After the release of two albums at the time of this article, Genesis were still a fairly unknown band. More wide-spread attention would follow after a change of personnel and the release of a third album in november 1971.
Read on!
Meet the band by Roy Carr
Genesis – enjoyed the book – dug the group. One only has to glance through the Book of Genesis (date book that is), to substantiate the fact that throughout the length and breadth of this country the very same sentiments are being expressed by the increasing hordes who have willingly succumbed to their special brand of music and strange showmanship.
At a time when originality is being spread thin, Genesis have evolved a personalised approach, which their staunch followers (and believe me they are staunch) readily accept for it’s own meritous endeavours and not as a second-class alternative.
Their reputation has been far reaching – the common market has started to capitulate – while overtures from the Americas are being carefully considered.
It has taken Genesis almost half-a-decade on the heart break trail to find a platform for their collective talent and an attentive audience to sit in front of it.
The genesis of Genesis follow the often chronicled soul-stirring saga of the initial break-through from obscurity to oblivion and back again.
A forgettable first album for Jonathan ” A Man Of A Thousand Disguises ” King — the anguish of having a volatile line-up — and when all seemed lost a helping hand from big T himself, Tony Stratton Smith, who knows a good group, football team or beverage when he sees one.
A tastefully conceived and packaged album with a touch of charisma about it resulted — it was overlooked in the stampede for the latest electric heroes — to be re-discovered by well over 20,000 devotees with a couple o’ quid to spare once they had started playing the right gigs.
Not that Genesis have yet attained admittance to the big league… but they’re trying. With so few good clubs, a band like this when presented with the likes of Lindisfarne and Van Der Graaf Generator can fill a concert hall to capacity without any of them being stars of international standing, though I’m sure their status will have been elevated in the coming months.
By virtue of their reputation as show stealers they have been promoted from the unenviable warm-up slot to that of closing attraction.
It would be easy to just single out singer-flautist and bass drum booter Peter Gabriel as the prime factor in their emergence. But as a unit guitarist Steve Hackett, drummer Phil Collins, Tony Banks on assorted keyboards and the powerful bass playing of Mike Rutherford contribute no end to the validity of their music.
However, Gabriel is an outrageous hell-raiser. Indeed, I recall that after seeing them in concert I wrote, ” In the demoniac black clad figure of Peter Gabriel, Genesis have a vocal performer who has the precocious magnetism of which contemporary pop heroes are hewn. A macabre entrepreneur, Peter introduces each selection with strange neofantasy monologues which at times border on the realms of insanity.”
Steeped in the dramatic of rock-theatre, Genesis are yet another band who have attained and maintained a high individualistic standard.
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