Author: Steffen Gerlach
Photos: Brian Rootes, Brian Roberts
English by Martin Klinkhardt
The first rehearsals, the first song, the first recording, the first single, the first change in line-up, the first break period … There had been a string of firsts in the two-and-a-half years of the band’s history since Easter 1967. One important first was still missing, though: A live performance!
It was something they had not planned, for the band saw themselves as a songwriters’ cooperative who were lucky enough to record their own songs. A career as a band was not their goal, and when the commercial failure of From Genesis To Revelation became evident during the months of their inactivity it did, understandably, nothing to change that. Still, their time together had left its marks, and when Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and John Silver came together again in the summer of 1969 to make music and be creative they all felt that that was what they enjoyed best.
Their old friend Richard Macphail shared their enthusiasm. After several months in Israel he was excited at how much potential their band sound had developed. He encouraged them to go on and supported them as their handyman. In the end they decided to focus on Genesis. John Silver was the only one who got cold feet. The drummer decided against a career as a musician and for university in the United States, but he kept working on new material with the band until he left the country. The one-year contract with Jonathan King’s JonJo label expired at the end of August 1969, so the band had to go on without external support.
On August 20 they paid for studio time at London’s Regent Sound studios to record a demo with four new songs to present to labels and promoters. They knew that they would not be able to go on without live performances and new fans. They wanted to start playing live in autumn, and the band were looking for business as well as a new drummer. From September 22 to October 3, they rehearsed at Send Barns, the house of Anthony Phillips’s parents near Woking, before they transferred to a place near Wotton where Macphail’s parents had a cottage they wanted to sell the next spring. Thanks to Macphail’s insistence they were allowed to live there for the time being. There were six of them, the four musicians, Macphail and the new drummer John Mayhew. He used to give everybody in the London music scene his number because he was looking for a new gig. In the end it fell into Genesis’ hands, and the got the job not least because of his experience as a live drummer.
