Guitarist Says Genesis Is 'Over'

December 4 -- Despite intimations of some sort of reunion on its official Web site, Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford says that in his mind, the group is "over" — especially after frontman Phil Collins' departure during 1995 and the subsequent poor showing of Calling All Stations, Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks' lone effort with Ray Wilson as Collins' replacement.

"I think it's pretty much come to a stop, to be honest," Rutherford says.

"I think we've come to the end of an era in a certain sense. But you never know; I'm always wise to how things can change."

Collins, in fact, caused a stir recently in an interview posted on the Web site (www.genesis-web.co.uk), in which he spoke of wanting to work with Rutherford and Banks again. But he specified, and Rutherford agrees, that it would probably not be under the Genesis moniker but rather for what the guitarist calls "a defined project," such as a film.

Meanwhile, Genesis is back in the record stores with Archive #2, a three-CD set that features unreleased material from 1976-1992, including B-sides, live tracks, and a selection of 12-inch remixes of hits such as "Invisible Touch" and "I Can't Dance." Those were certainly a far cry from Genesis' roots as a progressive rock unit, and Rutherford acknowledges that he was uncomfortable with the move into dance remixes.

"It was quite fun to do, but I'm sure they never did much for us at all," he says. "It never really suited our music, I don't think. It was quite fun to do, but there's some that aren't there that were pretty gruesome; I couldn't recognize the song, to be honest with you."