Three Sides Live is the third live album by the English rock bandGenesis, released as a double album on 4 June 1982 on Charisma Records in the United Kingdom. It was released by Atlantic Records in the United States. After touring in support of their studio albumAbacab ended in December 1981 the band entered an eight-month break in activity, during which they selected recordings from their previous tours for a live album. Three Sides Live includes recordings between 1976 and 1981; the UK edition contains additional live tracks while the international edition features tracks from their 1982 EP 3×3 with B-sides from Duke. Three Sides Live received a mostly positive critical reception and was a commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 10 on the US Billboard 200, where it sold 500,000 copies. Its release coincided with the band's Three Sides Live concert film. It was remastered in 1994 and 2009, the latter for their Genesis Live 1973–2007box set.
Background
In December 1981, Genesis wrapped their four-month tour of Europe and North America to support the release of their eleventh studio album, Abacab. The band then entered an eight-month break in activity, during which they each pursued solo projects and selected recordings from their previous tours for inclusion on a new live album. All editions of Three Sides Live contain recordings from their 1980 and 1981 tours across the first three sides. The fourth side of the UK edition contains additional live tracks from 1976, 1978, and 1980, while the international edition contains tracks from the group's second EP 3×3 – "Paperlate", "You Might Recall", and "Me and Virgil" and two B-sides recorded during the sessions for Duke – "Open Door" and "Evidence of Autumn".
In a review published in Record Mirror by Robin Smith, the album received a mixed response. The atmosphere he experienced in concert at one of their Wembley Arena gigs in 1981 was absent from the album, which he deemed "hardly a sparkling addition" to the Genesis catalogue. Smith attributed this to the lacklustre track selection and the seeming lack of interest from the crowd noise. He praised the performances of "Dodo/Lurker", "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", but picked the third and fourth side as stand out tracks. Smith concluded that he would be listening to Seconds Out, the band's second live album, "for years to come". Rolling Stone gave the album a rave review, particularly praising Genesis's advancement to more refined and concise material: "Unlike Seconds Out, where the concert versions of Genesis' songs were shrouded in virtuosic bluster, this album offers incisive, sharply focused performances uncluttered by theatrics or instrumental tedium." AllMusic's retrospective review asserted that the performances were impressive and exciting throughout, delivering nothing but "lean, crisp, and generally bracing accounts of the group's then-current sound."
Reissues
In 1994, Three Sides Live was remastered and reissued with the UK edition worldwide. Four of the five additional studio selections from that out of print release were issued in 2000 on the box set, and all five songs have since been included on the bonus disc of the Genesis 1976–1982 box set.
Track listing
Track listing is adapted from the album's 1982 liner notes.
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's 1982 liner notes. Genesis
Bill Bruford – drums on "it."/"Watcher of the Skies"
Production
Genesis – production
David Hentschel – engineering on "Follow You Follow Me", "The Cinema Show", "One for the Vine", "The Fountain of Salmacis", and "it."/"Watcher of the Skies"
