Piper Club, Rome, April 18, 1972

Piper Club,
Rome, Italy
April 18, 1972
A TM Production

Overall Rating:


A nice quiet audience recording. The background chatter is minimal. Peter still sounds a little nervous with the crowd at times, like on the La Ferme recording a few months earlier.

Sound: * * *
An audience recording. I suspect that the tape might have sounded pretty rough before it was rescued by TM. There is occasional distortion during some of the louder sections, but the CD is quite listenable and like all TM productions, has a beautiful graphics package.

Mix: * * *
A dry, stark mix. The guitars fade into background at times, but on the whole, everyone gets heard.

Performance: * * *
Several of the songs have passages that are played too fast, draining all emotion from the performance. At times, it seems as if the band is just trying to get through the songs as quickly as possible. Perhaps Phil was excited to be in Italy. This first occurs during Stagnation, when the drums kick in.

Raw Notes:

1. Happy The Man intro. Pete introduces the song in English and translates the title into Italian.

2. Happy the Man. Peter goes up high on the last chorus. (Yeah, yeah, yeah nowhere!) Nice performance.

3. Stagnation (story about last man on Earth planting a crop of onions?) - Translates title again. Phil is a little fast coming in with the drums. Everyone keeps up nicely. Tony nails the organ solo
even at this speed. Tony does the "Ahh ahh ahhs". Tempo a little fast again going into the "I want to sit down" section. Phils drumming at the end is much more elaborate than John Mayhew's.

4. The Fountain of Salmacis - Story of Hermaphroditus. A little audience chatter story. Mellotron makes appearance. Has some trouble in second verse, coming up to speed a little too slowly. Peter having some trouble with high notes. Sings "One Flesh" after "stangely joined as one." Some distortion in the recording toward the end. Sings "Somewhere" after "forever still beneath the lake." Good Audience response.

5. Twilight Alehouse - Short intro. Translates title. Second chorus a little fast again. Band seems to be rushing through this one a bit carelessly. Still gets a good response.

6. Drum Solo. A bit jazzy. The roots of Brand X? A little audience chatter at first. Steve comes in with a faded-in chord. Peter and Phil: "Goo goo ga ga goo goo."

7. The Musical Box. Story not as elaborate as later. Translates title. Phil does the background vocals like the original. Phil mimics the phase shifter: "Here it comes agaiiioooonnn..." Peter sings "and I touch... your warmth.. YEAH!" like on Genesis Live. Again rushed during the following instrumental section. Peter flat on "She's a lady, she's got time". Rushed, but still energetic. Crowd loves it.

8. Return of the Giant Hogweed - intro: Translates. Good, powerful performance. Peter has vocal problems on "Human bodies soon will know our anger" section.

(Encore)

9 The Knife - Peter says "grazie" and the band launches into the song. Peter already changing the lyrics to the second verse. Rushed. Good job on eerie instr section. You can really hear the Leslie on Tony's organ. Too fast again in the instrumental after "Wanting freedom". Intense noise during final instr section.

10. Going Out To Get You - Recording gets distorted. Someone in crowd requests "Looking For Someone". Crowd claps along to the beattoward the end. Good crowd response. Is that Peter chatting with the crowd on the fade out?