Genesis

Fifty years ago, in August 1975, one of the most famous and traumatic breakups in rock history took place: that of Peter Gabriel and Genesis. The departure of the English band's charismatic frontman and leader brought to a close one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of progressive rock. The news came at the end of a lengthy world tour that followed the release of the monumental “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”, and it was a shock to fans. Perhaps less so for the protagonists themselves, who had long sensed that the split was inevitable.

During the making of the album, Peter Gabriel — grappling with family problems (his wife was going through a difficult pregnancy) — had grown increasingly isolated, and so the band members had split up the work: the singer writing the lyrics, the others composing the music. But this, besides sharply separating the two creative souls of the band for the first time, inevitably created friction, starting with the frontman's delays in finishing the extremely complicated lyrics, which were fuller than usual with literary references and mythological allusions, rich in pathos while also having to describe the story of Rael, the protagonist of the concept album. The band was by now openly criticising Gabriel's way of working, and arguments became a daily occurrence: "Peter was way behind on the lyrics, so he'd turn up late and sing over everything, even the passages that were meant to be instrumental. To me it was like someone had taken a painting I'd just finished and smeared it all over with red paint", guitarist Steve Hackett would later reveal with bitterness.

On top of this came the frustration caused by the skewed way critics and audiences gave Gabriel credit for almost everything, relegating the others to supporting roles. The massive tour that followed the album's release in the United States and Europe — in which Rael's story was staged in full, complete with spectacular theatrical effects, video projections and Gabriel decked out in ever more outlandish costumes — only made things worse. Audiences turned out in droves, but the popularity the band gained backfired, fuelling envy and resentment towards the singer, who had by then become the undisputed star of the show. "Pete was getting too big for the band. He was being described as 'the man', and that wasn't fair", keyboardist Tony Banks would later recall — Banks who has only recently gone back into the studio with Gabriel to remix the new edition of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" for the album's 50th anniversary.

So, at the end of an exhausting world tour lasting nearly a year, from October 1974 to May 1975, Peter Gabriel left Genesis that August, bowing out with an open letter explaining his reasons for leaving: "The vehicle (the band) which we had built up ourselves to serve our composition was now beginning to crush us," Gabriel wrote. "It had taken on a lot of the trappings of the group ego. The music was still valid, and I have great respect for the other musicians, but our roles had become too rigid." The split, painful yet clear-eyed and perhaps inevitable, brought an end to an unrepeatable era, marked by landmark records such as "Trespass", "Nursery Cryme", "Foxtrot", "Selling England By The Pound" and, indeed, "The Lamb…", the band's most ambitious and divisive work.

Even so, there was never any irreparable personal rift. Relations, though less frequent, remained good. And the split actually proved to be a fruitful turning point for everyone. Gabriel embarked on a bold, innovative solo career, light years away from prog sounds, open to world music, experimentation and electronics. Genesis, for their part, surprisingly decided to carry on without looking for a new singer: after endless auditions, drummer Phil Collins himself stepped up to the microphone. The result, "A Trick Of The Tail" (1976), marked the start of their second life, one which — contrary to popular belief — did not abandon many of the prog leanings of the Gabriel era. In the records that followed, however, the sound gradually became more accessible, and commercial success exploded. Collins became a global star, including as a solo artist, Banks consolidated his role within the band, and Mike Rutherford found a second wind with the side project Mike and the Mechanics. More on the sidelines was Steve Hackett, who left the band in '77 and built a thoroughly respectable solo career, always consistent and much loved by the band's fans.

"Leaving the band was the right choice," Peter Gabriel has said with characteristic clarity, years on. "It gave everyone more room, and it let Phil become the focal point of the project." No bitterness, no regrets. Phil Collins, for his part, has always shown respect for Gabriel's decision, acknowledging his visionary talent, his magnetic stage presence and the narrative power of his lyrics. The two have remained on good terms, so much so that in 1980 Collins played drums, percussion and drum machine on several tracks of Gabriel's third solo album, including the powerful single "Biko". "Peter left in 1975 and never looked back," Collins has said. "He built an enormously successful solo career."

Over the years, talk of a reunion of the classic line-up has never come to anything, even though mutual respect has never faded. One episode has become legendary proof that there was never any bad blood between Gabriel and his former bandmates. In October 1982, at the second edition of Womad, the world music festival founded by Gabriel, the event was on the verge of collapse due to lack of audiences and funding. That's when Collins, Rutherford, Banks and Hackett himself — who had left Genesis back in '77 — decided to step in. Despite being busy with a run of shows in London, they put together an extraordinary reunion with Gabriel to help him out financially. The performance, held in front of 47,000 spectators at Milton Keynes, opened with a wry touch, with Gabriel appearing on stage lowered in a coffin. "I've spent the last seven years trying not to be a Genesis anymore," he said with his usual self-deprecating humour, "and I don't think they'd have wanted to work with me at this stage of their career either. But I'm deeply grateful for what they did." A gesture of friendship and respect that sealed a bond that, despite diverging artistic paths, had never truly been broken.

In 2022, at Genesis's farewell concert in London, Gabriel was in the audience. "I was there at the birth, so it felt right to be there at the end. It was a rite of passage," he said. No bitter nostalgia, but rather the awareness of having closed a chapter at the right moment. "Leaving was the best choice," he reiterated. "It gave everyone more room."

Fifty years on, that decision still feels like a watershed moment. Not just for the history of Genesis, but for rock as a whole. With Gabriel's departure, the golden age of progressive rock came to an end, opening a new chapter for rock music, equally rich in courage and experimentation, as would be shown both by Genesis's subsequent work and by their former leader's solo output. And yet, that photo turns up — Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks together in a London studio, once again working on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" — and nostalgia, that old rascal, comes knocking once more.

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19/01/2026