1967–1969: Formation, early demos and From Genesis to Revelation in
Godalming,
Surrey. The founding members of Genesis,
Peter Gabriel,
Tony Banks,
Anthony "Ant" Phillips,
Mike Rutherford and drummer
Chris Stewart, met at
Charterhouse School, a
public school in
Godalming,
Surrey. Banks and Gabriel arrived at the school in September 1963, Rutherford in September 1964 and Phillips in April 1965. The five were members in either one of the school's two bands; Phillips and Rutherford were in
Anon with singer
Richard Macphail, bassist
Rivers Jobe and drummer Rob Tyrrell, while Gabriel, Banks and Stewart made up
Garden Wall. In January 1967, after both groups had split, Phillips and Rutherford continued to write together and proceeded to make a demo tape at a friend's home-made studio, inviting Banks, Gabriel and Stewart to record with them in the process. The group recorded six songs: "Don't Want You Back", "Try a Little Sadness", "She's Beautiful", "That's Me", "Listen on Five" and "Patricia", an instrumental. When they wished to have them professionally recorded they sought Charterhouse alumnus
Jonathan King, who seemed a natural choice as their publisher and producer following the success of his 1965 UK top five single, "
Everyone's Gone to the Moon". A friend of the group gave the tape to King, who was immediately enthusiastic. Under King's direction, the group, aged between 15 and 17, signed a one-year recording contract with
Decca Records. From August to December 1967, the five recorded a selection of potential singles at Regent Sound Studios in
Denmark Street, London, where they attempted longer and more complex pieces, but King advised them to stick to more straightforward pop. In response Banks and Gabriel wrote "
The Silent Sun", a pastiche of the
Bee Gees, one of King's favourite bands, which was recorded with orchestral arrangements added by
Arthur Greenslade. The group exchanged various names for the band, including King's suggestion of "Gabriel's Angels", before taking King's suggestion of "Genesis", indicating the start of his production career. King chose "The Silent Sun" as their first single, with "That's Me" on the
B-side, released in February 1968. It achieved some airplay on
BBC Radio One and
Radio Caroline, but failed to sell. A second single, "A Winter's Tale" / "One-Eyed Hound", followed in May 1968, which also sold little. Three months later, Stewart left the group to continue with his studies. He was replaced by fellow Charterhouse pupil
John Silver. King believed that the group would achieve greater success with an album. The result,
From Genesis to Revelation, was produced at Regent Sound in ten days during their school's summer break in August 1968. King assembled the tracks as a
concept album, which he produced. Greenslade added further orchestral arrangements to the songs, but the band were not informed of this fact until the album was released. Phillips was upset about Greenslade's additions. When Decca found an American band already named Genesis, King refused to change his group's name. He reached a compromise by removing their name from the album cover, resulting in a minimalist design with the album title printed on a plain black background. When the album was released in March 1969, it became a commercial failure because many record shops filed it in the religious music section upon seeing the title. Banks recalled that "after a year or so", the album had "sold 649 copies". A third single, "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" / "In Hiding", was released in June 1969. None of the releases were commercially successful. The lack of commercial success led to the band's split with King and Decca. King continued to hold the rights to the album, which has seen numerous reissues. In 1974, it peaked on the US chart at No. 170. After the album was recorded, the band went their separate ways for a year; Gabriel and Phillips stayed at Charterhouse to finish exams, Banks enrolled at
Sussex University and Rutherford studied at
Farnborough College of Technology. They regrouped in mid-1969 to discuss their future, for their offers in further education might result in the group splitting up. Phillips and Rutherford decided to make music their full-time career, for they were starting to write more complex music than their earlier songs with King. After Banks and Gabriel decided to follow suit, the four returned to Regent Sound in August 1969 and recorded four more demos with Silver: "Family" (later known as "Dusk"), "White Mountain", "Going Out to Get You" and "Pacidy". The tape was rejected by each record label that heard it. Silver then left the group to study leisure management in the United States. His replacement, drummer and carpenter
John Mayhew, was found when Mayhew looked for work and left his phone number "with people all over London".
