Genesis fans across the UK are gearing up to watch the band perform live together for the first time in 13 years.
Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford announced the Last Domino? reunion tour on Zoe Ball’s breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 this morning.
“I think it’s a natural moment,” said Banks. “We’re all good friends, we’re all above grass and... here we are.”
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The veteran rockers will begin the tour in Dublin in November, before playing shows in Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Belfast, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. They will also put in two nights at London’s O2 Arena.
The trio, all aged 69, will be joined by Collins’ son Nicholas on drums and long-time touring buddy Daryl Stuermer on guitar and bass.
Founder member Peter Gabriel is not expected to be involved, after leaving the band in 1975, and nor is Steve Hackett, who jumped ship two years later.
Genesis started life in the 1970s as a progressive rock band but evolved to become one of the most successful mainstream rock bands of the following decade. The chart-toppers sold more than 100 million records worldwide, claiming 21 UK Top 40 hits and half a dozen No.1 albums. Their best-known hits include Invisible Touch, Turn It On Again and In Too Deep.
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The band last played together live in 2007. So what have its members been doing in the intervening years?
Collins announced his retirement in 2011, after nerve damage left him unable to play the drums.
He had been living in Switzerland with his family since the 1990s, but his third wife, Orianne Cevey, had left and moved to Miami in 2008.
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Collins recalled: “It left me with a lot of time on my hands to think about what happened. I went through a few bits of darkness, drinking too much. I killed my hours watching TV and drinking, and it almost killed me. But I haven’t had a drink in three years.”
Collins also later moved to Miami and has since reunited with Cevey. And following back surgery, he returned to the stage in 2016, touring extensively over a two-year period.
Former bandmate Rutherford published his autobiography, The Living Years: The First Genesis Memoir, in 2014. He also performed in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Meanwhile, Banks has released classical albums, including Six Pieces for Orchestra and most recently Five.
In 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band also took part in a BBC documentary called Genesis: Together and Apart in 2014 - but some commentators claimed all was clearly not well.
“Even with all the bonhomie of the TV studio reunion, you could feel the tension as Gabriel accused his former bandmates of failing to make allowances when he was dealing with his baby daughter’s illness,” wrote TV critic Ceri Radford in The Telegraph at the time.
“It showed that while times may change, some things are eternal, from bickering to the lure of a good ballad to Steve Hackett’s mullet.”
