IX OF THE BEST

Forty years ago, Genesis’ classic line-up reunited for a one-off show at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Billed as Six Of The Best, its aim was to raise money for Peter Gabriel’s then debtridden WOMAD project. Although the concert was never recorded, it holds a special place in the hearts of bandmembers and fans alike, who look back and recall the time that one of the UK’s biggest prog bands performed in a very muddy clay pit.

Words: Daryl Easlea Portrait: Alan Perry

It was almost as unbelievable as a storyline on one of their early albums. In October 1982, Genesis reunited with their mercurial co-founder and original lead singer Peter Gabriel for a one-off concert in an act of generosity that underlined the group’s inherent grace.

Possibly the most successful school band ever, Genesis, by this time, were well on their way to a level of stardom that could not have been imagined when Gabriel had left them after the troubled The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album and tour in 1974/1975. In fact, many had simply written the group off, thinking that they were Gabriel’s backing band, without realising he was merely part of a collective.

After stepping out of the machinery of Genesis, Peter Gabriel had carved himself a niche as one of art-pop’s key troubadours. No longer restrained by his old school pals, each of his solo albums highlighted his adventurousness, sense of play, logic and integrity. However, in 1982, his abundant curiosity had gotten him into a king-sized scrape.

He had co-founded a global music festival, World Of Music And Dance (WOMAD), which ran for three days in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, that July. Although ground-breaking and artistically triumphant, it was a commercial calamity and had run massively aground. As Gabriel was ‘the famous face’ on the organising committee, he was faced with colossal debts, incensed creditors, potential bankruptcy and, far worse, alleged death threats against himself and his family.

On hearing this, his old band agreed to reunite with him for a concert for old time’s sake to save him – and his festival – from ruin. They would donate all the proceeds from this event to WOMAD to get it out of its huge hole. And speaking of huge holes, they chose to put on the show in a colossal re-purposed clay pit, 55 miles north of central London in Milton Keynes, one of the new towns designated by the UK government after the Second World War. The Milton Keynes Bowl – as the venue was grandly known – had opened in 1979, and earlier in 1982 had played host to an enormous event by Queen.

The Genesis reunion, known as Six Of The Best, was held on October 2, 1982. Aside from it being Mike Rutherford’s 32nd birthday, it was a day when it rained and rained and rained and rained. And rained.

With a mixture of new interviews and on-the-record information, this is the story of the concert, an improbable, yet ultimately triumphant day.

“It was a bit like going to school when you haven’t been there for 30 years; in this case it was only six years, but it still felt like a lifetime.”

Peter Gabriel

PREFACE: TO THE MULTITUDE WHO STAND IN THE RAIN, MILTON KEYNES OCTOBER 1982

No account of Six Of The Best can ever be made without talking about just how awful the weather was. Everyone was not just soaked, they were sodden. Sopping. Drenched. Saturated. So, let us first deal with the elephant in the room directly…

Peter Gabriel: It was pissing down with rain.

Daryl Stuermer: I remember the rain.

Mike Rutherford: It was pissing with rain.

Richard Macphail: It literally is the only day I remember in all my life when it was raining when we got up, rained all day, and was raining when we went to sleep. In England, it so rarely does that. It was solid, the whole day. It was extraordinary.

Simon Brenne: I don’t remember much apart from that it was raining.

Steve Hackett: It poured all day and all night. Everybody remembers that. Legendarily wet, seems to be the Genesis curse. If there’s something taking place outdoors, it will rain; that was certainly true of my time with the band. And I think way beyond all that, too.