From schoolboy band to sold-out stadium tours and worldwide album sales of over 100 million, Genesis were one of the defining progressive rock bands of the seventies, playing a huge part in shaping the genre. Over a career spanning fifty-five years from formation to the Last Domino? tour of 2021, they developed and adapted through many changes, some of which polarised their existing fans but attracted countless new ones. While Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway helped define progressive rock, it was the three-piece line up of Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins that became the real hit-makers, with albums like Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance and massive hit singles like 'No Son of Mine' and 'Land of Confusion'.
This book takes the reader on a journey through their entire catalogue, which includes fifteen studio and six live albums, including five consecutive number ones in the UK and five consecutive top tens in the USA, visiting each album in turn and examining every track. It is compiled from the viewpoint of a lifelong fan, and it is hoped that the book stirs many old memories, as it has done for the author, as well as providing some insight for more recent fans of the band.
Stuart Macfarlane was a teenager during the seventies, the heyday of classic rock. He quickly developed a love of progressive music, listening to as many bands as he could find and was regularly in the audience at the famous Glasgow Apollo. His previous writing experience includes many technical conference papers and publications as well as reviews and interviews for Rock Society Magazine. He is also a musician, having written and performed original music through the 80s with Dunfermline band StraiTTalk. He lives in Dunfermline, Scotland.
