Reflections: A Brief Review Of The Reissue Of A 1968 Rock Opera From The Genesis

This is a fascinating document. Through a wild set of circumstances, a lost rock opera by a band called The Genesis -- not that one -- has been unearthed and released. The lost 1968 album, out now via Hand of Glory Records, reveals a work from this band from Luton which sits as an artifact from an era where acts as disparate as The Pretty Things and The Zombies were crafting song-cycles and the like.

The story of A Story begins in 1966 when Lutonians Chris Stokes (keys, vocals) of The Mantis Set, Snip Turner (lead guitar), Derek 'Jock' Carleton (guitar, vocals), Steve 'Siggi' Holmes (bass), and Mick Loughton (drums) get together as a band. Called The Regency Five originally, they christened themselves Genesis (henceforth called The Genesis to avoid confusion and whatnot now). Originally crafted under the guidance of Stokes and Holmes, A Story was first envisioned as a pop cantata. It's a weird tale of murder, full of proto-prog riffs and the kind of emphasis on keyboards which will earn this Zombies comparisons.

While obvious single "Nightmares" has a vague whiff of Argent's stuff about it, the looser "Marriage" is more interesting. Jazzy hooks swirl around a laidback delivery. That's a good one as is "Hate", a somewhat lugubrious workout that echoes British music-hall traditions enough to be almost jaunty. The influences on The Genesis in 1968 seem pretty obvious now, and the band were clearly ambitious and attempting to catch up to the big-time contemporaries riding this sort of stuff to the charts. While A Story is not entirely coherent as a song-cycle, or rock opera, or whatever, it is a fine document of an era.

A Story is not Odessey and Oracle. No one is going to listen to this lost 1968 album and think it is in 2025. However, what is fascinating about this record from The Genesis is the obvious indications of an up-and-coming regional band in England finding inspiration from their peers, and letting their ambitions loose. The story of the discovery and reissuing of A Story is a fascinating one too, and it colors how we listen to this. We are hearing something very much of its time, and very much something that the band members there probably never thought would get a proper reissue nearly half of a century later. What most makes A Story fascinating is how much this serves as an artifact from the post-Pepper musical landscape, and how a five-piece from the wilds of Luton poured their hearts into some clever, lovely material.

A Story by The Genesis is out now via Hand of Glory Records. Details below too.