Genesis FAQ Logo!

Genesis Frequently Asked Questions List
Version 2.6

Written and maintained by Michael Ostrich.

Last updated 10.31.99

Compiled by:
Michael Ostrich, Genesis FAQ Maintainer - syrinx@progscape.com
Gary Best, FAQ Maintainer Emeritus - gary@congo.demon.co.uk
Sue Town, Paperlate List Manager - slt@atom.ansto.gov.au

people have viewed the Genesis FAQ since 12.21.98.

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CREDITS

Many thanks to the following for their additions, corrections, and advice:

Send complaints, comments, money and suggestions for this FAQ to: syrinx@erotomania.org.

Many thanks to Volker Warncke, Tom Martin and Miguel Farah for mirroring this site. An extra amount of
thanks goes out to Alexis Charlet for transcribing it in French.

Special thanks to Alan Hewitt, Doug Melbourne, Duncan Phillips, Tiffany & Nick D'Virgilio, Dave Woodward,
Scott McMahan, Ice Magazine and Kudos Management for their input.

Current Genesis Personnel

Additional Genesis Personnel

Former Genesis Personnel


CONTENTS

1.00 Genesis On The Internet
Are there any official Genesis/related web sites?
Where is the Genesis Discography?
Are there any Genesis WebRings set up?
2.00 Current Genesis Information
What singles were released from Calling All Stations?
Tony Banks's track by track review of the albun
3.00 Genesis remaster questions
When is the remastered Trespass coming out?
4.00 A (Very) Brief History Of Genesis
5.00 Various Genesis Questions
The Peter Gabriel Era
The Phil Collins Era
The Ray Wilson Era
6.00 Are there any Genesis tribute bands?
- new info since last update.

1.00 - Genesis on the Internet

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1.01- Are there any official Genesis/related web sites?

The official Genesis website is at http://www.genesis-web.com. The site is run by Hit & Run, Genesis's
management. The page has been updatded due to the release of the greatest hits album, so check it out!

Ray Wilson's new band Cut has a website at two different addresses - http://www.raywilson.co.uk and http://www.cut.org.uk.

The official Steve Hackett website is up and looking awesome, as usual. Steve's URL is http://www.stevehackett.com.

The official Peter Gabriel website is available at http://realworld.on.net/pg/menu.html. The site is run off of Realworld, Peter Gabriel's record label.

Although not an official website, The Path Is Clear - maintained by Thomas Holter - is by far one of the best Genesis web sites out there. His site has the latest information, transcribed articles from every era of Genesis, as well as a bunch of links to other sites. Thomas is info the webhost for The Waiting Room, probably the best known Genesis fan magazine (run by Alan Hewitt!). Thomas's website (with the new URL) is located at http://www.genesis-path.com

1.02 - Where is the Genesis Discography?

The Genesis Discography (run by Scott McMahan) can be found at http://lighthouse.softbase.com/~scott/genesis/.

1.03 - Are there any Genesis WebRings set up?

Joseph Dixon has set up a Genesis WebRing at http:/members.aol.com/jsd1996475/genring.htm. This is probably your best bet for getting the very best Genesis websites on the Internet.


Back to Index

2.00 - Current Genesis Information

Turn It On Again - The Hits was released in the USA on October 26, 1999. The album is basically a retrospective of the Phil Collinss era but does contain a few suprises! Here is the complete tracklisting:
 
Turn It On Again
Invisible Touch
Mama (Edit)
Follow You, Follow Me
Hold On My Heart
Abacab (Edit)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
No Son Of Mine
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (Edit)
In Too Deep
Congo (Edit)
Jesus He Knows Me
That's All
Misunderstanding
Throwing It All Away
The Carpet Crawlers 1999

Yes, you read correctly - a new version of The Carpet Crawlers! This recording, over 3 years in the making features the 1971-1975 lineup (PG, PC, SH, TB and MR). Trevor Horn produced the track, and the single has been released to FM radio stations here in the United States.

 
The band (Tony/Mike/Ray/Nir) is currently scheduled to go into the studio at the end of 1999 to record a new album. Genesis's latest studio release, Calling All Stations, was released on September 2nd, 1997.
 
Calling All Stations
Congo
Shipwrecked
Alien Afternoon
Not About Us
If That's What You Need
The Dividing Line
Uncertain Weather
Small Talk
There Must Be Some Other Way
One Man's Fool

2.01 - What sinles were released from Calling All Stations?

The first single from Calling All Stations in the UK was Congo. Release date was September 15th, 1997. The CD-Single was released in two separate formats:

Congo - Version 1

Congo (Edit)
Papa He Said (Non-Album Track)
Banjo Man (Non-Album Track)

Congo - Version 2

Congo (Edit)
Second Home By The Sea (Edit)
CD-Rom Interview

 
The second single in the UK was Shipwrecked, which was released on December 1st, 1997. This CD-Single was released in two separate formats:
 
Shipwrecked - Version 1

Shipwrecked (Album Version)
No Son Of Mine (Recorded Live At NASA)
Lover's Leap (Recorded Live At NASA)
Turn It On Again (Recorded Live At NASA)

Shipwrecked - Version 2

Shipwrecked (Album Version)
Phret (Non-Album Instrumental Track)
7/8 (Non-Album Instrumental Track)

The third (and final) single in the UK was Not About Us, which was released on February 23rd, 1998. This was also the only single in support of Calling All Stations in the US. In the UK, the CD-Single is in two separate formats as well as a cassette format:

Not About Us - Version 1

Not About Us (Edit)
Anything Now (Non-Album Track)
Sign Your Life Away (Non-Album Track)
Run Out Of Time (Non-Album Track)

Not About Us - Version 2

Not About Us (Edit)
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight (Acoustic)
Follow You, Follow Me (Acoustic)
Not About Us (Acoustic)

All Acoutic tracks recorded in Paris on 12.13.97

 
The US single of Not About Us has the following tracks:
 

Not About Us (Album Version)

Turn It On Again (live at NASA)
 

2.02 - Tony Banks's track by track review of the album

Tony took time to review all the songs on Calling All Stations. Here's what he had to say:

Calling All Stations:

"Calling All Stations is the opening track, which was actually the first thing we wrote. Most of the elements on that were created on day one and what became the middle part came a little later. We really just set up the rhythm and played on it. It is a chord sequence-based piece and all these chord sequences just sounded really good on it, you know - dramatic chords - and it was simply a question of trying to put them in an order that gave some kind of sense to the song because there's virtually no repetition in it and yet it seems to have together pretty well. It's a darm and dramatic, slow tempo track and I know it's Ray's favorite song on the album."

