Defend Phil Collins

Phil's drum machine work (did he do the programming?) helped define the era as much as Jam/Lewis/Prince.

― Josh in Chicago,

He programmed and played almost every percussive element on his albums, and played most of the keyboards. It's interesting how he and Peter Gabriel have similar instrumental talents (maybe Gabriel's the better keyboardist and Fairlight programmer, idk)

The Tory thing has been debunked, I think.

He's claimed that he was so busy throughout the '80s that he didn't even vote, and he could very well have been out of the country during elections, given his schedule. I could very well believe that, actually.

Although, I'm sure some dedicated Collins/Genesis nut out there could verify whether he was on tour or not at the time.

Having tried to keep awake through a recent Genesis documentary - literally the most boring programme ever shown on BBC 4 - I'd say anyone who has to play in a band with Tony Banks deserves a medal.

God yeah what a wanker

The Tory thing has been debunked, I think.

― You like queer? I like queer. Still like queer. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 19, 2018 10:41 AM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he has stated that he isn't a tory and didn't leave the uk for switzerland in 1997 due to fears of a labour government - which is repeated as a fact so often in the uk that i assumed it was true until about 4 months ago

Having another listen to Hello, I Must Be Going and thinking there's so much good stuff on this: 'I Don't Care Anymore', 'I Cannot Believe It's True', 'Like China', 'It Don't Matter To Me', 'Thru These Walls', 'The West Side' ...

Been browsing his stuff on streaming services. The new covers for the remasters are really creepy somehow. Also wtf

Yeah, the No Jacket Required one particularly!

Agreed, it turns me off to the whole album

As he wrote in his book, he moved to Switzerland because his wife at the time, who he may have subsequently remarried, was Swiss, and they wanted to live near her parents.

What a happy coincidence.

Shortly before the 2005 election (when Collins was living in Switzerland), Labour supporter Noel Gallagher was quoted: "Vote Labour. If you don't and the Tories get in, Phil Collins is threatening to come back and live here. And let's face it, none of us want that."

Noel OTM?

As he wrote in his book, he moved to Switzerland because his wife at the time, who he may have subsequently remarried, was Swiss, and they wanted to live near her parents.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, October 20, 2018 12:31 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup - and if his wikipedia article is to be believed, then he continued to keep homes in the US and the UK, not to mention he's no longer living in Switzerland but Miami, and has done so since 2015.

Rich expats with houses lying empty for most of the years while people are sleeping on the streets, better hope Corbz doesn't win the next election.

heard "something happened on the way to heaven" in the food court the over day and it brightened my day

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, October 18, 2018 9:33 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it's a great one, that... the chorus is up there with his catchiest, I think. ...But Seriously may have been better regarded by fans of his first three albums if it had been about 15-20 minutes shorter.

And if it had been called ...Butt Seriously

I don't think you want to see his new version of that cover...

BS might be better regarded if (a) the song about homelessness wasn't the massive (b) David Crosby didn't sing on it (c) he'd included more drum machine twaddle

The segue on 'Three Sides Live' from Behind The Lines into Duchess with Phil jamming live with the faders on the CR 78 is so fucking great.

I'm listening to Wind & Wuthering again, which I suppose is considered to be the last of Genesis' true symphonic prog works, and y'know, by that stage in their career I guess they'd earned the right to do whatever the hell they felt like, individually and collectively. That both Genesis and Phil Collins ended up super-huge is just the icing on the cake, really.

the title of this thread always makes me think of 'move heaven and earth to defend the life of chairman gonzalo' - now that the Tory allegation has been debunked, ilx should start a new rumour that Phil is a maoist

I always thought the cheesy percussive synth break down in the long Tonight Tonight Tonight was Tony, cycling through presets. But the live at Wembley video shows it's Phil hitting pads. He can do better!

Air Drums.

I've always felt that if that Phil "I'm a Tory" interview existed you'd be able to find it on the internet.

The segue on 'Three Sides Live' from Behind The Lines into Duchess with Phil jamming live with the faders on the CR 78 is so fucking great.

