Phil Collins Quotes

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.

Asleep by the Smiths Vapour Trail by Ride Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum Dear Prudence by the Beatles Gypsy by Suzanne Vega Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues Daydream by Smashing Pumpkins Dusk by Genesis (before Phil Collins was even in the band!) MLK by U2 Blackbird by the Beatles Landslide by Fleetwood Mac Asleep by the Smiths (again!) -Charlie's mixtape

Tonight’s erection is brought to you by the music of Phil Collins. If you’ll put on your gloves, I’ll go fetch it from the freezer.

There was a DJ who stayed up for eleven days straight, the longest recorded period of time anyone has ever gone without sleep, and he started playing nothing by Phil Collins, and that's how they knew it was time to call the ambulance.

By the power of Phil Collins, I rebuke you!” she said. “By the power of Phil Collins, who knows that you coming back to me is against all odds, in his name I command you to leave this servant of Genesis alone... By the power of The Thorn Birds - she cried - by the sacred strength of My Sweet Audrina and Forever... By the power of lost retainers and Jamaica and bad cornrows and fireflies and Madonna, by all these things I rebuke you

Put your faith in what you most believe in.

Love can make you do things that you never thought possible.

Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.

Creationists, the right-wing Christians, creationists believe every word Genesis says. I don't even think Phil Collins is a good drummer.

Love can make you do things that you never thought possible

The world is in your hands, now use it.

In learning we teach and in teaching we learn.

I'll be there for you always Always and always Just look over your shoulder I'll be there, always.

Just because you sell lots of records it doesn't mean to say you're any good. Look at Phil Collins.

Why can't they understand the way we feel? They just don't trust what they can't explain. I know we're different, but deep inside us we're not that different at all.

Out of raw emotion emerges instinctive truth.

It’s almost an audible thing, really, the way my heart punches against the bones in my chest. It’s like the drum solo in that fucking Phil Collins song, it becomes so all-consuming.

People hate a break-up, but they love a break-up song.

not being able to read music is absolutely liberating for me. It gives me a wider musical vocabulary. There

Just look over your shoulder...I'll be there always.

I'll be there for you, always Always and always Just look over your shoulder I'll be there, always.

Mick Jagger does it and, well, of course he does—he’s Mick. Phil Collins does it and what an arsehole.

I also think that Phil Collins works better within the confines of the group than as a solo artist—and I stress the word artist. In fact it applies to all three of the guys, because Genesis is still the best, most exciting band to come out of England in the 1980s.

The telephone company is urging people not to use the telephone unless it is absolutely necessary, in order to keep the lines open for emergency calls. We'll be right back after this break to give away a pair of Phil Collins concert tickets to caller number 95. -unidentified radio disc jockey after the 1990 Los Angeles earthquake

In the Air Tonight” is 99.9 percent sung spontaneously, the words dreamt up from out of nowhere

I wanna know, can you show me I wanna know 'bout these Strangers Like Me Tell me more, please show me Something's familiar 'bout these Strangers Like Me

by Tim O'Brien Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi & Phil Falco e-ISBN: 978-0-545-22993-7 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of

It takes some going to live next door to Keith Richards and be classed as the rowdy neighbor. No, I’m not proud.

Well, shall we play Phil the song first?” No one says that.

And now I realize: I was fired. They didn’t disappear to watch football, or do drugs. They were getting rid of me.

It was Duke (Atlantic; 1980), where Phil Collins’ presence became more apparent, and the music got more modern, the drum machine became more prevalent and the lyrics started getting less mystical and more specific (maybe because of Peter Gabriel’s departure), and complex, ambiguous studies of loss became, instead, smashing first-rate pop songs that I gratefully embraced.

When he isn’t drumming with The Who, Moonie seems to like playing barman in La Chasse. I buy a round from him one night, and he gives me back more money than I’d handed over. Another reason to love him.

Because he has a flatmate, I have no option but to share Trevor’s bed. Terrified, I try to sleep, fitfully and fully dressed on top of the blankets. Presently, the fidgeting begins, and soon a hand is creeping over. I’m out of there quicker than you can say “paradiddle.

