Tony Banks

Anthony George Banks (born 27 March 1950) is an English musician 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.

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. In 2011, he was included on MusicRadar's list of the 27 greatest keyboard players of all time. In 2015, he was named "Prog God" at the Progressive Music Awards.

Anthony George Banks was born on 27 March 1950 in East Hoathly with Halland, East Sussex as the youngest of five children. 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. 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!" 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. He considered himself an average piano player, and learned to play pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel, his two favourite piano composers, by ear. At 13, he began lessons with an unsuitable teacher who made him lose interest in classical music, but he then started to play 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. 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. In September 1963, Banks began study at Charterhouse School, a private school in Godalming, Surrey. He studied classical piano as an extracurricular subject. 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.