TONY BANKS: STILL REFLECTING
by Dino Jones
Still… a simple title but far from a simple album. The album celebrates it’s 30th anniversary this year, (for the US release that is). It was originally released the year prior in Europe… But none of that meant anything to me back in the early 90s. I was born in 1988, you see, and I had no idea who Genesis were, let alone Tony Banks. The first thing to my mind back then if I heard the name Genesis, would have been the SEGA Genesis.
I didn’t discover Genesis until many years later…2007 it was…Ah, I remember that spring quite vividly. I was in my final semester of high school and I’d found MY band in January of ‘07. Much like a lot of people it began with Phil’s solo career. Having initially gotten into Phil’s 80s albums I sought out more of his work which lead me to GENESIS! Upon discovering them, I immediately picked up on the fantastic keyboard work of one TONY BANKS…I became…a bit obsessed to say the least with Tony at the time. If you knew me back then you’d have seen me wearing my “Tony Banks Abacab” rugby shirts quite regularly despite the humid Alabama summer creeping in.
In April of 2007, I discovered Tony’s solo career…bits of it anyway. At the time I could only find a handful or so of songs that had been uploaded to YouTube. Hard to believe that now but in those early days of the site things were slowly being added. Of the songs I found back then, three were from ‘Still’, (“I Wanna Change The Score”, “The Gift” and “Hero For An Hour”). I remember walking home from school and singing those tracks to myself. “Hero For An Hour” actually reminded me of a television series that aired at the time called Heroes. I imagined the plot of the track fitting quite well within the context of that show’s first season. Ah, simpler times.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2009 that I actually got to listen to ‘Still’ in its entirety. My personal favorite track on the album is “I Wanna Change The Score”. I can connect with the lyrics just as well now as I could back in 2007…A close second would be “Hero For An Hour”. I thought Tony’s voice was great on the track. I still wish he’d done more of the vocals on his albums. Other than his vocals on ‘The Fugitive’, he sang one other lead vocal on ‘Bankstatement’, “Big Man”, and his backing vocals can be heard clearly at times upon ‘Strictly Inc.’. He also sang lead on an early GENESIS track, “Shepherd”, along with Peter Gabriel.
In 2011 I started up my YouTube channel, (Banksian Central), focusing solely on Tony’s solo work and his work within GENESIS. Through the channel, I’ve met fans from across the world who have left many comments on my videos…both good and bad. The comments that have stayed the most within my mind have been the ones from people just discovering Tony’s solo work. I envy those people to a degree…They get to listen to all of this wonderful music for the first time.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve connected with Tony’s music in different ways. Going back to my high school days for a minute, I was inspired by Tony’s music to write. I wasn’t interested in writing music, however. I was interested in writing a novel. It took me a while to realize that dream but the inspiration from the songs remained within me. In 2020 I released my debut novel, ‘Born From A Wish’, loosely based on the “Duke Suite” and I peppered it with references to some of Tony’s solo tracks. I touched upon the themes within “I Wanna Change The Score” and I referenced “Another Murder of A Day” very briefly.
Last month GENESIS wrapped up what is to be their final tour. I was very happy to have seen them twice during the tour. I saw them in Charlotte, NC, and Amsterdam, NL. Amazing where life can take you over the course of 30 years. Both GENESIS and I have come a long way in this time…I plan to keep their music alive for future generations…and I’ll STILL continue to plug Tony’s solo career whenever I can!!