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The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 150

PostPosted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:17 am
by Rissan
And so we reach the number 150. Never thought that when I started this series years ago, and after the remaster project in 2015 brought it back to life in 2018, that I would reach number 150. And to be honest I still have enough lying around to continu for awhile. Up for just one week.

This time a very special thematic volume with tracks from my favorite band Genesis and its (ex) members. Genesis was formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, South East England in 1967 by Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips and John Silver. John Silver left after the first album, being replaced by John Mayhew. Anthony Phillips and John Mayhew left after the second album being replaced by Steve Hackett and Phil Collins creating the classic line-up which existed until 1975 when Peter Gabriel went solo. In 1977 after the Wind & Wuthering tour Steve Hackett left just before remixing the high acclaimed live album Seconds Out. Since then, the band is a trio with Daryll Stuermer on guitar and first in 1976 Bill Bruford but thereafter Chester Thompson on Drums during the tours. In 1997 Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford made a Genesis album with Ray Wilson on vocals accompanied by Nir Z on drums and Anthony Drennan on guitar and bass during the following European tour. In 2007 the trio was reunited and toured the world again with Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson. The band is planning a UK farewell tour which due to Covid-19 has been rescheduled twice by now replacing Chester Thompson by Phil’s son Nicholas Collins on drums.

Anthony Phillips – Prelude ‘84
Camel – Sasquatch

Anthony Phillips left Genesis in 1970 after experiencing increasing stage fright and started studying music formally and took up the piano in 1971. He began recording solo demos later that year including material that would eventually appear on his first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost (1977). The demos he wrote with Mike Rutherford, who also played on The Geese And The Ghost together with Phil Collins and John Hackett, the brother of Steve. In later years Mike Rutherford contributed on songs on various albums. Since 1977 Phillips has had a long and relatively successful solo career. He has recorded numerous soundtracks, solo albums and collaborations. He has also worked as a producer and recording engineer. In 1982 Anthony Phillips played guitar and piano for the band Camel, appearing on their 11th studio album The Single Factor.

Steve Hackett – Prizefighters
GTR – The Hunter
Box Of Frogs – Trouble
Nightwing – Night Of Mystery

After leaving Genesis in 1977 Steve Hackett already had his first solo album released in 1975. In 1978 he released his second album followed by the high acclaimed album Spectral Mornings in 1979. After years of nearly playing any Genesis material, in 1996 he released the album Genesis Revisited. Since then his tours are filled with Genesis material again. In 1984 he produced the Nightwing album My Kingdom Come and played guitar on several tracks. In 1986 he collaborated on the Box Of Frogs album Strange Land. Prizefighters was a track Steve Hackett wrote together with Steve Howe for the never released second album of GTR and turned on the Feedback 86 album in 2000 with Bonnie Tyler and Chris Thompson on vocals. A live version exists on the album King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents GTR with Max Bacon on vocals. Speaking of GTR this was a supergroup formed around Steve Hackett And Steve Howe (Yes, Asia) with Jonathan Mover (ex Marillion), Phil Spalding (ex Toyah, Mirrors) and Max Bacon. The band had three singles in 1986. The Hunter was the second.

Tony Banks – And The Wheel Keep Turning
Tony Banks ft. Toyah – Lion Of Symmetry
Bankstament - Throwback

During the hiatus between the albums And Then There Were Three (1978) and Duke (1980) the three members of Genesis started to write music for themselves. Tony Banks was the first to debut with his solo album A Curious Feeling in 1979. Mike Rutherford followed in 1980 and Phil Collins in 1981. With no doubt the solo album of Collins made the greatest impact. Tony Banks mainly used guest singers on his album, although And The Wheel Keep Turning is from his second album on which he did the vocals himself. The track with Toyah is from his Soundtracks album from 1986, which also features the Fish track Shortcut To Somewhere featured on Volume 125. In 1989 Tony Banks returned with the band Bankstatement featuring Jayney Klimak and Andrew Taylor. The followup album Still featured vocalists like Nik Kershaw, Fish, Jayney Klimak and Andrew Taylor. He than tried it with Jack Hues of Wang Chung in the band Strictly Inc. Since 2004 Tony Banks has composed and released three albums with classical music.

Mike Rutherford – Compression
Mike + The Mechanics – Call To Arms

As said Mike Rutherford debuted with the album Smallcreep’s Day in 1980. A track from this album was featured on Volume 125. The featured track Compression was a b-side of the single Working the Line. The album featured Anthony Phillips on Keyboards, Simon Phillips on drums and Noel McCalla on vocals. Rutherford took the vocal duties on his second album Acting Very Strange from 1982. Mike & The Mechanics started off as a side project for Mike Rutherford during the hiatus between the Genesis albums Genesis and Invisible Touch. He started writing songs with Chris Neil and B.A. Robertson. The first Mike + The Mechanics album released in 1985 yielded three hits with "Silent Running", "All I Need Is A Miracle" and "Taken In." From there, the Mechanics have released eight albums, including Living Years. That album's title track hit #1 in the U.S. Call To Arms was a Genesis leftover and can be found on the first Mike + The Mechanics album.

