There's an angel standing in the sun
Charisma boss Tony Stratton-Smith, after having heard the album for the first time, reputedly said "This is the one that makes their career," and he was right. Foxtrot reached a number 12 in the British charts and the subsequent tour took the band to America, where Gabriel's extravagant presentation caused Genesis' star to rise as well. The next two albums only helped to expand their following. However, the seeds for Gabriel's departure from the band after The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour had already been sown. The press had a large hand in this event. Banks expressed his discomfort with the inevitability of the situation in an interview. "There was a tendency to put the credit for things like Supper's Ready at Peter's door, which was just ridiculous because it was a group-written piece. It contained a lot of stuff that I wrote in university, so I was just really pissed off. That sort of thing made you feel antagonistic towards the guy himself, which was a shame, because we still got on very well as friends." Obviously, that proved to be insufficient.
Gonna blow right down inside your soul
If there would ever come a time in which it would be possible to freely use a time machine, I do not think that I would be the only one who would want to travel back to the early seventies in order to watch a Genesis concert. It would be quite an experience just to hear classics like The Musical Box, Watcher Of The Skies, Firth Of Fifth and Supper's Ready played by the people who originally recorded them and to see Gabriel's weird outfits and stage performance! Until that time, if it ever comes, I guess we will just have to make do with what we have got; a collection of LPs and/or CDs, some photographs and the few films that exist from their concerts. With that material, we can try to imagine what the Foxtrot tour must have been like and dream away once more on the waves of the intro to Watcher Of The Skies...
