‘Everything just kept getting bigger!’ Genesis on prog, 80s stardom and Phil Collins’s health

As they prepare what could be their final tour after 54 years, the British rock greats reflect on who they lost along the way, how they survived punk - and why Phil is skiving off his vocal practice

Genesis have always been slightly below the radar," says keyboardist Tony Banks. We've never been part of a current trend; we don't tend to get awards; we're just sort of ... there. People that like us really like us, though, and that's all we care about."

Below the radar" may be a strange way of describing a band who have sold more than 150m albums. But, then, Genesis have always been peculiarly self-effacing. From their early-70s, Peter Gabriel-fronted iteration, where they quickly ascended to the upper echelons of progressive rock with a combination of theatrical whimsy and fiendish technical complexity, to their slicker, poppier, staggeringly successful 80s years, they remain a wildly popular - yet pleasingly eccentric - proposition.