Armando Gallo, Los Angeles, June 1999

Dear Thomas,

I want to thank you and congratulate you on the wonderful work that you are doing on your web site in order to keep all Genesis fans together to better appreciate their

Gallo with the Italian Telegatto Award. It was recently given to him for his (good) work as Entertainment correspondent from Hollywood.

music and history. As I write this I am playing the track 'The Musical Box' and I still can't believe the amazing power behind this song, a truly operatic composition, written and performed by kids just over 20 years old. The magic of Genesis will stay forever.

The Book
The reprint of the book 'I Know What I Like' has been a success. The word of mouth generated by your site has reached nearly 1000 grateful fans from all over the world. I want to thank here the first enthusiastic 1000 owners of the book for their kind words for my work and for their incredible patience. We are dealing with mail order, post office and postmen around the world. Most of you have been lucky and got the book very quickly in two or three weeks. Some of you had to wait 2 to 3 months - mysteries of the mail system, specially when some books were sent out on the same day. Please be patient, "the book is worth the long wait!" as Joseph Groves just wrote after waiting a record 4 months and 2 weeks.

How to Order IT?
I am very happy to inform you that I have apppointed Bart E. Plaskoff as my agent for world wide marketing and shipping of the book. No more faxes to Rome, bank in Milan, orders to Los Angeles. Bart will take care of your credit cards, checks or money orders from one place and hopefully we will be able to expedite the books quicker. We have increased the shipment cost for residents in Europe. The European mail system has proved very unreliable for books shipment and we decided to send it to you only by International courier, hence the rise to $ 25.00 for safe and fast shipment.

One Love,
Armando

Why wait? Go ahead to the ordering page!

'I Know What I Like'
The announcement letter

The cover art for the reissue of 'I Know What I Like' © Paul Whitehead/Armando Gallo

Los Angeles - May 28, 1998:

Dear Thomas,

This is to inform you and all the faithful visitors of The Path that I will soon be reprinting my book "GENESIS - I Know What I Like". I have just heard from my printers in Italy that they will be ready to go to press on June 15 or 16. Yes, the date seems to coincide with the announced release date of the first Genesis Box Set and hopefully this put a little optimistic fate to the project.

For the last couple of years I became always more aware of the power of the Internet via a good friend, Jack Beermann, a Law Professor at Boston University and a true Genesis fan. He was the one who suggested for me to look into your web site and I was amazed by your good work, a sincere 'labor of love'. I am sure that I can thank you on behalf of Genesis fans worldwide for the services that you provide. Most of all I want to thank you personally for hosting a space for "I Know What I Like" and my intention to reprint it. The time has now come to join in the celebration for the long awaited Box Set. I feel that the book is the story of Genesis of those early years. The very exciting early '70s and the most magical period of the history of the band.

A couple of months ago I was very lucky to meet up again with Paul Whitehead. Together we reminiscened over our formative years in London. He as a painter and album sleeve designer and I as a rock photo journalist for an Italian magazine. Genesis offered us our first professional breaks. He got to design their first 3 album covers, Trespass, Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. I got to sell my first photos for publicity to a record

Armando Gallo, 1998

company. They were of Genesis taken in the backyard of a derelict building in Woolich, London, where they were rehearsing for their first Italian tour. They were signed to the "Famous Charisma Records", the first 'alternative label' in history pioneered by Tony Stratton Smith. The photos ended up being used for their publicity, one made it also on the inner sleeve of the Foxtrot cover. Their first Italian tour, in April 1972, was a tremendous success and for the first time the band found mass acceptance.

"Italy really saved us," Mike Rutherford declared later when I was interviewing him for the book. "It gave us confidence," agreed Tony Banks. "...with the rather disappointing reaction to Nursery Cryme in England, we thought that maybe we had gone off the boil." The people of Charisma were very generous in crediting me for their success. Gail Colson, Strat's assistant and later on Peter Gabriel's manager once said to a Canadian photographer: "Armando single-handedly made Genesis famous in Italy when in England they were dying a death." It was her way to explain to him why Genesis wanted to see only my photos when they were choosing the cover of Seconds Out. In reality a special silent bond had happened between me and the band. Somehow, with the passion that I had as a fledging photojournalist, I saw the band's enormous hidden talent and I did everything possible to help and keep it alive by writing articles and live reviews in Italy and showing them to Charisma. There were few of us, like Piero Kenroll, a journalist from Belgium, Jerry Gilbert of Sounds and David Stopps, the promoter of the legendary Friars in Aylesbury who gave them gigs when they couldn't get any. We all chipped in because we were afraid that the group might disband.

Paul Whitehead was there too. They were beautiful times. When rock 'n' roll was just live passion on stage and in the audience, when band traveled for miles

Paul Whitehead, 1998

with their gear crammed in a Ford Transit van, before it all became an industry of suits and numbers. We were all very young witnessing a remarkable musical renaissance in the aftermath of the Beatles' breakup.

"It was a time of extreme optimism tinged with sharp blasts of harsh reality," Paul writes on the introduction of this special reissue of I Know What I Like. "The incredible idea that our generation, that matured in the '60s, could change the world for the better had been crushed by a series of political assassinations, the horrors of a pointless, sleazy war in Vietnam and finally the tragic shootings at Kent State. The stark reality had eclipsed the promise of our generation and we all looked back again to times that appeared to be more romantic... Genesis came along at just the right time."

Genesis was one of the most outstanding bands of that very special era. Between 1971 and 1975 Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett created one of the most intriguing, inspiring and magical rock group of that period. This book is their story, as told by them and by the people who saw it happen. A story of talent, struggle, integrity, and belief in oneself.

Today the book might also read as a document of the early '70s, a welcome insight on how to dream up a band with the sheer determination to become successful worldwide. I don't believe and don't accept the sloppy journalistic notion that kids today don't know how to dream anymore.

Armando Gallo and his re-issue of 'I Know What I Like'.

I really hope that this book will inspire you, young musicians and artists to do just that. Most of all I hope that I achieved my original aim: to give you, all Genesis fans, a sincere, warm and clear insight into the people and the music that we have to come to love so much. And for you old faithful a chance to replace the original book that 'has come apart' or 'got stolen' by your best friend, or 'got away' with the divorced husband or wife.

Paul and I have gone back to the old photos and redesigned a new cover with renewed passion. Paul also resurrected the old Genesis logo from Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, the lettering inspired, at that time, by an old Victorian cocoa tin.

The new book will be printed on glossy 150gr paper and it will bound in hardback to last forever, I hope. There will be only a special limited print run of 2000 copies and the book will not be available in shops. Only on a direct mail order. Details will follow on this Web Site, but I will try my best to make it easy on you all.

Hopefully the book will be ready for shipping in the early part of July. In the meantime enjoy "the wonderful world of Genesis" with the music of the Box Set. "The Lamb Live" at the Shrine in Los Angeles is mindblowing. I was there and it was my birthday, so I remember it very well.

Thanks for the letters, messages, and for 'clicking in' your interest on this new reprint.

One Love!

Armando Gallo

Read the Responses to Armando Gallo's 'I Know What I Like'.
Check out Gallo's Print Report - added July 11, 1998.
More facts about ordering, payment etc.