Genesis in the media

  • I picked this up at a services station this afternoon. Having enjoyed the Ultimate Music Guide editions on Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, there was no way I was going to pass this up (although, it appears this is an updated, 50th anniversary edition of a previous release).


    I'm slowly working my way through the reviews (I've only got as far as Foxtrot) and, while I hope that it's not slanted more favourably towards the seventies era (although with a picture of Peter Gabriel on the front and an introduction by ex-guitarist Steve Hackett (featuring a plug for his latest album and yet more revisionist comments such as "I said we should [do Supper's Ready] with all the sound effects" as well as the traditional mention of "my brother, John") I do wonder...

  • Via Brian Eno's twitter feed: Lamb rehearsal tapes, Headley Grange.


    I love 307. I'd heard it before on Glickton's YouTube channel. Yes it's rough but I love the fuzz bass and often imagine what a great finished track this could've been. It gives a glimpse of what I've suspected before, that they could be a dirty band in rehearsal but never had the nerve to stay that way and always polished everything to a high shine, sometimes too high.


    http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=4340

    Abandon all reason

  • I saw that link on Danny Baker's Twitter feed last night. I have the Headley Grange tapes, courtesy of The Movement site, and had tried to incorporate some of the stuff into my own mix of The Lamb but the quality is too poor to be usable. Still, as you say, a great insight into what could have been.

  • I picked this up at a services station this afternoon. Having enjoyed the Ultimate Music Guide editions on Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, there was no way I was going to pass this up (although, it appears this is an updated, 50th anniversary edition of a previous release).


    I'm slowly working my way through the reviews (I've only got as far as Foxtrot) and, while I hope that it's not slanted more favourably towards the seventies era (although with a picture of Peter Gabriel on the front and an introduction by ex-guitarist Steve Hackett (featuring a plug for his latest album and yet more revisionist comments such as "I said we should [do Supper's Ready] with all the sound effects" as well as the traditional mention of "my brother, John") I do wonder...


    May I ask what you mean by "yet more 'revisionist' comments"?


    (...from 'ex-guitarist Steve Hackett' - shouldn't there be a matching 'ex-singer Peter Gabriel' in there ? ;) )

  • I saw that link on Danny Baker's Twitter feed last night. I have the Headley Grange tapes, courtesy of The Movement site, and had tried to incorporate some of the stuff into my own mix of The Lamb but the quality is too poor to be usable. Still, as you say, a great insight into what could have been.

    Ah another Prodnoser, eh? I didn't notice it on his, maybe he picked it up from Eno's. I did respond on DB's one about Queen not actually being all that good, to say I agreed, and got fewer annoyed-Queen-fan replies than I expected.


    Yeah I can imagine it'd be hard to incorporate the HG tapes. Are you equipped to do any polishing up and did you try any?

    Abandon all reason

  • May I ask what you mean by "yet more 'revisionist' comments"?


    (...from 'ex-guitarist Steve Hackett' - shouldn't there be a matching 'ex-singer Peter Gabriel' in there ? ;) )

    Of course you may. Quite simply, Steve has been openly re-writing history with regards to his time in Genesis for quite some time now. The Steve Hackett who now claims to have been pushing for bells and whistles in Supper's Ready is the same Steve Hackett who told Hugh Fielder in the mid-eighties that he wasn't at all sure about said song, that it was too long and altogether too much of a musical gamble.


    You're welcome.

  • Ah another Prodnoser, eh? I didn't notice it on his, maybe he picked it up from Eno's. I did respond on DB's one about Queen not actually being all that good, to say I agreed, and got fewer annoyed-Queen-fan replies than I expected.


    Yeah I can imagine it'd be hard to incorporate the HG tapes. Are you equipped to do any polishing up and did you try any?

    Oh yes, I think Prodnose had had a few when he made that comment about Queen. I always liked them, myself.


    Whilst I have my own studio (doesn't everyone these days?), I always defer to someone else to do the mixing and mastering. I'm a performer, not a producer! That said, there was a collective surrendering at KBL Studios when we realised that, in order to achieve what I was aiming for, we'd really need those Headley Grange recordings to be on multi-track.

  • Pretty disappointed with the Uncut magazine. Anyone reading it would think that Genesis didn't do any interviews after 1978. As for the reviews, whoever it was who was commissioned to cover Invisible Touch really ought not to give up the day job because I've never read such ill-informed rubbish in all my days.


    Not a complete waste of money but definitely not worth the cash I paid for it.

  • Oh yes, I think Prodnose had had a few when he made that comment about Queen. I always liked them, myself.

    Well yes he probably had, although he's often mentioned them fairly dismissively on his radio show.


    He said they came into One Stop Records when he worked there, before they were known (when they were still Princess?!) to give out some promotional stuff for their 1st album.

    Abandon all reason

  • Pretty disappointed with the Uncut magazine. Anyone reading it would think that Genesis didn't do any interviews after 1978. As for the reviews, whoever it was who was commissioned to cover Invisible Touch really ought not to give up the day job because I've never read such ill-informed rubbish in all my days.


    Not a complete waste of money but definitely not worth the cash I paid for it.

    I thought it was reasonably fair on IT, actually (if you discount that American Psycho stuff at the beginning). I thought it was unfair on WCD, half of which it dismissed as Collins ballads, including Living Forever which is nothing of the sort, and it was also unfair on CAS, but that was inevitable. I thought some of the song ratings were bizarre (Home By The Sea only three stars). I agree about the lack of more recent interviews, but there was the R Kive section.

  • Of course you may. Quite simply, Steve has been openly re-writing history with regards to his time in Genesis for quite some time now. The Steve Hackett who now claims to have been pushing for bells and whistles in Supper's Ready is the same Steve Hackett who told Hugh Fielder in the mid-eighties that he wasn't at all sure about said song, that it was too long and altogether too much of a musical gamble.


    You're welcome.

    Why, thank you :)


    I can't say I see much of a contradiction there - especially since he was often reduced to adding bells and whistles to er... private parts and pieces in the first place.


    Anyhow, he was there, so I guess we'll have to take his multifaceted word for it.


    (Let's take this up again when he starts to claim credit for the abysmal Invisible Touch!)

  • All Phil did was be successful. I've never been clear on why that should be a bad thing. Doesn't every artist want to be successful? He's a mainstream artist with a knack for saying things directly to the accompaniment of a pithy tune. Along the way, he has hired some top-hole musicians to help him realise his musical aspirations. Pretty impressive, as far as I'm concerned.

  • In the prog mag there is 2 pages with Mike Rutherford also.

    Well worth getting.

    Nice Tony Banks interview and he gives a solid quote about Hackett...

    'I missed Steve on And Then There Were Three as Mike was just finding his way as a guitarist and Steve might have made more of those songs'.