Watch Genesis' Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford reunite on stage

Genesis’ Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford shared the stage together for the first time in 12 years in Berlin on Friday night (7th June).

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 10th Jun 2019

Mike Rutherford came on stage during Collins’ sold out show at the Olympiastadion in the German capital to play guitar on the 1978 Genesis track ‘Follow You Follow Me’.

It was the first time they’ve played together since Genesis’s Turn It On Again reunion tour back in 2007. Watch fan-filmed footage of the performance here:


Rutherford’s band Mike + The Mechanics were supporting Collins in Berlin - as they have done at several dates on the European tour and at Collins’ headline appearance at British Summer Time Hyde Park in London in 2017.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain back in March, Rutherford refused to rule out a Genesis reunion, saying: “I’ve always said, for years, never say never and we did the tour 10 years ago… Who knows? Phil (Collins) is in good shape now out touring, his son (Nic) is drumming – fantastic drummer. Never say never.

“We’re all fit and healthy and we get on well, (we’re) good friends. I mean, you never know.”

In January 2018, Tony Banks confirmed to US radio station 91.9 WFKP he’d be up for a Genesis reunion should the opportunity arise.

“Phil is out there again, which is fantastic … a year or two ago I would have thought he was never going to be out there again,” Tony said.

“He found a way to do it. It involves quite a static performance, but his voice sounds great, and his music still sounds fantastic and everything. So, I don’t rule it out at all. Mike and I see each other all the time, we get on well, no problem, so it’s never an impossibility.

 "We’re all getting a bit long in the tooth, and who knows whether, if we came back together, anything of any worthwhile nature would actually happen. We could get into a room, say, ‘let’s do it’ and find there’s nothing to do! But we don’t rule it out. Phil’s got to survive his tour, first of all, and we’ll see where it goes!”

Then last August, Phil Collins said Mike and Tony were both so “blown away” by his teenage son Nic’s drumming on his Not Dead Yet! solo tour that he believes they’d be open to Nic joining Genesis.

“They both were raving about Nic,” Phil told Rolling Stone. “Mike made the appropriate comment of, ‘He just gets it. He just gets what is needed and what is required and why you’re doing this for that song.’ I thought that was a wonderful thing to say. He was 16 at that point.

“I think that, yeah, if we did anything I think it would have to be with Nic on drums because I don’t think I’m capable of it. I think their opinion of Nic is high enough for them to take him onboard as part of the band.”

Speaking to Planet Rock last summer, Steve Hackett blamed “Mexican standoffs” within Genesis for getting in the way of a reunion.

“The problem is that – and no one really wants to hear this – but the reality is that what starts as communication between young guys in their early twenties ends up becoming phase cancellation later on; Mexican standoffs and all of that,” Steve explained.

“And it really does get in the way and that’s the reason why there is no band at the moment - and that may all change tomorrow, of course!”