I wish it lasted forever.

I just saw that yeah, he's sitting down a lot on this tour. I mean, this is just sad looking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhgCYbIOxms

And also no Chester on drums! (Phil's got his son playing instead.)

a disgusting display of nepotism imo

nice to see gandalf on bass tho

This is something of a theme. Jax Nielsen plays drums in Cheap Trick, Jason Bonham (obv) in Zeppelin, Max Weinberg (now in Slipknot!) sometimes played with Bruce, Jeff Tweedy's son played drums in Tweedy ... There are probably more.

Hard to top Denardo Coleman

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/6f/ca/ac6fcaaec6b081e08090b4f0c4bd9ca0.jpg

Hooky's son is playing bass in his NO review

Wolfgang Van Halen

Gandalf is Leland Sklar, just googled him HO LEE SHIT look at this guy's credits, talk about a pro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Sklar

Yeah, he's a session monster. For a while Phil used Nathan East, who is even crazier busy.

yow, that's a helluva resumé alright

I quite like this home movie camcorder footage of Genesis making their self-titled album, shot by Phil...

https://youtu.be/iMm-08uZXfo

Leland Sklar is a GOD

Isn't Leland Sklar's nephew or something a long-term old school ILM poster?

just think how good Collins the drummer was that he played with Nathan East.

All anyone needs to do to hear what Collins brought to Genesis as a drummer is listen to Trespass and Nursery Cryme back to back. Or a version of 'The Knife' with Collins drumming. Collins' drumming swings and grooves more, and although his drumming is quite busy on the earlier stuff, his fills complement the material, rather than some of the lumpen, misplaced fills his predecessor does on Trespass.

When PC joined Led Zeppelin at Live Aid he has spoken about how Page tried to gaslight him before the performance.

Page asked him if he knew his cues and Collins said yeah and sang the bit prior to the guitar solo as an example and Page came back with 'No!....No!' which confused PC and put him massively on the back foot when he came to play, so he sits out that section and lets Tony Thompson completely fuck it up and then took most of the flak for the terrible performance.

For years I thought Page was a dick for doing that to Collins but after seeing this YT vid I wonder if he actually knew that it was likely going to be a car crash regardless of who was drumming, because it seems that a lot of people play that section completely wrong anyway, including Tony Thompson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlLtd19szw

Phil's book has a whole section on Zep at Live Aid. He makes a pretty convincing case that he was the only one that had any clue what was going on, exacerbated in part by drugs (Page and Thompson), general assholery (Plant), totally shitty playing and singing (Page and Plant), and a complete lack of preparation (everyone but Phil).

Here's an intriguing quote from Plant on one aborted post Live Aid reunion btw:

“As much as he wanted to do it, it wasn’t the time for Pagey to do that,” Plant said in 1988. “He had just finished the second Firm record, and I think he was a bit confused about what he was doing…We did about two days. It was a most embarrassing moment, to have all that will and not knowing what to play. Jonesy played keyboards, I played bass a bit. It sounded like David Byrne meets Hüsker Dü.”

Robert Plant playing bass? David Byrne meets Husker Du!?

Lol that it is easier to count that way. Grouping it as odd time signatures (where downbeats are accented) still makes more sense to me. His first bar is fine but placing accents on the & of 4 in the next two bars seems crazy. I'd rather count 7/8, 4/4, 9/8. 2xp

Still, good analysis/transcription

(or the version he has around 4:06 works too)

Yeah, I don't think I agree with the guy in the video that it was meticulously worked out against a strict 4/4, I reckon they felt their way through after a lot of rehearsing or perhaps JPJ comped it up like you suggest sund4r.

It's fun watching the Live Aid clip as PC momentarily down tools and wipes his face with a towel while TT crashes through the section like a drunk rhinoceros.

haha man i'm watching this now, don't know if i've ever seen the whole set

jfc jimmy page a fucking mess

every time I see this bumped it gives me the impression that Phil is being physically attacked