"These are a few of my favourite things..." - Your editor looks at some of the items that have accrued in his almost fifty years of collecting Genesis.

Bit of an odd one this. As any of you who have been Genesis fans for some time will know, once you get bitten by the bug, collecting can take you to many weird and wonderful places. One man will collect foreign picture sleeves, another will collect first pressings. The list of what you can and do collect is endless. So, rather than write an encyclopedia on that subject, I thought it might be interesting for me to share with you some of the items from my own collection of which I am most proud.

First up, what is a totally unique item. When the Mechanics were on the road in 2015 they played their opening night at the Venue Cymru in Rhyl – TWR was there to interview the band but unkown to me at the time, a friend who lived in Rhyl had secured for me this item – the canvas advertising banner for the gig. Clocking in at almost twenty feet in length its like the Bayeux Tapestry! Bloody weighs a ton too. I still have to find somewhere to display it. I don't think there's another one quite like it or at least if there is, I have never seen one. Another lovely item (or items) are this complete set of the tour itineraries for Genesis's Last Domino Tour. Tour itineraries are fascinating things. Not only do they tell you where the band played on any given day of the tour, they also contain much other interesting information such as venue capacity, as well as information about the crew. Given to members of the band and the road crew and local crews at gigs, these are highly sought after items so it was nice to acquire this set.

Press releases and press kits for albums are also highly sought after and amongst the ones which I have managed to get my mitts on, the ones I am most pleased to have are these. First of all the press pack issued by Charisma Records to promote the Foxtrot album back in 1972. A simple folder containing two pages of reproduced press cuttings about the album. Very rare these days! Moving on over thirty years we come to the same things for the 2007-09 box set reissues. Laminated folders with loads of info on the releases, biographical notes etc. I'm still missing the one for the 1970-75 box set so if anyone has one for sale...? I won't even get started on vinyl records which is a potential book subject in itself. Im my time I have had virtually every vinyl release by the band and its solo members and still retain some items to this day, of these the ones I am most proud of include the 12 inch Sally single from Anthony Phillips which was bloody hard to come by and even rarer now. Also by Anthony is the vinyl and CD single of The Anthem From Tarka which you will be very hard pressed to find these days.

Posters? No music fans' collection is complete without at least one poster, right? I've got hundreds of the bloody things acquired from various sources over the years. I can't single out one of these as I am delighted to have several in particular in the collection. My most prized however, remain the promotional posuers for a brace of albums which were particularly influential – Wind & Wuthering and The Geese & The Ghost. Original artwork posters such as these would grace any home let alone those of a music fan as the artwork itself is beautiful. Of a slightly later vintage is the 1978 Knebworth Park Genesis concert poster which I had been looking for for years – one of a brace of items associated with that pivotal gig which are now in the collection. Other lovely items gracing the walls of TWR HQ include several Japanese Steve Hackett tour posters as well as one very nice Mechanics item – the tour poster for what was to be Paul Young's last tour with the band. Fully signed by the band this one hangs in my dining room.

Promotional items such as album samplers, radio promos etc are another area which I have explored although not in obsessional detail. Of these the ones I am glad I have in my collection include the samplers for the two Archive box sets along with the two disc interview set for the 1967-75 set all of which are very hard to find these days. The sampler given out to attendees at the press conference announcing the 2007 tour is also of interest as it contains an mix of Abacab not used on the Platinum Collection album.

Back to Knebworth 78 for a moment. Another item which I cherish is the concert programme from this gig. One of the better programmes from the band among my collection of which there are several which are truly beautiful. Not least among these are several Japanese tour programmes from Steve's tours over the years. No one does a tour programme quite like the Japanese and these are works of art in their own right.

Finally, a couple of those items which are truly one of a kind. I mentioned earlier, the promotional poster for The Geese & The Ghost didn't I? Well, without doubt one of the most treasured items in the collection is the original artist's rough guide artwork for the back cover of that item. Kindly given to me by Mr Phillips himself many years ago. Of much more recent vintage and not quite unique (there are two halves of this one, of which I have one). When the band appeared at the playback of the new Atmos Mix of The Lamb... They posed for photos in front of an advertising hoarding with the album logo on it. Indeed, after the same playback, yours truly did the same (see photo). The hoarding was in two halves, one of which now resides in the spare room at TWR HQ. I wonder who got the other half...?

There are many, many more items which have come into the collection over the years which I am delighted to have as part of it but as the song goes, these are a few of my favourite things... I hope you found it interesting.