Interview with Glen Colson about the Genesis Archive Project (1995)

Glen Colson is one of those people in the Genesis & Co. circle who, although not involved in the music itself, is nevertheless closely connected to the band in one way or another. He was responsible for compiling the (very successful) Famous Charisma Box, which was released in 1993, and has been busy for some time now putting together the Genesis box set Archive for Virgin Records. This Glen Colson interview is about his work on the Genesis Archive box set.

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The Glen Colson Interview

(13 October 1995 – London)

GNC: Do you know why the first of the Genesis boxes will no longer be released before Christmas and why the release date has been postponed until next year?
Glen: No! Everything is completely finished and the songs have been mixed. But I really don’t know why it won’t be released before Christmas.

GNC: Can you tell us more about the tracks that are included on the first CD?
Glen: Many of these tracks are demo versions of songs they recorded before their first album, and they date from 1967 and 1968.

The record companies wanted a box set like this. But Genesis didn’t want to do it – until now!

GNC: Who originally had the idea to make these three box sets? Was it the band or Virgin?
Glen: Virgin, just like Atlantic in America, had been trying to release a box set for years. They kept trying to persuade the band to do it. But Genesis didn’t want to! But now they’re ready, and they were looking for someone to stand between them and the record company – and that’s me. Before, it was always someone from the record company who wanted to do the job, and maybe they just didn’t trust the record companies. I’m a kind of middle man. I worked for Genesis, and I worked for record companies, which makes everything a bit less complicated.

I can hang out on The Farm, I can send Phil Collins a fax if I want to. And I can go to Tony Smith and look at all kinds of photos of the band in his office. I know everyone there, and there’s probably no one else who knows as many people at the record company as I do. That was probably one of the reasons I got this job. It probably just wasn’t the right time before to put together these boxes, which Genesis would like to spread out over three years.

GNC: Why do they want to release these boxes now? What changed their minds?
Glen: I have no idea! I mean, it can’t be about the money. They all have houses, cars, wives… they really don’t need the money!

GNC: How did you start working on the first box set?
Glen: I started by compiling a list of all the songs I knew hadn’t been released yet or were very difficult to get hold of, such as Twilight Alehouse and Happy The Man. Silver Song was also on that list, but they still don’t want to release it because they don’t like it for some reason. I was very keen that only material that hadn’t been released before should be included. So it turned out that the only two songs that were already available were Happy The Man and Twilight Alehouse. But these two tracks are so rare that it doesn’t really matter.

The problem was finding the material I wanted.

The band was very helpful, which I hadn’t necessarily expected. It’s a long-winded business dealing with them, as they’re either on tour or living abroad. At first, I thought I could put everything together in a month, as I knew exactly which songs I wanted to have in the box. But the problem was finding the material I wanted. They lost a huge amount of recordings. Over a hundred tracks were simply thrown away!

GNC: Who else was involved, was everyone in the band involved?
Glen: Yes, the only one I haven’t seen so far is Phil Collins. I only corresponded with him by fax. Peter Gabriel re-recorded Supper’s Ready and the entire Lamb album. They probably used some parts of it, especially the parts where he had trouble reaching the microphone back then. I know he owns the master tapes. While searching through the Genesis archives, we found the live tapes from the Lamb tour.

They have three places where they keep their tapes. First, there are the so-called ‘Security Archives,’ which are under the care of Virgin. The second is right on the grounds of The Farm. The third is near London Airport and is huge because all kinds of artists store their stuff there: The Beatles, Elton John, the Rolling Stones. A guy named Bill Harrison runs this archive, and he encourages people to drop off their stuff there every week.

They keep old TV stage sets, spotlights and all kinds of other things there. The only thing I didn’t see there was musical equipment and instruments. So, as I said, searching for the recordings we wanted and rummaging through the old material was very time-consuming, as everything was from before 1975. I was assisted by Geoff Callingham and Simon Hopkins from Virgin, among others.

GNC: It’s very hard for us to imagine Peter Gabriel singing the entire Lamb album again in his studio in Box!
Glen: I feel the same way. It took him a long time to get used to this work again. He works very, very slowly. He’s slower than a snail. But when he delivers something, it’s always fantastic.

Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips are also involved

GNC: Were Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips also involved?
Glen: Steve helped me too. He came to the studio and, as far as I know, re-recorded some parts of The Lamb. I spoke to Ant on the phone a few times, and he also found some old recordings he had.

GNC: Who did you get the photos from?
Glen: I got them from Richard Macphail and Armando Gallo. Tony Banks also provided me with a lot of rare pictures, including some of John Silver, which I had never seen before. Mike Rutherford also had a lot of material. In the end, I had hundreds of photos.

GNC: How many of these pictures are included in the booklet?
Glen: A lot… probably over a hundred photos! Most of them are completely unknown. I think the first box set will be very exciting for all fans of the ‘old days’. It will be like a treasure for them.

GNC: Are there also recordings from From Genesis To Revelation on the first CD?
Glen: Yes, some demo recordings of songs from that album are included.

GNC: So you also worked with Jonathan King?
Glen: Yes, he wrote something for the booklet. He knows the music business very well, but perhaps he knows more about the music business than about music itself.

Chris Welch and Ed Goodgold also contributed to the booklet.

