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TONY
BANKS
... A Brief History
Part One: 1950-1993 |
| Anthony George
Banks was born March 27, 1950 in East Hoathly, located in southern England.
The youngest of five children, Tony Banks was encouraged to play music by
his parents John and Nora at a very young age. Banks eventually developed a
talent for the piano, which became the focus of musical endeavors. In 1963,
Banks left a local preparatory school for Charterhouse, a prestigious public
school (what North Americans would refer to as private school)
founded
in 1611 just outside Godalming. While
Banks allegedly did not care for boarding school, he excelled in his studies
with a particular interest in mathematics and physics. |
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For the next album, 1977's Wind and Wuthering, Genesis once
again found themselves seeking a touring drummer. This time, the band hired
Chester Thompson, best known for his work with Frank Zappa and The Mothers
and the jazz super group Weather Report. After completing the 1977 world
tour, Genesis was mixing their second live album, Seconds Out, when
Steve Hackett announced his departure from the band. Rather than replace
Hackett, bassist Michael Rutherford decided to take on the task of guitars
and bass, making Genesis a trio. Unbeknownst to the band at the time, this
new line-up would remain intact for more than 15 years.
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Banks
continued to study the piano with interests ranging from classical to pop
music of the era. Interestingly, Banks early classic influence meshed with
his interest in pop music would radically impact his future in ways that he
could not possibly have imagined. During his tenture at Charterhouse, Banks
met fellow schoolmate Peter Gabriel who came to the sch ool
around the same period. Peter Gabriel shared Banks' love of music, with
particular passion for soul
artists of the period, like Otis Redding. Gabriel had an interest in making
music, but was a mediocre drummer at best. It was young Gabriel's unique voice;
however, that proved to be quite exceptional. The two boys would spend much
of their time together and by 1966 formed The Garden Wall. |
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The three remaining members, Collins, Banks, and Rutherford, returned to
the studio to record their eleventh (and aptly named) album, 1978's
...And Then There Were Three... Although beyond their comprehension at
the time, this album served as the catalyst for Genesis' explosion into the
mainstream. The album effectively bridged the transition from progressive
rock to radio-orientated pop, earning the band's first RIAA-certified gold
record for 500,000 plus copies sold in the States and yielded their first
big U.S. hit, "Follow You Follow Me," which reached #23 on the singles
chart.
Years later, ...And Then There Were Three... would go on to
earn platinum certification for more than one million copies sold and peak
at #14 on the albums chart in the United States. With the departure of Steve
Hackett, another guitarist was needed for touring purposes. For this reason,
the band chose Daryl Stuermer who was best known for his work with jazz
greats like George Duke and Jean-Luc Ponty. As
Genesis began to evolve musically, some fans felt that the group's departure
from the progressive sound of the early to mid 1970s was a form of selling
out, commercially speaking.
Despite this, the band continued to follow their
artistic vision and eventually gained public acclaim (although, critical
acclaim typically alluded the band throughout most of their career).
Following the 1978 world tour, the band took time off to work on a variety
of outside projects and to deal with personal matters. |
In
early 1967, The Garden Wall joined forces with fellow Carthusians Anthony
Phillips and Mike Rutherford, who had been performing
together for nearly two years as The Anon. They recorded some demos together with Peter
Gabriel on drums and vocals, Tony Banks on piano, Anthony Phillips on guitar
and Mike Rutherford on bass.
This new band managed to pawn off a cassette copy of their amateur demos to
Jonathan King, a former Charterhouse alumni, who had recent success on the
pop charts with the 1965 UK hit “Everybody’s Gone to the Moon.” King
listened to the tape while dr iving
home that day and liked what he heard on the demo tape, especially the voice
of the singer, Peter Gabriel. King later signed the young, yet unnamed band,
to a publishing contract in 1967. The band enlisted the help of drummer
Chris Stewart to allow
Peter
Gabriel to focus on being lead vocalist, and with that, the band line up was
complete.
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During this
hiatus, Tony Banks began work on his first solo album, 1979's A Curious Feeling.
For his solo debut, he enlisted the help of Genesis' touring drummer Chester
Thompson along with Kim Beacon on lead vocals. All other instrumentation was
performed by Banks himself. The album, which was co-produced with then
Genesis producer David Hentschel, had a very strong Genesis sounding
quality, musically speaking, but failed to attract an audience.
