Anthony Phillips

Anthony Phillips was one of the founding members of Genesis, having attended the Charterhouse School in Surrey with Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford. Phillips and Rutherford (who had played together in another band before linking up with Gabriel and Banks), were the principal composing members of Genesis during their formative years, right into their first recording venture on English Decca ("Silent Sun" etc.) under the aegis of Jonathan King. Much of Phillips' and Rutherford's music was too subtle and introspective to work for the fledgling band on stage, and eventually composition became more of a shared effort. By the time the group cut its second album, Trespass, however, Phillips had receded into the background, propelled by a crippling onset of stage-fright that forced him out of the line-up following the album's release. His influence, ironically, was felt very strongly on their subsequent breakthrough third album, Nursery Cryme, the title track of which (the band's first number to attract a wide audience in progressive rock circles), for its introduction and opening minute, used material that Phillips had written and recorded (as a demo) as early as 1969.

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