1969 Albums

Genesis' story begins at the Charterhouse public school in Godalming, Surrey. Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and guitarists Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips were all classmates in two competing bands. Adding drummer Chris Stewart, they joined forces in 1967 with the hopes of becoming a songwriting collective. The band's earliest efforts were proffered through the old-school tie, when pop producer and fellow Carthusian Jonathan King agreed to produce some demos. The contact eventually led to a recording contract from Decca Records.

Raised in the high desert outside of Los Angeles, legend has it that a young Frank Zappa (b. 1940) was granted a long-distance phone call for his fifteenth birthday: the recipient was 20th century composer and musical pioneer Edgard Varèse (actually his wife). Zappa's first release was in late 1966. Credited to The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! was a sprawling double-album with little precedent; it shunned the burgeoning hippie vibe of the West Coast for something far stranger: a mélange of music styles, ranging from highbrow classicism to down-in-the-gutter rock ‘n' roll.

In the beginning, there were two prominent bands in Port Talbot, Wales: The Mustangs featured guitarist Ray “Taff” Williams, bassist Ritchie Francis and vocalist Wyndham Rees, while The Smokestacks offered keyboardist Phil Ryan and guitarist Gary Pickford-Hopkins. After the two bands merged, they added drummer John “Pugwash” Weathers and changed their name to Eyes Of Blue. The band released a couple of singles on the Deram label before being dropped, but after meeting Lou Reizner, the band signed to Mercury Records.