Performs at kids middle school
Collins returns to the stage for the first time in four years, performing In the Air Tonight and Land of Confusion with a band of middle school kids, at his son’s school concert in Miami. Collins ex-wife Mejjati tells the Miami Herald that Collins agreed to perform because his son asked him to.
I was nervous you know, I’ve been doing this all my life but how good can it be? How good can it be tonight? All of these kids came up to me yesterday and were very pleasant and nice and polite and made me feel like part of the band.
Robbery, Assault & Battery video
The band releases the video of Robbery, Assault & Battery, from the album A Trick of The Tail. This is the first promotional video the band has made. Collins:
It was actually quite good fun.
Trick of the Tail
The band release the single Trick of the Tail, their first single featuring Collins, and the first to have an accompanying video. Banks wrote the majority of the song in 1972 and it was originally intended for Foxtrot. The lyrics are inspired by the book The Inheritors by William Golding. The video features the band playing around a piano, and appearing in miniature inside the piano. Collins:
Trick of the Tail is probably the most embarrassing video I have ever been in. It was a very small me running up and down a piano. You know when you look back and think, ‘Who told me to do that? whose lapse of taste was that? Was it mine?’ I think it was a mixture of me and the director…and the other guys. Everyone must be blamed.
Nursery Cryme
The band release their third studio album, Nursery Cryme. The album includes The Musical Box, The Fountain of Salmacis, and Return of The Giant Hogweed. This is the first album with Collins and Hackett. Gabriel sings all songs except For Absent Friends, which is written by Hackett, and sung by Collins. The album is produced by John Anthony and engineered by David Hentschel. The sleeve is designed by Anthony Whitehead, based on the characters in the songs. Banks:
Nursery Cryme was the album that incorporated Phil and Steve into the band, so we became, for that reason, a better playing unit than we’d benn in the past. And we’d also by this time, played quite a liot on stage, so the development from Trespass was quite a big one. And we had the Mellotron was a new instrument, and a certain quality of the early-Genesis sound was started with this album.
Hackett:
I was thrilled with it. The rough edges at that time I refused to hear. I just wanted to bask in the glory. I’d done an album with what was destined to become a great band, and occasionally the sound was wonderful.
Collins:
It was a real great five-piece working uni. We all got together for the meetings for the cover, we were there all the time for the mixing. Pretty much we were all involved in the writing, apart from the lyrics. Certain songs would have pairs going off to write lyrics. I have very fond memories of the period.
Gabriel:
A step into the shade, if you like. There’s more sunshining in Trespass, more folky feels, and outside stuff. And we’d gone indoors in Nursery Cryme.
Rutherford:
It’s a good example of how we were moving on…I like the cover Quite a strong image of the girl and the croquet lawn., and the head. We were starting to create an atmosphere about the band. Slightly quirky. I felt we were starting to become something that was a little bit unique in the music business.