1969–1970: First gigs, signing with Charisma, Trespass and Phillips' departure In late 1969, Genesis retreated to a cottage owned by Macphail's parents, in
Wotton, Surrey, to write, rehearse and develop their stage performance. They took their work seriously, playing together for as much as eleven hours a day. Their first live gig as Genesis followed in September 1969 at a teenager's birthday. It was the start of a series of live shows in small venues across the UK, which included a radio performance broadcast on the
BBC's
Night Ride show, on 22 February 1970, and a spot at the Atomic Sunrise Festival held at the
Roundhouse in
Chalk Farm a month later. During this time the band met with various record labels regarding contract offers. Initial discussions with
Chris Blackwell of
Island and
Chris Wright of
Chrysalis were unsuccessful. In March 1970, during the band's six-week Tuesday night residency at
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in
Soho, members of
Rare Bird, whom Genesis had previously supported live, recommended the band to producer and A&R man
John Anthony of
Charisma Records. Anthony attended one of their shows and enjoyed them enough to convince his boss, label owner
Tony Stratton Smith, to watch their next appearance. Smith recalled, "Their potential was immediately apparent ... the material was good and their performance was good ... It was a long shot, because they needed time to find their strength ... but I was prepared to make that commitment". He agreed to a record and management deal within two weeks, paying Genesis an initial sum of £10 a week (). Genesis stayed at Wotton until April 1970, by which time they had enough new material for a second album. Recording for
Trespass began in June at
Trident Studios in London, with Anthony as producer and
David Hentschel hired as assistant engineer. The album included longer and more complex songs than their first, blending
folk and
progressive rock elements with various
time signature changes, as in the nine-minute song "
The Knife".
Trespass is the first in a series of three Genesis album cover designs by
Paul Whitehead. He had completed the design before the band decided to include "The Knife" on the album. Feeling the cover no longer reflected the album's overall mood, the band persuaded Whitehead to slash a knife across the canvas and have the result photographed. Released in October 1970,
Trespass reached No. 1 in
Belgium in 1971 and No. 98 in the UK in 1984. "The Knife" was released as a single in May 1971.
Rolling Stone briefly mentioned the album unfavourably following its 1974 reissue: "It's spotty, poorly defined, at times innately boring". "Genesis seemed to be dying a death around our second album", Gabriel told
Mark Blake. "We couldn't get arrested. So I got a place at the
London School of Film Technique." After
Trespass was recorded, ill-health and developing
stage fright caused Phillips to leave Genesis. His last show with the band took place in
Haywards Heath on 18 July 1970. He felt the increased number of gigs affected the group's creativity and several songs he wrote were not recorded or performed live. He had contracted
bronchial pneumonia and became isolated from the rest of the band, feeling that it had too many songwriters in it. Banks, Gabriel and Rutherford saw Phillips as an important member, being the most instrumental in encouraging them to turn professional. They regarded his exit as the greatest threat to the band and the most difficult to overcome. Gabriel and Rutherford decided the group should continue; Banks agreed on the condition that they find a new drummer that was of equal stature to the rest of the group. Mayhew was therefore fired, though Phillips later thought Mayhew's working-class background clashed with the rest of the band, which affected his confidence.
1970–1972: Collins and Hackett join and Nursery Cryme The search for a new guitarist and drummer began with advertisements placed in copies of
Melody Maker. The invitation was spotted by drummer
Phil Collins, formerly of
Flaming Youth, who already knew Stratton Smith. He recalled, "My only knowledge of Genesis was through seeing the ads for their gigs. It seemed like they were constantly working. ... I thought 'At least I'm going to be working if I get the gig'."
