moved into Collins’ home

In 1979, Banks and Rutherford moved into Collins’ home in Shalford to write and rehearse material for Duke . The three found the writing process easier and less complicated than And Then There Were Three . Rutherford reasoned that this was the case because they were “getting back to the basic stage of ideas being worked on jointly”. Banks put it down to their break in activity, resulting in “good ideas … which hasn’t happened for some time”. Duke continued the band’s transition into writing shorter songs. Each member contributed two songs for the group to develop: Banks put forward “Heathaze” and “Cul-de-Sac”, Rutherford used “Man of Our Times” and “Alone Tonight” and Collins had ” Misunderstanding ” and “Please Don’t Ask”. All three wrote the remaining five tracks, including ” Duchess “, the first Genesis song to feature a drum machine , specifically a Roland CR-78 imported from Japan. In its original form, the album was to contain a 30-minute track based on a fictional character named Albert, but the idea was cancelled to avoid comparisons to “Supper’s Ready” from Foxtrot .