MartinC
2009-04-02 09:14:48 UTC
John Mayhew, early Genesis member and drummer on the "Trespass" album, died
of a heart-related condition on 26 March 2009:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayhew_(musician)
His life became a bit of a mystery when he silently moved to Australia in
the late 70s and vanished from public focus, including Genesis. Apparently,
the Genesis management carefully collected his royalties through the decades
but couldn't locate him - not even during the "Archive #1" production and
public/press attention.
In 2006, John suddenly "appeared" and attended the UK Genesis convention
with Anthony Phillips (where he even played drums with a tribute band) and
later that year he came to the German fanclub convention where he joined
Armando Gallo for the weekend, with many interviews, talks and memories of
the early days.
Sadly the website is missing the original transcript, but (if you speak
German) you can still read the German translation:
www.genesis-fanclub.de/c-Genesis-Interview-mit-John-Mayhew-2006-s159.html
At that weekend he told us the story of his recent "reappearance"... His
Australian boss was a huge early 70s rock fan and got suspicious when "his"
John Mayhew occasionally mentioned that he was drumming with "some English
band". So one day he came with his old "Trespass" LP, looked at John and
shook his head (in question). John looked back and nodded. They did this
three times before his boss started to realize that it was true... :-)
We remember John from this German weekend as a very nice, shy and modest
gentleman. He was proud about his involvement with this early Genesis gem
but also frankly admitted that his playing skills were not suitable for the
further musical adventures that Genesis would soon launch with Phil Collins
- and so he accepted their decision to replace him without regrets.
A friend of ours was driving him back to the airport the following day and
he remembers that he was in great mood and did enjoy the whole weekend (and
the massive sympathy and support that he got from "us fans") quite a lot.
However, soon afterwards he decided to "vanish" once again and secretly
moved to Scotland. A few weeks ago, the UK EveningStar was running a huge
story about his brother trying to contact him (it looks as if his family
wasn't aware about his appearances in 2006). Sadly he came too late and
discovered his death on March 26th:
http://tinyurl.com/JohnMayhew (www.eveningstar.co.uk article)
John Mayhew is the first original Genesis members who died, so this indeed
sadly marks a time in Genesis history. We will remember him as a very nice
and kind man and it was an honour to meet him in 2006.
Rest in Peace
of a heart-related condition on 26 March 2009:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayhew_(musician)
His life became a bit of a mystery when he silently moved to Australia in
the late 70s and vanished from public focus, including Genesis. Apparently,
the Genesis management carefully collected his royalties through the decades
but couldn't locate him - not even during the "Archive #1" production and
public/press attention.
In 2006, John suddenly "appeared" and attended the UK Genesis convention
with Anthony Phillips (where he even played drums with a tribute band) and
later that year he came to the German fanclub convention where he joined
Armando Gallo for the weekend, with many interviews, talks and memories of
the early days.
Sadly the website is missing the original transcript, but (if you speak
German) you can still read the German translation:
www.genesis-fanclub.de/c-Genesis-Interview-mit-John-Mayhew-2006-s159.html
At that weekend he told us the story of his recent "reappearance"... His
Australian boss was a huge early 70s rock fan and got suspicious when "his"
John Mayhew occasionally mentioned that he was drumming with "some English
band". So one day he came with his old "Trespass" LP, looked at John and
shook his head (in question). John looked back and nodded. They did this
three times before his boss started to realize that it was true... :-)
We remember John from this German weekend as a very nice, shy and modest
gentleman. He was proud about his involvement with this early Genesis gem
but also frankly admitted that his playing skills were not suitable for the
further musical adventures that Genesis would soon launch with Phil Collins
- and so he accepted their decision to replace him without regrets.
A friend of ours was driving him back to the airport the following day and
he remembers that he was in great mood and did enjoy the whole weekend (and
the massive sympathy and support that he got from "us fans") quite a lot.
However, soon afterwards he decided to "vanish" once again and secretly
moved to Scotland. A few weeks ago, the UK EveningStar was running a huge
story about his brother trying to contact him (it looks as if his family
wasn't aware about his appearances in 2006). Sadly he came too late and
discovered his death on March 26th:
http://tinyurl.com/JohnMayhew (www.eveningstar.co.uk article)
John Mayhew is the first original Genesis members who died, so this indeed
sadly marks a time in Genesis history. We will remember him as a very nice
and kind man and it was an honour to meet him in 2006.
Rest in Peace