Ampire Banks

Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks has made several stabs at a solo career since 1978, writing and recording in various styles and occasionally under different group names. However, none of his attempts have been very commercially successful, a sore point for the man many deem responsible for a large portion of the Genesis sound…

Although Peter Banks sadly died in 2013, this new studio album features some of his work which has never been released until now. On 10th August 2010 he and David Cross got together for an afternoon of improvisation and all guitar and violin parts are from that time. Banks had expressed his desire for this music to one day be made available, so over the last few years Cross asked some friends to become involved and help in making this album a reality…

The Fugitive is the second solo album by Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks. It was originally released in June 1983, on Charisma (UK), and Atlantic (US). It was produced by Banks himself, and co-produced by the Grammy Award–winning Stephen Short. The album is the only album in which Banks sings all of the lead vocals. On the previous concept album, A Curious Feeling (1979) all of the vocals were done by Kim Beacon. When that album did not turn out too successfully, Banks thought that it was pointless to continue that project.

A Curious Feeling is the début solo album from Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks. Recorded at ABBA's Polar Music Studios during a brief Genesis hiatus, it was released in 1979 on Charisma Records and is one of only two of Banks' solo albums to have entered the UK Albums Chart, reaching 21 and staying on the chart for five weeks. According to Banks himself, the album "got some extremely scathing reviews, I don't think they were fair" but he conceded "this was post-punk and this was really not the album that people wanted to hear". Classic Rock reviewer Jerry Ewing agrees with Banks, writing that the album is made of "lush pastoral English prog rock that deserved better at the time" and is probably the musician's best solo effort.

A compilation of the material Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks recorded for two mid-'80s films, Quicksilver and Lorca and the Outlaws, Soundtracks is very similar in instrumentation to Genesis' Invisible Touch. Keyboards and drum machines dominate the album, which, in addition to the instrumental suites, includes three pop songs. "Quicksilver Suite" tends to rely too much on the recurring theme to "Shortcut to Somewhere," but the breathy keyboard theme that opens the piece is quite touching, and Banks has a flair for building interesting layers of synthesizers.

First ever US CD edition of this classic album from 1973 by original YES guitarist Peter Banks. Features appearances by Jan Akkerman, Phil Collins, Steve Hacket and John Wetton. Peter Banks was the original guitarist of the progressive rock bands The Syn, Yes, Flash and Empire. The BBC's Danny Baker and Big George often called Banks "The architect of progressive music".

Empire was originally intended to be a new line-up of Flash. The nucleus of the band were guitarist Peter Banks and singer Sydney Foxx. The band never got a record deal and cd's were released in 1995-1996 by One Way Records. The music was recorded in the seventies. Recorded in 1974, this has a few fillers, and it occasionally falls into the prog habit of going six minutes when four would do, but it's still mystifying that this perfectly solid collection would go missing for so long. Empire's sound bridges the West Coast funk of Cold Blood and the jazzy guitar of early Yes, and it works surprisingly well. The charging "Out of Our Hands" has some clever guitar effects thrown in, and a startling moment where Foxx's vocals rise up like a kettle on the boil.