The "Foxtrot" release date mystery (solved!)

About the search for the right publication date

For many it is simple - on 6 October the album Foxtrot was released. That's what it says on Wikipedia and in many other publications. Genesis themselves also use this date, for example in the booklet of R-Kive.

But the truth is: the album was NOT released on 6 October, but on 15 September 1972. We will now clear up why this is so.

First of all: Why do we* invest so much time in researching release dates (or even concert dates)? The answer is easy: we want the most accurate possible representation of GENESIS history and details. Accordingly, we are always looking for clear evidence of such dates. Most of the time this works out very well - for example through promotional campaigns, advertisements in magazines etc. This usually proves a publication date well. Sometimes the decisive clue is missing and a date remains unclear at first and we can only narrow it down on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

In the case of Foxtrot, many also use the chart position as evidence. The album entered the charts on 14 October 1972 - ergo, 6 October (a Friday as was usual at the time) must actually be correct, right? No ... not at all!

Genesis were not a headlining act in 1972 - a new album would not provoke hysteria - so you couldn't expect a large amount of fans to run straight to the record shops and buy the album the week it was released. In addition, at that time it usually took at least two weeks for an album to enter the charts. Only in exceptional cases, with really big bands, could it happen within a week. But Genesis were an up-and-coming band at that time and far from being "big".

We also know that the album was already announced in an issue of Sounds (in July) for 8 September. This doesn't have to mean anything, as such dates can also change quickly. Further doubts on 6 October arose when music paper advertisements appeared. These ads were published in New Musical Express, among others (see picture) in issues cover dated 16 September. Rarely, if ever, would albums be advertised that far in advance but it was certainly commonplace for albums to be given prominent displays in the week leading up to, or immediately following, their release, as appears to be the case here.

Note that normal distribution of the weekly music papers would see these appear in the London area as early as Wednesday before the cover date (i.e. 13 September) before appearing across the U.K. on Thursdays. Given the delay of one week to the planned release of Foxtrot, it seems that Charisma actually managed to advertise the album in the week of its appearance, although the absence of a specified date, perhaps, is more down to the delay rather than astute marketing on behalf of the record company.

Further evidence that Foxtrot was already released on 15 September: there is a Record Mirror's album teaser from 23 September 1972 and Sounds published an album review on 30 September 1972, in the latter of which the author (Jerry Gilbert) writes that he already owned the album at the Genesis gig at the Marquee Club (on 19 September 1972). Usually those reviews arrived after the release of an album at the time (for a band like Genesis).

The final piece that convinced us was a concert review by Jenni Inness in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer newspaper, which reviewed a live show from 12 September 1972. The paper was published on Saturday 16 September and mentions the new album Foxtrot with the addition "released this week". So if it had already been released on 8 September, it should have read "released last week". Furthermore, Lindisfarne's album, which was also part of the "Toppers ads" campaign, was definitely released on 15 September, and according to contemporary witnesses who bought both albums at the time, Foxtrot was not available earlier.

Mic Smith has researched this subject for the past two years and at various times thought it likely that the album appeared on one of three Fridays: 8th, 15th or 22nd September - finally settling on 15th just this past week, coinciding with our assumption (see above).

Conclusion: After evaluating the evidence and proofs, it is clear that Foxtrot was definitely not published on 6 October, but in September. Foxtrot was released on 15 September 1972!

* we - that means a core of motivated fans and research addicts (in this specific case Mic Smith, Phil Morris, Peter Schütz, Christian Gerhardts and Alexander Sturm worked on the question) as well as other helpers who keep providing important input.

See also Mic Smith's Genesis Official Release Date essay, available on the Genesis Movement site here.

Discuss this topic in our online forum at this link.