''COR, saw this ace band the other night," said a friend of mine during that sunny day that was the summer of 1971. "I've never seen anything quite like them. "

The friend, known by many as Harry Laughing Trousers, went an to describe the band who turned out to be Genesis. I muttered something about never having the pleasure to have heard them and strolled off to the local for a few pints.

A few weeks later Genesis were in town so I thought I'd stroll along and find out what they were all about. It was a strange evening. It was a small gig and Genesis were regarded as a small time band, but their music was something else.

Every song was a masterpiece. I lovingly nurtured a high respect for the group as months rolled by and I lost track of them for a while. Were they dead, had they left the country? l had expected them to have become ginormous by this summer, but alas they were still doing those nerve wracking little gigs and were still being treated as a small time band.

Then came Reading. Genesis stole the show on the Friday and they were beginning to emerge. Their bread and butter is still the club and college circuit and although they don't draw huge crowds every person that goes to see them knows what to expect and loves every minute.

Drummer Phil Collins and singer / flautist Peter Gabriel are probably the two men in the band whose personalities come over strongest on stage and Gabriel is one of the strangest showmen on the scene right now.

While others have their hair done green, silver and other assorted colours, Peter has cut a wedge of hair from the front of his scalp.

"There are various reasons for having done this," said Peter in his usual wry way.

"The first is that it was done so that one can see the lights, jumping from one side to another. Secondly it is a symbol of the desert that lies within, and finally it could also be translated by the fact that my razor slipped. "Who's a cheeky boy, then?

You can decide for yourself which version is true — if any are —but the little tale gives one an insight into the serious yet humourous way Genesis look at life.

But is Peter just jumping on the glam rock bandwagon, after all you've got to be pretty strange to get attention these days. "I've been tarting myself up for years — since we first started in fact. It's all part of creating a fantasy for the audience to enjoy. "

What makes Genesis different from most bands who are looking for their place alongside the big guns in the business is their presentation, which is as entertaining as their music. In between numbers Gabriel enhances the fantasy by taking the audience on an excursion through a make believe world where people tend to get smashed to pieces in violent croquet matches.

One of my favourite Genesis horror tales tells of a lady dressed in a trouser-quite who boards a tube train in London. Looking around at the blank faces in the carriage she decides to liven things up a bit and reaches to the top of her head where she finds a zip which runs around her body, cranium to crotch, and peels off her skin, her flesh falling to the floor of the carriage with a "plop. "

"A few- months ago I decided to cut my stories down a bit," said Peter. "We were playing a lot on the Continent and the audiences just couldn't understand what I was going on about. They just fell flat.

"I am going to work on my stories again, though, because the European thing meant that I neglected them a little. I started telling them just to fill in in between numbers so that the rest of the band can swap instruments and get ready for the next song. "

The new Genesis album, Foxtrot, is their fourth album, although their first LP, on Decca, is rarely talked about by the band or their followers. Since they joined Charisma Genesis have boldly tried to progress in their own field and have always gone where others may have feared to tread.

"This album will make or break us," said Phil "but we say that whenever we bring out a new album. We always think the public will hate it and push us into oblivion. The first side of the new album is like four songs that have been arranged, but the second side really is a natural progression from what we were doing on Nursery Cryme. "

"In the studio there is always the temptation to put a lot of extra instruments and sounds into the songs which we couldn't possibly hope to recreate on stage, but nevertheless we still take a lot of time getting an album together. Nursery Cryme took over 10 weeks to get together.

"We'd never do a live album because of this. There would be too much going on to make a good live recording. "

Like many of today's musicians Peter admires the work of David Bowie who he thinks is one of the best Iyricists around. "Bolan? " asked Peter, "He's blown it. "

One can usually get close to what makes a band tick by finding out what their musical tastes are and it may not shock you to know that In The Court Of The Crimson King, the first King Crimson album, was one of the strongest influences on Genesis in the early days alongside some of Procol Harum's work, but both Phil and Peter are pop feaks on the quiet.

''There are plans for Phil and I to get some of our friends into a studio to cut a few pop-type singles," said Peter. "But I don't think we'd release them under our names. "

What about those stories, would they be going on record. "Oh, no, "said Peter. "The spoken word gets boring very quickly and people would get sick of them after a few plays; "