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ANATOMY OF A BIOGRAPHY
An Interview with Genesis Biographer Robin Platts
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Genesis fans have had many
books to pick and choose from over the past few years from Alan Hewitt's
Genesis Revisited; to the band's
official book,
Chapter & Verse; and of
course the latest biography
by author Robin Platts,
Behind The Lines 1967-2007, to name but a
few... But are they all worth getting or are the basically covering the same
information?
World of Genesis' Dave Negrin sat down with Robin Platts in December 2007 to talk
about the writing and research for his new Genesis book, whether he thinks
the definitive Genesis biography has been written, and how
Behind The Lines
differs from his
original biography on the band,
Inside & Out.
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Most of the interviews were great, but for this book, probably Richard
MacPhail, who was very generous with his time and is just full of great
stories and memories and insights about the early years....
And Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett were both great, especially Steve’s
sense of humor, which hopefully translates onto the page, such as when he
describes himself circa 1970 as looking like Charles Manson!
WOG:
If someone said to you, I have your last book or I have another
Genesis biography, why should I purchase this one? What would your comment
be?
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WORLD OF
GENESIS:
Aside from the Genesis reunion tour happening, what were some of the reasons
you decided to write and update your prior work for the
Behind The Lines
book now?
ROBIN PLATTS:
I had written the previous book,
Inside and Out,
about seven or eight years ago. With hindsight, although I had a fair amount
of positive feedback from it, I wasn't really that happy with it. I felt
there was a lot of room for improvement.
When I heard the reunion was happening, it occurred to me that I might be
able to talk my publisher into doing an updated version, but it ended up
essentially being a completely new book.
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 RP:
Well, I've followed Genesis since 1979, and I have a great deal of enthusiasm
for the subject, the band and the music. I think that comes across in
the book. I've tracked down some people who I don’t think have been
interviewed in other books, such as Dave Hutchins, who engineered The Lamb
Lies Down On Broadway,
Adrian Selby, the production designer circa ‘72/’73, and a few others, as
well as people like Mick Barnard.
If anyone’s got my first book, I’d just say: "This one is much better. And
it’s been completely re-written, with lots of new material added." I think,
after lots and lots of work, I got it to the point where I’m very happy with
it. |
WOG:
How long did it take you to complete work on the project? How much time was
spent revising the history you have already covered versus just
updating your prior efforts?
RP: It was
done fairly
quickly, over about six months. I had planned
to just update the earlier book, so I set a deadline to finish it, but as I
started revising it, it became more and more extensive, and I ended up
rewriting everything from start to finish. Then I decided to start doing new
interviews, then found myself just trying to dig up as much info as I could,
peering at old issues of Melody Maker in the basement of the library, etc.
So it was about six
months of intense work.
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...And although I realize I’m competing in a way with
Chapter & Verse
and whole lot of other Genesis product, I hope it doesn’t get lost in the
shuffle, because I’m very proud of it.
It’s also got some great illustrations. I’m really happy that I was able to
dig up a lot of old ads from ‘70s-era Melody Makers, and other
sources – original ads for
singles and LPs, Mike pitching for bass strings and Shergold guitars, the
band’s drum roadie pitching for Premier Drums, etc... And I really like the ad
for Steve’s Please Don’t Touch album, with the headline “There’s a
thin line between madness and genius – which side of it is Steve Hackett
on?”
WOG:
Was it challenging to take the parts of the history of Genesis
that are well-documented and make it 'fresh' for
Behind The Lines? |
WOG:
Has the band or their management provided you with any feedback on this or
your prior Genesis biography? If so, what were their comments?
RP:
I haven't heard anything from them but I certainly hope they like it if
they happen to read it.
WOG:
How did you go about conducting your research for this book? How much of
the research was driven by the Internet as opposed to other means like old
clippings, magazine interviews, or other sources? Would you say that fan
sites made the research process easier today than when your book several
years ago?
RP:
Certainly, the Internet was very helpful. It probably should have made it
easier, but I think I made it harder for myself by doing so much
research. I read pretty much every article/interview I could get my hands
on, some online, some in old Melody Makers and NMEs, etc.
I did end up
including a fair amount of quotes from old interviews, as well, especially
where it was someone I hadn't been able to interview myself. But I like
using archival quotes anyway, as they often provide a different perspective.
And going through all those old articles did provide some insight. For
instance: I was always struck by the fact that, within just a few weeks of
Steve Hackett’s departure in 1977, the band started working on another album
without him. I used to think, “I guess his departure couldn't have mattered
much to them.” But in going back and reading all the interviews they did
during the Wind & Wuthering tour, it’s clear that they had always
planned to go straight back to work on the next studio album right after
mixing Seconds Out. It wasn't that Steve’s departure didn't
matter; it was just that they had a schedule to stick to.