GNC: Who else besides Jonathan King wrote something for the booklet?
Glen: First of all, there was the first journalist ever to write about Genesis, Chris Welch. Then Ed Goodgold, who was their manager in America for a while, contributed something. David Stopps did a lot of promotion for Genesis in England in the early days of their career. He also wrote something for the booklet. Apparently he ran a club called ‘Friars’ in Aylesbury. He really did a lot for Genesis and helped them build up an enthusiastic following. And he had a good club, and Genesis was a good band. Richard Macphail wrote a few words, and Tony Banks also contributed, explaining why certain songs were chosen. Tony Banks was one of the most helpful people during the work on the first box set.

GNC: Will tour dates also be included in the booklet?
Glen: No, that was the original plan, but the information available wasn’t detailed enough. Some information was missing, and the only person who can fill in the gaps is Phil Collins. The only problem is that I can’t find his tapes at the moment. Hopefully that will change in the next few weeks, but since he moved, everything has become a bit more difficult. He just doesn’t know where his records are at the moment. But as soon as I get hold of this information, I’ll compile an accurate list and publish it either in the next box set or on the CD-ROM.

GNC: Can you describe what the box will look like?
Glen: It looks like the first edition of an antique, two-hundred-year-old book bound in brown leather. It has the inscription Genesis Archive Volume One 1968-1975 in gold. When you open it, there are two CDs on the left and right, and the booklet is firmly bound in the middle.

GNC: Do you think that Volume Two of the Genesis Archive will be easier to put together, since this material is not as old?
Glen: Much easier, because all the tapes from before 1975 were in all sorts of places. No one really knew where the tapes were stored. However, since Tony Smith took over management, he started to get their affairs in order, and so everything has been locked away since then. All they have to do now is retrieve these recordings from the archives.

Two more box sets are planned, and the third will include a CD-ROM

GNC: Are there any details yet about what will be on the CDs in the second box set?
Glen: At the moment, they don’t even want to think about the second box set. But it will cover the next six albums, i.e. the period from 1975 to 1980/1981. As for the third box set, it looks like there’s already a lot of live material on The Way We Walk albums. That’s how I got the space for the CD-ROM. So the last box set for the time being will contain three CDs and a CD-ROM. But hopefully the second part of the Genesis Archive will again include lots of unreleased recordings, such as demo versions, jam sessions from Abacab, single B-sides and special mixes. All kinds of things that aren’t on the first part, because they rarely recorded anything like that in the early years.

GNC: Will the second box set also contain live material?
Glen: Well, I really don’t know yet. As I mentioned, I haven’t even sat down with them yet. But I definitely want all three box sets to contain recordings that have never been released before or are very difficult to obtain. In my opinion, there’s no good reason to release material that was already available for purchase.

GNC: What will be on the CD-ROM?
Glen: We’re going to give all the band members free rein to do whatever they want. Peter Gabriel will contribute something. Tony Banks, who has been working intensively with computers for some time now, will also contribute to the content. The CD-ROM will contain hundreds of photos, newspaper clippings, film footage, videos, music and album covers. I will also ‘scan’ all the original album covers and have them pressed onto this disc. I bought an Apple Macintosh computer especially for this purpose so that I can do the work myself. Adrian Boot is teaching me everything. He is the one who will be making this silver disc with me. He is a very well-known photographer and has already written a programme for this CD-ROM.

We had an idea and presented it to Tony Smith and the band. They have now given us the go-ahead to use this idea and make the CD-ROM. The whole thing will be called Genesis Attic, and it will all start in the Cottage, where they used to write many of their songs. You climb through a window of the Cottage and enter the attic of the house. There you find all kinds of interesting things. There are no clues or instructions on what to do. You simply click on the objects you want to take a closer look at.

The CD-ROM will be better than Peter’s XPLORA1

GNC: So you want to beat Peter Gabriel’s XPlora1?
Glen: Yes, this CD-ROM will be better. Unfortunately, the whole thing costs a lot of money. They’ve now developed a video display that fills the entire screen. We might use this invention so that every time you click on something, the images will be visible on the entire screen. In addition, the film sequences will be displayed in real time. There won’t be any more jerky movements.

GNC: Who is paying for this whole project?
Glen: Tony Smith.

GNC: Is it true that there were problems finding the master tape of Twilight Alehouse?
Glen: Well, we found it in the end. It was in the Virgin archives. We also had to buy three tracks from the BBC. These are from the Night Ride session, where the songs Pacidy, The Shepherd, Let Us Now Make Love and Stagnation were played.

GNC: Another track recorded during the Night Ride session is Dusk. Unfortunately, this song has been lost. Was there no way to find Dusk anywhere?
Glen: No, I spoke to the BBC archivist, Phil Lawton, myself. He was also the one who gave me the DAT copies of the master tapes.

GNC: Many fans are very interested in film footage. Is it conceivable that there will also be a video release of the Genesis Archive?
Glen: At the moment, I’m looking for the one-hour film Tony Stratton-Smith Presents Genesis In Concert. Unfortunately, I can’t find the master tapes. I would very much like to release this concert, but no one I’ve asked knows where this recording has gone.

Interview: Bernd Zindler and Helmut Janisch
Transcription + translation: Bernd Zindler
First published in German it-Magazin #17, December 1995

Many thanks again to Tony and Glen for taking so much time for us, and to Carol Willis-Impey for making the meeting possible in the first place.
Incidentally, Glen has since been instructed by Hit & Run not to release any further information about the box set, which we find very regrettable.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in English, but the transcription was done directly into German language back in 1995. We have re-translated this interview in 2025 to offer you this piece of Genesis history and of course care has been taken to present this in the most accurate way.

We conducted another interview about the Genesis Archive Project the day before at the farm in Surrey with Tony Banks. You can find the interview here.

Genesis Archive 1967-1975 was finally released on 22 June 1998. A detailed review can be found here.