Congo:

"..it really developed out of a loop that I was fiddling around with where I was combining two or three different things together and slowing them down and doing funny things with them and it just had a really good feel to it I thought, so we ended up having two completely different moods on this one loop, one of which was very much a happy thing - which was more obvious because it suggested slightly African beats or a Caribbean feel. Then the other thing had this much darker mood and we just combined the two, really. I must admit when we were writing this and I had just heard the Stiltskin album, I said to Mike (Rutherford) 'this would sound fantastic, get that singer from Stiltskin, this song sounds exactly like one he would sing' and I just sang what was really a straight bluesy kind of melody on it and I said that will sound really good with that singer's voice, it'll work. So I had Ray' s voice at the back of my mind. Most of the time, when we were writing the songs, we did not really have any idea of a singer in mind but I'm pleased with the say the song turned out. The chorus is really strong so it will be interesting to see if it works for us."

Shipwrecked:

"Shipwrecked actually came from another loop but one which I just recorded. We made DAT's all the time of things as we went along and there was a little bit in the song that became Anything Now. There was just a little riff that Mike played and just so that I could put a tag on it. I clipped it out and put it on the emulator because I thought it was a good little piece and I thought there was something we could do with it. Later on I played it back at slow speeds on keyboards and I just thought it sounded fantastic. So I looped it, as I do (laughter) and I played it to Mike and I said 'You're going to love this' and quite obviously he loved it because it was him (laughter). It was just a little riff, just a transient riff in a long 25 minute improvisation, a riff he played twice and it sounded really really good. We just played the loop back and it just had some magic about it. We were a bit stuck with some of the elements in it, so what we did was overdub slowed down guitars on it to make the riff itself a bit more prominent but we still couldn't get it as good as the original loop, so the original loop is quite loud. Then it was just a matter of writing a song on it that had a very simple verse and middle eight, something to take it away and come back so if you wanted to come back to that riff again and again. Mike wrote the lyrics for Shipwrecked and we actually thrashed out a melody for this one really because the initial melody that Mike had I think wasn't quite right so I tried another completely different one and some parts of that worked and we ended up combining the two and producing a result. It's got such a strong, nostalgic feel and we just wanted to get that whole feel on it.

Alien Afternoon:

"What happened with that was Mike had a drum pattern that was quite interesting and I just played on it. We probably had more than this, but we had three or four bits that worked on it and I had these two bits and I thought that both were really strong in a different way. Mike was particularly keen on what ended up on being the first part of the song and I was particularly keen on what ended up on the second part and it was just that there wasn't a way you could really make a song out of them and say that one's chorus to the other's verse - they were two separates. So the idea was to have a kind of link. I had this odd chord sequence that went with the second half but wasn't really part of anything so that was used as the kind of bridge between them. It was just a matter then of working out a lyric that would combine the two very different styles. The second half is very deceptive because it's a very simple pattern and yet somehow it sound special and you don't know why it is - it just has a quality about it."

Not About Us:

"It was all of us really but every time Mike played that opening sequence, which again was very simple, just a couple of chords, but it sounded very good, very evocative and on the working tape, it just sounded really good so we wanted to keep that - the acoustic feel. I wrote the chorus part, the chords and everything to go with it, but again, a large amount of the melody on this - during the verse - came from Ray. When he was down here the second time auditioning and we were making him sing along on top of various bits we'd written, we gave him that and he pretty much sang what ended up as the first verse. So to a large extent we used that and Mike wrote a chorus to go with it, the melody and stuff."

If That's What You Need:

"The next track is another ballad, If That's What You Need, which was another song that somebody developed out of one of these loops in a similar way to Shipwrecked, just a little loop which was made something of and again Mike wrote a romantic kind of lyric on top it. I suppose it's in the Genesis tradition, more of Follow You, Follow Me, and that kind of thing but I think it works."

The Dividing Line:

"It's the strongest instrumental and it particularly features the drummer, Nir. When we originally did this with the drum machine, we had a very clattery sort of drum machine part that worked really well and working title was NYPD because of the way the drums were very fast (laughter). We created this song by just improvising on top of the drum machine part and various results came. It's very exciting and it will be a good live number and from a stage point of view it might end up being a stage closer or something as it has some kind of feel that Los Endos has, I think, and obviously you have the drum solo if he's still got the strength to do it (laugher)!"

Uncertain Weather:

"This is what you call a more traditional Genesis big ballad type thing, strong chords. This is one Nick D'Virgilio does the drums on, which are really nice I think, and we ended up using his part. We did get Nir to try and copy the part but it didn't sound nearly as good as when Nick did it. It's a lighter touch which seemed to work really well on this song. It's a sad song, but it's one where in contrast to some of other songs I pretty much made Ray sing exactly what the notes were because it needed the melody. It's quite crucial to it, to the chorus, and it's something he did OK. Sometimes it's good to push a person's voice - You can do it on a record. It's not a song we'll play live probably and it just gives a quality to it, it's really good."

Small Talk:

"It has, as its basis, a quite simplistic guitar riff which had a good feel and I think the sax on top of it which gave it quite a good character, I think. This is a song that Ray actually wrote all the melody and lyrics on. The best thing about it for me is the line 'small talk' itself which has got just a great sound to it, it's a kind of three part harmony thing. He's got a great low voice when he sings an octave below his own voice, he gives it quite a growl which we use quite alot on the album. I used it quite a lot on songs on which I was controlling the vocals on because I think it has a strong quality about it. And yes, I think it's a fun song, it's got a bit of character this song, it's gone down well with the people who are less Genesis fans."

There Must Be Some Other Way:

"..one of my favorite tracks on the album. It's a really big ballad with an extended instrumental middle section. If people have a criticism on this album who are long time fans of Genesis, I think they'd say there's not enough instrumentals on the album and that's a fair criticism I think but there is a bit on this, in the middle that is recognizably Genesis. It's a very sad lyric about divorce and I wrote the lyrics to this but I used what Ray came up with on the chorus spontaneously when were just improvising early on. He just sang 'there must be some other way' and it sounded good I thought 'I've got to use that as the basis.' So we used that as the basis of the song and we then considered what it could be about and we modified it a bit to make it work. It's what you might almost call a piece of straight rock singing on the chorus and it's something he does so well you've got to use it - you've got to harness it and you don't need to write a great melodic line. It just sounds really good and it has alot of passion in it."

