‘Collins was a phenomenon as an unlikely solo superstar – we wanted Phil to do well. Just not that well’
“It all fizzled out at a gig in France, there weren’t many people in the audience, and it was very sad,” he told me. “I was more confident than the others were that they would be fine without me. The band was always a writers’ cooperative.”
“I was very sad when he left but we had to get on with it,” Phil Collins says in Giammetti’s book. “I didn’t want to be the singer at all because I was the drummer and, by that point, I was a very good drummer. I ended up singing because we couldn’t find anybody else.” They remained on good terms thereafter. Gabriel went on to forge an innovative solo career, but he performed live with the band again in 1982.Alongside guitarist Steve Hackett, who served from 1971 to 1977, all
FANCY PANTS: Phil, Mike and Tony in the summer of 1992 and, above, with Peter, left, and Steve, right, in February 1975
five core members reunited in 2014 for a documentary. When Collins quietly sought help for alcoholism in 2012, his bandmates all rallied around.
Amid the excitement of the reunion, the one disappointment among diehard fans is that Gabriel and Hackett are not returning for a full Genesis reunion. When I spoke to Gabriel a few years ago, he seemed amenable to the idea. “I was looking at it seriously for a while, but it just seemed to be growing into a bigger project than I was ready to bite off,” he said. “We do all get on. I would never say never. It’s time and energy, and what you’re letting go of to pursue that.”
WHILE the trio of Collins, Banks and Rutherford yesterday expressed their love and admiration for Gabriel, they also made the point that Genesis’s most successful material postdates his departure.With Collins taking over as lead vocalist in 1975, they went from strength to strength, even after Hackett departed in 1977 for a solo career. Most of the 150 million records they have sold were shifted in the late ’70 and ’80s, when as a trio Genesis became a streamlined and hugely successful stadium rock act, releasing a run of hit singles that included Follow You, Follow Me, Mama, That’s All and Invisible Touch. At the same time, Collins’ parallel career as an unlikely solo superstar caused a degree of resentment among his bandmates. Genesis were huge, but Collins was a phenomenon. Beginning with his solo hit In The Air Tonight, in the ’80s he had 10 number one singles in the UK and US, and sold almost 200 million records. “We wanted Phil to do well,” said Tony Banks drily in 2014. “Just not that well.”
In keeping with the band’s officer class ethos, there was no shouting or screaming. Stiff upper lips were the order of the day. “Emotional candour was not something we displayed in front of each other,” Collins wrote in his autobiography, Not Dead Yet. Rutherford enjoyed his own success with Mike + The Mechanics, and Genesis recorded and toured until 1997, when they released a final album, Calling All Stations.
A decade on, the Turn It On Again outing in 2007 looked certain to be their swansong until yesterday’s news. “A lot of our contemporaries have been playing a lot,” Rutherford told Zoe Ball. “We’ve done two shows in the UK in the last 28 years.”
One of rock’s most remarkable bands are returning to place the last domino on the table. And why not?