The Living Years

"Now Michael, you''re the son of a naval officer, you must behave like a naval officer at all times..."
What Captain William Rutherford told his seven-year-old son Michael was to stay with him all his life.

Born in 1950, Michael was truly his father''s son, even serving in the naval section of the student cadet corps at one of England''s top public schools, Charterhouse. Mike''s future lay in the civil service: it was a subject that he discussed with his father at Captain Crawford''s gentlemen''s club. But then something happened. Mike discovered rock music.

As one of the founder members of Genesis, Mike was to tour the world and achieve international fame. From unpromising beginnings - demonised by his teachers as a fomenter of revolution, driving to gigs in a bread van - Mike would go on to crisscross the globe with bandmates Peter Gabriel and, later, Phil Collins, playing to packed-out stadiums and achieving record sales of over 150 million. Swapping old school