One Man's Fool:

"Well the first half is really dealing with terrorism I suppose, the idea of someone who's...obviously when you watch a programme on TV, when you see the new and you see all of this misery and destruction and everything and you know that obviously someone looks at that and things 'that's a job well done, I'm really pleased with that.' And it's difficult to know...it's difficult to get inside that person's brain to feel what it is that is important enough for them to make them feel that this is worth doing, causing all this misery. So the first half deals with more of that. The second half deals with that but extends the idea a bit further really, dealing with certainty, people who are certain about things; how can you be so sure? I have always had a mistrust of certainty and the second half really deals with that, but it deals with it really in a more philosophical manner so it's less personal, it's more intense."

2.04 - What's this I hear about a Genesis box set?

Genesis Archive 1967-1975 was released on June 16th, 1998. This has just about everything you could ever want (in terms of demos and live material) from the Peter Gabriel era. Here is the complete track listing for the box set:
 
Discs One and Two: The complete live recording of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
 
"The complete concert of The Lamb, taken from a January 1975 performance at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Fans who saw that show vividly recall the elaborate staging and costumes that accompanied the tale of NYC graffiti artist Rael and his decent into another realm to save his brother. Those costumes (especially the bulky 'Slipperman') often got in the way of clearly recording [Peter] Gabriel's vocals, to the point where Gabriel has gone back into the studio to redo his vocals over these parts. Guitarist Steve Hackett has also re-recorded some of his guitar parts...in addition, the final track, it., has been completely re-recorded as a studio track because 'the tape ran out' during the original recording of the concert.."
 
Disc Three:

Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
Firth Of Fifth
More Fool Me
Supper's Ready
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

These tracks were recorded live in late 1973 at London's Rainbow Theater.

Stagnation
Twilight Alehouse
 
A live version of the Trespass track [from a 1972 session] along with the rare B-side.

Happy The Man (A rare 1971 single).

Watcher Of The Skies (A different studio recording of the Foxtrot classic, previously unavailable.)

Disc Four:

In The Wilderness (A 1968 rough mix of the song sans strings)

The Shepherd
Pacidy
Let Us Now Make Love

All from a 1970 BBC radio program "Nightride."

Build Me A Mountain
Image Blown Out

Another rough mix of previously lost tracks from the From Genesis To Revelation sessions. The *is* another track from the session - an early version of Visions Of Angels - which may be released sometime in the future.
Going Out To Get You
Dusk
One Day
Where The Sour Turns To Sweet
In The Beginning
The Magic Of Time
Hey!
Hidden In The World Of Dawn
Sea Bee
The Mystery Of The Flannan Isle Lighthouse
Hair On The Arms And Legs
She Is Beautiful (Early Version of "The Serpent")
Try A Little Sadness
Patricia (Early Version Of "In Hiding")
 
All demos from 1967-1969.

"In addition to the originally planned three [now two] boxes, a CD-ROM of archival footage was once planned for inclusion. However, that plan has been scuttled for now...the CD-ROM has been completed, but the band is unsure of what they want to do with it." There are reports of the CD-ROM being released as early as the fall of 1998, although nothing is official as of yet. The second box set will cover the Phil Collins era (1975-1992), with most of the material coming from b-sides and live material from the first few tours. No release date has been set.

Back to Index

3.00 - Genesis remaster questions

There were a number of mistakes in the so called "Definitive" remasters. Here is a list of them:

Foxtrot:
According to the original CD and artwork, the original release date of the album was October 1972. On the Genesis Archive I box set, there is an advertisement that shows that the original release date was in fact on September 30th, 1972.

Genesis Live:

On the 1st edition of the remasters, the musicians credited on the back cover are Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford, John Mayhew and Anthony Phillips. This is obviously wrong as Mayhew and Phillips left the band after "Trespass". Replace them with Steve Hackett and that unknown drummer Phil Collins and you have the correct line-up! This has been replaced in later editions.

Selling England By The Pound:

Half of the lyrics for "The Battle Of Epping Forest" are placed after the song After The Ordeal as TBoEP (continued).

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway:

Fly On A Windshield/Broadway Melody Of 1974 are wrongly tracked. Fly should finish after 2:44 and Broadway Melody should be 2:10 in length, not 0:33 as in the remaster. Additionally, The Supernatural Anesthetist is labeled as Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthetist on the remastered version.

A Trick Of The Tail:

On quite a few copies, the first three songs on side two are wrongly credited. They should be:

Robbery, Assault & Battery (Banks/Collins)
Ripples (Rutherford/Banks)
A Trick Of The Tail (Banks)

Additionally, there's a misprint as to Atlantic's catalog number of the album. The original release was Atco SD 36129 whereas the remaster has listed Atco SD 38101.

Wind & Wuthering:

On the original CD, 'Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers... ...in that Quiet Earth' is one track, but on the remaster it's two serpate tracks.
 
Additionally, there's a misprint to Atlantic's catalog number of the album. The original catalog number by Atco in 1976 was ATCO SD 36144 and the original CD version of the album has a catalog number of ATCO CD 38100. On the remaster, it has printed "Originally released as Atco SD 38100", whereas it should say "Originally released as Atco SD 36144".

Seconds Out:

On some copies "The Musical Box" reads as "The Musical Fox" on the back cover and even "The Musical Bow" in some copies! Dance On A Volcano/Los Endos is wrongly tracked. DoaV should finish after 5:09 and not halfway through Los Endos as it does in the remaster!

Three Sides Live

The fourth side is VERY wrongly tracked! It should be:

One For The Vine
Fountain Of Salmacis
It/Watcher Of The Skies

and not:

One For The Vine part 1
One For The Vine part 2
Fountain Of Salmacis/It/Watcher Of The Skies

...and if you noticed...

The original release in the US had a fourth side of:

Paperlate
You Might Recall
Me And Vigil
Evidence Of Autumn
Open Door

But the original UK release had:

One For The Vine
Fountain Of Salmacis
It/Watcher Of The Skies

The remastered version is the UK version of TSL. The US version is NOT available, although you may want to look for the 5 studio tracks in the 2nd box set.

3.01 - When is the remastered Trespass coming out?

If you are in the UK or anywhere that the Virgin remasters are, look harder! However, if you are in the US you will not find Trespass as a remaster because Atlantic Records were unable to release it as MCA owns the distribution rights. HMV London (011-44-171-637-1167) does have it, so call them and order it.

