I was mulling over Stuart's post from last week re bands that underwent drastic changes in personnel and how it affected their subsequent output and success and the one band that kept rearing its head was Genesis. Here's a band that had several pretty great records as a fivesome in the early 70's and were to some degree fairly successful but then Gabriel leaves with "A Trick of the Tail" and within a few more albums Genesis is one of the biggest stadium bands on the planet.

And at least for the first couple of records sans Gabriel their output is every bit as good as during his tenure with the band. Their greatest success however seems to come when their material is at its weakest. Of course this coincides with Phil Collins' rise to megastardom which bad enough in itself (although I did very much like his debut album), doesn't compare to the pap that Mike & the Mechanics put out.

Of course as Genesis and Phil Collins are reaching the zenith of their careers Peter Gabriel is also putting out great records and quickly becoming a stadium filler in his own right. I'm not sure there are too many bands that saw this many triumphs after a potentially disastrous parting of the ways.