Mike Rutherford The Living Years

I'll never forget when Mike and Mechanics released The Living Years. It was the first time grown men called the radio studio and not only requested the song. But through tears they were compelled to tell me the stories about their fathers. From the I Heart Radio Studio I'm Unplugged and Totally Uncut with Mike Rutherford My notes. Scratched into the surface of reality. Taking thoughts and building a story. Just like the book of Genesis. The band Genesis has been music's everlasting new beginning. Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Mike and the Mechanics... On this side of the music industry...the message felt has always been based on artists having respect for each other's gift of performance. _____________ The Living Years was the first time grown men were calling me not to just request the song but they felt compelled to tell me the stories about their fathers ______________ With Google, Wikipedia and everything else world wide web... where along the way did you finally say, "People need to get it right. I need to write a book." ______________ You write: I didn’t like the idea of being a front man. It might have been different if I’d had a voice. I’ve always thought that 60 per cent of the world have an okay-enough voice to be a singer of some sort, and some great singers don’t have a great voice. _________ You write: Sightseeing wasn’t really possible given our schedule, but Rich could never drive past a lake without taking off all his clothes and going for a swim _________ You wrote The Farm. It began as quite a funky old building with a barn in which we stowed the gear, and a milking shed that we used as a garage. As time went on we developed the accommodation for crew and engineers and built a stone-clad drum room _________ The Box set 37 songs... every shape of Genesis to the solo years. Its almost like you are saying, "This has nothing to do with who we were... this is who we still are." _________ I can't imagine what it must be like to be on stage... the eyes of an aging fan and standing next to them isn't their son or daughter but their grandchild. How do you emotionally keep fit for what you have been give the choice to do? __________ LOS ANGELES – Genesis will release the three-disc anthology collection R-KIVE on September 30 on Rhino. Spanning 42 years, the 37-track set documents the band’s history with classic Genesis material compiled alongside selections from the solo careers of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford / Mike + The Mechanics. Genesis and their associated solo projects have accumulated a remarkable and undiminished series of accomplishments over the years, and have collectively amassed an incredible 14 chart-topping albums as well as over two dozen more which reached the Top 10. In total, Genesis and the members’ related solo projects have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. Chronologically ordered, R-KIVE features Genesis’s biggest hits including “Invisible Touch,” “Turn It On Again,” “Land of Confusion,”’ and “I Can’t Dance.” Along the way it also visits Mike + The Mechanics’ classics “The Living Years” and “Over My Shoulder,” Collins’s “In The Air Tonight” and his Philip Bailey duet “Easy Lover,” and Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill.” R-KIVE opens with “The Knife”- a nine-minute proto-punk number which became a favorite closing set during the band’s early shows, and was written before either Hackett or Collins had joined the band. In addition to 22 Genesis songs, each member’s work outside of the band is represented democratically with three songs each. Such an approach contributes to a hugely eclectic body of work which features early material including the sprawling seven-section odyssey “Supper’s Ready” and the title track of the conceptual masterpiece “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.” Yet R-KIVE also visits the unexpected – as evidenced by Hackett’s flamenco-inspired “Nomads,” Gabriel’s “Signal To Noise” which featured Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (“possibly the greatest singer we had worked with”), and “Calling All Stations,” the sole representative from the short-lived era in which Genesis were fronted by former Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson. “This album jogs memories about old albums, things people might have missed the first time around,” says Collins. “Most of the time, the singles always seem to be the things that are remembered from albums. Sometimes the lesser-known tracks deserve better than to be forgotten.” “I’m a songwriter first of all,” adds Rutherford. “When you put these songs together, it’s a wonderfully impressive array and variety of songs. It’s an interesting combination that doesn’t normally get put on the same page.” The release of R-KIVE will be followed by the accompanying reunion documentary Sum Of The Parts which will be broadcast on Showtime in October. Strength in depth. Vitality in variety. Creativity in diversity. In terms of what they’ve done together, and what they’ve done apart, there’s never been a band like Genesis. It’s a captivating story, told here from the beginning to the end for the very first time.