On Friday 27th November between 2/3pm GMT, Steve, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks participated in an online chat on Virgin Net.

We join them now....

Virgin Moderator:

Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford are both here. We're just waiting on Steve Hackett and we'll start. As you may have heard already, unfortunately Ant Phillips is unable to be here as he is "stuck" in LA completing a movie score...

Question from Martin Dean:

Is there any tracks from the bands past (not played in recent years) that the individual members would like to see resurrected live (either with Genesis or in their solo careers).

Mike:

I can't think of any...

Tony:

The ones we do on stage are the one's we really want to do. After dinner, on the vine, the afterglow.

Tony:

Some of the tracks like sat dancing with the moonlit night are so well done already, and others are so closely associated with a certain person

Mike:

The wooden mask... we never found that. There were others we found in Ant's loft from the early days

Question from Martin Dean:

What do Tony, Mike and Ant now think of From Genesis To Revelation and the other early albums?

Tony:

Much of the stuff on the Archives album is still quite contemporary such as In the Wilderness. But the problem's nostalgia.

Steve:

A lot of the material pre-dates my joining but there's a synchronicity in that my first band did a song In the Beginning.

Question from Clare:

Your collaborations with Ant were so wonderful - will we ever see anything like Geese and the Ghost again?

Mike:

Have you not yet bought Geese and the Ghost II?;)

Question from Jorge Lopez:

To Hackett: About your solo on Firth of Fifth, did it came from free playing or from thinking about the previous sections of the song. Was it done to go with the song, or was it an independent piece you added later to FoF?

Steve:

My interpretation of Tony's melody for the long instrumental sections

Question from Jorge Lopez:

To Banks / Rutherford: Have you thought about doing another concept album, like A Curious Feeling?

Tony:

Concept album is a dirty word, so I don't think we'll use that label anytime soon, but scripting a storyline for songs is an interesting process.

Steve:

There will be more instrumentals. I like atmospheric instrumentals. It has a pentatonic, almost Chinese feel.

Question from Gabrielite, Walsall:

Who on earth was Gruggy Wolf, credited with co-producing Foxtrot? And what happened to him?

Steve:

It was two producers who had a partnership, Dave Hitchcook and Neil Slaven. I to go drinking with them practically every other night...

Question from TheSlubberdegullion, Germany:

What was the "It" in The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway CD? I thought it symbolised maybe sex or genes.

Tony:

It was just a play on the word 'it'. It can be whatever you want it to be.

Question from Jacob Thome, Bethnal Green:

Is it true that you lot listened to a lot of Motown when you were young? I remember reading an interview with Gabriel in NME round 1973 when he said that you liked a lot of black music. And funnily enough when I began buying the CDs like Selling England, The Lamb and Nursery Cryme recently I noticed how funky the drums and bass lines are compared to some of your contemporaries - I love funk and jazz funk as well. But where did that come from?

Tony:

It's true that we liked Motown. Holland, Daisy and Holland were up there with Lennon and McCartney. The Four Tops stuff was especially good. We also like Nina Simone, and black music in that direction which came through in Peter's singing.

Mike:

Because very often our songs were written without Peter singing we made them work instrumentally, leading maybe to some over-arrangement. But we did it anyway!

Question from Clare <DrChaos>

Tony and Mike, Why don't you do something really wild and bring in a dynamic female vocalist for Genesis

Mike:

Tony's used female singers on his stuff and I like the sound, but it's not something I find easy compositionally.

Question from Peter Sloane (a 24 yr old, dissatisfied with todays music):

I am a great admirer of your early music and have all of your Pre 1980 albums. I find it hard finding music as good as that (along with Jethro Tull) and what I'd like to know is who were some of your influences- or do you know of any other bands (preferably of the same era, but not exclusively) who also wrote/ write well co-ordinated, complex and melodic music? Any suggestions would be much obliged

Steve:

I was into classical stuff before groups, but the Beatles were a strong influence. When you're younger you tend to be more prejudiced but eventually you view it differently. The same's true for country. Singers like Roy Orbison really stand out but at one stage I wouldn't have listened to Country say.

Virgin Moderator:

Question : Who will prepare Box Set 2 ? And what kind of stuff should be in these 4+ CDs?

Question from Tiresias:

Has the work on the second Archive boxset already started and is there a tentative release date?