Back to Index

4.00 - A (Very) Brief History Of Genesis

The beginnings of what we now know as Genesis started in 1965 at the Charterhouse School in Surrey, London, where Anthony Phillips, Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford all studied. Tony and Peter started a group called The Garden Wall while Ant and Mike started a rival band called Anon. When Anon folded, Mike, Anthony, and Chris Stewart (the first of many drummers) joined The Garden Wall. Several demos were made, and one of those demos were passed on to Jonathan King. He signed the band to Decca Records and renamed them Genesis. Armed with their second drummer (John Silver), their debut release - From Genesis To Revelation - was released in March 1969.

After John Silver left the group (and were dropped by Decca), John Mayhew became the 3rd Genesis drummer. Trespass, released in October 1970, saw the band moving into the art rock scene with songs like The Knife and Stagnation. Soon after, John Mayhew and Anthony Phillips left the group, almost forcing the band to break up. Phil Collins was introduced to the group by Tony Stratton-Smith, head of Charisma Records (their new label) and instantly brought stability to the rhythm section. After a short stint with Mick Barnard on guitar, the band found Steve Hackett.

From 1971-1975, Genesis released 4 of the greatest studio albums ever made: Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and a live album simply entitled Genesis Live. In 1975, Peter Gabriel left Genesis to pursue his own interests. After a long search for a new vocalist, drummer Phil Collins decided to "have a go at it" and became the new lead singer. After releasing A Trick Of The Tail, Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) joined the fold as the touring drummer, but that was shortlived. During the Wind & Wuthering sessions, Bill decided to leave, and was replaced by Chester Thompson. During the mixing of Seconds Out, Genesis's 2nd live album, Steve Hackett decided to leave. He was replaced by Daryl Stuermer - but (like Chester) only for live performances.

From 1978-1996, Genesis (in the studio) was a 3 piece: Tony, Mike and Phil. Going away from the progressive rock that defined them, they enjoyed their most fruitful time. Albums such as ...And Then There Were Three..., Duke, Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance found the band selling millions of records and playing to sold-out show after sold-out show. Although announced in 1995, Phil's decision to leave the fold was made in 1993. Determined not to make it "the end," Tony and Mike found Ray Wilson and employed two drummers - Nick D'Virgilio (from Spock's Beard) and Nir Zidkyahu on their latest release, appropriately titled Calling All Stations.

Back to Index

5.00 - Various Peter Gabriel/Genesis Questions

[note - all quotes are taken from the book "the book of genesis" by hugh fielder]

5.01 - Who thought of the title From Genesis To Revelation?

The name was thought up by Jonathan King, Genesis's first producer. He actually thought of the name Genesis and wanted to tie the name in somehow with the concept for the album. Peter later stated that FgtR "...was supposed to be the history of the universe, although a very duff concept."

5.02 - The Silent Sun doesn't sound like a typical Genesis song. Why?

"We did a couple of tapes which [Jonathan] King didn't like and so, in desperation, Peter and I wrote 'Silent Sun' because we wanted something that would recapture his interest." - tony banks
"I do remember that we tried to write something that sounded like a Bee Gees balled. I tried to sing a little bit like Robin Gibb on the second verse of The Silent Sun. I'm sure we would have denied it at the time, as we have denied other influences at later stages." - peter gabriel.

5.03 - Rumor has it that Chris Stewart and John Silver both played on FGTR. Any truth to this?

Depending on which version of From Genesis To Revelation you have, yes and no. In a note to alt.music.genesis, Henry Andrews explains:

"The *original* drummer for Genesis was Chris Stewart. He drummed on the first two singles and B-Sides (well, I'm sure he's on the first one, not perfectly sure about the second). These singles and B-sides are the last four tracks on your CD- on other cds, they put "The Silent Sun"/"That's Me" (the first single) at the beginning, and then "A Winter's Tale"/"One Eyed Hound" (the second single) at the end. Given the ridiculous number of re-releases of this album, I'm sure other configurations exist. Anyway, after the second (or possibly first) non-album single, Chris Stewart got tired of the whole thing and left (the other four were always the main writers, anyway- the first three drummers pretty much just contributed their drum parts). The band then found John Silver, and recorded From Genesis to Revalation with him. On the original version of the album (the 13 tracks mentioned above), Chris Stewart does not appear at all."

5.04 - Why does there seem to be a different version of From Genesis To Revelation out every year?

Jonathan King owns the rights of FGTR and therefore has the ability to re-release it whenever he wants (which he does quite often, sadly) with whichever label he chooses. Why he does this is unknown to this author. There are at least a dozen re-releases of the material, and the Genesis Discography goes into much more detail about what those re-releases are.

5.05 - What is the song Stagnation about?

According to the Genesis Discography:

"This song is about the aftermath of a nuclear war.[Note: many theories put forth by fans have said much of Genesis' material is about nuclear war. One rather extreme theory has explained that Invisible Touch was a concept album about nuclear war! Stagnation is the only song that the band has ever specifically said was about the topic of nuclear war.]"

The other theory is that Stagnation has nothing to do with nuclear war but more about Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings book series. Fernando A. Milesi wrote quite a story on this, and you can view it by clicking here.

5.06 - What was the inspiration that created The Knife?

"The lyrics for The Knife were partly me being a public schoolboy rebelling against my background. I'd been heavily influenced by a book on Gandhi at school, and I think that was a part of the reason I became a vegetarian as well as coming to believe in non-violence, as a form of protest. And i wanted to try and show how all violent revolutions inevitably end up with a dictator in power." - peter gabriel

5.07 - Why did Anthony Phillips leave the group?

"We'd been on the road for about three for four months when i decided to quit. This has often been presented as 'musical differences' and, although there was some truth in this, the main reason was that I started getting incredible stagefright....I think I probably realized during Trespass I was going to have to leave - during that period my feelings about the group became very clouded. I still loved the idea of it, but my health was terrible. There were one or two other aspects in the group which weren't absolutely right as well and I think that even if I hadn't fallen ill, somebody would have had to budge sooner or later." - anthony phillips.
"I also think that out of all of us, Ant found it the hardest to compromise. In a group there's always a certain degree of compromise and with four strong writers there had to be alot of compromising. But, Ant was, I'd say, the strongest influence at the time - the key member, i think, if there was a key member. This meant there could be no alternative. He could either take it, or he couldn't." - mike rutherford

5.08a - Is it true that Phil Collins almost became the drummer for Yes?

"...I used to go and see Yes every week at the Marquee. I happened to be next to a bloke in the audience, who told me that they were looking for a new drummer as Bill Bruford was leaving to go to university. So i went backstage and introduced myself to Jon Anderson [Yes's lead vocalist]. He said 'Well, great man, great. Give us a ring on Tuesday and come down for an audition.' I never rang. I never went. I've always wondered about that, because I knew their songs backwards. I'm sure I'd have got the job and would have ended up in Yes." - phil collins.

