News

This page includes news items previously published on the home page.

The updates page contains a log of recent amendments and additions to the site.   

Details of older site updates and news items can now be found in the Site Archives section.

                              

The Living Room Concert - Remastered and Expanded Digipak Edition (News date: 27-4-20, updated 24-7-20)

The Living Room Concert

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a new re-mastered and expanded edition of The Living Room Concert.

Originally released in May 1995, the album featured highlights of a live solo performance by Anthony which was recorded on March 21st 1993 as part of the Living Room Concert Series for the US Radio programme Echoes, a daily programme of contemporary instrumental music. The show was broadcast on 120 public radio stations in America on 25th June 1993.

For the performance Anthony selected a number of acoustic guitar and piano pieces, drawing mainly on tracks originally released on the albums The Geese and The Ghost, Private Parts and Pieces and A Catch at The Tables, along with two pieces from New England, the eighth volume in the Private Parts & Pieces series and a solo 12-string version of Conversation Piece, the first movement of a Guitar Quintet that he had composed in 1976, which had subsequently been scored with parts for strings and wind instruments.

Unavailable on CD for many years, The Living Room Concert has been re-mastered and expanded to include three previously unreleased tracks recorded for the original broadcast: Jaunty Roads, Let Us Now Make Love and Lucy: An Illusion.

This Esoteric Recordings edition restores the original artwork and includes new liner notes by Anthony Phillips archivist Jon Dann.

The Living Room Concert is out now and is available to order from Cherry Red and Amazon.

 

 

 

David Longdon (News date: 27-11-21)

It is with great sadness that we learned of the untimely death on November 20th of David Longdon, the prodigiously talented front man and wordsmith of Big Big Train.

Ant says: "It was my privilege to meet David at the Prog Awards in 2016 and thereafter share occasional and insightful email correspondence with him. What shone through was his innate sense of decency and humanity. Kind, compassionate, funny yet modest, he also very nearly became the Genesis singer after Phil's departure in 1996.

Big Big Train's increasingly brilliant music has deservedly brought them an ever-growing audience over recent years and I was very flattered that they chose to do a cover of 'Master of Time'- a masterful, mighty version that rather left my original in the starting blocks!"

David, 56, leaves a wife and two daughters and our thoughts are with his family at this very difficult time.

 

 

The Living Room Concert reviews (News date: 29-6-20, updated 24-7-20)

A review of the forthcoming remastered and expanded edition of The Living Room Concert has been published on Velvet Thunder and can be seen here.  Our thanks to Lorne Murphy for sending us the details of the review.

A further review of the re-issue has now been published by the German Genesis Fan Club and can be read here (in English) and here (in German).

 

Rupert Hine 1947 - 2020 (News date: 11-6-20)

The multi-talented Rupert Hine who produced Ant's albums Wise After The Event and Sides sadly passed away last week.  A noted songwriter and musician in his own right, in a career that stretched for over 50 years Rupert produced over 160 albums working with a wide variety of artists including Rush, Camel, Howard Jones, Tina Turner and Stevie Nicks.  He also wrote and recorded a number of solo albums as well as being a member of Quantum Jump.

Ant's personal tribute to Rupert can be read here.  Our thoughts are with Rupert's family and friends at this time.

 

 

Tabletop Genesis podcast on Wise After The Event (News date: 9-4-20)

The latest podcast in the Tabletop Genesis series features an interesting track-by-track discussion of Ant's album Wise After The Event .  The podcast can heard by clicking on the play button below.

 

 

 

 

Record Collector Genesis feature (News date: 1-3-21, updated 30-3-21)

 

Record Collector magazine March 2021 The March 2021 issue of the UK magzine Record Collector (Number 516) includes a 14 page feature about the early years of Genesis.  Ant together with Tony Banks, Steve Hackett and Richard Macphail have given new interviews for the article by writer Nick Hasted, which also includes some interesting early photos and a discography of the band's releases from 1968 - 72.

The magazine can be ordered from the Record Collector site.

 

 

Recent reviews and interviews (News date: 12-3-20)

Some more reviews of Strings of Light have recently been published online and can now be read at Lmnop.com and Anne Carlini.com

Goldmine magazine conducted an interview with Ant back in November which has now been published online and can be read here.  We also have a couple of new interviews here courtesy of the long-running Genesis web-fanzine The Waiting Room which were published in Issue #105: a chat with Ant from August 2018 and an exclusive interview with Ant's collaborator Andrew Skeet. 

 

 

New Genesis biography published (News date: 26-2-20)

The Peter Gabriel Years

 

Genesis 1967 - 1975: The Peter Gabriel Years by Mario Giammetti is due for publication in May as the first title to be published by Kingmaker Publishing.

The book contains numerous exclusive interviews with the band members and all the important personalities who were part of the story of Genesis between 1967 and 1975.  It also includes a number of previously unpublished photos together with interviews carried out with the individual members of Genesis during listen throughs of each of the band's first five albums.

Mario Giammetti is an Italian music journalist known as both the editor of the Italian Genesis magazine Dusk as well as the author of a number of books about the band and the individual members including The Exile, an Italian language biography of Ant which was published in 2008.  Genesis 1967 - 1975: The Peter Gabriel Years is his first book to be published in English.

Genesis 1967 - 1975: The Peter Gabriel Years was published on 8th May 2020 and can be ordered now from Burning Shed.

 

 

 

 

 

An Evening of Anthony Phillips & Mike Rutherford solo albums review (News date: 27-1-20)

Ant with the members of the Rocking Horse Music Club

Ant with the members of the Rocking Horse Music Club 

 

Back in November 2019 the US group Rocking Horse Music Club performed two shows at Trading Boundaries in East Sussex, which included the first ever live performances of music from Ant's albums.  The selection of Ant's music was complimented by performances of selected songs from Mike Rutherford's first solo album Smallcreep's Day, which featured the original vocalist on the album Noel McCalla.

The German Genesis Fan Club have now published a review of the two concerts, which is available to read in both English and German.  The review also includes a nice selection of photos from the concerts.

 

 

 

 

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