From Genesis to Revelation (1969) by Thomas Schrage

Released in March 1969 this album s a record, which was obviously made by inexperienced schoolboys. Their theme was the creation of the world, as told in the Bible, and the subsequent evolution of Mankind. It was a bit like a local film club remaking Ben Hur for their first movie project.
The album remained an unmentionable topic for many years. Few fans were even aware of its existence. Despite its faults, the album did have considerable artistic merit. It gave an early indication of Peter Gabriel's unique vocal qualities and the musical capabilities of Tony Banks.
It began in 1967 when the band sent a demo tape to Jonathan King, a former Charterhouse pupil, the school they went to.

Genesis‘ first album was not called Trespass but From Genesis To Revelation. Many fans tend to count it as their zeroeth album. It shows no or at best only the most minuscule traces of the style that would make them well-known later, and therefore frequently meets with a refusal and lack of affection. Justly so?

The band did not have the line-up they got known with yet. One could say they did not even exist. They came together to record demo-tapes in the first place. All of them knew each other from Charterhouse public school. The songwriter team Rutherford and Anthony Phillips asked Tony Banks to play the piano for them; Banks only agreed if he could bring his songwriting partner Peter Gabriel to record a song. Soon they were convinced that Gabriel’s voice sounded better than Phillips’ so he ended up singing on all the songs.

When he did not sing, Phillips played the guitar, a position he would retain up to Trespass. Initially, the drums were played by one Chris Stewart, though the drumming on the album would be done by John Silver. The drummer’s stool would not be filled permanently until Phil Collins joined Genesis. Only with him did the band find someone who was accepted as a full member and could incorporate himself.

Demos

These boys (most of them were around 17 at the time) managed to land a record contract with Jonjo Music in August 1967. That only meant that a single would be released. King was an alumnus of Charterhouse and had had quite a successful hit with Everyone’s Gone To The Moon. A shallow pop song though that may have been, he nevertheless seemed to be a person of success and influence, and they found it very promising that they could have him produce them.

They recorded two singles with King that came out in February and May 1968. Both did just well enough that Kind decided to record a full album with the band during the summer holidays. This was quite an unusual move. Rock music was quite a young business then that was run by young people and rather looked down upon by others in the world of music. Rock was new territory, with infinite space to explore, try out and invent things – in music as well as business. Radio stations were important means of distribution – for in those times you could not read as much about pop music in a whole year as you now can in one day (as Tony Banks put it).