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.

The perfect girl what can I say; to be so close yet, feel miles away. I want to run to her, but have to walk out the door going the other way. The only words spoken to her are- ‘Have a nice day.’ I think about her and the summer, and what it could have been with her. It reminds me of- sixteen, you are on my mind all the time. I think about you. It is like a vision of the stars shining, ribbon wearing, bracelet making, and holding hands forever. All the sunflowers in the hayfields and kissing in the rain, no more brick walls, no more falling teardrops of pain, and no more jigsaw puzzle pieces would remain. True love should not be such a game; does she feel the same. She is everything that I cannot have, and everything I lack. What if every day could be like this- Diamond rings, football games, and movies on the weekends? It is easy to see she belongs to me; she is everything that reminds me of ‘sixteen’ everything that is in my dreams. Everything she does is amazing, but then again, I am just speculating, and fantasizing about Nevaeh Natalie, who just turned the age of sixteen! Nevaeh- I recall my first boy kiss was not at all, what I thought it was going to be like. I was wearing a light pink dress, and flip-flops that were also pink with white daisy flowers printed on them. I loosened my ponytail and flipped out my hair until my hair dropped down my back, and around my shoulders. That gets A guy going every time, so I have read online. He was wearing ripped-up jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. He said that- ‘My eyes sparkled in blue amazement, which was breathtaking, that he never saw before.’ Tell me another line… I was thinking, while Phil Collins ‘Take Me Home’ was playing in the background. I smiled at him, he began to slowly lean into me, until our lips locked. So, enjoy, he kissed me, and my heart was all aflutter. When it happened, I felt like I was floating, and my stomach had butterflies. My eyes fastened shut with no intentions of me doing so during the whole thing. When my eyes unfastened my feelings of touch engaged, and I realized that his hands are on my hips. His hands slowly moved up my waist, and my body. I was trembling from the exhilaration. Plus, one thing led to another. It was sort of my first time, kissing and playing with him you know a boy, oh yet not really, I had gotten to do some things with Chiaz before like, in class as he sat next to me. I would rub my hand on it under the desks- yeah, he liked that, and he would be. Oh, how could I forget this… there was this one time in the front seat of his Ford pickup truck, we snuck off… and this was my first true time gulping down on him, for a lack of a better term. As I had my head in his lap and was about to move up for him to go in me down there, I was about to get on top and let him in me. When we both heard her this odd, yet remarkably loud scream of bloody murder! Ava was saying- ‘You too were going to fuck! What the fuck is going on here? Anyways, Ava spotted us before he got to ‘Take me!

People keep telling me to read the Bible this year for some reason. REAAAAAD the Bible. Alright. Well. Let's start with Genesis. What's that about? What strikes Me about Genesis, is One man, one woman. They disobey God. then they have to work. Now what do we have in the real world? What do we have? Well we have lots of slutty chicks, usually. Then some fools chasing that used up pussy. And you STILL have to work, huh? Well, you should know that you'll have to pay me a lot of money for me to buy enough pussy to compensate for all this anxiety and stress caused by uhh... shall we call it FREEDOM? Perhaps the greatest words I found recently are by G. Hardin - Natural Selection Favors the Forces of Psychological denial. Boom. Read that guy instead. that does explain a lot, doesn't it?

She calls out to the man on the street "Sir, can you help me? It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep Is there somewhere you can tell me?" He walks on, doesn't look back He pretends he can't hear her Starts to whistle as he crosses the street Seems embarrassed to be there Oh, think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise Oh, think twice, 'cause it's another day for you You and me in paradise Think about it She calls out to the man on the street He can see she's been crying She's got blisters on the soles of her feet She can't walk but she's trying Oh, think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise Oh, think twice, it's just another day for you You and me in paradise Just think about it Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do? Oh Lord, there must be something you can say You can tell from the lines on her face You can see that she's been there Probably been moved on from every place 'Cause she didn't fit in there Oh, think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise Oh, think twice, it's just another day for you You and me in paradise

That night, I went to the dance at McLaurrin. It was pretty amazing. The girls put their hands on our shoulders, and we put our hands on their hips, and we rocked slowly to Phil Collins's 'A Groovy Kind of Love,' each couple like a pair of metronomes with giant baby heads.