Genesis regrouped to release Duke
in April 1980. The trio found that they had produced their most
successful album to date. Duke featured two popular hit singles:
"Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On Again." It was during this period that
Genesis swept Melody Maker Magazine's poll in Europe, ranking #1 in a
total of six categories. The Duke album and the success of the two
singles fueled a very successful world tour.
Genesis' first U.S. top ten and RIAA-certified platinum selling album,
Abacab, was released in September 1981 and peaked at #9 on the U.S.
albums chart. By this point, each album seemed to follow the pattern of more
commercial success than its predecessors. Abacab featured three U.S.
hit singles, "No Reply At All", "Man On The Corner" and "Abacab." Following
Abacab, which had by this point sold more than two million copies in
the U.S. (earning double-platinum status), the band released their third
live album, 1982's Three Sides Live, which peaked at #10 on
the U.S. albums chart.
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The band recorded additional demos that failed to gain the
interest of King, so the band went back to record a song in the vein of one
of King’s then favorite bands, The Bee Gees, known as “The Silent Sun.” The
song would reinstate King’s interest in the group, and would later be released as
the band’s first single in 1968. The band still needed a name and despite
many recommendations, including Peter Gabriel’s suggestion of Gabriel’s
Angels, they ended up settling on King’s moniker for the group, Genesis.
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In North America, Three Sides
Live was a double LP set with three sides of material recorded live in
concert and one side of non-LP studio recordings, including the U.S. hit "Paperlate."
The version currently available is identical to the European issue, which is
completely live (The majority of the non-LP studio recording from the
original U.S. version of Three Sides Live would later resurface in
2000 on the second Archive box set and again in 2007 on the
1976-1982 box set). Three Sides Live went on
to sell more than 500,000 copies in the U.S. earning yet another RIAA gold
album certification for Genesis. |
In 1968, the band released two singles “The Silent Sun” and “A Winter’s
Tale” followed by the release of their debut album, From Genesis to
Revelation, in March 1969. From Genesis to Revelation featured
the original line-up sans drummer Chris Stewart who had been replaced with
percussionist John Silver. Commercially, all three efforts proved to be
fruitless. Jonathan King, who tended to be more singles orientated, became
increasingly frustrated with Genesis’ tendency to prefer longer
compositions, and the group and their producer eventually parted ways.
Genesis spent the next year writing new material and hitting the road,
refining their live performances at smaller gigs at universities and
technical colleges. During this period, the band felt the need to move away
from a softer acoustic sound and focus more on a louder electric sound. This
dramatic change was driven by the issues at the time with amplification of
softer music in a live concert setting. The result caught the attention of
Tony Stratton-Smith, who signed Genesis to his Charisma Records label in
April 1970.
The band returned to the studio to record their next album. Unfortunately,
with the completion of the second album, more personnel changes were needed
by the summer of 1970. Co-founding member and guitarist Anthony Phillips
quit the band due to an increasing bout with stage fright, which had
developed significantly over the past year. Genesis used Phillips’ departure
as an opportunity to seek out a new drummer and gave new Trespass
drummer John Mayhew his walking papers. Given their very close relationship,
Mike took Ant’s departure from Genesis very hard, but the band carried on
and began their search for a new drummer and guitarist.
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Following the Abacab world tour, Tony Banks returned to the studio to record
his second solo album, The Fugitive. For the project, Banks needed a new drummer and contacted
respected session drummer Steve Gadd, who he greatly admired for his ability
to take odd time signatures and make them sound ordinary. Gadd, who happened
to be coming to England to do some session work with ex-Beatle Ringo Starr,
joined Banks in the studio for three songs that appeared on the album. Other
musicians on the project included Genesis touring guitarist Daryl Stuermer,
acclaimed session player Mo Foster on bass, and Tony Beard and Andy Duncan
on drums. Banks assumed lead vocals on The Fugitive along with
keyboards and synthesizers which, in retrospect, may not have been the ideal
choice given Banks' limited abilities as a lead singer. Much like A
Curious Feeling, The Fugitive and it's singles, like "This is
Love," did not garner any commercial success.
That year also saw the brief return
of Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett for a one-off reunion concert in England.
The now legendary concert was not officially recorded, but the now infamous
and widely circulated audience recorded bootleg of the show is probably one
of the most sought after unsanctioned recordings ever made from a Genesis
concert.
