Joins Big Brother & The Holding Company
After hearing from Chet Helms that a band in San Francisco, Big Brother & The Holding Company, is looking for a lead singer, Joplin goes for an audition. Sam Andrew, a member of the band, remembers how they were impressed with her voice and starts to do gigs with her. She also learns to adjust her voice with the band and develops the singing style she is known for. Andrews:
At first, she had a coffeehouse kind of voice – real big and wide and open, like an acoustic instrument almost. As she got to play with us, she learned how to be an electric singer. We played so loud that she had to compete, so that’s when she started screaming. But she was always very musical.
Hackett joins Genesis
Hackett places a classified in Melody Maker seeking work with musicians who were “determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms”. Gabriel sees the ad and both he and Banks travel to Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, London, where they audition him. Hackett’s brother John accompanies him on the flute. Hackett joins the band a few weeks later.
I remember [Phil] saying on the very first day that I met him and we were going to be working together he said we’re bound to influence each other. I thought it really hadn’t occurred to me because I’d never worked in a band context before. It was a very different proposition working with a band that is often very competitive with each other. But we managed to cooperate sufficiently to come up with a great bunch of songs between us all… When I first joined the band it was on the premises that if you wrote a guitar part you were already part of the writing team, so I joined as a full writer from the word ‘go’ and I think it was a very healthy way to run a band. You keep everyone happy and everyone is going to end up being on an economic equilibrium. That struck me as a very good way to keep a band together and get the best out of everybody. If you just feel like you’re a hired gun you’re not necessarily going to give the best of yourself.