Ray Wilson (musician)

Early career/Stiltskin

Wilson started off in a band called Guaranteed Pure in the 1990s, which featured himself along with Paul Holmes (keyboards), Steve Wilson (guitars), John Haimes (bass) and Chris Cavanagh (drums). They released an album called Swing Your Bag, the title track of which was included on a compilation album on the label of Fish entitled The Funny Farm Project : Outpatients '93. He then joined Stiltskin; they released one album and had a No. 1 hit in the UK with the single "Inside".

Genesis

Wilson joined Genesis as the band's lead singer after Phil Collins officially announced his departure in March 1996. Founding Genesis members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford were handed a CD of the Stiltskin album The Mind's Eye from Virgin Records executives. They were impressed with Wilson's vocal abilities and had their manager, Tony Smith, contact him for an audition. Wilson was announced as the new lead singer of Genesis in June 1997. Their only album with Wilson, ...Calling All Stations..., was released that September and became a top 10 worldwide hit, except for the U.S. where it reached No. 54 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The album was re-issued in 2007. Genesis toured Europe in winter 1997 spring 1998, but the American leg was cancelled due to low ticket sales. The band went on an extended hiatus after the critical failure of the album.

In May 2001, during an interview with Dave Negrin for website WorldofGenesis.com, Wilson said:

They basically phoned me up and said, "Ray, we're not continuing." I've never really felt that I was out of the band as such; it's just that the band doesn't exist any more (laughs). When I heard that, it was just after the Cut tour, about a year and a half ago. I've read some articles saying that I was fired and stuff, but to be fair to them, they didn't phone me up and say, "Ray, you're fired. We're going to carry on and we're going to get somebody else to sing." Or, "We're going to carry on and get Phil back." There was never any of that. They just said, "We've decided not to continue because the market doesn't want us." I think they didn't want to completely close the door to ever doing anything again.

Solo career

Wilson went on to release the album Millionairhead with a solo project called Cut_. It was remastered in 2007 with three additional songs added.

In 2003 he released a solo album under his own name titled Change. The next year he released another studio album entitled The Next Best Thing, which included yet another cover of "Inside". In 2006 he released another Stiltskin album called She, and in 2007 a Stiltskin live CD featuring (amongst others) 8 of the 12 songs from She. This live CD was recorded 25 October 2006, at Harmonie, Bonn, Germany.

DJ and trance producer Armin van Buuren has produced remixes of the songs "Another Day" (retitled "Yet Another Day") and "Gypsy" from Millionairhead. Both remixes have been released on van Buuren's own albums, and "Yet Another Day" was also released as a single.

In 2014, the first Ray Wilson biography, Gypsy, by journalist Mario Giammetti, was published in Italy (Edizioni Segno).

Concerts with Steve Hackett

In 2013 Wilson joined Steve Hackett for his "Genesis Revisited II" Tour as a guest singer. He was featured in a special edition of the "Genesis Revisited II" album on the track "The Carpet Crawlers". It was the first time since 1998 that Ray had worked with a fellow Genesis member; albeit one he had not performed with as a member of the band.

Solo releases

Stiltskin

Genesis

Cut_

Guaranteed Pure

Collaborations

Personal life

Wilson is the cousin of Ian Wilson, better known as Ian Catskilkin, of the UK indie band, Art Brut.

In 2007, after a concert in Poland, Wilson met the dancer Małgorzata Mielech. After a few months of dating, he left Edinburgh and moved to Poznań in September 2008. As of 2011, the couple were engaged.