In 1983, the Warner Brothers film,
The Wicked Lady, starring Faye Dunaway was released. The film
featured a soundtrack by Tony Banks. The soundtrack included songs Banks
recorded in his home and mixed at Genesis' studio, The Farm, along with
additional themes performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London
conducted by Stanley Black with musical arrangements and orchestration by
Christopher Palmer. The film did not do well in the theaters, which probably
attributed to the fact that despite being a digital recording, The Wicked
Lady soundtrack was never officially reissued on compact disc until 2013!
In fact, it was the last Genesis solo project to be re-released on the
digital format. |
In October 1970, the
band released their second album, Trespass. The band had managed to
quickly fill the constantly revolving drummer’s seat with child actor and
percussionist, Phil Collins. Collins had come to Genesis from the group
Flaming Youth, and quickly impressed Gabriel, Banks, and Rutherford with his
abilities as a drummer. Genesis struggled to identify a guitarist strong
enough to replace Anthony Phillips. The band auditioned many musicians for
the spot including former Flaming Youth guitarist Ronnie Caryl and Mick
Barnard, the latter of which held the guitarist chair for a couple of months
while a permanent replacement could be found. By the end of 1970, Genesis
had replaced Barnard with Steve Hackett, a young guitarist who had just
recorded an album with the group Quiet World.
This newly revamped line-up would remain intact for five years. During this
period, Genesis released
 four
studio albums (Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By
The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway), one live album,
and toured almost non-stop. It was also during this period that the band
began experimenting in art rock. The group gained a major cult following in
Europe and parts of North America with their powerful progressive music and
elaborate stage shows.
Lead singer Peter Gabriel's stage presence and flair
of ornate costumes, along with the band's dedication to musical perfection
in the live setting, quickly gained Genesis some much needed attention and
acclaim, but the band continued to fail, commercially speaking. Despite
this, the band's momentum continued to rise.
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1983's self-titled Genesis album, which went
quadruple platinum in the U.S., gave the band their first top ten American
single, "That's All." The album also spawned several other hit singles,
reaffirming Genesis' superstar status. At the end of the 1984 world tour,
the band went on hiatus, and all members pursued solo projects.
During his third break from Genesis, Tony Banks released Soundtracks
in 1985. The album was a compilation of music written and performed by
Banks for the films L' Orca and the Outlaws and Quicksilver.
The largely keyboard driven, largely instrumental album, featured three tracks with
vocals, "Shortcut to Somewhere" featuring Ex-Marillion vocalist Fish,
"You Call This Victory" with Jim Diamond, and "Lion of Symmetry" with Toyah
Willcox. Focused around epic instrumental pieces
like "Redwing Suite," the album lacked much commercial appeal.
Interestingly, "Redwing Suite" was actually written for the film 2010,
the sequel to the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but remained
unused until Banks recycled the unused track for the Quicksilver
soundtrack. When the
"Shortcut To Somewhere" single failed to chart, the album quickly faded into
obscurity.
In 1986, the Invisible Touch album
was released and went on to reach number three
on the Billboard album chart. The Genesis album went on to sell more than six
million copies in the United States alone. This unprecedented achievement
made U.S. pop history, with Genesis becoming the first group (and foreign
act) to earn five top five singles from an album. Later that year, Billboard Magazine honored Genesis and its
members for having the most singles by one group (and as solo artists
originating from one group) on the publication's Hot 100 Chart (Steve
Hackett with GTR, Peter Gabriel, Michael Rutherford with Mike & The
Mechanics, Phil Collins, and Genesis all had singles near the top of the
chart).
The 1986/87 Genesis world tour in support of the Invisible Touch album
was massive. The ten month tour took the band to 111 shows, 59 cities, 16
countries, and a total of more than three million fans. After completing the
tour, the band went their separate ways to recuperate and, once again, work
on outside projects. Genesis was paid further tribute that year when
Rolling Stone magazine named the group "Band of The Year" in their
annual reader's poll.
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In November 1974,
Genesis released what would be their final album with this line-up, The
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The conceptual double album remains one of
the group's most critically heralded projects to date. The Lamb
eventually earned gold certification in the U.S. for sales in excess of
500,000 copies and peaked at #41 on the U.S. albums chart. In May 1975, by
the end of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, the band received
their most devastating loss yet. Vocalist Peter Gabriel had decided the
leave the band for personal reasons.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Genesis chose to carry on. The band returned
without a lead singer to the studio to begin work on a new album. After
auditioning a number of potential singers, Genesis bandmate Phil Collins
decided to take the job while maintaining his role as drummer. Collins had
sung lead on a few tracks previously and supported Gabriel on backing vocals
since joining the group, so he seemed like an obvious choice to some. Others
thought Collins would lack the ability to successfully carry off signature
Gabriel sung tunes like "The Musical Box" which were staples of Genesis live
shows at the time.
