"The Genesis Story Part One -The Charterhouse Years 1963 - 1967" - by Peter Morton.

In September 1963 at the age of 13, Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks entered Charterhouse Public School in Godalming. During the next few years they would become friend and find that they shared the same interest in music. By September 1965, Anthony Phillips had entered Charterhouse and along with a friend; Rivers Job, formed a band called Anon playing alongside Anthony and Rovers were Rob Tyrrell on drums , Richard MacPhail on vocals and Mike Rutherford, who had entered Charterhouse in September 1964, on guitar.

During the summer of 1966, Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks formed a band called The Garden Wall with Chris Stewart on drums. The Garden Wall were to open a specially arranged end of term concert at the school that year with Anon as chief attraction. Due to a lack of lead and bass guitar within The Garden Wall, Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford agreed to help out and play for them as well as for Anon. Soon after the concert, Anon disbanded and from the ashes, Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford began writing and playing music with Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks.

On some of the group’s early musical arrangements, Anthony Phillips was the singer but once Gabriel’s voice was heard an agreement was reached within the group that he, and not Phillips should become the vocalist in the new collaboration. By late 1967 the group had put on to tape five songs, two of which were their own compositions. Hearing that Jonathan King, a past student of the school was coming back to visit old friends, the group decided that as he had already had a success with a chart single, he would be the obvious person to approach regarding this tape and the future of their music. He listened to the tape and was impressed by their style which he thought showed great potential.

Later that year, the group made a second tape and sent it to King, including more ambitious songs. Unfortunately, these didn’t appeal to him. Knowing that King liked a Bee Gees-type arrangement, the group decided to write a song in the same vein as the Bee Gees. They called it The Silent Sun. King was so impressed with the song that he had it recorded and on 2nd February 1968, the Silent Sun was released on Decca Records as a single with That’s Me another original band composition on the B Side. The group’s name that appeared on this first single was Genesis.

Chapter Two: The Decca Years 1968 - 1969

On May 10th 1968, a second single by the group was released, this was A Winter’s Tale with One-Eyed Hound on the B Side. By March the following year the Genesis/King partnership had also released the first album on Decca Records. The album only sold around 600 copies. It was King’s idea to name the group Genesis but, finding that there was already a group by the same name in America, King decided to leave the group nameless but to call the album From Genesis To Revelation. Interestingly enough, at this stage Peter Gabriel wanted to call the group Gabriel’s Angels. The band line up for this first album was: Tony Banks (Keyboards), Peter Gabriel (Vocals/Flute/Bass drum), Anthony Phillips (Guitars), Mike Rutherford (Bass/Guitars) and John Silver (drums).

With the group back at school, they were faced with a major decision in their lives; should they further their education at university or become professional musicians? They decided on the latter with the exception of John Silver the drummer who went to school in American following pressure out on him by his parents. By August 1969 the band’s partnership with King had virtually dried up. Following this break up they decided to make a tape of four songs which unfortunately got little response from the record companies. The next month Genesis played their first paid concert at Mrs Balme’s dance for which they were paid the princely sum of £25.

Richard MacPhail who had been working in Israel for the previous six months, had returned to England to visit some old school friends. He listened to the band’s new style of music and was so impressed that during the winter he let them rehearse in his parent’s cottage in Dorking.

John Mayhew who came to the group as a result of an advertisement in a music magazine, became the new drummer with the band during November 1969. Between then and April 1970 the line up of Banks/Gabriel/Phillips/Rutherford/Mayhew played and wrote material together in the MacPhail cottage. During this period much of the material that had been written would end up on their next album; Trespass.

Genesis played the first gigs of their career during this period and they were as follows…

The material used in their live performances varied at this stage but generally consisted of the following tracks: In The Beginning/The Serpent/Pacidy/Key To Love/Visions Of Angels/Silver Song/Little Leaf/One Day/Movement. Nice and Family which were early arrangements of The Knife and Dusk were also probably played at these early gigs.

Editor’s Note: For more comprehensive information on the gigs and set lists of this period please refer to: Genesis Revisited.