Ray W. singles out Mike R. for 'disbanding' Genesis!

[Rufus]

Source Classic Rock Magazine!

Wow!! I never realised CAS was Genesis's fourth best selling album, even outselling everything from the PG era?

Former Genesis singer Ray Wilson says guitarist Mike Rutherford stopped band in their tracks following 1997's Calling All Stations

The singer succeeded Phil Collins and fronted the band from 1996 until 1998. He recorded vocals on their last album, 1998's Calling All Stations, before parting ways with them after the tour later that year.

Wilson tells Eonmusic: “When I signed my contract to join the band, it was for two albums. It was always the idea to do the first and then go from there, but Mike Rutherford changed his mind – that’s exactly what happened.

“I think he felt he didn’t have the stamina to do another one. All of a sudden you’re faced with going from 15 million albums sales to two and a half, and I think he couldn’t find it in himself to do the next one.

“It’s a great shame, because I think we could have at least recorded it. Even if it hadn’t been very good, we didn’t need to release it, but we should have at least sat down together and continued the process, because I think we really became a band after the tour."

Wilson goes on to suggest that Genesis have tried to erase his era with the band from their history.

He says: “They kind of try to brush it under the carpet a little bit. Even though I believe Calling All Stations was the fourth best-selling album of their history, they seem to kind of try and get rid of it."

The vocalist also recalls when the band ignored his request for a remastered copy of the album from their 2015 Genesis: 1983 – 1998 box set.

Wilson adds: "It really is kindergarten stuff. They’re Genesis, for Christ’s sake - you don’t behave like that. I don’t understand the politics behind it."

Wilson has a number of live dates planned throughout the rest of 2016 in support of latest album Song For A Friend, which was released earlier this month.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Oh, no!

[olivetti]

Source link?

[zravkapt]

Phil Collins ruined Mike & The Mechanics.

[DrGoon]

Source link?

http://teamrock.com/news/2016-06-07/...-genesis-album

[rcarlberg]

Sour grapes. Money makes people stupid.

[Nearfest2]

Tony Banks does seem to act like a child at times regarding the band's history. He's a bit of a brat.

[dpt3]

I thought it was pretty well-known that Tony wanted to continue with Ray but Mike didn't.

I wonder what a collaboration between Tony and Ray would've sounded like.

[Facelift]

Tony Banks does seem to act like a child at times regarding the band's history. He's a bit of a brat.

He certainly can be a brat. But CAS was pretty bad and he was somewhat responsible for that. Personally, I'm glad that 1). they killed it, and 2) they pretend like it never happened.

[chalkpie]

Oh, no!

I don't believe it.

[ProgArtist]

Source Classic Rock Magazine!

Wow!! I never realised CAS was Genesis's fourth best selling album, even outselling everything from the PG era?

This doesn't really surprise me. When you have a string of multi-platinum albums, it almost doesn't matter what you do next- it's going to sell. I wonder how many people bought CAS thinking that Phil Collins was on it? I doubt they advertised his departure as a selling point. I imagine a follow up to CAS wouldn't have done nearly as well.

Also, according to Wikipedia it wasn't the fourth best selling (which isn't to say it wasn't necessarily true): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_discography

[moecurlythanu]

So Mike Rutherford ruined Phil Collins ruining of Genesis?

[aith01]

Interesting, as Ray said in his interview in the book Genesis: Chapter & Verse that Tony Banks came to visit him not long ago (this was probably c2007), and he called Tony "a good soul".

Guess he feels differently now.

What's really funny is how quickly this thread turned into badmouthing Tony Banks, when the topic was how Mike Rutherford was the one who (according to Ray) pulled the plug. Tony has always spoken highly of Ray's singing and seemed to like CAS, judging from the interviews I've seen and read in the years since.

[JJ88]

^Wilson said Banks was the one member who went over to see him where he lived after the split, to check up on him. Banks does tend to get an undeserved bad rap.

This doesn't really surprise me. When you have a string of multi-platinum albums, it almost doesn't matter what you do next- it's going to sell. I wonder how many people bought CAS thinking that Phil Collins was on it? I doubt they advertised his departure as a selling point. I imagine a follow up to CAS wouldn't have done nearly as well.

