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The Living Years by Mike Rutherford (18-Sep-2014) Paperback
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About the author
Mike Rutherford
47 books8 followersMichael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford was born the son of Annette and Crawford Rutherford on October 02, 1950 at 7.30p.m. in Surrey, in the south of England. He has a sister four years his elder, Nicolette. His youth was influenced by the navy since his father was Captain at the Navy Gunnery School in Portsmouth. When Mike was six, his father retired. The family moved to Cheshire and Crawford found a job in industrial management. At the age of seven, Mike was sent to a boarding school. He attended The Leas in Hoylake near Liverpool. At that time he first came into contact with music and found that he wanted to learn how to play the guitar. His parents bought him his first instrument, a 6-string nylon guitar. His sister influenced his musical taste because she would listen to Elvis and The Everly Brothers at that time. Mike experienced his first concert with his parents. They took him to see Cliff Richard and The Shadows at the Palace in Manchester. These early musical impressions led to Mike buying his first electric guitar – to the ‘delight’ of this father who from that time on had to deal with the neighbours complaining about the ‘noise’ coming out of the house. With his school buddy Dimitri Griliopoulos and another friend he formed his first band, The Chesters. They would rehearse songs like Sweet For My Sweet for a school concert.
In September 1964 Mike entered Charterhouse School. His first year there was “terrifying”. He had to find his feet in this very strict world. Luckily, he soon met Anthony Phillips, another Charterhouse pupil, with whom he got along very well. Mike was influenced by The Beatles, The Small Faces, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones in these years. In early 1967 two Charterhouse bands, Anon (founded by Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips) and The Garden Wall, joined forces and became Genesis. Mike became the bass player in the new band. His strength, however, lay in playing the 12-string guitar, an instrument he grew to know and love. Over the years he would develop “an original and wonderful 12-string sound” (Tony Banks) with Anthony Phillips.
Luck and fate would have it that Genesis got a record contract thanks to a couple of well-made demo tapes and the nose of producer Jonathan King. In March 1969, they released their first album, From Genesis To Revelation. History took its course. October 1970 saw the release of Trespass. Some time before, in July or August 1970, Anthony Phillips had decided to leave Genesis. This must have been a hard blow for Mike. Both musicians had become close friends. The fact that Anthony’s successor-to-be Steve Hackett had to audition at Mike’s sick-bed before he was accepted showed how important working with Anthony had been for Mike and how determined he was to keep up and develop the special guitar sound he and Phillips had found.
During the next years there was a long string of fantastic Genesis records. Mike grew ever more competent at playing both the guitar and the bass guitar both on the records and countless live shows. The double-neck guitar became a long-time trademark of Mike Rutherford. He would use it up until the Mama tour of 1984. It was made up of a twelve-string part (upper neck) and a four-string part (lower neck). At first he used a Rickenbacker double-neck, but later he switched to a Shergold product. Supper’s Ready was the reason why Mike began to use a double-neck guitar. This opus (released in 1972 on the Foxtrot album) has many fast changes, and he just could not work with two instruments. That was why he chose “this big heavy object hanging round my neck”, as Mike put it.
Another anecdote about guitars. Let’s hear Mike himself: „I used to play the original ‚stick’ Steinberger which looked quite ridiculous because I am so tall… I asked Steinberger whether they could change the design for me. They said no, as a small company they could not afford custom jobs. So one night I laid my guitar on a big sheet of cardboard and drew up the
In September 1964 Mike entered Charterhouse School. His first year there was “terrifying”. He had to find his feet in this very strict world. Luckily, he soon met Anthony Phillips, another Charterhouse pupil, with whom he got along very well. Mike was influenced by The Beatles, The Small Faces, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones in these years. In early 1967 two Charterhouse bands, Anon (founded by Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips) and The Garden Wall, joined forces and became Genesis. Mike became the bass player in the new band. His strength, however, lay in playing the 12-string guitar, an instrument he grew to know and love. Over the years he would develop “an original and wonderful 12-string sound” (Tony Banks) with Anthony Phillips.
Luck and fate would have it that Genesis got a record contract thanks to a couple of well-made demo tapes and the nose of producer Jonathan King. In March 1969, they released their first album, From Genesis To Revelation. History took its course. October 1970 saw the release of Trespass. Some time before, in July or August 1970, Anthony Phillips had decided to leave Genesis. This must have been a hard blow for Mike. Both musicians had become close friends. The fact that Anthony’s successor-to-be Steve Hackett had to audition at Mike’s sick-bed before he was accepted showed how important working with Anthony had been for Mike and how determined he was to keep up and develop the special guitar sound he and Phillips had found.
During the next years there was a long string of fantastic Genesis records. Mike grew ever more competent at playing both the guitar and the bass guitar both on the records and countless live shows. The double-neck guitar became a long-time trademark of Mike Rutherford. He would use it up until the Mama tour of 1984. It was made up of a twelve-string part (upper neck) and a four-string part (lower neck). At first he used a Rickenbacker double-neck, but later he switched to a Shergold product. Supper’s Ready was the reason why Mike began to use a double-neck guitar. This opus (released in 1972 on the Foxtrot album) has many fast changes, and he just could not work with two instruments. That was why he chose “this big heavy object hanging round my neck”, as Mike put it.
Another anecdote about guitars. Let’s hear Mike himself: „I used to play the original ‚stick’ Steinberger which looked quite ridiculous because I am so tall… I asked Steinberger whether they could change the design for me. They said no, as a small company they could not afford custom jobs. So one night I laid my guitar on a big sheet of cardboard and drew up the
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