The early days of the band we now know as Genesis started from the joining of two rival bands from The Charterhouse School in Surrey, England. The first of the two bands was Anon, which was formed in May 1965, by Anthony Phillips (guitar), Rivers Job (bass), Rob Tyrrell (drums), Richard Mcphail (vocals) and Mike Rutherford (rhythm guitar). The second band was called The Garden Wall, which was formed by Peter Gabriel (vocals), Tony Banks (piano) and Chris Stewart (drums). The bands played several concerts at Charterhouse, until Anon performed their final concert in December 1966. Shortly after that final concert, Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips joined The Garden wall.

Early recordings

The band recorded some demo tapes in the spring of 1967. Johnathan King heard one of the tapes, and immediately expressed an interest in the band. He payed for a second demo tape to be recorded and signed the band to a publishing contract with his own company. The band continued to record demo tapes, until they decided to record a Banks/Gabriel song, called "The Silent Sun".

"The Silent Sun" became their first single and was released by Decca Records on 2nd February 1968. The b-side was a Rutherford/Phillips song, called "That’s me". The single is well reviewed by Chris Welch of Melody Maker and is played on BBC radio by Kenny Everett. The band continued to record demo tapes and write songs at the house of their new drummer John Silver, who had replaced Chris Stewart because he was still studying at Charterhouse. Decca released another single called "A Winters Tale".

Their first album