Outside And In (Highland HL334)
(61:56): In The Air Tonight, Please Don’t Ask, Tomorrow Never Knows (Phil Collins, demo 1977). Eleventh Earl Of Mar (different version), Inside And Out (second part demo), Pigeons (studio live), Carpet Crawlers (studio live), Misunderstanding (demo), Merrily Up On High (Peter Gabriel & Tom Robinson), Robbery Assault & Battery (Seconds Out outtake), It/Watcher Of The Skies (Seconds Out outtake), Seven Stones (’72 live), one-handed drum solo (Watford Tech), Harlequin, Paperlate (with “Phoenix Horns,” Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Flushing, NY – August 23rd, 1982)
Outside And In is a strange collection of documents on one disc. It is a collection of studio outtakes, demos, and rare live performances ranging from the Nursery Cryme era to Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel solo demos.
The first three tracks are Collins demos from the late seventies. They are attributed to 1977 right after Wind & Wuthering, but they are much later. The three are also from different sessions. “In The Air Tonight” dates from 1980. It’s a simple demo with vocals, drum machine and casio playing the melody. “Please Don’t Ask” is a different take of the song that appears on Duke. “Tomorrow Never Knows” is another demo from the same time as “In The Air Tonight.” It’s a reworking of the Beatles song which appears on Collins’ first solo album Face Value.
The following three tracks come from the 1976 Wind & Wuthering sessions. “Eleventh Earl Of Mar” sounds like the finished version without the vocal overdubs and with different keyboard parts. “Inside And Out” is a snippet of the latter half instrumental of the track which was released on the Spot The Pigeon EP. Finally “Pigeons” is a studio run through in lesser sound quality than the other tracks.
“The Carpet Crawlers” is a rehearsal of the song played live in the studio with Phil Collins on vocals. It’s notable that Collins sings the opening lines which were omitted from live performance. A demo of “Misunderstanding” follows in excellent quality. This features the band playing but Collins scatting the vocal melody.
“Merrily Upon High” is from the Tom Robinson work North By Northwest released in 1982. It’s an obscure Peter Gabriel rarity. Two outtakes from Seconds Out, “Robbery Assault & Battery” and “It / Watcher Of The Skies” are taken from a Radio one broadcast. The first song is in poorer quality than the second.
The rest of the disc contains rare songs performed live taken from audience recordings. “Seven Stones” is from the Teatro Alcione, Genoa, Italy on August 22nd, 1972. The recording is fair to good, but a better sounding generation was used later by Highland when they issued the complete show on Double Watchers (HL636/637). One-handed drum solo is taken from the June 28th, 1972 show at the Town Hall, Watford, England. Highland released the entire show on Euchre Show (HL498) and “Harlequin” is taken from Watford Technical College on March 4th, 1972 and which was released in its entirety on Shade Of Dawning (Highland HL069#G10).
The final track is a rare live performance of “Paperlate” with the Phoenix Horns. It was played only three times in 1982. This is from a very good audience recording from August 22nd in Queens, New York. Unlike the preceding three tracks Highland never released the entire show. Overall this has some interesting tracks along with not so interesting tracks. For the very rare material like the Collins demo at the beginning, it’s worth having.
1 Comment
I was at the show in Forrest Hills that night and the track they chose to add to this is PAPERLATE? They played Supper’s Ready, received a 5 minute standing O, and followed it up with Misunderstanding, and we all sat down.