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Following the
cues of his Genesis colleague Mike Rutherford, who had opted to use the band
name Mike and the Mechanics to guise his successful solo project in
1985, Tony Banks thought a similar strategy might help his next project gain
more commercial exposure. For the project, Banks enlisted Alistair Gordon
and Jayney Klimek as vocalists, again similar to the Rutherford model of
using more than one vocalist to best meet the individual needs of his
compositions. Also part of Banks' new ensemble were producer/guitarist Steve
Hillage and renowned session bassist Pino Palladino. With this new line-up, in 1989, Tony Banks released his
next solo endeavor, Bankstatment. Despite being
a much more "radio friendly" release than past solo efforts, singles like
"Throwback", "Raincloud," and "I'll Be Waiting"
lacked commercial
recognition. Following the release of Bankstatment, Atlantic Records
dropped Tony Banks from its label in North America. |
At this
point, Genesis was still not without conflict. As democratic as Genesis was
in selecting each other's songs for album inclusion, Steve Hackett started
to feel that some of his compositions were being unfairly overlooked.
Hackett had used the gap of time the band needed to locate a
 new
lead singer to record his first solo album, Voyage of The Acolyte.
But the artistic freedom of one solo album did not permanently relieve his
dissatisfaction with Genesis. In fact, the creative control Hackett
experienced during the making of that solo album only intensified his desire
as a songwriter and musician.
Genesis' next album, 1976's A Trick of The Tail, restored their
underground following's faith in the group, but started to take the band in
another direction musically. While the art rock style of Gabriel-era Genesis
disappeared, Collins proved to be a suitable replacement as lead singer and
a consummate showman. On the 1976 Genesis tour, the need for Collins to get
in-front of the audience as lead vocalist, forced the band to add a second
drummer. Genesis enlisted progressive-rock drummer Bill Bruford, best known
at the time for his work with bands like Yes and King Crimson. While
Bruford provided adequate support while Collins took center stage, he was
not satisfied simply supporting the band on the road and left at the
conclusion of the tour.
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After the tepid commercial response to the Bankstatement project
and signing a new recording contract with Giant Records (which, like
Atlantic, was a subsidiary of the WEA label), Tony Banks decided to release
this 1992 solo project, Still, under his own name. The process
of pursuing a new recording contract in North America caused the Still
release to surface nearly a year after its original European release in
1991.
For
the Still album, Banks re-enlisted the help of vocalists like Fish and Jayney Klimek along with Andy
Taylor and Nick Kirshaw. Tony Banks crafted a pop-orientated, comme rcially
accessible album featuring singles like "I Wanna Change The Score" and "The
Gift." Unfortunately, once again, Banks' solo effort failed to gain
commercial success.
It had been four years
since Genesis released their next studio album, 1991's We Can't Dance. The
album was another record breaker for the group featuring five hit
U.S. singles: "I Can't Dance", "Hold on My Heart", "Never A Time" , "Jesus
He Knows Me" and "No Son of Mine." We Can't Dance eventually earned multi-platinum status, selling in excess of
four million copies in the U.S. alone. In Europe, rather than release
"Never A Time", the band chose to put "Tell Me Why" out as a single, which
also did respectably on the charts overseas.
Like their previous tour, the 1992
concert tour generated the highest average gross per venue of any act that
year. At this point in the band's career, Genesis was a musical juggernaut
and arguably had become one of the most successful acts in existence, if not
music history. At
the conclusion of the tour, the band released their fourth live album, The
Way We Walk.
The Way We Walk features two volumes sold individually.
The first part, The Shorts, which went gold in the U.S. selling more
than 500,000 copies, focused on the group's more pop-orientated songs.
Believe it or not, The Shorts also marked the first time the band
ever put their faces on the front of one of their albums. The second
volume, The Longs, sold only 260,351 copies in the U.S., and
included some of the band's more epic material (and a drum duet between Phil
Collins and Chester Thompson). The tour was also released video on both VHS
and laserdisc as The Way We Walk. The video of this tour resurfaced
yet again on the DVD format in 2001. |
CLICK HERE TO GO TO
PART TWO: 1993-2013.
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BIOGRAPHY INDEX.
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