* * *
‘What are you doing to prepare, how are you getting fit?’
As soon as we’d announced the 2007 Turn it On Again tour, journalists started asking us that. Maybe they thought we were eighty-something, not fifty-something. In any case, the answer would always be ‘Nothing’. By the time Tony and I had learned the songs again, we would be fit enough to play them.
It was a bit different for Phil. His voice had dropped over the years and I used to tell him just to sing a different note – you can duck and dive a bit live – but he wouldn’t do that, he saw it as a failure. Then in 2007, after thirty-odd years, Tony and I finally agreed to change keys. He sounded the best he’d ever been.
We were never confident about the tour. I knew we would sell tickets but I didn’t know how many, which is why we only did one show at Twickenham. As it turned out, we could have done many more. It was a great feeling, being back on stage with the band.
The show that meant most to me was the concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome. The ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium was about as far from an anonymous arena as you could get, but it wasn’t just that: Italy had been one of the first places to get us when we were just starting out.
We were on stage in front of 500,000 people, the biggest crowd I have ever seen. The silhouette of the stage was like a sculpture against the city. It was a warm summer’s night, and we came on just as the sun was going down, with the outline of the Vatican just visible . . .
Forty years of Genesis, playing out the highs and lows, from sleeping on floors to private planes, witnessing the changing faces . . . but, of course, nothing has ever been more important than the music. ‘Duke’s Intro’ kicked in as the massive crowd enveloped us in a wall of noise. Everything worked like clockwork that night, something my father would have appreciated
As a young boy my dad was told. . .
‘You’ll never be as fine a man as your father’.
He was.
I hope I will be too.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My heartfelt thanks to my wife, Angie, who helped me find my voice, provided the humour for many of my anecdotes and put them on paper. I can’t thank you enough.
Andreas Campomar at Constable & Robinson and Matthew Hamilton at Aitken Alexander Associates.
Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Ant Phillips, Daryl Stuermer, Chester Thompson, Paul Carrack, Paul Young, Chris Neil, B. A. Robinson, Andrew Roachford, Tim Howar, Gary Wallis, Anthony Drennan, Luke Juby, Richard MacPhail, Alan Owen, Craig Schertz.
Tony Smith, Jo Greenwood, Carol Willis, Robin Moore and everyone at Hit and Run. Tony Stratton Smith, Ahmet Ertegun, Mike Farrell, John Giddings, Doug Morris, Jonathan King, Nicky Pickering, Mandy Swainston, Andy Godfrey.
Dale Newman, Geoff Callingham, Steve Jones (Pud), Geoff Banks (Bison), Hugh Padgham, Nick Davis, Andrea and Rupert Cobb.
John Alexander for introducing me to Angie.
And special thanks to Stephanie Cross, who over many months made sense of my life on paper and gave me the narrative structure for this book.
PICTURE CREDITS
Section I
Page 5 (top): © Armando Gallo.
Page 6 (bottom): © Armando Gallo.
Page 7 (bottom): © Associated Newspapers/REX.
Section II
Page 1 (top): © Jonathan Silver.
Page 1 (bottom left): © Glen Colson.
Page 1 (bottom right) © Armando Gallo.
Page 2 (top): © Richard MacPhail.
Page 2 (middle): © Armando Gallo.
Page 3 (middle): © Andre Csillag.
Page 4 (top): © Lewis Lee.
Page 4 (middle): © Stephanie Pistel.
Page 4 (bottom): © Stephanie Pistel.
Page 8 (top): © Genesis Archive.
Page 8 (bottom): © Lauren Haynes.
Rehearsing in the summer of ’68.
‘Dear boys, they love you!’ Our first manager Tony Stratton-Smith.
First trip to New York – moodily confident.
First overseas’ trip to Brussels. Feeling a bit queasy on the Mateus Rosé.
Pete selling England by the pound.
How to kill time when on tour.
Phil thought life on the road would be rock ‘n’ roll all the way.
Pegged out after shooting ‘Illegal Alien’ video.
At least the kids enjoyed Tony’s guitar playing.
Spitting Image join us on tour.
Locking horns with Phil.
Playing to half a million people. The last European gig, Rome 2007.
A rather varied bill; Mike + The Mechanics perform variety on the West Coast.
Paul Carrack.
‘Chief Mechanic’.
Paul Young.
Angie and I on our wedding day.
Granny and Grandpa with Kate and Tom.
Family photo album.
(Still talking.)
On Whale Island, Portsmouth Harbour, with Mum, Dad and Nicky.
Dad, aged six, fishing in Cape Town.
Me, aged three, at Morris Lodge Hotel.
Just moved up North!
At scout camp in Wales. Still considering the Navy. . .
Dad in the 2nd XI football team (back row, 3rd from left). Eleven matches: eleven victories.
Me in the 2nd XI rugby team (back row, right). The highlight of my brief sporting career.
My father on gunnery manoeuvres.
Me on speeding manoeuvres, Texas 1976.
Brazil ’77. About to collapse onstage with food poisoning.
Dad looking for inspiration.
My father’s standards never relaxed.
Backstage, trying to convince Phil and Tony to do it my way.
1986. On my way to work.
HMS Newcastle, 1952–3. My father’s preferred method of transport.
Captain William Francis Henry Crawford Rutherford, C.B.E., D.S.O (1906–1986).
The Living Years Page 25