Why everyone’s talking about...
Genesis
Confused by today’s trends? Let our irreverent briefing explain everything.
Genesis? Between coronavirus, the climate crisis and mass migration, we could be living in biblical times.
We’re not talking about how God created the Earth but the band, who’ve announced their first tour in 13 years.
And who are almost as old as creation itself…
Cheeky! Though the core trio’s combined age is 207.
So no youthful rock ’n’ roll excess on the road?
They were hardly the TV-out-of-the-hotelwindow sort even in their prime, given that Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks formed the band at Surrey’s elite Charterhouse School in 1967. Fellow alumni include Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell and the Dimbleby brothers.
Very la-di-da!
Rutherford is the son of Navy Captain William Rutherford CBE. He encouraged his son’s musical ambitions – helping him negotiate a contract with their first producer, Jonathan King, decades before King was accused of sexual abuse. Son Mike recalls his dad ‘attending our gigs wearing earplugs like it was a gunnery operation’.
Genesis are not exactly metal-heads, though.
They started folky and moved into experimental prog-rock music, such as the 23-minute track Supper’s Ready, which Gabriel says was ‘influenced by an experience his wife had of sleeping in a purple room’.
Sounds pretentious!
Don’t say that – prog rock fans will complain. And while they’re at it, they’ll grumble that Rick Wakeman isn’t played on Radio 2 any more.
But Peter Gabriel, now 70, has snubbed the new tour?
Yes, and fans will certainly miss him. He had a reputation for bizarre stage costumes. During one show, he emerged from a phallic structure wearing a costume covered in inflatable genitalia.
What about Phil Collins?
Having joined in 1970 as drummer, he took over lead vocals when Gabriel left in 1975. Fans are split between those who prefer Gabriel-era or Collins-era Genesis – an intractable divide that makes Liverpool versus Everton look like a minor local quibble. Some thought the band ‘sold out’ under Collins.
Well, he’s not exactly cool, is he?
That was the prevailing opinion for a long time – partly the result of claims he moved to Switzerland in 1997 over fears of a Labour government and reports (which he also denies) of dumping his second wife by fax.
So we’ll hear him drum on tour?
Sadly, no. A condition called ‘drop foot’, caused by a nerve problem, means he can no longer hold the sticks – so he’s being replaced by his 18-year-old son Nicholas. At least that will help bring down the average age.