Genesis were persuaded by their label, Charisma Records, to release Genesis Live as a budget-priced title to mark time while the band recorded Selling England by the Pound in mid-1973. The group's manager, Tony Stratton Smith said that the low price would allow it to be sold in stores such as Woolworths and WHSmith. Genesis Live saw an imported release in the US in early 1974 which upset Gabriel as it included songs from their old live sets and that it was quickly recorded with little care given to the quality of the recordings. When Gabriel reluctantly agreed to have the album released, part of the deal was that it was never meant to be put out in the US. The tracks on the album were recorded at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, England by the Pye Mobile Recording Unit, engineer Alan Perkins, on except for "Return of the Giant Hogweed", which was recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England on the previous day, when the band was touring in support of Foxtrot. These recordings were originally made for the U.S. radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour, though they were never broadcast. John Burns mixed the multi-track tapes in July 1973. A handful of early radio promotional double-LP test pressings were created which included a 23-minute version of "Supper's Ready" from the Leicester show. This album's running order was "Watcher of the Skies", "The Musical Box", "Get 'Em Out by Friday", "Supper's Ready", "The Return of the Giant Hogweed", "The Knife", and included between-song patter by Gabriel. "Supper's Ready" was not included in the officially released version, even though the front cover photograph was taken during a live performance of the song. A live recording of "Supper's Ready" from the same year's tour was released on 1998's 4-CD boxed set, Genesis Archive 1967–75. However, Gabriel re-recorded some vocals before allowing release. A remastered version was released on CD in 1994 by Virgin in Europe and Atlantic in the US and Canada. A remixed version was included in 2009's Genesis Live 1973–2007 set, also released by Virgin in Europe and Atlantic in the U.S. and Canada. A short story was printed on the back cover of the album, which was the initial part of the reason for Gabriel's departure from the band two years later. William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist" had read the story, and was interested in working with Gabriel. The pair were in talks about making a film, which took Gabriel away from the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, his final album with the group.
Critical reception
Rolling Stone gave the album a brief but positive review, commenting that "this album goes a long way toward capturing the gripping power and mysticism that has many fans acclaiming Genesis as 'the greatest live band ever. A retrospective review by AllMusic was also resoundingly positive. They remarked "it's doubtful that anyone ever got a richer sound out of a Mellotron on-stage than Tony Banks does on this album, and Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins' playing is all quite amazing as a whole unit, holding together some very complex music in a live setting". They judged all the recordings to be far superior to their studio originals.
