If anybody asks me "what is my favourite band?" my answer is invariably Genesis, up to a point; well two really.

If anybody asks me "what is my favourite band?" my answer is invariably Genesis, up to a point; well two really. Those points are 1975 when Peter Gabriel left and 1977 when Steve Hackett departed. Until then, Genesis to me were the most inventive and original band out there, both visually and musically.

'Three Sides Live' is a concert that has appeared before as part of 'The Movie Box' collection and was recorded after the aforementioned events in November 1981 (following the release of 'Duke' and 'Abacab'). The bulk of most of this recording comes from those releases, but keep in mind though that this is not the whole show; I have never attended a Genesis concert that only lasts eighty-one minutes (and that's including the backstage and interview parts) and I would bet that the bits they have cut from this are the likes of 'Dodo/Lurker' and 'Who Dunnit?'.

'No Reply At All', 'Me And Sarah Jane' and 'Man On The Corner' are too reminiscent of member's solo projects and nowhere near strong enough to stand with the good stuff. 'Abacab' and 'Turn It On Again' are okay which leaves 'Behind The Lines', 'Duchess', the medley of 'In The Cage', 'The Cinema Show' and 'The Colony Of Slippermen' and 'Afterglow' being tracks I prefer more. The footage is a thing of its time (being originally filmed in 16mm) which makes it appear quite soft compared to the HD stuff we get today. The sound has been mixed to 5:1 and the concert footage is interspersed with backstage stuff and interviews etc.

Apart from the concert footage, there is also forty-eight minutes of live audio featuring seven complete songs, some of which are in the footage, but also include 'One For The Vine', 'Fountain Of Salmacis' and 'Follow You, Follow Me' which I would have preferred to some of those mentioned above. Once again, I would imagine that many fans will have the box-set, and will give this a miss, but it would be of interest to those who don't have it.

Moving onto the second visual release from Genesis, 'Sum Of The Parts', which many fans will already have seen as it was broadcast on the BBC in October as 'Together And Apart'. The DVD itself is an all encompassing career spanning item featuring contributions from Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Gabriel, Hackett and Mike Rutherford (the classic line-up), and their original guitarist Anthony Phillips. There are numerous interviews with these people and others, alongside lots of archive performance footage, most of which we have seen before but there are a couple of bits that I for one haven't seen.

The press release states, "it's a captivating story, told from the beginning for the very first time". Well no, I have seen numerous visual releases that tell the Genesis story, but what this has is "an exploration of the dynamic between the band members that has enabled them to survive numerous line-up changes, alongside solo careers outside of the band". So, not only are all the Genesis albums featured but we also get info about the different solo albums that everybody has done, in chronological order.

What I always tend to find with things like this is that they generally don't tell me anything new because having seen every tour since 'The Lamb' in 1975 and having all the albums, I know a fair bit about them. What I liked about this though was the fact that all the major players were there (no Ray Wilson though) and all seemed happy to be there. Normally, you always get one who has thrown the dummy out and is not in the mix. Consequently, you get quite a lot of banter between members, like Gabriel calling Banks "a difficult bastard" while sat next to him; you have to imagine that they are still mates. Having said all that though, there was one thing I learned that I didn't know before and that is that Banks has stated that Collins didn't play 'In The Air Tonight'. While this point is discussed by both people, at separate times, I might add, it doesn't really go in depth.

I actually enjoyed watching this as I put it on to scan through initially to see what the format was, and ended up watching it all the way through. I'm still not sure if others will buy it, particularly as it has been broadcast on TV, but it kept me quiet for ninety minutes.

Andy Brailsford