Genesis

Keyboard icon looks back on his classical albums, recently assembled in a box set, recalls being knocked off the No. 1 spot by gardener Alan Titchmarsh – and remembers offering Peter Gabriel a new gig

He may not always have been life and soul of the party, but he’s been the heartbeat behind songs across a huge range of genres – to his lasting pride

1974’s ambitious double-album took a heavy toll on the people who worked on it – then its lukewarm reception and bewildering stage show made things even more tense

The band’s first phase features a charming, very English sense of melancholy and melodrama – matched with wilful prog complexity

"It's got some good stuff on it," says a typically understated Tony Banks, on Genesis's Seconds Out

The official sound of prog, made in Birmingham

Rick Wakeman, Roger Waters and Robert Fripp were among those listening when the BBC played the record in full in 1967 – and weren’t the only ones who experienced artistic epiphanies that night

Keyboardist’s solo albums may not have reached the heady heights of his bandmates’ output – but he’s had a great time making “more progressive” music with artists of his own choosing, including Fish, Toyah and Nik Kershaw

By the time they’d toured their 1973 album, they’d had a sit single, proved Phil Collins could deliver lead vocals, and offered a hint at what would come after Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel left

After connecting with fellow public schoolboys, he went on to admire Pink Floyd’s intellectualism, appreciate Curved Air’s sexiness, and get lost in Jean-Luc Ponty while on acid

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's latest 'themed' tour enables him to visit "the best of both worlds"

Barely planned, recorded in fits and starts and complete with one of King Crimson’s Mellotron, their 1972 album was, they believe, the moment they began to be taken seriously

The singer who fronted 1997’s Calling All Stations only had one serious argument with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford – and remains glad he was there at all

Pye Hastings, Davy O’List and others recall the company that aimed for an audience of “groovy people” and backed The Moody Blues, Caravan, The Move, Camel, Procol Harum and others

How the “junior member” broke into the band’s songwriting clique, his embarrassment over his solo success, and how the Sex Pistols influenced his choice of record label