Getting their priorities right. "The telephone company is urging people to please not use the telephone unless it is absolutely necessary in order to keep the lines open for emergency personnel. We'll be right back after this break to give away a pair of Phil Collins concert tickets to caller #95." -- A Los Angeles radio DJ, shortly after the February 1990 earthquake.

Singer Phil Collins is an example of the long term health effects that may be seen in people that regularly flew on the supersonic Concord plane at an altitude of 60,000 feet and a speed of mach 2.

Does Phil Collins write songs about anything else?” “He doesn’t have to. He’s so good at writing good songs about bad relationships, to do anything else would be a waste of talent!

That night, they sat around the hotel room with a bottle of tequila and some salt and limes and talked about names for the new real estate company. A few ideas sprang up right away but got rejected just as fast. A half bottle of tequila later, the name "Real Estate Maximums Incorporated" was tossed around as a possibility. Nobody spoke for a moment because everyone liked it. Maximums meant that everyone would get the most out of the relationship-real estate agents and customers alike. The name did a good job of communicating the everybody wins principle at the heart of the endeavor. But after a few more minutes, they realized it didn't quite work. It wasn't snappy enough for a good brand name, and it was too long to fit on a real estate sign. More tequila got poured. No one could come up with another name that felt as on-target as Real Estate Maximums. Someone suggested shortening it to R. E. Max. That made it snappier and appealing in a brand name sense; but when you wrote it out, it looked too much like a real person's name. You could imagine junk mail arriving at the office in care of Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Max. Collins pointed out that Exxon had formed only a few years before, and the X with a slash through it looked very smart. So Liniger took out the dots and tried a slash through the middle of the word and then capitalized all the letters. They looked at the pad of paper and saw: RE/MAX. A silence came over them, followed by a few backslaps and cheers. Everything about the word looked exactly right, as though they were talking about an established global company. Now, what about colors? They were on a roll. Now was no time to stop. A few more shots of tequila went around while they debated the right look for the new RE/MAX. It didn't take long to figure it out: Everyone in the room was a Vietnam vet and patriotic to the core. The colors, of course, had to be red, white, and blue. When they considered the whole package, they knew they had it. And that's how the idea for the distinctive RE/MAX brand was hatched. Considering the time and resources that get poured into brand development today, their methods might seem unorthodox if admirably effective. No money was spent on advertising agencies, market research, or trademark protection. The only investment was a decent bottle of tequila; the only focus group, a bunch of guys sitting around a room having a good laugh.

You'll find your place beside the ones you love

If you like biking or running, food or movies, bare-naked horseback riding while listening to Phil Collins (questionable, but I knew someone who knew someone),

The Alamo is a story we've learned to tell ourselves to justify violence, both real and imagined, first against Mexicans, then Tejanos, then Mexican-Americans, and eventually the Vietcong and al-Qaeda. "Remember the Alamo" was the battle cry that we recycle long past the fight's utility. How Mexican-Americans were shamed in Texas History classes, how politicians and bureaucrats have changed that history over the years, and any number of other episodes that make up the back half of this book tell us more about who we are now than what we thought we knew about what happened over thirteen days in 1836. That is the history that we need to learn, because we are repeating it ceaselessly. Maybe it's time to forget the Alamo, or at least the whitewashed story, and start telling the history that includes everyone. Problems arise when there's an official version of events. Texas is big enough to tell an expansive, inclusive story about the Alamo, what really happened before, how it really went down, how we wrestled over who had the right to tell the story, and why we're still fighting about it today. We do not and will not agree completely on the events. It'd be a strange place if we did and one we're sure we wouldn't like. From a practical perspective, we must do something with Alamo Plaza. It desperately needs a refresh. But spending $450 million to build a monument to white supremacy as personified by Bowie, Travis, and Crockett would be a grave injustice to a city that desperately needs better schools, jobs, and services. If Phil Collins wants to "Remember the Alamo," he is welcom to do so in the privacy of this own home. The rest of us need to forget what we learned about the Alamo, embrace the truth, and celebrate all Texans.