Also, according to Wikipedia it wasn't the fourth best selling (which isn't to say it wasn't necessarily true): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_discography

It can't possibly be their fourth best selling when it charted lower in the US than anything they'd done in nearly 25 years.

A 2nd album might have been better than CAS, but it would have flopped IMHO. I don't think many of the curious would have bothered coming back. They would have been around where Yes is now if they'd have carried on, I think.

[Big Ears]

Ray Wilson's voice on Song For A Friend is really good. I liked him back in the days of Stiltskin, but he is a better singer now.

[GuitarGeek]

I seem to recall it was established awhile back none of the Gabriel era albums sold nearly as much as we like to think they have. I can maybe believe Calling All Stations might have outsold the Gabriel era albums, especially immediately at the time of release (ie CAS sold more copies in the first, let's say month of release than Selling England By The Pound did), but there's no way it outsold Duke, Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, or We Can't Dance.

As has been mentioned, CAS did so poorly Stateside that they cancelled the US leg of the tour, which is why I had to wait until 2007 to see (barely) Genesis live.

[Steve983]

I remember Mike R saying in an interview at the time that it 'wasn't worth getting out of bed' for something that wasn't going to be a multi million seller.

[battema]

I seem to recall it was established awhile back none of the Gabriel era albums sold nearly as much as we like to think they have. I can maybe believe Calling All Stations might have outsold the Gabriel era albums, especially immediately at the time of release (ie CAS sold more copies in the first, let's say month of release than Selling England By The Pound did), but there's no way it outsold Duke, Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, or We Can't Dance.

As has been mentioned, CAS did so poorly Stateside that they cancelled the US leg of the tour, which is why I had to wait until 2007 to see (barely) Genesis live.

Sometime in the 90's, prior to the final album, I recall reading (or hearing) in an interview that across their entire catalog, each Genesis album apparently sold more than the one that preceded it. I would assume that really only factors in initial sales, not the various reissues that came afterwards (which most likely shifted things around a bit in terms of units sold).

I could see the initial sales for CAS falling somewhere around the territory of Duke and/or Abacab, although I suspect they dropped far more sharply compared to other albums.

As for Wilson's comments...big fat *shrug.* He has an album dropping, hence a bit of name-dropping. Not exactly a radical, out-of-the-box idea.

[yamishogun]

CAS charted at #2 in the UK, top 10 or so in Europe but only #54 in the US. It never went Gold in the US according to wiki, but it sold 500,000 in Europe and the UK, which is far better than any Yes album has done since Union in 1991. CAS outsold more than all eight albums after Union combined.

[JKL2000]

"I believe Calling All Stations was the fourth best-selling album of their history"

He's the only one who believes that.

[JKL2000]

Oh, no!

Just try to stay calm - take deep breaths.

I've only listened to CAS once, when I got the boxed set. It actually sounded ok to me, but I need to listen to it again.

<<I wonder how many people bought CAS thinking that Phil Collins was on it? I doubt they advertised his departure as a selling point. >>

"Now Featuring Ray Wilson, Phil Collins' Replacement!"

[JKL2000]

Interesting, as Ray said in his interview in the book Genesis: Chapter & Verse that Tony Banks came to visit him not long ago (this was probably c2007), and he called Tony "a good soul".

Guess he feels differently now.

"Did I say a 'good soul?' I meant jackass."

[Scrotum Scissor]

Those album sales sure are important for the musical quality within. That's the spirit. Was it 483,927 in Europe or ONLY 202,741 in the US? We gotta get to the bottom of this, the sooner the better.

And then discuss the chances of a Genesis reunion which would just as surely affect the world seminally. Especially if it involved that "classic" lineup.

[JKL2000]

Wilson should have tried to continue touring with "Ray Wilson's Genesis." Even just as a joke to enrage Mike and Tony.

[LeFrog]

I thought it was pretty well-known that Tony wanted to continue with Ray but Mike didn't.

It is indeed nothing new. Apparently Mike persuaded Tony not to pull the plug after Phil left, but then was the one who wanted to stop after the relative failure of CAS while Tony felt they should have done the second album they'd signed Ray for.