Mike Rutherford 'Smallcreep's Day' (1979)
Two closely-related releases from mainstay Genesis members. After the success of 'And then there were three ...' the band went into a hiatus as Collins had marital problems (surprise!) and planned to move to Canada. Banks and Rutherford both had material over and went to Stockholm to record solo projects in ABBA's Polar studios - where the band would also make their next LP 'Duke'.
Banks took the Genesis track 'From The Undertow' and expanded it into an entire conceptual story about a man who makes a pact with the devil - anything he wants, so long as he doesn't fall in love. He did a one-man-band approach, playing keys, guitar and bass, just hiring in Genesis live-drummer Chester Thompson and singer Kimberly Beacon.
Rutherford assembled a band with old school-friend and Genesis-co-founder-member Anthony Phillips on keys, Simon Philips drumming and Noel McCalla doing vocals. He also had a conceptual piece; Side 1 is a suite of songs that tell the story of Smallcreep, an ordinary man who finds himself in a strange, industrial fantasy world. Side 2 has a selection of rockier tracks obviously written with Genesis in mind.
Combining the best bits of these two records would have made a solid Genesis album and both of these efforts stand up well on their own merits. But change was on the horizon and the band would alter and refine their sound to become more chart-orientated in order to retain their status as one of the world's major Rock groups.
On their next solo outings, both Banks and Rutherford took over lead vocals - neither very successfully. Mike R. went on to form Mike & the Mechanics, who also found chart success, Banks made some refined solo-albums, did film music and later concentrated on creating classical works for orchestra.
Phil Collins? Who ... ?
