it: How was Phil’s audition? Did you attend it? If not, here’s another question: Did the band ever consider to carry on as a four piece?

Richard: No, it was never a long term intention. We had to get back on the road to earn our 10 Pounds a week (laughs), so another guitarist definitely would have come along. The Phil-audition Story is possibly quite well-known. Phil knew Tony Stratton-Smith and Strat told him that he had this band that was looking for a new drummer. So that’s how Phil got to be at the audition. The auditions were held at Peter’s parents’ farm, which is just to the south west of London, it was summertime 1970 and Phil – well being Phil of course he arrived about two hours early. There were two or three other drummers schedulded do be auditioned first, so Phil just sat in the garden, listened to the music, so when he came in to set up his drums – and of course he’s very quick, and he just knew what to play. And it was kind of like...there wasn’t a moment of hesitation and everybody knew instantly that he was the guy. That’s what he is like. You know they always say that genious is 10% creativity and 90% hard work. Phil is a very very hard worker, one may have thoughts about the direction some of his musical life has taken, but it’s so ironic that so many people in the world don’t know that he’s the greatest drummer ever, you know they think he’s the guy who writes these fairly light pop songs possibly, but he does really deserve his success because he works amazingly hard...so, just for the record. [download this answer in mp3-format!]

Audience Question: I have a question about the Friar’s Time. We all know that Peter kind of invented Stage diving and had to perfom in a wheelchair after an accident. I read somewhere that he made some political incorrect jokes about wheelchairs. Do you recall any of those...

Richard: [interrupts and says louldy] No! [laughter]. Well the word political correct hadn’t been invented by then because he did [starts to laugh] well not really but you can imagine...you know just jokes about people on wheelchairs. I mean he was the joke, let’s face it. What happened is that he had this notion of all these adoring people in front of them and he kind of wanted to become part of them and he lapped – feet first – into the crowd. He just jumped like it was a swimming pool. And if you’re standing in a crowd and someone is coming at you – even as skinny as he was – feet first – you get out of the way, and that’s what happened, the water has parted [claps] - he hit the floor. Later he realized that the thing to do it is ... flat – which worked very well. And I have to say that I admire enormeously the fact that he would fall backwards – ever tried falling backwards? You just can’t do it. And trusting that they would catch him. But the fact that his first attempt to this had so spectacular unsuccessful – it’s amazing that he was prepared to do it again!
The first gig we did with him in the wheelchair after this [gig] when be broke his ankle – was at Lincon Arts School. And it was in a theatre. And in a theatre the stage often tilts forward, we call it a rake, so you get this perspective from the audience. You can imagine, it was a bit of a nightmare. The guy out of control in the wheelchair and the thing is tilting forward. So I thought the next thing was gonna be his neck. What it was that he kind of got into the idea of playing around with people’s heads about a band with a singer in a wheelchair. I don’t think anybody had done that by then. That was the nature of the sort of jokes he did, he sort of pretended that it was permanent. He’s lucky the wind didn’t change. [download this answer in mp3-format!]

Audience Question: We heared a lot of questions about the other guys, but none about you, so what fascinated you about Genesis and what were your reasons for staying with these guys in those days?

Richard: The first thing is that I’m deeply grateful for being questioned that because – I’ve never done something like this before, but I could have said, you can ask any question you like apart from ‘why did you leave Genesis’ because that’s what people always ask me. And you actually said ‘why did you stay with Genesis’ which is very nice. So thank you very much for that. Well what happened...some of you we were delighted to have dinner with last night and my wife Maggie asked round the table what was everybody’s memory of the first time they heard a Genesis song or a Genesis family song or ‘the industry’ as I refer to it. For me, I had a moment at Anthonmy Phillips’ parents’ house in the summer of 1969 when they were just playing, God knows what, and I thought ‘my god, these guys are maybe friends of mine but they sound good!’ – from that point on – for me, if I’m doing a job, there has to be a vocational aspect to it – for the last 25 years I’ve been an environmental consultant because I think that’s very important. The vocational aspect is very important for me. And it was my vocation that they made it, basically. So what was fascinating was being a witness to the creative process and the flowering if you like, just seeing them all, you know Phil for godness sake. If he’d just stayed behind the drums – I don’t mean I wish he hadn’t done everything else that he’s done but he is such an unbelievable drummer and that was enough for me. And then suddenly, Andy [Phil’s first wife] divorces him and he starts writing songs and he’s got a massive hit album on his hands and you know that all of these talents just kept unfolding. And that’s what kept me around. By the time Foxtrot was out and it was a successful abum I knew that they were safely on their way.

Audience Question: We were talking about Phil’s audition but we haven’t heared anything about Steve’s audition. Can you just tell something about that? How was that?

Richard: There wasn’t that formal audition in fact, Steve came to a gig, he answered an advert in the Melody Maker. Tony and Peter went somewhere and he played to them. But it was clear that he had the technique that was needed as a guitarist but much more than that – what got him into the band, was his attitude and his approach and his influences. King Crimson was a hugh influence on everybody and he adored King Crimson. They used to play every Sunday night at the Marquee and he went to all of them. That was the package. They could tell that he had the kind of personality that was likely to fit in. There was a guy called Mick Barnard who was around a bit. But he didn’t work out. When Steve came it was clear from the start that it was going to work.
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