A forgotten Luton band’s 1969 concept album has finally been rediscovered, challenging what we thought we knew about British rock’s evolution
In the annals of rock history, certain facts seem immutable. The Pretty Things created the first rock opera with SF Sorrow. The Who followed with Tommy. But sometimes, the most remarkable discoveries happen in the most mundane places. This is the unlikely tale of how a £10 bid on a battered Hohner Cembalet piano led to the resurrection of A Story, an ambitious rock opera recorded by a Luton band called Genesis in 1969, then promptly forgotten for more than half a century.
Genesis emerged from the fertile mid-60s Bedfordshire music scene, formed by five working-class lads who’d graduated from covering soul standards to crafting something far more ambitious. After a brief spell as The Regency Five, they’d adopted their new name (independently and prior to the prog giants) and shifted focus from covers to original material. Inspired by a formative trip to see Jimi Hendrix, the band, led by keyboardist Chris Stokes and bassist Steve ‘Siggi’ Holmes, set their sights on creating what their local paper dubbed “a pop cantata.”
What they produced was extraordinary: a quasi-gothic tale of romantic obsession spiralling into murder, complete with philosophical musings on existence itself. Far from the gentle psychedelia of their contemporaries, A Story, the themes are filtered through the dark imagination of post-war British comics. The album’s standout moments include the jaunty march of ‘Happy Man’ – which wouldn’t be out of place on Odessey and Oracle, the pastoral beauty of ‘Nightmares’ and brooding epic ‘The Trial.’
Without the budgets enjoyed by established acts, Genesis created their masterpiece using modest, well-worn equipment at the newly founded Sky Studios in Luton. The result is remarkable for what it lacks: no fuzz pedals, no phasing effects, no Marshall stacks or Mellotrons. Instead, the album’s power comes from tight songwriting and the band’s classical literacy, drawing paralells with the Peter Howell and John Ferdinando albums of the era.
After completing the recording in a single intense afternoon session in January 1969, the band immediately began work on a follow-up concept about the seven deadly sins. But with no release planned and the creative momentum dissipating, Genesis fizzled out, their rock opera gathering dust for decades.
Fast-forward to the 2020s, when Hand Of Glory’s Will Twynham (aka Dimorphodons) spotted that fateful eBay listing. The seller, Chris Stokes himself, casually mentioned during delivery that he had “about 80 unheard tracks” dating from 1964 to 1974. Almost as an afterthought, he added: “Oh, also, there’s a complete unreleased rock opera from 1969.”
The only surviving copy was a cassette transfer Stokes had made in the 1980s. But miraculously, a reel-to-reel version was discovered in the loft of Steve Holmes’ widow. Though missing sections and running at different speeds, the two sources were combined to create the definitive version now being released.
Had A Story been released in 1969, it could have altered our understanding of rock’s evolution and stood alongside the earliest privately pressed full-length albums of original British material. Instead, it serves as a fascinating “what if”, proof that musical innovation was happening in unexpected places, by ordinary people with extraordinary ambition.
A Story by The Genesis is released on Hand Of Glory Records on September 19 2025. (The band now carries the definite article to distinguish them from the more famous Charterhouse-originating Genesis.)
