"Genesis Look at Themselves" Interview

Garion81 wrote: I thought one comment by Tony Banks spoke volumes of the realtionship with Steve Hackett. When speaking about Foxtrot he said:  "The way it turned out gathers momentum and has a very strong overall mood, which makes it our most successful song from those early days. I'm less fond of "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" If I remember right this was Steve Hackett's song. I also think it intersting that they thought they could do nothing with any of Steve's songs that became Please Don't Touch.  I thought there were a few that would have been good starts to Genesis songs.

Ah, Can-Utility was Hackett's song. That explains a lot since I've allways loved that song and Tony seems to want to bring it down. He also mentions The Return Of The Giant H. in a quite negative way. Was that also a Hackett song? Or Seven Stones? (which I also like).

Bj-1 wrote: Thanks for the interview link, BTW

It`s good that you and other persons liked this interview.

stonebeard wrote: can someone please answer my question?

Well, I hope so... !

In October 1982 there was a concert to help Peter Gabriel to earn money for him to pay for the WOMAD Festival that he organized. He lost a lot of money, it seems. So, he asked Collins-Banks-Rutherford to play with him in a one-off concert. The band was in the last dates of their "Three Sides Live Encore Tour". They finished the tour (with Chester Thompson and Daryl Stuermer) and they (the trio plus Thompson and Stuermer)   rehearsed a bit with Gabriel. It is not clear to me if Hackett was invited. But I also read an interview with Hackett on which he said that he was in Brazil at that time, and that his father called him there to  tell  him  the news about the "Reunion Concert". So, Hackett travelled to England and only played in the Encores ("I know what I like" and a short version of "The Knife") with Peter & the band. There is a book called "Genesis, from One Fan to Another", with photos by Armando Gallo. There are photos of that concert, with Steve playing on stage with them and smiling with Mike while playing.There is another photo, a "Backstage Photo" I think, on which the musicians are celebrating the success of the concert with a cake and some drinks. Steve and Peter are together, on one side of the photo, and in the other side are Tony Smith (cutting the cake),  B-C-R and Stuermer. There is also another photo of Steve chating with Daryl.

In February of 1983, Hackett invited Gabriel and Rutherford to play some songs during one of Hackett`s concerts.

In one interview, Hackett also said that he respected Banks as a musician but that he never considered him as a close friend.

In 1998, there was a "Reunion Photo" at London`s Heathrow Airport (is it the right  name of the Airport?) of  several members of the band (Hackett, Gabriel, Rutherford, Phillips, Banks, Collins and John Silver). It was at the time of the release of the "Archives 1967-75" Boxed Set. They are all  smiling in the photo.

In September 2000, two or three months after Rutherford and Banks fired Ray Wilson, they played a short concert with Collins and Stuermer (a semi-acoustic concert) to celebrate that Tony Smith won an award in England as manager. Gabriel appears with them in one photo on stage, but he didn`t sing with them.

I don`t know if they are only "Business Partners" and if they only have "apparent good relations" for this reason.

Sir Hogweed wrote: How would the interview after CAS have been? Tony: We never cared much for Phil. He was quite a loser who didn't know anything about music and we had to tell him his stuff all the time. Mike: (laughs) Yeah, what an untalented douchebag he was. I felt so relieved when he finally got the message and left. Just like the thing with... I've forgotten their names. Tony: Yeah, the two of us wrote 99% of the material anyway. We could have been so much more succesful if we had dropped them all right away.

I don't normally say this but: LOLOLOLOLOL

How about:

Tony: Finally Phil left. Then we got some guy in to sing some stuff that me and Mike wrote by ourselves...What was his name again?

Mike: Erm...Anthony Philips or something?

Tony: Something like that, yeah. Or wasn't that our old singer?

Mike: Doesn't matter really. It may have taken nearly 30 years but we managed to shake off the deadweights, and do what we love doing without hindrance.

Tony: Even though nobody likes us any more...

Mike: Shut it. They'll learn.

I agree with you all that the indifference to Steve's departure was quite sad.  No real announcement, just a quick "I'm leaving"....and no real response from the others, just relief.  I think a little less of the remaining three after reading that part....

Also a little surprised that Tony isn't too fond of 'Can-Utility...'.  That is far and away my favourite track on that album....