Until Peter Gabriel happened on the scene perhaps the eeriest thing around was Vincent Price in all manner of gruesome guises in film adaptations of Edgar Alan Poe horror stories. Then the Genesis singer put an end to all that with an act that is at best intriguing and at worst spinetingling.

 Gabriel has his own tame mask maker who turns out such delights as bat wings, fox's heads, illuminated geometrical hats, flowers, old men's moosh's and God knows how many other creations.

 As if this is not enough, Peter has perfected the knack of appearing on a darkened stage with his eyes gleaming from the blackness like Christopher Lee with a bad attack of the late-night blood lust. Theatrics play a large part in Genesis' music and it's all preconceived.

 While admitting that his partially shaved head is a gimmick; Peter says: ''The difference between us and other bands who are into theatrics is that when we've recorded a song we decide how best to present it on stage rather than just put on costumes which bear no particular relation to the music.''

 Genesis are working on the idea of using cartoons to further enhance their act and in the meantime have devised a whole new performance which has recently been unleashed on the Americans.

 "We are trying to create images and moods with the music and we want to use any tools at our disposal to enhance the music. We never want the visual aids to dominate the music and I don't feel it ever gets to that stage with us as it does with certain other cases. I would like to see our stage act as being strange in an introverted fashion rather than an extroverted fashion and I don't think that's a contradiction in terms.

 ''As long as what I'm doing is coming from what I feel rather than routine or contrived effect then I'm quite happy that it's justified.''

 Another idea the band has in mind is that of using a portable theatre where the audience would be involved in a fantasy during the two/three hour show, not only from the stage but via things going on around them.

 ''We work under a fantasy and my part has been to conceive all the characters and masks I can from a piece,'' Peter points out. ''The visuals are really just an adaptation of something that's already been written. They began out of necessity; with gaps in the playing the door was left wide open to me. Visuals can only succeed if the music is just as satisfying, it's actually a means to an end.

 ''Visuals should provide some images that sink into the music, so if you're listening at home you've still got traces of the characters floating around inside your head.''

 Decca issued three singles and an album between 1967-68 but none of them did a lot of business and the group soon found itself in debt. Peter Gabriel had this thing about becoming a drummer rather than a singer and what with one thing and another the band was on the verge of splitting up several times.

 ''But I had this confidence that if we stayed together we would achieve success,'' he now recalls.

 Then Rare Bird heard Genesis and recommended them to Tony Stratton Smith who signed them and appointed John Anthony their record producer, job that is now filled by John Burns and the group themselves.

 Of those early days when things weren't too happy, keyboard man Tony Banks says: ''Jonathan King was real quite kind and he liked our songs and didn't try to influence us. I don't think we'd really sorted out a direction at the time though and we were still rash, amateurish in the studio.''

 As time elapsed, the-songwriting tale' of Genesis became more mature an now in these days of the ''Selling England By The Pound'' album the writers are recognized as being among the most promising of the current crop

 ''People place all kinds of interpretations an our songs but I think that healthy, it shows some kind of thinking a contribution on their part,'' Tony considers.

 Genesis started life as Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford and guitarist Anthony Phillips. Drummer, Chris Stewart joined later only to leave after a year or so and be replaced t John Silver who was in turn later succeeded by John Mayhew in 1969. The following year Phillips and Mayhew left and Phil Collins joined on percussion and drums. The latest recruit was lead guitarist Steve Hackett in 1971.

 One music paper recently describe Genesis as ''Definitive gram-rock'' but would argue with this description. It applies glitter and tinsel and poovey make-up, none of which is evident in Genesis' act. Their embellishments have a purpose rather than being purely for decoration and the music has close affinity with the supernatural than with rock.

 A year ago I tipped Genesis for stardom after hearing the band and its albums and listening to Phil Collins talk about the plans for the future. Genesis have made it and what is more satisfying, made it on the strength of the music and related actions.