Roger Taylor, subsequently of
Queen, turned down an invitation to audition. Collins went to the audition at Gabriel's parents' house in
Chobham, Surrey with his Flaming Youth bandmate, guitarist
Ronnie Caryl. As they arrived early, Collins took a swim in the pool and heard what the other drummers were playing. "They put on
Trespass and my initial impression of a very soft and round music, not edgy, with vocal harmonies and I came away thinking
Crosby, Stills and Nash". Gabriel and Rutherford noticed the confident way Collins approached and sat at his drum kit and knew he would be the right replacement. Banks said, "It was a combination of things. He could make it swing a little bit ... he could also tell good jokes and make us laugh ... And he could sing, which was an advantage because Mike and I were not very good at back-up vocals". In August 1970, Collins became the new drummer for Genesis. Caryl's audition was unsuccessful; Rutherford thought he was not the player the group were looking for. After a short holiday, Genesis began to write and rehearse as a four-piece band in
Farnham, Surrey. The now empty guitar sections in their songs allowed Banks and Rutherford to expand their sound and play what Gabriel described as "interesting chords". As they had not found a new guitarist, Genesis resumed as a live act with Rutherford adding
bass pedals and Banks playing lead guitar lines on a
Pianet through a distorted
fuzz box amplifier in addition to his keyboard parts, something that he credits in helping him develop his technique. In November 1970, after a second audition with Caryl fell through, Dave Stopps, owner of
Friars club in
Aylesbury, suggested they use
Mick Barnard of The Farm, who joined the band for their gigs; which included Genesis' television debut on BBC's
Disco 2. After two months of performances, the band found Barnard lacked in expertise and wished to try someone else. In December, Gabriel spotted a
Melody Maker advert from
Steve Hackett, formerly of
Quiet World, who wanted to join a band of "receptive musicians, determined to drive beyond existing stagnant music forms". Gabriel advised Hackett to become familiar with
Trespass and attend their upcoming gig at the
Lyceum Theatre in London. Hackett auditioned with the group in a flat in
Earl's Court and formed an instant rapport with Rutherford through a common interest in
inverted chords. After Hackett joined in January 1971, Stratton Smith organised a UK tour with Genesis opening for fellow Charisma acts
Lindisfarne and
Van der Graaf Generator. Their first overseas dates took place in March with gigs in Belgium followed by their first of three consecutive appearances at the annual
Reading Festival on 26 June. Rehearsals for the band's third album,
Nursery Cryme, took place at
Luxford House near
Crowborough,
East Sussex, which Stratton Smith had owned. Recording began at Trident Studios in August 1971 with Anthony and Hentschel reprising their respective roles as producer and assistant engineer. The band's sound evolved, with Hackett's more aggressive electric guitar work and Banks adding a
Mellotron previously owned by
King Crimson to his set of keyboards. The opening track, "
The Musical Box", originated when Phillips and Mayhew were in the group. The band developed the piece further including the addition of new guitar parts from Hackett. "The Musical Box" and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" are the first recordings in which Hackett uses the
tapping technique. Hackett and Collins wrote "For Absent Friends", which was the first Genesis track with Collins on lead vocals. On the album's cover, Whitehead depicted a Victorian
manor house based on Gabriel's parents' home, and scenes and characters from the lyrics to "The Musical Box".
Nursery Cryme was released in November 1971 and reached No. 39 in the UK in 1974. Though the group still had a minor cult following at home, they started to achieve commercial and critical success in mainland Europe, with the album reaching No. 4 in the Italian charts. From November 1971 to August 1972, Genesis toured to support the album, including further visits to Belgium and, for the first time, Italy, where they played to enthusiastic crowds. In January and March 1972 they recorded radio sessions for BBC's
Sounds of the Seventies programme and later in the year performed at the Reading Festival to some critical acclaim. During the tour, Genesis recorded "Happy the Man", a non-album single, with "
Seven Stones" from
Nursery Cryme on its B-side.
1972–1974: Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound Following rehearsals in a dance school in
Shepherd's Bush, Genesis recorded
Foxtrot at
Island Studios in August and September 1972. Hackett, exhausted from the
Nursery Cryme tour and feeling like he wasn't contributing enough material to the group, offered to leave, but was reassured by the band that they liked his lead guitar playing and wanted him to stay. During the early sessions, disagreements between Charisma and Anthony contributed to the end of his association with Genesis. After two replacement engineers were tried out, the band settled on
John Burns and a new producer,
Dave Hitchcock. The album features the 23-minute track "
Supper's Ready", a suite of various musical segments. The track included an opening acoustic piece, a Gabriel-penned song called "Willow Farm" and a piece derived from a jam by Banks, Rutherford and Collins called "Apocalypse in 9/8". Other songs were the
science-fiction-themed "
Watcher of the Skies" and the property-development-themed "
Get 'Em Out by Friday".
Foxtrot was released in on 15 September 1972 and reached No. 12 in the UK. It fared even better in Italy, where it went to No. 1.
Foxtrot was well received by critics.
