Things they never did with Genesis but did on solo albums

  • What have the various Genesis members done on their solo albums that they never did with Genesis?


    Here's what I can think of off the top:


    TONY - bass

    MIKE - lead vocals, keyboards

    PHIL - keyboards

    STEVE - lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica, bass, various exotic stringed instruments

    ANT - keyboards, various exotic stringed instruments


    Can anyone add anything to the list?


    I'm not that familiar with Peter and Ray's solo careers. I also can't recall if Steve ever played keyboards for his solo work.


    (Note that I didn't include "lead vocals" for Tony or Ant because they each sang a partial lead on a Genesis song -- i.e., "Shepherd" and "Let Us Now Make Love" respectively.)

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • Didn't Peter play keyboards on his solo albums but never with Genesis? Please correct me if I'm wrong!


    Phil famously played bagpipes on We Wait & We Wonder!

    Yes correct about PG, strictly speaking just piano. I think he tried to play a bit of piano in Genesis but got slapped down by Banks. Isn't there a story that he put down a piano part which Banks later heard, causing him to exclaim "What the hell is this, I'm the keyboard player in this band"?


    Did PC actually play bagpipes rather than sampling them? It sounds a bit keyboardy to me.

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  • I'm sure I read that he actually played them. OK, this is Amazing Grace but it proves something.


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  • i find odd that mike didn't play bass on mike & the mechanics albums, considering that he was a bassist before he became a guitarist. besides, in my opinion bass is his main strength.

  • STEVE - lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica, bass, various exotic stringed instruments

    ANT - keyboards, various exotic stringed instruments

    Steve played autoharp on Wind and Wuthering, though I can't hear it; then again, there is definitely some strange string instrument in the first and second verse of Inside and Out which sounds exactly like that strange thing we can hear in Icarus Ascending (the part when the whole band fades out and only that instrument, whatever it is, remains for a few bars before the band joins again for the reggae and jazz part).


    Ant played dulcimer throughout FGTR and on Looking For Someone and on some of the early demo tracks, it is sometimes mistaken for a piano because of its similar sound. It can be heard on Geese too and some of his older archive tracks.


    But yes, both Steve and Ant still employed lots of other exotic stringed instruments outside of Genesis. Steve even played bass.

  • Yes correct about PG, strictly speaking just piano. I think he tried to play a bit of piano in Genesis but got slapped down by Banks. Isn't there a story that he put down a piano part which Banks later heard, causing him to exclaim "What the hell is this, I'm the keyboard player in this band"?

    True but reportedly his piano part in Counting Out Time remained on the record, and on top he played all of the keyboards in the intro/outro part of I Know What I Like, something he could only do because Tony wasn't in the studio at the time.

  • some strange string instrument in the first and second verse of Inside and Out which sounds exactly like that strange thing we can hear in Icarus Ascending (the part when the whole band fades out and only that instrument, whatever it is, remains for a few bars before the band joins again for the reggae and jazz part).

    I think that's just a guitar sound. I've heard such a sound being done by momentarily turning the volume knob all the way down when the string is picked (to hide the "attack" sound), then immediately and quickly turning it back up. I'm not sure whether that's what Steve does on I&O or IA, but I imagine he's at least done it in other places.

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • True but reportedly his piano part in Counting Out Time remained on the record, and on top he played all of the keyboards in the intro/outro part of I Know What I Like, something he could only do because Tony wasn't in the studio at the time.

    I love that I can still learn new things about Genesis songs. I didn't know any of that, thanks for those nuggets! What exactly is he doing on the intro/outro of IKWIL? I presume either Banks didn't have a tantrum on those occasions perhaps because he realised PG's contributions sounded good, or he did but got overruled.


    Apologies to DecomposingMan I'm helping us to stray from the intended topic; in the first half of Aisle of Plenty, there are couple of sustained notes on what sounds like a cello. Could it be one, played by Rutherford who apparently used to play it in early gigs?


    And can we take it as read that some will be itching to come in and say they've never noticed as they're too busy being bored and uninterested by the track?!

    Abandon all reason

  • I'm sure I read that he actually played them. OK, this is Amazing Grace but it proves something.


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    Thanks, I hadn't known that.

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  • I love that I can still learn new things about Genesis songs. I didn't know any of that, thanks for those nuggets! What exactly is he doing on the intro/outro of IKWIL? I presume either Banks didn't have a tantrum on those occasions perhaps because he realised PG's contributions sounded good, or he did but got overruled.


    Apologies to DecomposingMan I'm helping us to stray from the intended topic; in the first half of Aisle of Plenty, there are couple of sustained notes on what sounds like a cello. Could it be one, played by Rutherford who apparently used to play it in early gigs?


    And can we take it as read that some will be itching to come in and say they've never noticed as they're too busy being bored and uninterested by the track?!

    That intro part of IKWIL is a though one, all I can make out for sure is a few deep notes on the grand piano and a drone that seems to be mellotron and possibly ARP Pro Soloist. There's a bunch of other sounds though and I have to confess I am lost on what all these things are we can hear. Lots of things are possible: Mike's bass pedals, Mike's cello, Steve's guitar, Peter's flute... I started a thread on this in the old forum, what we know for sure is the band filled a whole 8-track tape only for the intro and the actual song was recorded separately on another tape, finally both tapes were mixed together. A demo of the intro part surfaced on a bootleg, it runs for about a minute. By any means, it appears this intro part was recorded in Tony's absence which Peter took as his chance to use his keyboards; and reportedly Tony was "not amused" about that. Also, producer John Burns says Peter used to be the one who would constantly come up with the craziest ideas for new strange sound effects, and imho that might give a hint Peter was the main driving force behind that strange intro part.


    I can't make out the cello in Aisle of Plenty, all I can hear is (besides Cinema Show fading out) Steve's nylon guitar and Tony's synth. The cello can be heard in After The Ordeal (coming in somewhere in the middle of the first part, playing bass notes), similarly in the Lover's Leap part of Supper's Ready, and if you listen to the 2008 remasters, you can also hear it in the intro of Colony of Slippermen. On Archive #1 disc 4, it can be heard in one of the old tracks, I don't remember which one but it was Pacidy or Shepherd or some other song from that time.

  • I think that's just a guitar sound. I've heard such a sound being done by momentarily turning the volume knob all the way down when the string is picked (to hide the "attack" sound), then immediately and quickly turning it back up. I'm not sure whether that's what Steve does on I&O or IA, but I imagine he's at least done it in other places.

    Yes a nice example is that one little part in Can-Utility. Well at least in Icarus it sounds like something else because the notes don't seem to be muted. If I should make a wild guess I would say Steve played a guitar (or another instrument) with a violin bow.

  • I can't make out the cello in Aisle of Plenty, all I can hear is (besides Cinema Show fading out) Steve's nylon guitar and Tony's synth. The cello can be heard in After The Ordeal (coming in somewhere in the middle of the first part, playing bass notes), similarly in the Lover's Leap part of Supper's Ready, and if you listen to the 2008 remasters, you can also hear it in the intro of Colony of Slippermen. On Archive #1 disc 4, it can be heard in one of the old tracks, I don't remember which one but it was Pacidy or Shepherd or some other song from that time.

    My apologies; I meant Ordeal, not Aisle, and you still managed to answer my question plus give some additional cello info! Nice going mate.


    I've often wondered what went into the IKWIL intro/outro. The outro of I Don't Remember bears a resemblance to the IKWIL sounds.

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