5.08b - So, how -did- Phil Collins join Genesis?

Phil actually saw an add posted by Tony Stratton-Smith that asked for "...a drummer sensitive to acoustic music and twelve-string guitarists."

"Genesis were auditioning on the patio outside Peter's parents' house...I knew all the parts they were being auditioned on; they were asking to play bits of The Knife and Stagnation - a mixture of gentle and heavy stuff. I knew it backwards by the time it came 'round to my turn. When it came to my turn, they asked me if I wanted to warm up. i said 'no, it's OK, i want to cruise right in.' Tony started to play something, and said 'just play along.' And that's what i did. Not only did i know it backwards, but i was pretty quick having got used to playing different types of music in various different bands. I think i may have made it look easy." - phil collins.

5.09 - Why was Mick Barnard only in the band for such a short time?

"Mick just didn't feel quite right somehow. But he was good and getting better all the time. He stayed with us for about six months on the road. I think i was partly to blame for looking for the ultimate guitarist to replace Ant. There was just no such thing." - mike rutherford.

5.10 - How did Steve Hackett join the group?

Steve wrote an add in the Melody Maker that said "Guitarist/Writer seeks receptive musicians, determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms."
"Peter Gabriel phoned me up and said 'I like the ad. Have you heard of Genesis?' I replied 'Oh, they're like Quintessence, aren't they?' I thought it was all joss sticks and Hari Krishna. I was talking to a photographer friend of mine, and i said 'What do you think? Have you ever heard of Genesis?' He said 'You've heard of them, haven't you? Join them! Don't be so bloody stupid!' So I thought, 'I'll listen to the album.' I went into a record shop and listened to it...I could barely hear it, but what I could hear sounded very interested indeed." - steve hackett.
"He [Steve] plugged in and came out with all these very Fripp [Robert Fripp, guitarist for King Crimson] sounds and, as we couldn't have Fripp, it was nice to think we had the next best thing." - phil collins.

5.11 - I don't get the meaning behind The Musical Box. Can anyone help me out?

This answer, as unique as it is, comes from the inside album liner of Nursery Cryme:

"While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as "Old King Cole" began to play a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned - But not for long, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing (sic) rapidly, leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires surged through him. Unfortunately, the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire, led his nurse to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both."

5.12 - How did The Fountain Of Salmacis come about?

"We were rehearsing one night about six months after i joined. Tony started playing something on his own, which he said was part of a previous number that they'd done. He incorporated the mellotron into the song and I started putting a harp-like effect on to it, which was a very subtle way of playing guitar, but it gave it spark. The whole thing developed into The Fountain Of Salmacis. The guitar solo at the end was, i think, a breakthrough at the time. Previously we'd had both chords that sounded very orchestral, which i loved; but suddenly there was a solo over the top of that." - steve hackett.

5.13 - What prompted Peter to start using costumes in their live performances?

"I remember Paul Conroy from Charisma suggested getting someone to dress up onstage in a red dress and a fox's head, to promote our next record, Foxtrot. I think he really fancied doing it himself. And i thought "Well, damn it, if we're going to do it, I want to do it! I want to be the center of attention!" - peter gabriel.
"Our songs and words had more to them that met the eye. They weren't regular lyrics. So when Peter started coming in wearing these masks it was just an extension of the fantasy element. People could sit back in their seats and watch was going on." - phil collins.

5.14 - Who wrote Watcher Of The Skies? What is it about?

"Mike and I wrote the lines to WotS in Naples at the back of a hotel, staring out over this landscape. It was totally deserted. It was incredible. We had the idea of an alien coming down to the planet and seeing this world where obviously there once had been life yet there was not one human being to be seen." - tony banks.

5.15 - What is Supper's Ready all about? Who is Gabble Ratchet?

"There was one particular incident that gave me the inspiration for Supper's Ready. There was this room at the top of Jill's (his wife) parents' house. The room was the coldest part of the house. I always used to get the shivers when i went in there. It was covered in strong purple and turquoise wallpaper. Everything was bright purple and turquoise. Anyway, we had this strange evening up there which ended with Jill feeling like she'd been possessed. It was extremely frightening. I don't know how to explain it - it was as if she had had a fit, or something. I experienced a sense of evil at that point - I saw another face in her face. I don't know how much of this was going on inside my head and how much was actually happening, but it was an experience i could not forget and was the starting point for a song about the struggle between good and evil." - peter gabriel

For a more unique explanation, this annotation comes from a program from the Foxtrot or early Selling England tours:

i) Lover's Leap

In which two lovers are lost in each other's eyes, and found again transformed in the bodies of another male and female.

ii) The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man

The lovers come across a town dominated by two characters: one a benevolent farmer, and the other the head of a highly disciplined scientific religion. The latter likes to be known as "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" and claims to contain a secret new ingredient capable of fighting fire. This is a falsehood, an untruth, a whopper and a taradiddle, or to put it in clearer terms; a lie.

iii) Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men

Who the lovers see clad in grays and purples, awaiting to be summoned out of the ground. At the G.E.S.M.'s command they pour forth, from the bowels of the earth, to attack all those without an up-to-date "Eternal Life Licence" which were obtainable at the head office of the G.E.S.M.'s religion.

iv) How Dare I Be So Beautiful?

In which our intrepid heroes investigate the aftermath of the battle and discover a solitary figure, obsessed by his own image. They witness an unusual transmutation, and are pulled into their own reflections in the water.

v) Willow Farm

Climbing out of the pool, they are once again in a different existence. They're right in the middle of a myriad of bright colours, filled with all manner of objects, plants, animals and humans. Life flows freely and everything is mindlessly busy. At random, a whistle blows and every single thing is instantly changed into another.

vi) Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)

At one whistle the lovers become seeds in the soil, where they recognize other seeds to be people from the world in which they had originated. While they wait for Spring, they are returned to their old world to see the Apocalypse of St. John in full progress. The seven trumpeters cause a sensation, the fox keeps throwing sixes, and Pythagoras (a Greek extra) is deliriously happy as he manages to put exactly the right amount of milk and honey on his corn flakes.

vii) As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Mens' Feet)

Above all else an egg is an egg. 'And did those feet ..............' making ends meet.

As for Gabble Ratchet - apparently it is the sound of wild geese that heralds the arrival of archangels (or something similar).