Chris Welch of
Melody Maker thought
Foxtrot was "a milestone in the group's career", "an important point of development in British group music" and that Genesis had reached "a creative peak".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine thought
Foxtrot marked the first time "Genesis attacked like a rock band, playing with a visceral power". The
Foxtrot tour covered Europe and North America from September 1972 to August 1973. Gabriel surprised the other members of the band at the
National Stadium in
Dublin on 28 September 1972 by wearing a costume on stage, following a suggestion by Charisma booking agent
Paul Conroy. He went off stage during an instrumental section in "The Musical Box" and reappeared in his wife's red dress and a fox's head. The incident resulted in front cover reports in the music press, allowing the band to double their performance fee. In December 1972 Stratton Smith organised the band's first gigs in the US, with a show at
Brandeis University in
Waltham, Massachusetts and one at
Philharmonic Hall in New York City with openers
String Driven Thing, in aid of the
United Cerebral Palsy Fund. They were well received despite the band complaining of technical issues. Gabriel's costumes expanded in the following months to include
fluorescent face paint and a cape fitted with bat wings for "Watcher of the Skies", several guises throughout "Supper's Ready" and a mask of an old man for "The Musical Box". An album of recordings from the following UK leg, initially recorded for the American radio programme
King Biscuit Flower Hour, was released as
Genesis Live in July 1973. It reached No. 9 in the UK and No. 105 in the US. In the summer of 1973, Genesis re-signed their contracts with Charisma. Stratton Smith said they got "a much improved deal" despite them being able to get a better one with a bigger label, but the group were loyal and trusted the label with their careers. With a new contract and thus a green-light for a new album, Genesis recorded
Selling England by the Pound at Island Studios in August 1973, the second Genesis album that Burns co-produced. Much of it was written at Una Billings School of Dance and
Chessington. Gabriel contributed lyrics based on the idea of commercialism and the decline of English culture and the rise in American influences. Its title refers to a
UK Labour Party slogan to make it clear to music critics who may have thought Genesis were beginning to "sell out" to the US. "
Firth of Fifth" features an extended electric guitar solo from Hackett. The album's cover is a modified version of a painting named
The Dream by Betty Swanwick who added a lawn mower to tie the image to the lyrics of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)".
Selling England by the Pound was released on 5 October 1973 and received favourably by critics, though slightly less enthusiastically than
Foxtrot. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 70 in the US. By this time, Genesis had made little effort to organise their finances and were £150,000 in debt ().. They hired promoter
Tony Smith as their new manager to improve their fortunes and published the band's subsequent music through his company,
Hit & Run Music Publishing. The
Selling England by the Pound tour visited Europe and North America between September 1973 and May 1974. Their six shows in three days at
The Roxy in Los Angeles were well received by audiences and critics. The success of the tour earned the group the "Top Stage Band" title by readers of
NME. At its conclusion, Macphail resigned as their tour manager as he wished to pursue other interests. "
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was released as a UK single with "Twilight Alehouse", a non-album track recorded in 1972; it reached No. 21 following its release in February 1974. Its success led to an offer for Genesis to appear on BBC's national show
Top of the Pops. The group thought this would not suit their image and they declined the offer.
1974–1975: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Gabriel's departure In June 1974, Genesis started work on their
double concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. This marked a point at which Gabriel's relationship with the rest of the group became increasingly strained, which contributed to his departure. The album was written at
Headley Grange in
East Hampshire, where upon their arrival the building had been left in a very poor state by the previous band, with rat infestations and excrement on the floor. Gabriel objected to Rutherford's idea of an album based on
The Little Prince by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, thinking the idea was "too twee". He proposed to the band a less fantastical and more complicated story involving Rael, a
Puerto Rican youth living in New York City who embarks on a spiritual quest to establish his freedom and identity while meeting several bizarre characters on the way. Gabriel wrote the story with influences from
West Side Story, "a kind of punk" twist to ''
Pilgrim's Progress, author Carl Jung and the film El Topo'' by
Alejandro Jodorowsky. Most of the album's lyrics were written by Gabriel, leaving much of its music to the rest of the group. His absence from a considerable amount of writing sessions due to difficulties with his wife's first birth was something about which Rutherford and Banks "were horribly unsupportive". Gabriel also left the group when director
William Friedkin asked him to write a screenplay, but returned after the project was shelved. In August 1974, production moved to Glaspant Manor in
Carmarthenshire, Wales with Burns as co-producer, operating Island Studios' mobile equipment. Further work and mixing took place at Island, where
Brian Eno contributed synthesizers and effects that the album's sleeve credits as "Enossification". When Gabriel asked Eno how the band could repay him, Eno said he needed a drummer for his track "
Mother Whale Eyeless". Collins said, "I got sent upstairs as payment". Gabriel was pleased with Eno's work but Banks was less enthusiastic.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released in November 1974 and reached No. 10 in the UK and No. 41 in the US. The stage show involved new, more elaborate costumes worn by Gabriel, three backdrop screens that displayed 1,450 slides from eight projectors, and a
laser lighting display. Music critics often focused their reviews on Gabriel's theatrics and took the band's musical performance as secondary, which irritated the rest of the band. During their stay in
Cleveland during the tour, Gabriel told the band he would leave at its conclusion. He wrote a statement regarding his departure to the English press that was published in August 1975 titled "Out, Angels Out", explaining he had become disillusioned with the music industry and wanted to spend extended time with his family. Banks later stated, "Pete was also getting too big for the group. He was being portrayed as if he was 'the man' and it really wasn't like that. It was a very difficult thing to accommodate. So it was actually a bit of a relief."
