Hi Kenneth,
06-Jul-97 11:24:11, Kenneth Newman wrote to Robbie Wilson Subject:
Genesis
 RW>> I would consider the first two Peter Gabriel `Peter Gabriel`
 RW>> albums amongst my top 30 of all time - I take it you don't rate
 RW>> those?
 KN>  I think they're excellent albums, but I would definitely call
 KN> them commercial pop,
Even 'Moribund The Burgermeister' ? Although 'Solsbury Hill' was, imho,
a classic pop song.
 KN> whereas _Trick of the Tail_, _Wind and
 KN> Wuthering_ and _Seconds Out_ are all prog albums and the only
 KN> commercial pop tune on them is "Your Own Special Way." I just chafe
 KN> at the conventional wisdom that says Gabriel was the
 KN> anti-commercial factor and left Genesis so as to not become
 KN> commercial. It may actually have been his intention, though I think
 KN> having a family and being a depressive were probably bigger
 KN> factors, but it's effect was Gabriel went onto the commercial route
 KN> and Genesis stayed on the prog route for a couple more years.
Yup agreed, but I also think that Gabriel had run himself into the
ground during _The Lamb_ saga (The Album, The Tour, The Proposed Stage
Play and Film). The band were also involved in a lot of internal
bickering during this segment and I think all these factors convinced
Peter to leave.
 RW>> Mind you I thought at that time the Gene-four continued to
 RW>> be prog mainly because of Steve Hackett
 KN>  I don't know that he was the decisive influence on this but
 KN> you're right in that he was the decisive factor. As long as he was
 KN> in the band they were a prog band, and when he did a solo, _Voyage
 KN> of the Acolyte_, it was the proggiest of all the Genesis solo
 KN> projects. However, on the last couple of years he got rid of his
 KN> geek look and his geek glasses and cut his geek hair and starting
 KN> wearing tight pants tucked into shiny leather riding boots with
 KN> billowing white shirts open at the vest and blow dried highly
 KN> styled hair and contact lenses. In short, he was trying to
 KN> transform himself from a geek into Fabio, which kind of paralleled
 KN> a movement away from prog towards commercialism. Gabriel got rid of
 KN> his reverse mohawk, Collins shaved his beard. Clearly they all
 KN> wanted to get laid.
Yeah, I remember the transformation from _Voyage_ via _Spectral
Mornings_ to _Highly Strung_ (which had a UK cat. no. of HACK1 !!).
Besides, in Phil's case, I think he decided that a baldy with a beard
looked kind of silly (-:

 RW>> This may sound bitchy after he's just left, but the other
 RW>> reason could be that it took Collins that long to realise the
 RW>> singer wasn't just `the one who wiggled his bum` and actually had
 RW>> real power.
 KN>  I think Collins did _Face Value_ for fun and to his
 KN> tremendous shock it made him a superstar, and after that there was
 KN> no turning back. "Follow Me Follow You" had kind of set the stage
 KN> for it, but it was the sheer babe-appeal of "In the Air Tonight"
 KN> that changed things forever. They didn't want to attract
 KN> pimple-faced adolescent geek boys when they could draw hot little
 KN> bimbos (Collins words, not mine, btw). Personally I think that's
 KN> the only legitimate reason for going commercial.
Yeah, my quote about `bum-wiggling` was a Collins quote as well (-: I
also agree with you about _Face Value_ - I remember him being
interviewed by Tommy Vance (major 70's/80's Radio 1 `Rock` DJ/90's Cable
`Rock` VJ) about the time of the release of `In The Air Tonight` and
saying that the album was his way of dealing with his rocky marriage.
Basically he locked himself in his studio for 3 months and somebody from
Virgin A&R heard a demo a persuaded him to release a finished product.
In that respect I feel a bit sorry for Tony Banks. Phil & Peter have had
major solo success, as has Mike with The Mechanics, even Steve and
Anthony Phillips to a lesser extent. Whereas Tony released a single with
Fish (`Shortcut To Somewhere` No 75 for 1 week on the UK chart), and
some singles with Nik Kershaw (early 80's UK pop star) which haven't
done anything. C'est la vie (-;
TTYL!
Robbie
email : rgwilson@compura.com
.!. NP: The Enid - `In The Region of The Summer Stars` _ITRoTSS_
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