Charisma Records

And interestingly, I was listening on the piece of Hummel Big box sets.

If anyone has this and hasn't listened yet, on the first CD, this is the Peter Hamill Charisma version recordings, 1971 to 1986.

The first CD is Fool's Mate.

And there's, I think, half a dozen demo versions of the tracks from Fool's Mate at the end.

which I really like for some reason.

This is Sunshine.

And then we'll finish with the remastered versions of Child and the Birds, which is taken from my magnificent Peter Hamill box set of the albums with Charisma and Virgin albums from 1971 to 1986.

Suddenly things begin to come clear in my mind As I look into the land laid bare by your eyes ESM attractions are working behind my thoughts I can't help my feelings The way that my emotions are overwrought Good morning sunshine, you're all around my head.

Now it was just about, you know, what do I want to say? And, and what should the music sound like in a general sense? So, um, it was very important that he be allowed the freedom to be Peter and be allowed the freedom to say and do those things that he just had this burning compulsion to do.

But at the same time, the company that hired me, his label, which was Charisma Records and that was Tony Stratton Smith who's worth you know that that's an interview all by itself you know what a great character one of the great characters of the music of the classic music business but um you know they had a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time and I had to be able to do it within those uh within that framework with with with those um specs so um As far as what you said about it launching his career, yes.

But my feeling is like he would have done this anyway almost.

The only thing where I think my stubbornness and my refusal to accept something that just made me crazy, that rankled me, actually worked in his favor because it created his classic hit, Salisbury Hills.

or what? Oh man, so here's the thing.

I was hurt and our manager at the time, Cool Lady Blue, was tied in with this record label called Charisma Records who was distributed by Virgin.

I remember

that.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but when I joined, uh, Genesis, straight away I, I was, I was funded by Charisma Records, who were the record company at the time.

They were also agency and publishers, uh, for the band, so they had a kind of monopoly, but, um, they were funding a very young band at that time.

So I was 20 when I met Genesis, and I believe I, I may have been...

Their '69 one, that's, you know, $100 or $200 for that one whenever you see that.

But anyway, um, they were, they were the first to sign with Charisma, along with two other bands, Van der Graaf Generator and The Nice.

Those were the three that first signed with Charisma.

Um, their, the '74 album, the one I have, uh, they toured to support that album.

They toured with Barclay James Harvest.

And their '73 album, uh, features, uh, John Wetton playing on it.

Cool.

Uh, after Charisma, they did sign with Polydor for the first time in '74, and that's what my '74 one, Born Again, is on Polydor.

Robert Fripp, Sandy Denny, Phil Collins...

It was released on Charisma as well, wasn't it? It was, yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

And that didn't go particularly well in England.

And my manager had the bright idea of kind of getting an American record deal, which he did via Seymour Stein, who he knew because he'd worked at Charisma with Tony Stratton-Smith.

And at Stiff Records with those guys, he was the press guy at those places, my manager.

And therefore, he had an entree to Seymour and was able to take me up there and get me a record deal, as he used to be able to do in the old days.