TRESPASS

Isn't it nice to revisit old favourites, especially where the story began? Ignoring To Revelation (easy to do), this is the first proper Genesis LP, and it is a blinder, remarkably fresh after 39 years.

I love Steve Hackett as a musician, but I also love Anthony Phillips' work, and he plays marvellously on this. If he had not had stage fright, imagine what Genesis would have sounded like.

However, the key to this, and all subsequent early LPs, is Gabriel's voice. Looking for Someone starts off with that trademark plaintive voice, seeking answers, Absolutely a remarkable vocal performance from someone barely out of school.

White Mountain is, to me, aan album filler, but Visions of Angels is the track that persuaded Charisma to sign the band, and it is easy to see why. The band, with Gabriel's haunting lyrics, and Banks' majestic keyboards, tell a story that yearns for something a little bit more than can be found on this mortal coil.

Many commentators remark that the oldest song Genesis perform these days is I Know What I Like, but this is not true - the exceptional keybord and vocal passage in Stagnation actually plays a part in the modern day medley, and it still sounds fantastic. Banks, Phillips, and Gabriel combine to terrific effect on a simple passage.

The Knife still resonates in the present day - an angry song about a demagog, it is years ahead of its time, inspiring countless others, especially Fish when writing Market Square Heroes in the eighties. I still remember with fondness Collins being shouted at in the eighties tours to play this song, and always refusing. Phillips' guitar work is incredible, and the volume and call to arms by Gabriel still raises hackles even now.

Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course, to the freedom I shall provide....This could easily be written in the tragic times we live in now, especially Palestine and Iraq.

Banks in the prog special on BBC 4 last night stated that it was the band's strength as songwriters that carried them through punk. He was right, and this LP was the start. The best, of course, was still to come!