5.16 - Why was Genesis Live ever released?

"There was a suggestion from Charisma that this [the writing/recording of SEbtP] was taking a long time and there was a chance we'd miss the deadline, that we should release a live album compiled from the best of the King Biscuit Hour tapes of recordings we'd made from our last tour. This was the first Genesis live album. Up until then, we never actually felt that we sounded as good live as we did on record. In fact it was just the opposite - we always sounded more gutsy on stage than we did on record." - phil collins.

5.17 - Who is Richard MacPhail? Is he dead?

Richard MacPhail made an appearance on the album Genesis Live. There is a picture of Richard on this album and it says "This album is dedicated to Richard Macphail who left April, 1973." He is not dead! He recently reappeared as backing vocalist on "Digging In The Dirt" from Peter Gabriel's Us album, and more recently appeared on Steve Hackett's "Genesis Revisited". He was originally in The Anon with Mike Rutherford back at Charterhouse, and was a friend of the band and sound technician until 1973, when he "left" to pursue other things. According to the Genesis Discography:

"..MacPhail went back to Genesis in 1976 via Hit & Run...working as tour manager on the European leg of the A Trick of the Tail tour. He also tour managed Brand X in 1977, Peter Gabriel in 1978 and Peter Hammill's American tour in 1979."

5.18 - Who wrote the lyrics for Cinema Show? How did the instrumental section come about?

"Mike and I wrote the lyrics. The first part, at least, is a fairly close rendition of a section of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. The idea of using two words, 'Romeo' and 'Juliet' actually was Peter's. I thought it should be more impersonal just using 'young clerk' or something, and i wasn't too sure about it to begin with. Cinema Show was an example of extended playing. Mike, Phil and I were in a room together and Mike came out with a riff in 7/8, which had a great feel, and by restricting his playing a little he allowed me to make the chord changes...so with Mike just hitting the bottom three or four strings of the guitar I managed to write endless bits on the rhythm. Just before we came to do the album, we put them in order and the final section of Cinema Show developed." - tony banks.

5.19 - What brought about the title Selling England By The Pound?

The actual title was actually the slogan originally used in the Labour Party Manifesto for the General Election held before the album was released. Peter liked this phrase so much he obviously decided to write a song around it (Dancing With The Moonlit Knight). There is a secondary reason for it's choosing as well. "We were conscious of America at that time because I remember thinking that we were going to get knocked in England for slanting stuff towards America, which was partly why i wanted the title." - peter gabriel.

5.20 - Is there any truth to the rumor that The Lamb was going to be a kids story?

"Several ideas for the album were presented in order for the band to exercise a democratic vote. The only other idea that was seriously considered was The Little Prince which Mike was in favour of - a kids story I thought that was too twee. This was 1974; it was pre-punk but I still thought we needed to base the story around a contemporary figure rather than a fantasy creation." - peter gabriel.

5.21 - Is there anything about The Lamb that Peter didn't write?

"By the time Pete had finished the lyrics, there were about two or three holes where there wasn't a song, and we needed to write something. Carpet Crawlers was one and The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging was another." - tony banks.
Peter later said that "..I always thought the melody of The Carpet Crawlers was one of the choicest things I'd written. To me, that was a pop song." It turns out that the only lyrics NOT written by Peter was The Light Lies Down On Broadway, which was written by Tony and Mike.

5.22 - I heard that Peter left the band during the making of The Lamb. Is this true?

Kinda. After seeing the little story on the back of Genesis Live, William Friedkin wanted Peter to write a screenplay. When he asked the other band members if they could stop working on The Lamb they said no. So, he left. "Peter came back after a week because I think Friedkin got frightened at the idea of being the cause of breaking up the group. He told Pete that he didn't want that much of a commitment, just a few ideas." - phil collins.

5.23 - Why did Peter leave the band?

"The pressure was accumulating. I was saying to myself "OK, we get successful in America. We get rich. What then? Do we become like the other bands who've made it?" There were things about those groups I didn't like, and I didn't want to become part of a supergroup. I was beginning to dislike myself for what i was doing. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but i knew I was sick of rock, the business, and everything about it. I just wanted to get out." - peter gabriel.
"Pete's personal life was suffering through touring and constant pressure. I think that having written all the lyrics on The Lamb he wound not have found it easy to go back to our previous method of songwriting. Perhaps he felt that The Lamb was a good, final statement on which to leave." - mike rutherford.

To see Peter's farewell letter, click here.

5.50 - Various Phil Collins/Genesis Questions

5.51 - How did Phil become the lead singer? Were there others auditioned?

"...We put an advert in the papers saying we wanted a new singer. A lot of people sent in tapes..In the end we saw about 50 people. But whenever we liked someone's voice it was because it sounded like Pete's. We eventually settled on one bloke we liked and we went to the studio with him. One of the earliest backing tracks we had was Squonk. So we went to the first session with this bloke, and he went downstairs and started singing Squonk out of key and I walked out! There was nothing wrong with him. It was just that he was nervous it was the wrong key for his voice. Next day, I came in and said, "Listen, I wouldn't mind having a crack at it," because deep down I wanted to have a go. And they said, "Fine," because I'd sung on our albums, and I didn't have a 'ballsy' voice as far as anybody knew..I started to sing and the first line was 'Like father, like son..' and everybody started to perk up. So we proceeded verse by verse through Squonk and when the next song came up, they said, "Have a crack at this one." Suddenly we'd done all the songs, and we still have a singer. I'd done the album." - phil collins.

5.52 - What's A Trick Of The Tail all about?

Here's Tony Bannk's explanation of the song:

"I got the idea for the lyric after reading William Golding's The Inheritors. It's about a race who were on earth before man and it's the story of the last survivor of this race. The very last chapter deals with our reaction to him whereas the rest of the story is his reaction to us. It's about an alien with horns and a tail who appears in a modern city and how people react to him.."

5.53 - What is Phil singing at the end of Los Endos?

There's an angel standing in the sun.
There's an angel standing in the sun,
Freed to get back home.

These are various lines from "As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs" from Supper's Ready.

5.54 - Why would the band sing lines from Supper's Ready when Peter isn't in the band anymore?

The words are the band's way of saying "goodbye" to Peter. If you compare that section to Solsbury Hill, which is Peter's song about why he left Genesis ("take your things, I've come to take you home") then the answer should be clear.

5.55 - How did Bill Bruford enter Genesis?