Mike:

We're still discussing it, maybe using b-sides that haven't been on albums. The production quality is there.

Tony:

Bootlegs are generally live cuts, and we're fairly content with the live performances we have recorded.

Virgin Moderator:

Yes, no date yet

Question from Daniel Cadieux:

Could you explain a bit how you worked as a band to compose songs like Firth or Fifth or Can-Utility?

Tony:

We tend to pool ideas that we have around and then arrange it as a group so that it has a group character. Steve did more of Can and I did more of FoF. A lot of Can started as a jam and then eventually ended up as a group arrangement.

Question from Colman:

Does it surprise you that people are now interested in your music from the 1970s as opposed to the 1980s? Do you feel you are garnering a whole new audience with the box set?

Tony:

What about the 1990's? With a section of our audience we talk about it, but we've all done stuff since then. Some of our stuff from the 80's is probably part of our best material. It's a nostalgia thing maybe, looking back to the music we did because the business doesn't see a place for longer more involved songs on radio, etc.

Question from andy-uk

Is there any chance of the Calling All Stations video coming out?

Mike:

CD-Rom has been and gone I think.

Question from NetUser:

My Question is , are there any plans for a reunion Tour with Phil and Peter and what about the cancelled single with a new version from Carpet Crawlers.

Tony:

we're not quite sure. There's a version we've all played on and that Pete's sung on, but it's not ready yet. The rhythm's changed and that might not go down so well with older fans so it's on the back burner.

Question from Luis Molina:

My question is for Tony Banks: "Hi, Tony, I've always wondered why did you never played the fabulous 'Firth of Fifth' piano intro on any Genesis tour.

Tony:

Well I used to on an RMI piano. We played it one time at Drury Lane and just sort of ran out of notes. For some venues, in some periods it worked fine but after a while people knew the solo etc. and it didn't seem appropriate anymore.

Question from Jim Harper, South Carolina:

I remember reading somewhere that someone had done a school dissertation on creativity and used Genesis as her subject. Philosophically, where do you believe your ideas come from? From nowhere or from pre-existence? In other words, how do you see yourselves getting your musical ideas?

Tony:

We play Beatles songs backwards. We improvise and practice, and at some point we pick out something that sounds right and use it.

Steve:

I get it from dreams. One night I was dreaming a Dire Straits song with George Martin string arrangement...

Mike:

I don't hear music in my dreams.

Mike:

I want to not have a cold.

Question from Tiresias:

Steve, I heard you recently gave away your mellotron, but not to Genesis. Couldn't you have sneaked it in somehow to The Farm? ;-)))"

Steve:

I sold it to a man who sold it to Paul Weller for a fortune. I know people still like to use them, and they sound really good; string samples recorded in 1952 apparently by three ladies.... odd to think the uses they've been put to

Question from Tiresias

Mike, are you already in a position to announce any details about the forthcoming Mechanics album?

Mike:

Yes, we're halfway through and should be finished in march. It's fab.

Question from andy-uk:

Steve - what are u working on now? Are u likely to tour? Loved Revisited by the way !

Steve:

Yes, but whether on my own with guitar or with a band I don't know. I normally work on two albums at a time: something classical with classical guitar, another a rock album I've been working on for years.

Question from Simon Mazzilli:

Hallo Genesis! Here in Italy all the old fans went mad for the "Archive" boxed-set. Why don't you release also a video featuring live material of that era? Is it true that a full length version of the Lamb has recently been discovered? Also, is it true that Yoko Ono filmed Genesis playing live in 1970 (with Ant on gtr and John Mayhew)? I think that some of the many videos that spread within collectors as bootlegs should finally and officially see the light of day...

Tony:

We know nothing about Yoko. There are lots of strange things knocking about, but I think they've circulated to everyone who wants it.

Mike:

We're not in charge of that. They're things belonging to friends of friends, etc.

Steve:

There's a film from the mid-seventies with atom bombs going off, etc.

Tony:

No, we were an albums band so that never really happened. There's an Italian one.

Question from Nasnet1:

Will you ever do an unplugged show or a 'storytellers' one?

Mike:

We have no plans to do that. But we get on well so it might happen.

Tony:

I think they're often better in theory than practice.

Mike:

We had an old-boys kind of dinner the other night. We've had so many drummers...

