Supper's Ready

The band took it up in the summer of 1972 in the rehearsal space under the Una Billings School of Dance. Gabriel brought in a piano tune called Willow Farm, and it changed the song's direction.

Gabriel's lyrics originated in two incidents involving him, his wife Jill and the producer John Anthony at her parents' flat; the song is a personal journey through scenes from the Book of Revelation. Apocalypse in 9/8 is an instrumental in 9/8 by Banks, Rutherford and Collins, with Hackett layering a riff. Gabriel sang over Banks's solo, which Banks at first disagreed with. Children from the street sang on the recording.

Recording

Three outside producers and two engineers worked on it: Bob Potter, then Tony Platt, then Dave Hitchcock with John Burns. The last two sections were spliced together in a different London studio, which left a tuning discrepancy that was fixed on the 2008 remix. Banks has said the later parts are probably the band's peak.

Live

The first complete performance was at Brunel University, Uxbridge, on 10 November 1972. Gabriel's costumes debuted at the Rainbow Theatre in February 1973. A recording from October 1973 with Gabriel's spoken story was released on Genesis Archive 1967-75. After Gabriel left, the band played it with Collins singing in 1976, 1977 and 1982. A shortened version was rehearsed for the Last Domino? tour but not played.