By this time Jonathan King was losing interest in the band and they decided to record and perform on their own musical terms. Although King had more experience and was aiming to present Genesis in a marketable way, they were feeling more and more constrained by King's attempts to curtail and limit their increasingly lengthy and adventurous new compositions. The band went professional in the autumn of 1969, and after replacing John Silver with John Mayhew on drums, Genesis began formulating the music that would lead to Trespass the following year and were eventually signed to Charisma Records after an introduction by King to his friend Tony Stratton-Smith, a sports journalist managing bands in his spare time. Rutherford maintains that Genesis owes the producer a debt of gratitude:
Jonathan King, for all his faults – he has a funny reputation in England – did give us a fantastic opportunity. Because in those days, in England, you couldn't get in the studio. I mean, now a new group can very easily get a chance to go and record a single, just something, you know, to show there's something going for them. In those days, to get any sort of record contract, was really magical. And he gave us a chance to do a whole record. You've got a bunch of musicians who were really amateur, could barely play well, were barely a group, and were able to go in one summer holiday and make a record.[9]What a lucky break for Tony Smith. Literally given the baton from Jonathan King. A gift that literally opened his world to financial and musical success.