Question from Louis Daignault:

Question to Tony Banks How important is the Beatles influence on Genesis. I always felt Genesis continued what the Beatles started with Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road. Were those albums or any other album big inspirations and in what way. Also I would like to know, each of you, what is your favorite chord?

Tony:

Some of the copy bands, like Musical Box (two keyboard players to play my parts LOL), are good.

Tony:

I think there may be something put out, but I've never heard any of the material so I don't really know.

Mike:

I saw a video of them and thought it was us at first.

Tony:

The Pink Floyd copy band are meant to be really good. You know, on one hand it's really funny sticking to the whole show, but then again sticking to our arrangements well it's not that different to playing classical music. It's very much a nostalgia thing though.

Steve:

I went to see Regenesis and they had the arrangements down to a tee and that was good. They'd obviously worked very hard and I wish them well.

Steve:

At times we get invites to see them, etc

Tony:

Sometimes they seem to pull bigger audiences than we do.

Mike & Tony:

We don't think so.

Question from Erkki Salminen (Finland):

I'm a 22-year-old Genesis fanatic from Finland and I would like to have this question presented to Mike and Tony on your online chat: Many people talk about different eras (Gabriel era, Collins era, Hackett era, etc.) as an attempt to categorise Genesis' music. Is this kind of division justified? In your opinion, what are the most important turning points for Genesis, if any?

Tony:

It's all the Banks era as far as I'm concerned *grin*

Mike:

It's more high-profile now, but it's always there with people who are big fans. It's a small number of people really, but it's always there.

Tony:

The lead singer is so much of the character of a band, and Peter leaving was a real change of voice, but musically it was pretty seamless. Losing Phil was harder because he'd been there for 20 years. The most intentional change was with Abacab when we made a definite change to prevent boredom setting in

Question from Colman:

Tony and Mike, what do you think of Steve's re-interpretation of old Genesis classics on "Genesis Revisited" and the "Tokyo Tapes" ?

Mike:

I only heard it once on the bus on the last tour, but I liked it.

Steve:

I guess I alerted them. I decided to go for the overblown, long instrumental stuff that the band don't produce anymore but which I think turns other musicians on.

Steve:

There was a Japanese version, and then a rest of the world version available in this country on Snapper

Question from Chris Best:

I've heard rumours that when Peter put the vocal tracks down on The Lamb, he sang over some bits that were supposed to be instrumental. Is this true, what was your initial reaction, and have you changed your minds since? I think it's the best album Genesis ever did before Steve left. And one other question: did you enjoy playing the Six of the Best concert at Milton Keynes Bowl (apart from the rain!)

Mike:

It wasn't sort of planned and the Womad thing was all up in the air. We decided not to video it, which in hindsight was a pity..

Steve:

I thought it was fun. We played it for laughs, not to make money not for us but for a good cause.

Tony:

Watching Pete drumming was a laugh.

Question from sejba:

What do you think about audiences in eastern countries (Hungary, Czech rep, Poland) from last tour? and why you didn,t came there sooner?

Tony:

We played Budaphest once before. It was good, our first few gigs with Ray as singer and a way to get comfortable with an audience with preconceptions. It gave us all confidence. I don't know why we didn't go sooner.

Mike:

The world's a big place

Mike:

I'll be out with the Mechanics in May, then Europe in June.

Steve:

I'll have an album out in February/March and it'll be advertised via the net for gig dates.

Question from DrChaos:

Will you guys ever allow your work to be released on karaoke. I'm sure there are a lot of amateur singers like myself who would like nothing better then to experience the joy of your music in this manner.

Tony:

yeah.

Mike:

What a good Idea.

Tony:

Great. Yes, for anybody to sing along

Question from Tony Dunlop:

Question for Tony and Mike: I've heard that Phil had asked each of you to sing lead on some songs on the self-titled album. (I think Tony would have sounded great on Silver Rainbow!) Given that it might have reduced the public's growing perception of Genesis as "Phil Collins' band," do you ever regret not having sung lead? Thanks, and I'm really looking forward to the next album. I loved CAS.

Tony:

He had no objections but I don't think he was routing for it. Mike and I just don't have good voices, and what we could pull off in the studio isn't the same as fronting a band live. We tend to push our singers to the front which overestimates their role, but we like it that way

Steve:

I like singing but it's hard work. You start emulating someone else and then at some point it seem to fall into place. Wait for my next release to make your won minds up..

