THE MAKING OF Trespass
Over two years had passed between the recording of From Genesis To Revelation and Trespass. A long time by any new band’s standards, but for Genesis it was an eternity in terms of style and growth. At the same time, the period was so overwhelmingly hectic that any attempt at pinpointing the watershed moment is purely arbitrary.
[In the book] we have already mentioned a few decisive events, including a demo with four songs–Family, which would evolve into Dusk; White Mountain; Going Out To Get You and Pacidy–recorded on August 20, 1969 thanks to their friend, Brian Roberts, and the band’s stage debut where Genesis incorporated their third drummer, John Mayhew. During their early live shows, the band began to experiment with a new repertoire, gradually abandoning the simple songs to bring in new, more challenging material. The two weeks of rehearsals at Anthony Phillips’ parents’ home, Send Barns, between September 22 and October 3, 1969, also proved to be of fundamental importance.
One day the band received a very welcome visit from Richard Macphail. The former lead singer of Anon had just come back to England after spending a few months away working on a kibbutz. He went to listen to his ex-school mates and was astounded by their unexpected technical and creative progress. Spotting the potential, Richard asked his father if he and his friends could stay at the Macphail weekend retreat in Wotton, Surrey, a house called Christmas Cottage.
Richard Macphail: “In the summer of 1969, the cottage was broken into and burgled. Even though it was actually quite close to London [an hour’s drive from the centre], it was very remote. After the burglary, my mother was nervous about going there and the decision was made to sell it. It was autumn and my father thought it was best to wait until the springtime, when the cottage was at its best. In May, when all the trees are out, it’s just wonderful. So essentially it was going to be empty the whole winter and that’s why we were able to use it. My father worked for a large baking company and they had vans for delivering bread; he managed to get us one and they got it serviced and painted up. So I was able to provide accommodation and transport and the guys did the rest. I provided food as well, I cook. That’s basically how I became their road manager.”
The band’s retreat to Christmas Cottage lasted six months, through to April 1970, possibly a rather excessive period of time which would take the five young men almost to breaking point. It would, however, have an enormous impact on their future and, from an artistic point of view, it was priceless. It was there, in fact, that Genesis started to reveal its true colours. Shedding the constraints of pop imposed on them when they worked on their immature debut album, they began to create a sound that was to become legendary. But living together 24/7 in a secluded place, far away from any distractions, was enough to put even the most resilient natures to the test.
“Trespass was the first opportunity we had to make a real album where we felt we were in the driving seat.”
Peter Gabriel
Gabriel: “We were used to having this passive-aggressive tone to rehearsals and, although Tony and I were best friends, we would often be at loggerheads about the music. He was a lot more nervous back then and not at ease within himself. He would try to hold on to controlling as much as he could, in a lot of ways, and I would always want to push it wide open, you know, let the sunlight in, the rain, and see what grew. Ant and Mike, for the most part, got on pretty well but occasionally I would be battling it out with one of them. Mike tended to avoid confrontation and, in later years, the same could be said of Phil and Steve. Tony and I were the ones most frequently at odds. Without question, we were passionate about creating something great, but I think we were also both awkward buggers, so it was a personality thing as well.”
“For me, Anthony was the group leader, he was the one who wanted to go live, he was the one who wanted to go professional, he kind of motivated the rest of us really.”
Tony Banks
Despite the unavoidable conflicts, Genesis managed to overcome their difficulties and concentrate on the music., was quite simply phenomenal.
