The Living Years

Genesis: from humble beginnings as a schoolboy band, to a million-selling legendary live act. Mike Rutherford was there from the beginning. Now, in the first memoir by a member of the band, Mike reveals the truth about Genesis's evolution, and his own band Mike and the Mechanics. There were lineup changes, there was drink, there were drugs; there were arguments and excess. But, in the background - and sometimes in the audience - there was also Mike's father, a World War II naval captain. He watched Genesis grow from travelling to gigs in a Hovis bread van, to an iconic band who toured the world just as he had done in the line of duty. But when his father suddenly died, Mike was forced to re-examine their relationship and, in so doing, began to understand how their lives had overlapped. Candid, insightful and very funny, it will strike a chord in just the same way as the classic hit 'The Living Years'. 'Rutherford tells [a] story . . . that celebrates love of family, loyalty to friendship, passion for music, and - in his father's tradition - devotion to duty.' The Times