A groovy kind of Love, we had, singer Phil Collins.

It's just another day for you and me in paradise.

There's too many men too many people Making too many problems And not much love to go round

David Bowie: By 1985, I was something I never wanted to be: I was a well-accepted artist. I had started appealing to people who bought Phil Collins records. I suddenly didn’t know my audience and, worse, I didn’t care about them. I always looked OK in clothes – I was kind of a target for designers, always. They sort of made a beeline for me and tried to get me to wear their things. But I guess it was up to me to choose which ones I would wear.

So why the Covenant of Genesis?’ ‘Maybe they were big fans of Phil Collins,’ Chase suggested. Nina managed a small laugh, then shook her head in puzzlement. ‘I don’t get it.

Today’s Children, The Woman in White, and The Guiding Light crossed over and interchanged in respective storylines.) June 2, 1947–June 29, 1956, CBS. 15m weekdays at 1:45. Procter & Gamble’s Duz Detergent. CAST: 1937 to mid-1940s: Arthur Peterson as the Rev. John Ruthledge of Five Points, the serial’s first protagonist. Mercedes McCambridge as Mary Ruthledge, his daughter; Sarajane Wells later as Mary. Ed Prentiss as Ned Holden, who was abandoned by his mother as a child and taken in by the Ruthledges; Ned LeFevre and John Hodiak also as Ned. Ruth Bailey as Rose Kransky; Charlotte Manson also as Rose. Mignon Schrieber as Mrs. Kransky. Seymour Young as Jacob Kransky, Rose’s brother. Sam Wanamaker as Ellis Smith, the enigmatic “Nobody from Nowhere”; Phil Dakin and Raymond Edward Johnson also as Ellis. Henrietta Tedro as Ellen, the housekeeper. Margaret Fuller and Muriel Bremner as Fredrika Lang. Gladys Heen as Torchy Reynolds. Bill Bouchey as Charles Cunningham. Lesley Woods and Carolyn McKay as Celeste, his wife. Laurette Fillbrandt as Nancy Stewart. Frank Behrens as the Rev. Tom Bannion, Ruthledge’s assistant. The Greenman family, early characters: Eloise Kummer as Norma; Reese Taylor and Ken Griffin as Ed; Norma Jean Ross as Ronnie, their daughter. Transition from clergy to medical background, mid-1940s: John Barclay as Dr. Richard Gaylord. Jane Webb as Peggy Gaylord. Hugh Studebaker as Dr. Charles Matthews. Willard Waterman as Roger Barton (alias Ray Brandon). Betty Lou Gerson as Charlotte Wilson. Ned LeFevre as Ned Holden. Tom Holland as Eddie Bingham. Mary Lansing as Julie Collins. 1950s: Jone Allison as Meta Bauer. Lyle Sudrow as Bill Bauer. Charita Bauer as Bert, Bill’s wife, a role she would carry into television and play for three decades. Laurette Fillbrandt as Trudy Bauer. Glenn Walken as little Michael. Theo Goetz as Papa Bauer. James Lipton as Dr. Dick Grant. Lynn Rogers as Marie Wallace, the artist.

I see your true colours And that's why I love you So don't be afraid to let them show Your true colours

What does “In the Air Tonight” mean? It means I’m getting on with my life, or trying to.

Nursery Cryme—recorded at Soho’s Trident with John Anthony, who produced Trespass—comes out in November 1971. It reaches number 4 in Italy, making it the second European nation to embrace Genesis.

Genesis have their first hit. Top of the Pops here we come. Except we don’t. We decline an offer from the BBC’s weekly institution because we think our fans will object to us appearing on such a mainstream show. Fundamentally, we object, too. We’re forging our own path and, for the same reason we don’t trust festivals (we can’t control the staging, it’s not our audience), we don’t trust television. Plus, by now we pride ourselves on our presentation, and “I Know What I Like” doesn’t readily lend itself to much in the way of presentation.

