I don't think Genesis have ever made a definitive
album, which is one reason why we've never got bogged down in our own past."
--Tony Banks
The First 30 Years
Tony Banks met Peter Gabriel; Mike Rutherford
met Antony Phillips. Out of these teenage friendships and songwriting partnerships
a band called Genesis emerged. In 1967, at the height of the psychedelic
boom, they made their first recordings with the man who thought up their
name, producer and pop star in waiting Jonathan King.
In pursuit of success, Genesis took the
scenic route. It was 10 years before they scored their first hit single.
But by the early 70's, Genesis were making headway with their uniquely
theatrical brand of "progressive" rock. A series of personnel changes introduced
a new drummer, Phil Collins, and guitarist Steve Hackett. Epics like "Supper's
Ready," a 23-minute controlled freak-out from the 1972's "FOXTROT" album,
were their original stock in trade.
In those early days, band members subsisted
on a retainer of 10 pounds a week. Hotels proving sadly unaffordable, the
group would drive home to London after every gig. Their live show looked
great - including Gabriel's masks and costumes - but it cost next to nothing.
"The challenge was to create something visually striking that was also
cheap," Banks remembers. "Which was good discipline."
Gradually, the world started to prick up
its ears. Fact: in America Genesis has never appeared as an opening act.
Rutherford: "We've always gone down well in the big industrial cities of
the East Coast and Midwest, maybe because of the element of fantasy and
escapism in our shows."
Following the extraordinary success --
on record and via a spectacular stage show -- of the band's seventh album,
"THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY," Peter Gabriel left in 1975. "We came
close to calling it a day when Pete left," Rutherford recalls. "It wasn't
that we lost our nerve. We were always confident we could write the music,
because Tony and I had done most of the Lamb. It was just a question of
whether the public would accept us." They did. Collins took over the vocals
"because he really wanted to do it, basically" and the next installment
of Genesis, "A TRICK OF THE TAIL," promptly outsold all of their previous
releases.
After the departure of Hackett in 1977,
the creative nucleus of the band reconfigured as a trio, aptly expressed
in the title of the next studio album, "...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE..."
(the band's first U.S. gold record). Rutherford played both guitar and
bass, and the majority of the material was written by Banks and Rutherford.
It wasn't until Genesis's next album, 1980's "DUKE," that drummer/vocalist
Collins made his full-fledged songwriting debut.
As the 80's began, punk notwithstanding,
Genesis were a major force to be reckoned with. "I think the fact that
we were all in our 30's by the time we became really successful was a great
help," says Banks. "To this day we've never had an argument about money."
With their global sales increasing, the band also continued to set new
standards as a live act. On their 1981-82 world tour, they broke box office
records in North America when they went out with a revolutionary lighting
system, Vari-Lite. Ten years later, they were the first stadium act to
employ high definition giant video screens - Sony Jumbotrons.
The 1980s proved to be Genesis's most commercially
successful decade yet. Their 1986 album, "INVISIBLE TOUCH," broke more
records when it yielded five U.S. top ten singles. "Despite the media's
perception of us, we didn't think of ourselves as a singles band," says
Rutherford. " In our minds we were a band that did long songs but just
happened to have a few hits." The accompanying Invisible Touch tour generated
the highest average gross per venue of any act on the road that year. A
total of three million people worldwide attended. In 1987, Genesis were
voted Band Of The Year in Rolling Stone magazine's Readers Poll.
Following a lay off during which band members
pursued individual projects, Genesis re-convened in 1991 to record "WE
CAN'T DANCE." "We were quite surprised Phil still wanted to make a Genesis
album," Banks recalls. "We felt incredibly loyal to one another, but the
pressures of his solo success made it increasingly difficult for all of
us to function as a band ." Difficult, but by no means impossible. "WE
CAN'T DANCE" sold over ten million copies worldwide, becoming Genesis's
biggest seller so far. A triumphal romp around the world saw the band play
to their largest ever British audience, when they sold out two concerts
at Knebworth in the Summer of 1992.
After another break for soloing, Genesis
and Phil Collins finally parted company in 1996. "It did briefly occur
to us that we should put Genesis to rest," Rutherford admits, "But Tony
and I have never stopped writing songs since we were teenagers, so we thought,
why should we give up now? A group is a compromise. Phil was good at concise
moments, just as we've always been happier working with larger, longer
structures. Now the balance has shifted again."
Which brings us to the twentieth Genesis
album, "CALLING ALL STATIONS." Another milestone in the band's history,
it marks the debut of new lead singer Ray Wilson -- Genesis' third vocalist
in thirty years. Edinburgh, Scotland born and bred, the 28-year-old Wilson
has been performing in bands since the age of 14. A singer whose voice
has more in common with Peter Gabriel than Phil Collins, an appointment
that signaled a return to Genesis's rockier roots. "We liked Ray immediately
because of the sort of sound pictures his voice conjures up," says Tony
Banks. "It has a natural darkness. With Ray we can write in a heavier,
more atmospheric way than we did with Phil. We also like the fact that
he doesn't have much history."
While most of the songs on "Calling All
Stations" were written by Tony and Mike before Ray came on board, he was
able to contribute to the writing of three of the album's eleven tracks.
As Mike comments, "Fitting in and at the same time making your mark is
the most difficult thing in this situation, and Ray has handled that brilliantly."
The majority of the album's drumming was provided by Nir Zidkyahu, with
Nick D'Virgilio handling the sticks on four tracks. As in the past, the
new album was recorded at Genesis's Surrey studio, The Farm.
Following the September 2nd release of
"Calling All Stations," Genesis will embark on a major world tour slated
to begin in late-fall.
