Toast Of London Prog “When I was 13 I was sent off to a boarding school in Berkshire called Wellington College, where I discovered prog. We all had record players and a record shop nearby, in Crowthorne. We’d be pondering which Sinclair amp to buy and spend hours going through hi-fi magazines trying to find the best deck.
We listened to , and everything else from the time, but for many of us, were the band. At first I got into – I loved the lyrics, and the references to classical mythology. Somehow it got a hook into me and caught my soul.
But above all, Genesis were public schoolboys and I was a public schoolboy. This was a strong case of self-identification. I thought, ‘Wow, I can understand these guys!’ Bands would visit about once a term, and one day Genesis came to play.
had broken his leg so was sat with that in plaster. They played , which is an incitement to revolution. A cool older student called Tony Mercer stood up and smashed his chair.
He’s probably the CEO of a multinational now. The arrival of each new Genesis album became really exciting – actually holding the sleeve in your hands, looking at the artwork, reading the words. This was like our Bible.
As I got older, I read more and my mind expanded. Genesis became part of the whole process of me growing into an adult and discovering art and..
. beauty. Something like is a great work of art.
Then you have , and and . There were 700 boys at the school, so we traded lots of music and ideas. I was playi.