"I was rehearsing with Brand X - I was playing percussion and Phil was on drums. During a break, Phil mentioned that they had a 'small problem' with Genesis, namely that Gabriel had left. They'd been auditioning singers because Phil reckoned none of the fifty or so that they'd heard were as good as he was. I said, "You sing and I'll play drums." He thought that was a good idea because he wanted someone who could play a bit like him so that he could rely on the drums behind him." - bill bruford.

5.56 - Why did Bill leave so quickly?

Bill only played drums during the A Trick Of The Tail tour in 1976. As the band was recording Wind & Wuthering....

"We read in Melody Maker that Bill was joining a group with Rick Wakeman and John Wetton. I rang him and said, "Are you with them or are you staying with us?" he said, "Ah, I meant to tell you about that!" - phil collins.
"I was rehearsing three songs with Rick Wakeman and John Wetton when a journalist at the Melody Maker decided that we were going to be the next supergroup. We denied all this, although Wetton and I later went on to form UK, which meant I was three bands at the same time and I wasn't sure which one I wanted to be in." - bill bruford.

5.57 - What does the title of the live album Seconds Out mean?

Seconds Out is a term used in boxing e.g. "Seconds out, round 2!". This could have a couple of meanings for the live album - it might mean that it's the second live album, or more likely it means that they are closing the first round of Genesis' existence by laying to rest a lot of the old songs on this live album (remember Supper's Ready was not performed again until 1982). Another strong possibility is that the title referrers to the 2nd major member of the band (Steve) leaving - probably the reason the band chose their next album to be called ...And Then There Were Three... - but there is no definitive answer as of yet.

5.58 - What are the crowd chanting at the end of The Musical Box on Seconds Out?

The French crowd are chanting "Une autre". This translates word-for-word as "Another" (Une=a,an,one; autre=other), but properly it means "encore".

5.59 - Why did Steve decide to go?

"Once we'd shown that we can do it as a four piece, it all became too easy. We just played one 20,000 after another. I started to ask myself "What is it I really want?" I was suddenly writing more and more but the band incorporated less and less. I had an abundance of ideas, but it didn't affect the overall ratio of Hackett songs to - let's be quite candid - Tony Banks songs. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Tony, but there's no doubt about it, he was having the lion's share. I felt that after my first solo album it was like suddenly going back to school after being out at work. I suddenly realized, "This is not the be-all and end-all of my career." - steve hackett.
"Steve, unfortunately didn't write songs that appealed as much to everybody as Tony or Mike did but I thought his frustration at that time seemed unreasonable. He had a solo career, he could have perused that. But, I don't think reason came into it. We were touring, I guess everyone was a bit tired. In the end, when Seconds Out was being mixed, he just rang in and said "My time's up." He could have stayed with us and done as many solo albums as he wanted." - phil collins.

5.60 - How did Daryl enter as a tour guitarist?

Originally Alphonso Johnson was approached (at Phil's suggestion) to join the band as the new live guitarist/bass player. He was unable to do so, and it was Alphonso Johnson that recommended Daryl to the band. "I got a call from [Jean-Puc] Ponty's manager who said, "A guy named Dick Fraser from Genesis is trying to call you. Here's his number." So, i called him, and then found out that they wanted me to audition for Genesis. I went to New York and auditioned with Mike. They had sent me four songs on a tape but in the end he only asked me to play Squonk and Down And Out before said, "I think this is fine." - daryl stuermer.

5.61 - Where there some lyrics to Behind The Lines that weren't used?

"I wrote some words to Behind The Lines which I'm glad we didn't use. I started singing them, and everybody said, 'You can't sing that.' We were getting a lot of flak from the music press at the time, and I had written these pretty cynical lyrics which Tony and Mike were a bit embarrassed by." - phil collins.

5.62 - What is the Duck on Duke?

"Uhm, It was this kind of, it was an attempt..it was a way of triggering...this was back in the early days, you know, before technology could sort of give you all the things you wanted. It was a way of triggering the, I think it was a Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer. We triggered it using Phil's voice. But he used it, instead of --- this was trying to get a sort of brass sound on a couple of tracks, particularly Behind The Lines --- and the way of doing it was using a duck-call. You know, one of those duck-call things you can get. We used that into the microphone, and it got just the right kind of sound, so that we put it down that we played a 'duck'. We hoped a few people would ask a question about it --- you're the first person I think since the album was released who's asked us about that! So there you go." - tony banks.

5.63 - What does Abacab mean?

"There were three bits of music in Abacab, and we referred to them as 'section a', 'section b', and 'section c'...and at different times, they were in different order. We'd start with 'section a' and then have 'section c'...and at one point in time, it spelled Abacab. On the final version, it's not that it all, it's like 'Accaabbaac'." - mike rutherford.

5.64 - Who's idea was it to get the Earth, Wind & Fire Horn Section on No Reply At All?

"It was my idea...we tried to simulate that brass on a couple of tracks on Duke. I got to know EWF when i used them for my solo album and i was looking for a space to use them on this album." - phil collins.

5.65 - What do the lyrics in the song Dodo/Lurker mean?

In November 1991 someone actually phoned in to the Larry King Radio Show and asked Genesis:

Question: There's a song Dodo/Lurker which first appeared on Abacab, can you tell me what that song is all about?

Tony: God, it's a long time ago, I wrote that lyric...many years ago. It was really more a, one of those kind of lyrics that wasn't supposed to have too specific a meaning, like individual lines have meanings in it. Erm, I can't remember particularly what was going on in my brain there.

Larry King: Abstract.

Tony: Well it was, really was sort of stream of consciousness kind of lyric really, I liked the sound of the words and you had this sort of different images that came in. It was one of those songs that was supposed to have a sort of, an image with each line that was supposed to hit you.

As for the Lurker riddle, this is taken from the October 1997 edition of Record Collector:

Tony: It's very interesting this, because we're now in 1997, and I wrote the lyric to that in '82. You may say there's been a lot of discussion about what the riddle is, but I've never actually been asked that question in an interview. Because no one asked me it all fell a bit flat! Now all these years on, I'm afraid to say really that there is no real solution. You can search for your own one if you like. It was a bit of a joke. When I was writing it I honestly didn't really have a specific idea in mind. If you can find out what the answer is, perhaps you can tell me!

According to Scott McMahan and the Genesis Discography, the lurker is a submarine:

"..all the clues are there. I would bet the "two eyes looking to see what I was" refers to a stereo periscope.

Clothes of brass: Brass is a staple of the nautical world, for its resistence to corrosion. The use of the word conjures up more 2000 Leagues Under The Sea images than those of a nuclear powered submarine, but nevertheless the association of brass with the sea is inescapable.

