In 2014, Genesis briefly became a functioning unit again, not to tour, record, or rediscover some utopian creative spark, but to make a documentary. Sum Of The Parts promised to tell the full story of one of Britain’s most successful, and most quietly fractious, bands. What emerged was a reminder that even in a supposedly unified setting, old tensions never really disappear.
The project arrived alongside R-Kive, a three-disc compilation notable for folding in the solo work of the so-called “classic five”, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Steve Hackett. That cross-pollination should have been an olive branch. Instead, the documentary’s broadcast cut by the BBC sparked immediate criticism: revisionist in tone, glaringly light on Hackett’s solo career, and curiously selective in what it chose to omit.
Banks, never shy in assessing his own role, called the reunion “fun” in the sense that old arguments could be rehashed with good humour. He admitted most thought he’d been the biggest problem, a charge he doesn’t exactly deny. Rutherford framed the documentary as a public service, aimed at clarifying the basic history to casual viewers who might not even know Gabriel was once the singer.
But beneath the surface there’s the inevitable confession: Genesis as a five-piece could never last. “There were too many writing ideas,” Rutherford says. Banks calls the group “pretty much a democracy” before promptly accusing Rutherford’s memoir of misrepresenting him for the sake of a better narrative.
There’s nostalgia, but it’s selective. They dismiss the “po-faced” image, point to flashes of subversive humour, and recall early chart success with a mix of pride and ambivalence. Banks laments his solo career’s lack of recognition, yet concedes he’s had more professional acclaim than most could dream of. Rutherford regrets not savouring their 1980s dominance while it was happening.
Sum Of The Parts set out to celebrate a legacy. Instead, it accidentally revealed the truth: Genesis were never just one story. They were five, sometimes harmonious, often competing that could never fully fit in the same frame.
