In the autumn of 1969 the group retreated the house in Dorking, Surrey, owned (though unoccupied) by the parents of a former schoolfriend and soon-to-be roadie and road manager. His name was Richard MacPhail, and he tells his own story in the pages of the
"Archive's" accompanying 80 page book. It was a crucial time for the band as they wrote new songs, developed a stage set and decided upon a new direction: from now on Genesis was its own band, playing only its own, collectively-written material.
They went on to gig remorselessly, often for less than £50 per night, and sometimes for audiences as small as two! But somewhere in there, during a residency upstairs at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho, London, they were seen and heard by one Tony Stratton-Smith,
bon viveur, gambler, philanthropist and owner of the recently-launched Charisma Records. Stratton-Smith, like King before him, saw the band's potential and signed them up; the rest, naturally enough, really is history...
"In the autumn of 1969 things came to a head. In spite of some good reviews, commercial success on a grand scale had eluded the band and everyone was pursuing (with varying degrees of reluctance) the course of their education through college and university. They
all decided that they would suspend these activities for a year and commit to music to see if it could work out. At this time my parents were living in London and spending weekends at a remote cottage between Guildford and Dorking in Surrey. They were planning to retire the following spring and had decided not to use the cottage during the winter. Thus there was the perfect opportunity for the band to hole up in a remote but accessible place and, as we used to say, 'get it together' in the country. I became the chief cook, bottle washer and roadie. Days were spent writing and rehearsing new material and gradually gigs were booked. These were mostly in London and the South East and provided a good opportunity to invite various prospective agents, managers and record company scouts to see the
band. It was at a residency upstairs at Ronnie Scott's that the boss of Charisma records - Tony Stratton-Smith - was taken to see the band by a record producer called John Anthony. Tony was impressed and soon became both the band's manager and record company boss. So it was that in the early summer of 1970 the band went into Trident Studios in Soho to record their first Charisma album called Trespass."
Richard MacPhail
