Tony Banks (musician)
Anthony George Banks (born 27 March 1950) is an English musician, songwriter and film composer primarily known as the keyboardist and founding member of the rock band Genesis. Banks is also a prolific solo artist, releasing six solo albums that range through progressive rock, pop, and classical music.
Banks co-formed Genesis in 1967 while studying at Charterhouse as their keyboardist and one of their principal songwriters and lyricists. He became a prolific user of the Hammond T-102 organ, Mellotron, ARP Pro Soloist and Yamaha CP-70 piano. In the band’s earliest years Banks would play acoustic guitar for some of the mellow and pastoral songs.
In 2010, Banks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis. In 2015, he was named “Prog God” at the Progressive Music Awards. Banks is ranked No. 11 on MusicRadar’s greatest keyboard players of all time.
Anthony George Banks was born on 27 March 1950 in East Hoathly with Halland, East Sussex as the youngest of five children. He cites his mother, a pianist, as being particularly into music, and first listened to classical music albums that she owned from around six before he moved to musical theatre compositions by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Banks’s elder brother introduced him to a wider variety, naming “Sixteen Tons” sung by Frankie Laine as one of the songs, and said, “By 1961, and for the next five to six years, I was music mad!” Banks started piano lessons at school at eight with the headmaster’s wife, but did not enjoy tuition at first because he was “quite forced into it” by his parents until he grew to enjoy it.
He considered himself an average piano player, and learned to recite pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel, his two favourite piano composers, by ear. At 13, he began lessons with an unsuitable teacher who made him lose interest in classical music, but he then started to recite songs by ear that he heard on the radio. Months later, he acquired a new piano teacher who sparked his interest in classical compositions once more, which became a deciding factor for Banks’s decision to pursue a career in music. In addition to the piano, Banks taught himself to play the guitar.
At seven, Banks began six years of study at Boarzell Preparatory School, a boarding school in Hurst Green.
In September 1963, Banks began study at Charterhouse School, a private school in Godalming, Surrey. He studied classical piano as an extracurricular subject. Shortly after his arrival he befriended fellow pupil and future Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel, initially over their general distaste for the school’s environment. They went on to play in Garden Wall, a school band with drummer Chris Stewart. In early 1967, they merged with guitarists Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, two members of Anon, another school band, to record a series of demos which led to the formation of their new band Genesis.
Banks originally planned to study mathematics in higher education. After leaving Charterhouse, Banks began studying chemistry at Sussex University but soon switched to physics and philosophy. After a year at Sussex, he took a leave of absence in 1969 to explore a career with Genesis since the group had split but decided to reform and become a full-time professional band. Banks never returned to the university.
Banks’s elaborate arrangements and keyboard solos – such as the piano introduction to “Firth of Fifth” and the instrumental sections of “The Cinema Show”, “Watcher of the Skies”, and “Supper’s Ready” – helped to establish Genesis’s sound. In addition to playing keyboards, Banks contributed (along with Anthony Phillips, Steve Hackett and Rutherford) to Genesis’s 12-string acoustic passages in songs such as “The Musical Box”, “Entangled”, “The Cinema Show”, and the beginning part of “Supper’s Ready”. Banks also was an occasional back-up vocalist and sang co-lead vocals on “Shepherd”, an unreleased track from 1970 which finally surfaced on the Genesis Archive 1967–75 boxed set.
Notable Banks-penned Genesis songs (post Peter Gabriel) include “Mad Man Moon”, “One for the Vine” and the anthemic ballad “Afterglow”, which remained a popular coda to the Banks-driven medleys that the group played during live shows for years.
In 1997, Banks turned down an invitation to play on Steve Hackett’s solo album Genesis Revisited as he disliked going over past material and an appearance would have added confusion to the fact Genesis were close to putting out Calling All Stations.
After Genesis split in 1998, Banks’s career stagnated, and he considered retirement from music. It was during this time that he began composing, titling an early piece “Black Down” which led to his decision to pursue orchestra composition.
Rock albumsBanks first thought of making a solo album in 1975, following Gabriel’s departure from Genesis. He had a group of songs in development at the time which were used on A Trick of the Tail (1976), their first album recorded without Gabriel, including “Mad Man Moon” and sections of “Entangled” and “Ripples”.
In 1979, after Genesis had entered a break in activity, Banks and Rutherford travelled to Polar Studios in Stockholm and recorded their first studio albums. Banks’s album, A Curious Feeling, was released first in October of that year. It was originally meant to be based and titled after the short story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and Banks had written a complete set of lyrics for the story, but shelved the idea after he was made aware of an upcoming musical about the book.[8] In addition to keyboards Banks plays the guitar and bass as he wanted the album to be “As personal as possible”.[8] He enlisted Kim Beacon of String Driven Thing as vocalist.[8]
In June 1983, Banks released his second studio album, The Fugitive. It remains unique as his only album to feature himself as lead vocalist on all of the songs; a role he considered after recording guide vocals for Collins to sing for “Me and Sarah Jane” and “Keep It Dark” on the Genesis album Abacab (1981).[8] Banks has employed guest vocalists on his solo albums; these have included Fish, Nik Kershaw, Toyah Willcox, Jack Hues and Jim Diamond.
In 1988, Banks recorded a pop and rock-oriented album under a group identity named Bankstatement, featuring guitarist and co-producer Steve Hillage and singers Alistair Gordon and Jayney Klimek, plus additional musicians. Banks felt inspired to pursue the project having witnessed Rutherford enjoy the success of his own group, Mike + the Mechanics. Their same-titled release was released in 1989. Banks himself also took the lead vocal on one track (the track Big Man)
Banks released his fourth studio album, Still, in April 1991. In contrast to his previous use of one or two vocalists on an album, he chose a greater number for Still as he saw little point in restricting himself and selected different people for tracks they suited best. As on the previous album, Banks took the lead vocal on one track (Hero For an Hour)
Banks formed his second group project outside Genesis in 1994. He initially wanted to name the band Incognito, but found out there was another group with the name and chose Strictly Inc. It featured himself with Wang Chung vocalist Jack Hues, and their same-titled album saw a UK release in September 1995.
In 2004, after recording his classical album Seven, Banks expressed an interest to record another rock solo album but said the environment is becoming increasingly difficult in terms of securing a deal, yet the likelihood of it solely being an independent or online release does appeal to him. He added: “I’m not trying to prove anything. I haven’t got to convince anybody. I don’t have to worry about reviews or anything like that. You are just doing it for people who are familiar with what you are doing”
Personal life
Banks married Margaret McBain on 29 July 1972. They had a one-day honeymoon as Banks was too busy with finishing the Genesis album Foxtrot. Banks said: “The band felt sorry for me so they paid for her to come on the next tour”. The couple have two children, Benjamin (b. 1978) and Emily (b. 1981), and live near Godalming, Surrey.
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