John Mayhew on Trespass

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 sturoc wrote:

Well its a difficult situation that can border on being read as pompous, egotistical etc. The 'core' members congealed their bond and were trying to bring another in. That' a very hard thing to do and unless your lucky you'll go thru many auditions or sessions to find that person. I've been involved in just this situ and its extremely hard to deal with,cause its your project. If you've only played in cover bands you won't get what I mean 
I understand what you mean. Most original bands I worked with had a leader who took on the role of dealing with musicians who simply couldn't cut it. I would sit at rehearsals and observe the leader getting frustrated. Taking a musician like that on the road is a worse nightmare and even worse than that is an idea person like me being asked to coach the musician.

Writing compositions goes very deep an extension of yourself being put out there.
The Mayhew period is such a short amount of time to try and get comfortable with people especially when in a recording studio under the microscope and clock.

I see where Banks comes off as pompous etc in interviews and carefully wording his responses but with a slip here and there too.One of his famous remarks made reference to Steve Hackett leaving: "He just didn't turn up one day...I believe during the mixing of "Seconds Out"  "And so..we just mixed him out and that was the end of it" and then he talks about being surprised because he thought that Steve Hackett's greatest contribution to the band was on Wind and Wuthering. He cracks me up...because it would SEEM that he feels ..either do it my way or no way. I do believe his determination to do things as he suggested was important to the overall sound of the band. I recall reading several times that when Hackett and Banks met, they really hit it off quite nicely because they shared a common interest ..which was the love for King Crimson. Phil Collins' first wife talked about Phil coming home from Genesis rehearsals and sitting around listening to Larks Tongues In Aspic until he went to sleep. I'm sure he liked the early Crimson too..but!...this is where Tony Banks laid down rules like..."Let's try not to sound like King Crimson" ....he probably made suggestions about the drumming sounding too much like Crimson and that it needed to be changed and most likely tried to get Hackett to follow that path as well with his guitar playing.That is my guess based on Tony Banks' mission to escape the trap of emulating other bands. It just seems like most of his dominating pressure revolved around making Genesis sound like no other. 

 My feeling about all that is 99% of us do not know him personally or in a group dynamic so how can we honestly try to describe how he really is ? 
Within any band, there are 'leaders' & 'followers'. And as we've seen with Phillips (for whatever the real reasons were) left, Gabriel and Hackett they choose not to follow and left.
The eras in question are completed,  times have moved on and that is history.
 It can be a very strange experience. I remember working with a band leader who was very difficult with his demands. I traveled the road with him when I was very young and couldn't take his grief. Years later..he walked up to me when I got off stage and squeezed me so hard ..I couldn't breath. He said..."I have never worked with a guitarist that listened so well and I miss you" That was his way of saying "I'm sorry and love ya" Robert Fripp and Gordon Haskell did this when they crossed paths after not speaking to each other for decades. Bands are like families. Brothers and sisters on the road and I believe Tony Banks and Steve Hackett love and respect each other after all this time has passed. I believe through the hardships of Genesis, that they all still love each other.