Group look back on a noteworthy music career
Helsinki Stadium, 2007, where Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks wait backstage to play their first gig together in 15 years.After chanting their name, the crowd go wild when these elder statesmen of the music business arrive on stage. Genesis had been doing this sort of thing (off and on) for decades, wowing the masses with classic hits such as Invisible Touch, Land of Confusion and Turn It On Again. Their story, charted in featurelength documentary Genesis Together and Apart (BBC2, Saturday, 9.15pm), began when in 1963, when Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, Mike and Tony met at Surrey’s Charterhouse Boarding School. A demo called She is Beautiful came to the attention of producer Jonathan King, and the band later made an impact on the music scene, at gigs such as the Roundhouse’s Atomic Sunrise Festival in 1970, along with the likes of Black Sabbath and David Bowie. That paved the way for Genesis’s first album, Trespass. However, when Phillips dropped out, it could have created a disastrous fracture in the band. Banks calls ‘Ant’ leaving “the most significant event in Genesis’ history”, which may explain a lot about the love-hate relationship he has with Gabriel, and the fact his eventual departure wasn’t more significant. “Peter and I used to argue a lot,” recalls Tony.“Very close friends, but used to argue about silly little were always entertained by the visual spectacle. By the time they released tracks like I Know What I Like In Your Wardrobe, it showed early signs of them cracking the classic pop single, albeit with a prog rock feel. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album and subsequent tour led to Gabriel finally going solo, so Collins took over as front man. He helped Genesis become one of Britain’s most successful acts, selling around 130 million albums worldwide. Their final studio album, Calling All Stations, was released in 1997, but fans live in hope that like this documentary, the band will eventually reunite on stage and remind them what they’ve been missing.