowd of press types who stopped stuffing Roxy ashtrays in their pockets long enough to be suitably blown away by the sheer outrageousness of this group. They spoke my language and I became a life long fan from that minute on.

This version of Lovey Dovey first appeared on "Mental Notes", their initial release for Mushroom Records in Australia. The version of "Lovey Dovey" we know is the one from the UK/US version of "Mental Notes" which was actually issued in Australia as "Second Thoughts", but it was re-recorded and produced by Phil Manzanera. I know - confusing, and I had a hard time figuring it out what was going on until their A&M period came along later.

But, all that said - this is the first version of that track and one probably not heard all that much this side of the Pacific Rim.