Watch a Newly-Restored Peter Gabriel-Era Genesis Concert Film From 1973 in Stunning 4K Quality

There are two late-20th cen­tu­ry rock bands named Gen­e­sis and both of them fea­tured Phil Collins, Mike Ruther­ford, and Tony Banks. The sec­ond Gen­e­sis we know of as one of the biggest-sell­ing bands of all time and authors of such mas­sive hits as “Land of Con­fu­sion,” “In Too Deep,” and “Throw­ing It All Away.” The first we may not know at all, except indi­rect­ly by way of its front­man, Peter Gabriel, bet­ter known as… solo artist Peter Gabriel.

One rea­son Gen­e­sis, the sec­ond, is more famous than its pre­de­ces­sor must be the unabashed pop ambi­tions of the remain­ing three mem­bers after Gabriel depart­ed in 1975 and pio­neer­ing lead gui­tarist Steve Hack­ett left in ‘77. Anoth­er, relat­ed, rea­son must sure­ly be that Gen­e­sis, the first, made music that was not what most peo­ple would call acces­si­ble, even in the ‘70s, though it is unde­ni­ably beau­ti­ful and strange. Lovers of the song “Invis­i­ble Touch” might find them­selves unpre­pared for “The Lamb Lies Down on Broad­way.”

Gabriel, too, went pop in the 80s, though he only got a lit­tle less weird. Yet what large­ly drove the suc­cess of his solo career also drove the suc­cess of Gen­e­sis II: MTV made it impos­si­ble to escape “Big Time” and “No Reply at All.” Can we imag­ine an alter­nate ‘80s, per­haps, in which Gabriel’s odd-pop lean­ings and the earnest bal­ladry of Collins & com­pa­ny found a mid­dle ground? That is to say, if Peter Gabriel-era Gen­e­sis had made music videos? What too-lit­tle visu­al record we have of the first Gen­e­sis looks more and more promis­ing in the YouTube age.…

A few years back, we brought you news of a restored Peter Gabriel-era Gen­e­sis con­cert film from a 1973 show at England’s Shep­per­ton Stu­dios. Now, we have, from that same year, the con­cert above in Paris at the Bat­a­clan in “a 4K restora­tion that is a stun­ning improve­ment over any­thing seen before,” writes Rolling Stone. “Sim­ply put, it’s the most pris­tine video of a Peter Gabriel-era show that has ever sur­faced.”

This is a good thing for fans of Gen­e­sis One. The band played their final album with Gabriel, The Lamb Lies Down on Broad­way, in its entire­ty on all 104 tour stops two years lat­er. It was “the most elab­o­rate pro­duc­tion they’d ever attempt­ed,” and “in a deci­sion they lived to regret, they nev­er both­ered to film it.” The Paris con­cert, if sad­ly incom­plete, may be the clos­est we’ll get visu­al­ly to the glo­ri­ous high weird­ness of the orig­i­nal Gen­e­sis.

Relat­ed Con­tent: 

Watch Gen­e­sis (from the Peter Gabriel Era) Per­form in a Glo­ri­ous, 1973 Restored Con­cert Film

Peter Gabriel Re-Records “Biko,” His Anti-Apartheid Protest Song, with Musi­cians Around the World

Revis­it Kate Bush’s Pecu­liar Christ­mas Spe­cial, Fea­tur­ing Peter Gabriel (1979)

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness


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Comments (5)
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  • Michael halpin says:

    Sim­ply out­stand­ing, Peter Gabriel irristable emence!!!

  • Bwilliams says:

    Yes Peter Gabriel was and is fan­tas­tic ear­ly gen­e­sis is still the best gen­e­sis , very old Eng­lish and dreamy , superb .

  • Rachel says:

    I thought that most pre-1975 Gen­e­sis afi­ciona­dos would actu­al­ly know the rudi­ments of the Eng­lish language.…or, at least man­age to check their spelling!
    And,as a now over60 female, who was tak­en by their style in 1972,I take great pride in learn­ing that my musi­cal taste is now con­sid­ered to be “odd”!
    Go, me!!

  • Tony Lees says:

    Watched this con­cert set at lan­cast­er uni­ver­si­ty in ear­ly 1973.string dri­ven thing sup­port­ed them on a charis­ma label pack­age tour. At 14 yrs of age we were sur­prised to wit­ness seat­ed gui­tarists! Watch­er of the skies remains a favourite from this era. Nev­er wit­nessed love con­cert of the fol­low­ing album to foxtrot…one of lifes down­sides. Superb band. Cost of admis­sion was 75pence.

  • Billie says:

    Love all eras of Gen­e­sis , but the ear­ly stuff with Gabriel is mindblowing,my favourite album is sell­ing Eng­land by the pound

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