Tony Banks (musician)
Anthony George Banks (born 27 March 1950) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and film composer primarily known as the keyboardist and founding member of the rock band Genesis. Banks is also a prolific solo artist, releasing six solo studio albums that range through progressive rock, pop, and classical music.
Tony Banks
Anthony George Banks
27 March 1950
East Hoathly with Halland, England
- Progressive rock
- classical
- rock
- art rock
- pop rock
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- composer
- multi-instrumentalist
- Keyboards
- vocals
- guitar
1967–present
Banks co-founded Genesis in 1967 while studying at Charterhouse. He was their keyboardist and one of their principal songwriters and lyricists. He became a frequent user of the Hammond T-102 organ, Mellotron, ARP Pro Soloist and Yamaha CP-70 piano. In the band's earliest years Banks would play acoustic guitar for some of the mellow and pastoral songs.
In 2010, Banks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis.[1] In 2011, he was included on MusicRadar's list of the 27 greatest keyboard players of all time.[2] In 2015, he was named "Prog God" at the Progressive Music Awards.[3]
Early life[edit]
Anthony George Banks was born on 27 March 1950 in East Hoathly with Halland, East Sussex as the youngest of five children.[4][5] He cites his mother, a pianist, as being particularly into music, and first listened to classical music albums that she owned from around six before he moved to musical theatre compositions by Rodgers and Hammerstein.[5][6] Banks's elder brother introduced him to a wider variety, naming "Sixteen Tons" sung by Frankie Laine as one of the songs, and said, "By 1961, and for the next five to six years, I was music mad!"[6] Banks started piano lessons at school at eight with the headmaster's wife, but did not enjoy tuition at first because he was "quite forced into it" by his parents until he grew to enjoy it.[5][7] He considered himself an average piano player, and learned to recite pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel, his two favourite piano composers, by ear.[6][8] At 13, he began lessons with an unsuitable teacher who made him lose interest in classical music, but he then started to recite songs by ear that he heard on the radio. Months later, he acquired a new piano teacher who sparked his interest in classical compositions once more, which became a deciding factor for Banks's decision to pursue a career in music.[7] In addition to the piano, Banks taught himself to play the guitar.
At seven, Banks began six years of study at Boarzell Preparatory School, a boarding school in Hurst Green.[5] In September 1963, Banks began study at Charterhouse School, a private school in Godalming, Surrey. He studied classical piano as an extracurricular subject.[5] Shortly after his arrival he befriended fellow pupil and future Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel, initially over their general distaste for the school's environment. They went on to play in Garden Wall, a school band with drummer Chris Stewart. In early 1967, they merged with guitarists Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, two members of Anon, another school band, to record a series of demos which led to the formation of their new band Genesis.[9]
Banks originally planned to study mathematics in higher education. After leaving Charterhouse, Banks began studying chemistry at Sussex University but soon switched to physics and philosophy.[7] After a year at Sussex, he took a leave of absence in 1969 to explore a career with Genesis since the group had split but decided to reform and become a full-time professional band. Banks never returned to the university.[9]
Reception[edit]
Music historian Wayne Studer has referred to Banks as "the most tasteful keyboardist of prog rock."[21] Scott Solida of MusicRadar also described him as "tasteful and often restrained", whose "playing was always in service to the song." Solida added, "Banks exhibited a sense of arrangement and purpose so often missing in the excesses of his peers."[2] In 2018, Philip Wilding of Classic Rock described Banks as "the most overlooked solo artist from Genesis".[22]
Banks has pioneered many unique keyboard and synthesizer sounds throughout his career; one of his achievements was the technique of using the trigger output of a Linn LM-1 drum machine to have the hi-hat pattern trigger an ARP Quadra synthesizer, creating such parts as the pulsating drum sound in "Mama" (from 1983's Genesis) and "By You" on The Fugitive (1983). Another unique synth technique was used on the track "Who Dunnit?" from the 1981 album Abacab; a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 was programmed with a few sounds, and the patches were switched manually (via the panel preset tabs) while he played.
Known for his lack of flamboyance on stage, Banks did wear a snorkel for performances of "Who Dunnit?" on the Abacab tour.[11]
Instruments[edit]
Banks, who has played the piano for many years, achieved a distinctive sound by running all of his keyboards (as well as his 12-string guitar) into a mixing board and then running the signal output of the board into a Leslie speaker[23] (both the mixer and the rotary speaker were homemade). This can clearly be heard on everything Banks plays on the Genesis Live album.
Banks's earliest setup included a Hammond L-100 organ, a Hohner Pianet N and a Mellotron MkII, all of which (as well as grand piano) are first heard on the Trespass album. Banks used the Pianet as both a substitute for a grand piano, and also as a lead instrument, with the use of a fuzz box (also homemade, similar to the Fender Blender). He would often duel with Hackett's guitar, as heard on tracks like "The Musical Box", "The Return of the Giant Hogweed", and "Supper's Ready". Banks in 1974 switched from his Pianet to an RMI 368 Electra Piano and Harpsichord, which was soon integrated into the sound of Genesis, as first heard at various points on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) album. It was often effected with the homemade fuzz box and an MXR Phase 100 – later these pedals were inserted in the panel of the Electra Piano.
In 1978, the RMI was replaced with the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano.[23]
The first synthesizer used by Banks was the monophonic ARP Pro Soloist, which Banks first acquired in 1973 along with a Hammond T-102 and a Mellotron M400 for the Selling England by the Pound album, replacing the Hammond L122 and the Mellotron MkII.[23] With the release of the Trick of the Tail album in 1976 and onward, Banks made use of the ARP 2600, a semi-modular synthesizer.[24] On 1978's ...And Then There Were Three... the Polymoog (one of the first polyphonic synthesizers) was integrated into Banks' expansive array, which enabled more expressive and highly layered "colorful" textures along with his unique use of MXR Phase 100 and Boss CE-1 Chorus effects pedals on the Hammond T-102 organ. During this time, he also added a Roland RS-202 string and brass synthesizer to mainly replace the Mellotron, though not used live. He also briefly used a Fender Rhodes electric piano. He also acquired a Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano, which, when put through a Boss chorus, would become a signature part of Banks' 1970's - 80's sound.
He used this technique all the way up to Duke in 1980, when he made a major overhaul of his rig, dropping the ARP 2600, the ARP Pro-Soloist, the Mellotron and the RS-202 in favour of a Yamaha CS-80, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, an ARP Quadra and a Roland VP-330. On Abacab in 1981, the organ was no longer featured; organ sounds were emulated using a Sequential Circuits Prophet 10 synthesizer through the Boss CE-1. For the album Genesis in 1983, he replaced the Polymoog with an E-mu Emulator digital sampler. He also added a NED Synclavier II, which also has had prominent features in Banks' career, such as on "Home by the Sea". His final changes in this rig were replacing the E-mu Emulator with an E-mu Emulator II+ and the Roland VP-330 with a Yamaha DX7 for Invisible Touch. Since the We Can't Dance (1991) album, Banks has favoured Roland and Korg synthesizers, such as Roland JD-800 and Korg Wavestation.
Evolving technology and sampling has allowed him to use a smaller rig of 4 or 3 keyboards with an array of rack mounted synth modules to emulate many of the earlier sounds. His concert rigs since When in Rome 2007 include Korg Wavestation and Roland A-90 keyboard acting as MIDI controllers for rack mounted Korg Wavestation SR, Roland JD-990, Yamaha TX7, E-mu Proteus I and II, and E-mu EIV, as well as Korg OASYS as a master keyboard.[25]