Tony Banks (musician)
Shopping


CDs by Tony Banks (musician) at amazon


 DVDs by Tony Banks (musician) at amazon


books about Tony Banks (musician) at amazon


rare music at Gemm.com


rare music at Music Stack
Unused button
 Tony Banks (musician)
More info


search the web for Tony Banks (musician)


pictures of  Tony Banks (musician)
Videos - Tony Banks (musician)


Unused Search button


Spare search button
Site Search

Tony Banks (musician)

Anthony George "Tony" Banks (born March 27, 1950) is an English songwriter, pianist/keyboard player, and guitarist. He is one of the founding members of progressive rock group Genesis and one of only two members (the other being guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford) to belong to Genesis throughout its entire history.

Banks is the most private of the Genesis members; most of what is known about his early life is from the book on Genesis by Armando Gallo.

Contents

  • 1 Early years
  • 2 Career
    • 2.1 Role in Genesis
    • 2.2 Film scoring
    • 2.3 Sound innovations
  • 3 Solo discography
    • 3.1 Guest vocalists on Tony Banks albums
    • 3.2 Songs sung by Tony Banks solo
  • 4 Equipment used by Tony Banks over the years
    • 4.1 From Genesis to Revelation (1969)
    • 4.2 Trespass (1970)
    • 4.3 Nursery Cryme (1971)
    • 4.4 Foxtrot (1972)
    • 4.5 Selling England By The Pound (1973)
    • 4.6 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)
    • 4.7 A Trick of the Tail (1976)
    • 4.8 Wind and Wuthering (1977)
    • 4.9 ...And Then There Were Three... (1978)
    • 4.10 Duke (1980)
    • 4.11 Abacab (1981)
    • 4.12 Genesis (1983)
    • 4.13 Invisible Touch (1986)
    • 4.14 We Can't Dance (1991)
    • 4.15 The Way We Walk (We Can't Dance Tour) (1991–1992)
    • 4.16 Calling All Stations (1997)
    • 4.17 Calling All Stations Tour (1997–1998)
    • 4.18 Turn It On Again Tour (2007–present)
  • 5 Notes
  • 6 External links

Early years

Banks was born in East Hoathly, Sussex, England. He received classical training in piano, and taught himself to play guitar. He attended Charterhouse School in the mid-1960s, where he met fellow student Peter Gabriel in 1965. Banks originally planned to study mathematics in higher education, and after Charterhouse he took a leave of absence from Sussex University to explore Genesis, and never returned.

Career

Banks and Gabriel, together with drummer Chris Stewart, formed a band called The Garden Wall. This band merged with another called Anon, which included Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips. They recorded a set of demos which ultimately led to the formation of the band that became Genesis.

Role in Genesis

Banks' elaborate arrangements and keyboard solos — such as the piano introduction to "Firth of Fifth" and the instrumental section of "The Cinema Show" — helped to establish Genesis' sound. In addition to playing keyboards, Banks contributed (along with Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford) to Genesis' 12-string acoustic passages in songs such as "The Musical Box", "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 "The Shepherd," an unreleased track from 1970 which finally surfaced on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 boxed set.

Banks' compositions are credited to be the driving force of Genesis' music, particularly in material recorded before 1979. Notable Banks-penned Genesis songs include "Mad Man Moon," "One for the Vine", and the anthemic ballad "Afterglow," which remained a popular exeunt to the Banks-driven "medleys" (conglomerations of Genesis' most-popular keyboard solos) that the group played during live shows for years.

After the departure of Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett from Genesis, Banks was the first of the three remaining members of the group to release a solo album. But unlike bandmates Phil Collins, who saw great solo success, and Mike Rutherford, who had a successful side career with Mike and the Mechanics, Banks's solo efforts usually sold only to a core audience of Genesis devotees. In 1998, fans formed a tribute band called Strictly Banks, and performed a set of Banks's solo songs.

On 7 November 2006, after so much speculation regarding a reunion, a press conference held by Banks, Collins, and Rutherford announced the upcoming Turn It On Again: The Tour in 2007. This announcement comes as the band are about to celebrate 40 years in the music business.

Film scoring

Banks has also created some film scores. The movie The Wicked Lady features a score by Banks, and the film escaped sinking into total obscurity only because it featured (a bare-breasted) Marina Sirtis who later became well-known for her work with the Star Trek television program. He wrote the soundtrack to Quicksilver, starring Kevin Bacon the single from which was produced by Richard James Burgess. After Genesis went into hiatus in 1998, Banks continued to write. A set of (mostly) recently-composed orchestral pieces was recorded and released on the 2004 album Seven: A Suite for Orchestra.

Sound innovations

Banks pioneered many keyboard sounds and a technique of using the MIDI interface to the Roland drum machine "backwards", using the drum machine to switch the keyboards on and off, to create the pulsating sound in "Mama" (on the 1983 Genesis album) and "By You" on The Fugitive. (Probably on other songs as well, but the effect was used sparingly).