1975–1977: Collins becomes frontman, A Trick of the Tail, Wind & Wuthering and Hackett's departure Following the
Lamb tour, Hackett recorded his first solo album
Voyage of the Acolyte as he felt unsure that Genesis would survive following Gabriel's departure. He reconvened with the remaining group members in London in July 1975. During this time, Collins began drumming with instrumental jazz rock band
Brand X, with whom he would be a semi-regular member whenever Genesis were on down time for the next five years. Collins's idea of Genesis continuing as an instrumental group was quickly rejected by the others as they thought it would become boring. Rehearsals for
A Trick of the Tail took place in
Acton where material was quickly written and with little effort; most of "Dance on a Volcano" and "Squonk" was put together in the first three days. Recording began in October 1975 at Trident Studios with Hentschel as producer. As a replacement singer had not been found, the band decided to record the album without vocals and audition singers as they went. They placed an anonymous advertisement in
Melody Maker for "a singer for a Genesis-type group", which received around 400 replies. Collins proceeded to teach selected applicants the songs; Witches Brew frontman and flautist Mick Strickland was invited into the studio to sing, but the backing tracks were in a key outside of his natural range and the band decided not to work with him. Having failed to find a suitable vocalist, Collins went into the studio and attempted to sing "Squonk". His performance was well received by the band and they decided that he should be their new lead vocalist. Collins then sang on the remaining tracks.
A Trick of the Tail was released in February 1976 and was a commercial and critical success for the band. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 31 in the US. which helped the band clear the £400,000 of debt () they owed when Gabriel left. For the first time in their career Genesis filmed promotional videos for their songs, including "A Trick of the Tail" and "Robbery, Assault and Battery". Before the upcoming tour, Collins sought a drummer he felt comfortable with while singing; he chose
Bill Bruford who offered to do the job. From March to July 1976, Genesis performed across North America and Europe with the
A Trick of the Tail tour, to enthusiastic crowds. Collins adopted a more humorous rapport with the audience, unlike Gabriel's theatrical approach, which was successful. The shows in
Glasgow and
Stafford were filmed for their concert film
Genesis: In Concert, released in cinemas in February 1977 as a
double bill with
White Rock. In September 1976, Genesis relocated to Relight Studios at
Hilvarenbeek in
the Netherlands with Hentschel to record
Wind & Wuthering. It was put together in a short amount of time and a considerable amount of material was written beforehand, of which the most suitable songs were picked for development. Rutherford spoke of the band's conscious effort to distance themselves from songs inspired by fantasy, something that their past albums "were full of". The band spent roughly six weeks writing the album with a basic form of each track put down in twelve days. Additional recording and production work was done at Trident Studios that October. Touring began on 1 January with three sold-out shows at the
Rainbow Theatre in London, where 80,000 applications were made for the 8,000 available tickets. They returned to London for three nights at
Earls Court, then the largest arena in Britain, supported by
Richie Havens. In May 1977 Genesis released
Spot the Pigeon, an
extended play of three tracks left off
Wind & Wuthering. It peaked at No. 14 on the UK singles chart. It was the final Genesis release before Hackett left the group. He had been writing more material on his own and found it increasingly difficult to contribute more of his ideas within a group context. He wished to embark on a solo career and "take the risk in order to find out just how good I was on my own". News of Hackett's departure coincided with the band's double live album
Seconds Out, recorded in
Paris on the
A Trick of the Tail and
Wind & Wuthering tours and released in October 1977. It reached No. 4 in the UK and No. 47 in the US.
1977–1980: ...And Then There Were Three... and Duke