Hair of brown: When submarines surface, they have all sorts of seaweeds and camouflage on the deck that is exposed to the sky.

Seldom need to breathe: Submarines carry their own air supply, and do not often need to resurface.

Don't need no wings to fly: Of course not, it "flies" through the ocean.

And a heart of stone: Uranium, the stone that powers the nuclear reactor.

And a fear of fire and water: The two most deadliest things that can happen to a submarine. Water means a hull breach, and pressure loss, and everyone dies. Fire means all the oxygen aboard burns and everyone dies.

The final proof that the answer to the riddle is, truly, a submarine lies in the music. The working titles for Dodo and Lurker were German I and II. As in German U-boats, because the music itself doesn't sound Germanic. If you listen to Dodo, Lurker, and Submarine back to back, you will find that Lurker has some of the exact same drum lines, and Lurker ends on the same music that Submarine begins. Like the suites of thematically related music in A Trick Of The Tail and Wind and Wuthering, this is yet another case of Genesis splicing and dicing a long track of related music into separate parts scattered all over the place."

5.66 - What does the term Paperlate mean?

Paper Late is a word shouted out by evening newspaper salesmen in London to announce that the late edition of a newspaper is available. It's as simple as that!

5.67 - What is the song Mama about?

From an interview in 1983 called "Three into One":

"Our manager, when he first heard it, thought it was about abortion, the kind of feeling of the, you know, the featus, if you like, saying to the Mother 'Please give me a chance, can't you feel my heart, don't take away my last chance', all those lyrics are in the song but in fact what it is, is just about a young teenager that's got a mother fixation with a prostitute that he's just happened to have met in passing and he has such a strong feeling for her and doesn't understand why she isn't interested in him. It's a bit like Niven in 'The Moon's A Balloon', I don't know if you've read that book, he's very young, just come out of cadet college or whatever, and he meets this quite, you know, 45 year old prostitute who he has a fantastic time with. He's special to her but it definitely can't go any further than what it is and that's really what the song is about, with sinister overtones." - phil collins.

5.68 - What is the song Domino all about?

In a letter to Paperlate, Joe Dixon explains:

"..the song is basically a love story in the context of a nuclear war. The reason why the narrator of the story doesn't know if he'll see his lover again is that he's not sure if she survived the blast or not. He pleads to those who started the war, "Can't you see what you are doing to me? Can't you see what you have done?" - so obviously the backdrop for the song is nuclear war. This describes the "only foreign cities sirens can cut through" and "Blood on the windows" sections of the song just to name a couple. Tony Banks's cynicism comes in full strength at the end of the song. "Now you never did see such a terrible thing as you seen last night on the TV. Maybe, if we're lucky, they will show it again, such a terrible thing to see." Here he's remarking how we see the symptoms of war on TV developing, but we choose nothing to do about it. It's almost like entertainment to us. This kind of sounds like how the Gulf War played out 5 years later come to think of it. "Now I'm one with the living and I'm feel just fine. I know just what I gotta do. Play the game of happiness and never let on that it lives on in a song" Here Tony is poking fun at how we all sort of seem oblivious to the threat of nuclear war. We just live our lives as if nothing's gonna ever happen to us. But as he reminds in the next line, "There's nothing you can do if you're the next in line", so it's probably just as well.."

5.69 - Is No Son Of Mine about abuse?

Phil explains during an interview with Rockline in 1991:

"..the story is sort of self-explanatory; it's a household of abuse. The father is being sort of the monster of the family - he's either abusing the son or the mother. I'm not quite sure who, and that's deliberately left open. But it's kind of happening everywhere behind closed doors.."

5.70 - Why did Daryl leave the band? Did it have to do with his work with Phil's solo career?

According to a post on alt.music.genesis by Christian Gerhardts, Daryl left to join Phil's band full-time. Here's what Daryl had to say on the matter:

"A lot of things have changed inside Genesis and they wanted to play in the States at the same time Phil was playing in Europe. For me there was no chance to play with Genesis. To close the chapter Genesis was very hard for me. It always was a pleasureable thing. But also, I would miss Chester. So I would say that I miss Genesis in the 92 line-up. I'm not sure if I miss them in today's line-up. I've heared Calling all Stations only once and it differs a lot from the Genesis I know. Like the old days. I miss Phil's energy on the album. Now it's a different band. For me the new album is not as strong as Duke, Abacab or Genesis. But I like the title track. The album sounds a bit like Tony's best soloalbum. But nevertheless I thinkCalling all Stations is a good album. But it all sounds so different." - daryl stuermer.

5.75 - Various Ray Wilson/Genesis Questions

5.76 - How did the band find Nick D'Virgilio for Calling All Stations?

According to Nick's wife, Tiffany...

"..while he (Nick) was on tour with Tears For Fears, he heard that Genesis were looking for a new drummer. He sent in a copy of Giraffe's Lamb (Giraffe was a project Nick worked on with Keivn Gilbert) Progfest '94 show, his contributions to the Genesis/Yes tribute albums (on Magna Carta Records), and a couple of weeks later we received a call from Nick Davis and they flew him down to London for an audition.."


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6.00 - Are there any Genesis tribute bands?

Based in London, England. They play mostly songs from the Gabriel era of Genesis. They have also released a live album which has been officially released in the UK but they are also selling it at gigs. Be sure to check them out if they play in your area!

Their website is at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~andyrh/

A very highly rated tribute band based in Canada, they accurately depict shows from the Gabriel era, down to the costumes and stage setup. They play the exact setlists that Genesis played in their Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot tour and Selling England tour. Sadly, the band has disbanded recently. Good luck in whatever you guys do next!

The first ever tribute band to the genius that is Tony Banks. Sadly, this outfit has performed only one show - on September 6th, 1998, in Dartford, Kent (in England). According to Duncan Phillips, a double-CD will be out in the near future of the show.

Another Genesis tribute band out of England (London to be precise), and most of their music is from the Phil Collins era rather than the Peter Gabriel era. Their lineup consists of Dave Whitehouse on Vocals, Phil Durga Duke on Drums, Tony Burton on Bass, 12-String, Bass Pedals and Guitar, Richard Mills on Keyboards and Dave Woodward on Guitar. I've heard many good things about this band, so if you're in England, go and check them out.

Based out of Los Angeles, this tribute band plays a great deal of both the Peter Gabriel and early-era Phil Collins material. I've heard great things about this band, so check 'em out if they play around your neck of the woods!

Their website is at http://www.angelfire.com/id/rael/


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