Question from Tony Dunlop:

Question from Tony, Mike & Steve: Your work with Wind & Wuthering and Trick of the Tail is so timeless and sublime to me. Do you guys still think in those sweeping 70's themes today?

Tony:

It was a collective band decision. We got to a point where we couldn't keep writing about elves and fairies, and there's only so many keyboard solos you can play and keep it fresh. Then the drum sound with Abacab was more prominent and the singles started to get more coverage. It was just the way thing were going.

Tony:

Mama taught us a lot and had such strong atmosphere, and Phil was a great singer for that kind of stuff.

Steve:

That was exactly the kind of direction I thought the band should go. The 60's were guitar, the 70's were keyboards and the 80's were when drums really came into their own. I like doing short songs, I came up with The Stones etc., and it was the right thing.

Mike:

Great. I love to hear them.

Question from Nasnet1 Again ;-)

.... What do you think about the way Phil Collins Big Band played some Genesis tunes? Such as 'wot gorilla', 'los endos', 'thats all', 'afterglow', 'hold on my heart', 'invisible touch'?

Tony:

Los Endos was closest to the Genesis version, and a lot of his own stuff worked better with the big band. Hole in My Heart I didn't even recognise though - not even the chord sequence which is a great sequence.

Steve:

It was a great show. You can take anything and depending on the arrangement it can sound radically different. But it's a tribute to the songs that everything still gets played

Question from Rick Hann:

I would like to know the inspiration behind the "The Battle of epping forest" song

Virgin Moderator:

Mike has to leave us now, the other guys are staying on

Tony:

It was one of those things we all had a part of our own, and we would none of us shift on our own parts. And then we added a vocal part as well. It worked really well in places, and lyrically very interesting, but there's so much going on that many parts get lost in the depth.

Steve:

It's a mongrel, and there are some really good instrumental parts, but the vocal line is what really gets me. Especially the part where Peter is the Vicar.

Tony:

That always cracks me up. The anglophile market in the States loved it; it was to them all things English.

Steve:

I was having a tough time personally, and playing live with the band was a pleasure. There's some great bootlegs out there from that American tour.

Question from Hajime:

Entangled was a great songs written by Tony & Steve team. You will writing song again?

Tony:

What was fun was having the contrasting styles. We had two bits in 3/4 and that was why they ended up together. With guitars and keyboards.

Steve:

Yes, lots of keyboards that went out of tune.

Tony:

And the keyboards as well. Mellotrons and early synths all went out of tune.

Steve:

Maybe it was a case that the technology wasn't reliable enough to put our songs across properly.

Question from Filipe, Brazil:

All of us know that you lived in Brazil, some years ago. Do you intend to play here again?

Steve:

The longest I've spent there is four months. I started an album off there and finished it in the UK, and I've played all kinds of gigs out there. It's been fun and God-willing I'll play there again.

Tony:

No, Peter would change costumes when the time appeared. Acoustic was very important to us, we liked to start of softer and I'd play the first

Tony:

few songs on guitar. I wrote a lot of the earlier stuff on guitar, just like Peter used keyboards.

Steve:

Once Peter started really dressing up it made a big media impression, but the sets were the same as before. It gave us the extra edge to be noticed, and from there evolve.

Tony:

Any music you listen to, even your own, can influence you. I'm less and less enamoured by contemporary pop music, which is probably partly my age, and I think you tend to hark back to your routes which for us includes many classical influences. The kind of thing we write is far less contemporary and maybe there is a sellby date at which you should call it a day.

Virgin Moderator:

Thanks a lot to the guys from Genesis for coming in to chat to us, most apreciated.

Steve:

There's always a pressure from the record company that you should play as much of the new album as possible, and the last time I did that was two years ago in Tokyo. Ian McDonald of King Crimson was there as well and we played stuff from both our careers. I'm on the new Ian McDonald album, and he's on mine.

DrChaos:

Thank you Steve and Tony!!

Tony:

Just to finish - We have all done music since 1973... I like the older stuff but the newer stuff is worth a look

Slipperman:

Please to all keep on playing

Steve & Tony:

Thanks. Goodbye.