As they prepare what could be their final tour after 54 years, the
British rock greats reflect on who they lost along the way, how they survived punk – and why Phil is skiving off his vocal practice
![‘Everything just kept getting bigger!’ Genesis on prog, 80s stardom and Phil Collins’s health](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ae20135516ca52ed3868e9fcb3845115a744ad7/0_140_4252_2551/master/4252.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=8107a01fd56875a2c1c0a509a3a6a362)
‘Genesis have always been slightly below the radar,” says keyboardist Tony Banks. “We’ve never been part of a current trend; we don’t tend to get awards; we’re just sort of … there. People that like us really like us, though, and that’s all we care about.”
“Below the radar” may be a strange way of describing a band who have sold more than 150m albums. But, then, Genesis have always been peculiarly self-effacing. From their early-70s, Peter Gabriel-fronted iteration, where they quickly ascended to the upper echelons of progressive rock with a combination of theatrical whimsy and fiendish technical complexity, to their slicker, poppier, staggeringly successful 80s years, they remain a wildly popular – yet pleasingly eccentric – proposition.