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RP:
I tried to make it fresh for myself, to find out things that I
was curious about, and to talk to people and dig up facts that hadn’t
necessarily been covered elsewhere. And when you work on something like
this, you get drawn right into that world. So as I was sort of rediscovering
it all again and finding out new things, it felt fresh to me, and hopefully
it comes across that way in the book.
WOG:
Your last Genesis book was actually one of the first to really
recognize the interim guitarist between Ant Phillips and Steve Hackett. How
did that interview come about?
RP:
I had contacted David Stopps of Friar’s about doing an interview.
And he didn’t want to; I think he felt he’d said everything he had to say
about Genesis at that point. But he did put me in touch with Mick Barnard,
after tracking him down through a friend of an ex-wife’s uncle or something
like that!
It was great to talk to Mick and be able to fill in that part of the story,
which hadn’t been done before. Mick was only with the group for two or three
months, but he played quite a few gigs with them, and I think he probably
gets unfairly overlooked in most versions of the Genesis story.
WOG:
In your opinion, has the definitive book on Genesis been written? If not,
what would make a biography definitive in your eyes?
RP:
I don’t know if there could ever be one book that would be the
definitive book for all Genesis fans. I though maybe
Chapter and Verse
might be but, as
good as it is, I got the feeling that it was a bit short on some of the trainspotter-type details that I would have like to have seen. So I don’t
think you’ll ever please all the fans with one book. The one thing that I’d
really like to see would be some sort of recording sessions book, like the
one
Mark Lewisohn did on The Beatles. |
And that's one thing that really struck me – how hard they worked in the
‘70s, with very few breaks, just a relentless cycle of rehearse-record-tour
from 1970 to 1978. Even after …And Then There Were Three… they were
originally only supposed to get a couple of months off before starting a new
album early in 1979, but of course their plans changed so Phil could have
some time to deal with personal issues.
WOG:
Did you know that the band was about to release their official biography,
Chapter and Verse, at roughly the same time as the release of
Behind
The Lines? If not, was that a disappointment after the work you put into
this book? How about the new reissue and update of Alan Hewitt's biography
on Genesis,
Genesis Revisited? Did that have the same impact?
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"I really just tried to write the sort of book that I’d like to read, as
somebody who’s been a fan for going on 30 years. I tried to pack in a lot of
interesting things, and I think that even people who have read a lot of
other Genesis books will find out some new things in mine." |
RP:
I didn't know about
Chapter and Verse until I had already started
my book. It was a bit of a disappointment, I suppose, because I was really
pleased with my new book and then I thought, “Is anyone going to buy my book
now that there's an official book from the band?” But, in a way, I didn't
care – I just wanted to do the best book I could, and I am very pleased with
the way it turned out. I've looked at
Chapter and Verse, and it looks
great, but I think the books are different enough that you could read
Chapter & Verse
and then still find a lot of different and interesting stuff in my book...
And mine’s cheaper (laughs)!
A big difference between this book and my previous one is that I took out a
lot of the live date chronology details that were in my first book. Alan
Hewitt seems to have the definitive lists in his book, so I took all that
stuff out of mine and I think the new book flows much better as a result. It
also gave me room to put a lot of new material in.
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But whether or not that’s possible would depend on the availability of
tapes, session logs, etc. and I have no idea how well all that stuff is
archived. But I think the die-hard fans just have to resign themselves to
buying a few different books to get the whole story. And hopefully one of
them will be mine…
Special thanks
to Robin Platts for granting this interview. This interview is © 2008 David
Negrin and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. For
more on Robin Platts'
Behind The Lines 1967-2007 Genesis biography
click
here.
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I really just tried to write the sort of book that I’d like to read, as
somebody who’s been a fan for going on 30 years. I tried to pack in a lot of
interesting things, and I think that even people who have read a lot of
other Genesis books will find out some new things in mine.
WOG:
Who would you liked to have interviewed for this book, but was unable to
get? Who have you talked to that was the best interview, in your opinion?
RP:
Well, Phil, Mike and Tony, definitely, and Peter. Guys, if any of
you are reading this, keep me in mind in case I ever do a third book! Just
before I started working on my new book, I was assigned to do a feature on
them for Goldmine Magazine and we had the okay for an interview with
Phil, Mike and Tony, so I thought I’d just mention the new book to them then
and see if they'd like to answer some questions for it. But, alas, for some
reason, that interview kept getting postponed and then never ended up
happening.
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OTHER RECOMMENDED GENESIS BOOKS:
PLAY ME MY SONG
TURN IT ON AGAIN GENESIS
REVISITED
A LIVE GUIDE 69-75 |
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