Phil Collins- Deep Green
Brand X – Modern, Noisy And Effective

Phil Clinols debuted in 1981 with the megahit In The Air Tonight and during the 80’s all he did seemed to turn into gold. Deep Green is a covered track of Jack Lancaster from 1989, only released as a promo 7”, which can be found on Jack Lancaster’s 1980 album Skinningrove Bay. Brand X was his side project from 1976 until 1982. The featured track comes from Is There Anything About? his last studio album with Brand X. By that time it was hard to divided his time between, Genesis, his solo career and the production of other artists.

Peter Gabriel – Courage
Peter Gabriel ft. Kate Bush – Games Without Frontiers

After leaving Genesis in 1975 Peter Gabriel wrote two albums to find his style. The third and fourth album are considered to be his best, although So and Us brought him the mega success as multi-platinum selling album artist. He was the founder of the annual Womad music festival, owns one of Britain's most in-demand recording studios, Real World Studios, and jointly owns the recording studio hardware manufacturer Solid State Logic. The ironic story that let to the first reunion of the classic line-up of Genesis was in 1982 when the first Womad festival nearly turned out to become a fiasco. Gabriel asked his old bandmates to do the reunion at the Milton Keynes Concert Bowl. Steve Hackett was flown in from the US, where he was on tour at the time, to play with them during the encores. You can understand the Womad festival became a success and has continued on. Courage was a leftover from the So sessions. This version was featured on 12” in the So 25th Anniversary Boxset from 2012 and later on newly mixed and recorded in 2019 for the download only Flotsam And Jetsam Compilation. Games Without Frontiers was featured on Peter Gabriel III, and was the first collaboration with Kate Bush.

Genesis – Do The Neurotic

After the departure of Steve Hackett the trio started writing more accessible tracks, and even had chart success. But every album featured at least two longer tracks build up in several parts. Since and then There Were Three Genesis stormed the charts wit Follow You Follow Me, Turn It On Again, That’s All, Abacab and Mama. But the highlight of the success came in 1986, the same year Peter Gabriel released his chart success album So, when Invisible Touch brought them global hit success with Land Of Confusion. In 1992 they would repeat the success with I Can’t Dance and Jesus He Knows Me. Do The Neurotic is an instrumental b-side of the singles Land Of Confusion and, in an unreleased and unedited version, on the In Too Deep 12”.

Bonustrack: Simon Collins – Keep It Dark

In 2007 Simon Collins, together with Dave Kerzner, recorded Keep It Dark, from the album Abacab, as a tribute to Genesis.

And last the cover is the front of the 1997 Calling All Stations European tour shirt.

The tracks:

01. Anthony Phillips - Prelude 1984 (4:26)
02. Steve Hackett - Prizefighters (5:12)
03. Tony Banks - And The Wheels Keep Turning (4:48)
04. Mike Rutherford - Compression (3:59)
05. Phil Collins - Deep Green (5:00)
06. Peter Gabriel - Courage (5:13)
07. Genesis - Do The Neurotic (7:08)
08. Mike & The Mechanics - A Call To Arms (4:41)
09. Tony Banks ft. Toyah - Lion Of Symmetry (7:15)
10. GTR - The Hunter (4:58)
11. Bankstatement - Throwback (4:38)
12. Peter Gabriel ft. Kate Bush - Games Without Frontiers (4:06)
13. Box Of Frogs ft. Steve Hackett - Trouble (5:41)
14. Brand X - Modern, Noisy And Effective (3:58)
15. Nightwing ft. Steve Hackett - Night Of Mystery (3:43)
16. Camel - Sasquatch (4:44)
17. Simon Collins - Keep It Dark (bonus) (5:45)

The link: ...

Enjoy.

Re: The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 150

PostPosted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:17 am
by crichert
Wow, 150 amazing collections of wonderful and relatively unknown 80's gems! Thank you for Rissan, appreciate all the hard work and effort you put into sharing!

Re: The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 150

PostPosted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:29 am
by Gazebo Music
Hello Ris, Wow Vol. 150 :D. A virtual round of applause on what could be the longest running 80s series! Job extremely well done! Cheers

Re: The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 150

PostPosted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:50 am
by Fred80s
What an amazing series! Congrats on 150

Re: The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 150

PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:58 pm
by maccafan076
This is a great surprise. I'm a huge Genesis fan. You made some excellent choices here. Can't thank you enough for all the work you do in these.