Banks uses a hand-over-hand playing style in several songs to allow himself to play faster. This is notable on (the song) "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", "The Carpet Crawlers", and later on "No Reply At All". (The last of which has a music video which shows the technique briefly.) This style enables him to transition from one chord to the next very rapidly. He most often arpeggiates the chords he plays in this style.

Solo discography

Guest vocalists on Tony Banks albums

Songs sung by Tony Banks solo

Equipment used by Tony Banks over the years

The equipment lists in this section are derived from The Genesis Discography up until the 1991-era keyboard rig. This list was compiled in the early 1990s from various sources, including album liner notes, lists of tour gear for the band, etc. (The origin of the rest of the equipment lists is unknown.) Banks would not take his entire rig with him on tour, but did take most of it. Taking a grand piano on tour was not practical, so those parts on the albums were played on the electric piano. (Before it was dropped, for example, the "Firth of Fifth" intro was played on the electric piano.) He did take the Synclavier on the road with him, and it is visible in many of the performance videos from the 1983-1987 era. Changes to the keyboard rig were incremental over the years. Probably the two most drastic changes were the removal of the acoustic sampling Mellotron around 1980, when the then-new polyphonic synthesizers made it possible to play string sounds; and the dramatic overhaul of the rig for the We Can't Dance tour where Banks had only four slim keyboards onstage. (This latter shakeout involved the jettisoning of the Synclavier, and made songs like "Home by the Sea" sound quite different.)

From Genesis to Revelation (1969)

Trespass (1970)

Nursery Cryme (1971)

Foxtrot (1972)

Selling England By The Pound (1973)

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)

A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Wind and Wuthering (1977)

Note: The MXR Phase 100 phaser and Boss CE-1 stereo chorus were used to replace the Leslie speaker. The RS-202 was mainly used to replace the Mellotron, though not used live.

...And Then There Were Three... (1978)

Duke (1980)

The CS80 was used a lot on the album as well as the CP-70 piano. Tony used the Prophet 5 and Quadra on just a few occasions on the album. But the Quadra especially was used a lot as a polysynth and lead synth on the Duke tour. The Prophet 5 was used more for string like sounds as well as the flutes on Duke's Travels (last bars before Duke's End kicks in) and Cul-De-Sac.

Abacab (1981)

There are rumors that the EDP Wasp was used.

Genesis (1983)

Invisible Touch (1986)

We Can't Dance (1991)

The Roland JD-800 was responsible for the distinctive percussion sounds on the title track.

The Way We Walk (We Can't Dance Tour) (1991–1992)

Tony used these synths to also control his 2x 20HE rack units with the following gear:

All of the above are mixed into two Roland M480 mixers and put through Yamaha SPX90 effects and a Roland SDE3000 reverb unit. All midi routings done by two MidiTemp MMP88 patchbays. Audio routings from the mixer through the effect units done with the Yamaha PLS1 line switcher which is also used to extract the Roland JD-800 audio and send it to the main PA desk.

Also used was a MIDI Gate unit (brand unknown) which is used for the song Mama which they performed 5 times in the USA leg of the WCD tour.

Calling All Stations (1997)

Calling All Stations Tour (1997–1998)

These are then linked into 2 Opcode Studio 5 LX MIDI processor and 2 custom-made MIDI mixers and used to control these rack units:

All of the above are mixed into a Mackie LM3204 line mixer then put through Yamaha SPX1000 effects processor (four units) and Roland SRV-2000 effects processor. A Yamaha PLS1 line selector sends this to a Chiddingford Mixer for his Shure SM600 transmitter to his ear monitor.

Turn It On Again Tour (2007–present)

Notes

  1. Gallo
  2. Gallo
  3. Masters, Tim. "Genesis reunion 'not about money'", BBC News, 7 November 2006.
  4. cyberreviews.skwc.com/genesis.html

External links


 v • d • e Genesis
Tony Banks | Phil Collins | Mike Rutherford
Peter Gabriel | Steve Hackett | Anthony Phillips | John Mayhew | John Silver | Chris Stewart | Bill Bruford | Daryl Stuermer | Chester Thompson | Ray Wilson
Discography
Studio albums: From Genesis to Revelation | Trespass | Nursery Cryme | Foxtrot | Selling England by the Pound | The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway | A Trick of the Tail | Wind & Wuthering | ...And Then There Were Three... | Duke | Abacab | Genesis | Invisible Touch | We Can't Dance | Calling All Stations
Live Albums: Genesis Live | Seconds Out | Three Sides Live | Live/The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts | Live/The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs | Gladiators - Live in Rome
Compilations: Turn It On Again: The Hits | Platinum Collection
Box sets: Genesis Archive 1967-75 | Genesis Archive 2: 1976-1992 | Genesis 1976-1982
EPs: Spot the Pigeon | 3 X 3
Films: Genesis: In Concert

Return to Index

 ------  Copyright © 2007 UKPopMusic.org -----  contact webmaster

videos lyrics discography biography article music mp3 gallery pictures