Tevun-Krus #70 - Punk Wars II

@Nablai's Nebula

Hey everyone. This is Nab here with another article on Punk Wars. I've been researching for weeks and learned to my dismay, there is no technical definition of Punk Wars. Researching the topic taught me that Punk Wars meant basically reinventing yourself and the band with new content, surviving against all odds. So, without much ado, we'll dive into straight into some of the most famous, talked about Punk Wars one of the bands won.

Genesis was one of the British punk bands that fought and won the punk wars. They were formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. They consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. Significant former members were original lead singer Peter Gabriel, original lead guitarist Anthony Phillips, and second lead guitarist Steve Hackett. The band moved from folk music to progressive rock in the 1970's, before moving towards pop at the end of the decade.

The departure of Peter Gabriel was supposed to spell the end for Genesis. instead, they survived punk, defined 80's rock, and became one of the biggest and uncoolest bands of all time.

Before their 1980 album Duke, their music was claimed by many as "too artsy, too intellectual." In the 80's, the Genesis had a total makeover. They changed, they metamorphosized into something better.

In 1975, the band's search for a replacement lead singer after Peter Gabriel departed ended when the in-house. Phil Collins stepped up to the microphone, simultaneously playing drums live during instrumental passages. It worked. Their 1976 album "A Trick Of The Tail" and the following year's "Wind And Wuthering", the first two of the post-Gabriel era, remain among the best pieces the band's ever produced. Genesis had grasped the nettle, seized victory and life from the jaws of fizzling out. They nearly hadn't, though.

In the words of the lead singer Phil Collins: "I remember being in Peter's hotel room in Manchester when he told me he was going to leave," Collins recalls 36 years later. "It didn't occur to me carry on. But my idea of being a four-piece instrumental band went out of the window pretty much that same day. Tony [Banks, keyboards] and Mike [Rutherford, bassist] said: 'Don't be ridiculous. We need a singer, because we're songwriters.' They didn't really sing live, and I'd sung all the back-up vocals. Peter and I had become a sort of... Chas & Dave or whatever, and I'd been his stooge on stage. So it became my job to teach the songs to the guys coming to audition. And I always sounded better than them."

On being asked about who decided his place, he stated: "Well, I didn't. This wasn't something that had entered my head. A Trick Of The Tail was written, and we went into the studio and still didn't have anybody. We had one guy that we thought might be okay. He came in to sing Squonk, and it wasn't good. To give the guy credit, nobody in the band had even asked him what key he preferred, if it was too high. We just wrote the music in the key it sounded best in. It was the same with me after I became the singer. No one ever took any notice of what my range was, I had to make do with whatever we'd written.

"So this poor guy left, and we all looked at each other and I said: 'Well, let me have a go. I think I might be able to do this one.' I was going to sing a couple of the lighter songs anyway, but nobody knew if I had the balls to sing the heavier stuff. We did it, and it sounded okay. And one by one we just went through it, ticking the songs off the list. As far as I was concerned we'd finished the album, but we still didn't have a singer. I figured we'd find someone; the album would come out and it would be what it was. In those days, that was sacrosanct – your record was the Holy Grail. What you did live was... as best you could. So we had another half-hearted attempt at finding a singer, but..."

On Tony Banks opinion regarding Phil Collins, he quoted "He had a lovely voice. He'd obviously done plenty on previous albums. But we weren't sure he'd want to do it – he was the drummer, after all. And at the time, he didn't seem to have... the gravitas. But he sounded great. Which meant we had a more difficult decision, in many ways, regarding the live shows, because now we had to look for a drummer as well. So it was two changes where only one had been needed."

In the words of Phil Collins about the same: "It was a tall order to ask somebody with real talent to come in and pick up my odds and ends. I was playing on the records, and also on stage when I wasn't singing, so to offer a job as a hired hand isn't normally going to make a great drummer jump up and down with happiness. Bill had played percussion in Brand X with me. We were rehearsing in Shepherd's Bush one afternoon and he said: 'Why don't you ask me?' He'd been in this area before [musically], with Yes and King Crimson, so he'd be friendly fire to the fans, but I didn't think he'd do it. For him it was a transitional period, a holding area. Fantastic drummer, but very stubborn and single-minded. I don't know how happy a time it was for him, but he did it. Then he left and we found Chester Thompson. Bill got us over the bridge."

When he was queried if Genesis fans wanted him to succeed after Peter Gabriel left, Phil Collins stated: "Coming from our underdog position, when nobody expected anything, A Trick Of The Tail was a bright light. Yes, they wanted the band to survive. And they preferred that we'd made it work within ourselves."

Thus re-booted, the new Genesis saw A Trick Of The Tail – a winning, well-judged blend of yearning melodies (the title track, Ripples...), poignant narratives (Mad Man Moon), and mesmeric, velveteen sound-beds (Entangled) – sell well on both sides of the Atlantic. Left to their own devices, the quartet had got it very right.

The next album, the melancholy Wind And Wuthering, consolidated the new line-up and sound, with tracks like One For The Vine, Your Own Special Way and Afterglow refracting the old, epic grandeur through accessible shapes. The lyrics on both albums referenced a homeland both recognisable and mythologised – 'a muddy pitch in Newcastle', 'dark and grey, an English film, the Wednesday play/We always watch the Queen on Christmas Day' – which its residents love/hate. You could still escape into Genesis, but now you'd sometimes glimpse signposts from reality.

For the fans of Genesis, I'm posting some of their songs for nostalgia. Do tell me if you liked them.

The award-winning song--Trick of the Tail:

Ripples(1976):

Blood on the Rooftops:

Duchess (Official Video):

With Genesis now officially hit-makers, the three members felt they could venture securely into solo projects. Soon Banks and Rutherford were releasing albums (Banks first, with A Curious Feeling in '79, Rutherford with Smallcreep's Day in '80; he would also later launch Mike + The Mechanics in '85), while Collins worked on a little side-project album called Face Value, which opened with an understated song called In The Air Tonight. The songs he wrote were inspired by his divorce, live drums were largely replaced with programmed ones, and he brought in a horn section.

The album, released in 1981, went on to sell five million in the US, and go five-times platinum in the UK and 10-times platinum in Canada. The 'drummer's solo project' became, unexpectedly, an international phenomenon. The shape, scale and feel of Genesis would never be the same.

Come across this official video on How to Survive the Punk Wars:

Hope you like it!

This is it, folks. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this article. Please feel free to comment on anything. Till we meet the next time...