It’s around this time that Adrian Selby’s poor bookkeeping catches up with us and we discover that Genesis are in debt to the tune of £150,000. A fortune in those days, around £2 million in today’s money. But we still say no to the biggest bit of TV promotion in the land. This is where Tony Smith enters the picture. Just to clarify: he’s not to be confused with Tony Stratton-Smith. Strat was our manager, and also boss of our label, Charisma. He’d kick-started things and kept Genesis rolling for a good while, but inevitably that created a conflict of interest when it came to negotiations between manager and record company. So although we all love and trust him, we have to be businesslike and consider our future. Especially when there are eye-watering debts to consider.

Bill Bruford opted out after the Trick of the Tail tour to form his own band, U.K., so we’re a band in flux again. I call the great American drummer Chester Thompson. I’ve seen him with Weather Report and heard him with Frank Zappa on his live album Roxy and Elsewhere, where he was joined by a second drummer, Ralph Humphrey. They play a fantastic double drum riff in Zappa’s song “More Trouble Every Day”—I want some of that in our band. I call Chester, he says yes, never having met us, we do some rehearsals, and that’s it, he’s in. Chester will stay with us until the end of our reunion tour in 2007.

That summer, we’re in London, mixing Seconds Out, a live album recorded during our four-night stand at Paris’s Palais des Sports in June. I’m driving from Queen Anne’s Grove to Trident, and I see Steve in the street in Notting Hill. “Want a lift to the studio, Steve?” “Ah, no, I’ll call you later.” I arrive at the studio and relay this odd encounter. “Oh, didn’t he tell you? He’s left,” says Mike. I think Steve was too embarrassed to tell me. But also, I later learn, he feared that I might have been the one person who could have persuaded him to reconsider.

These are the years when I’m everywhere, all the time, monopolizing the airwaves, MTV and the charts, even the bloody Oscars. Try as you might, when you turn on a TV or radio, you can’t escape me. If you take a charitable view, I simply write a lot of hits. If you take a pragmatic view, me and my music just won’t give it a rest.

Still, I understand that in some quarters I am an exemplar of the high eighties. But I’m not a yacht-going conspicuous consumer of Ferraris and penthouses. There are some dubious suits, but everyone has them in the eighties. So what if Brett Easton Ellis’s Patrick Bateman views me as all that is glorious about the music of that giddy, gaudy decade? He’s a psycho.

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS, n. Teenagers who are often too curious to stay in school. Notable ones include Richard Branson, Walt Disney, Mark Twain, Amancio Ortega, Ingvar Kamprad, John D. Rockefeller, Quentin Tarantino, Katy Perry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr., Marilyn Monroe, Jay-Z, Marlon Brando, Christina Aguilera, John Travolta, Courtney Love, Chris Rock, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Eminem, David Bowie, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kurt Cobain, Mark Wahlberg, Uma Thurman, Seth Rogan, Ray Charles, Al Pacino, Daniel Radcliffe, Diana (Princess of Wales), Robert De Niro, Phil Collins, George Harrison, Humphrey Bogart, Kevin Bacon, and many more.

Hands up: I do envy Pete. There are some songs he’s written that I wish I’d written—for one thing “Don’t Give Up,” his gorgeous duet with Kate Bush. But even here at the height of my success it seems that, for every achievement or great opportunity that comes my way, I’m starting to accrue bad press as a matter of course. Pete seems to get good press seemingly equally automatically. It seems a bit unfair, which I appreciate is a pathetic word to use in this context.

It’s incredibly loud. Unbelievably so. Forget ear-splitting—this is head-splitting. The sound crashes from the headphones straight into me, overwhelming and explosive. I go deaf in one ear. As simple and as quick as that. In my left ear I can hear nothing. No ringing, no buzzing, just nothing. Rather calmly, I say to the engineer, “Please don’t do that again.

For once, however, we are all in firm agreement about something (maybe because there are now fewer of us to disagree with): Genesis are not being played enough on American radio.

I go home and report back to Andy. “Darling, great news—Genesis have a fantastic chance to make some serious inroads in America…” To me, the professional logic of touring our arses off for the best part of a year is impeccable. The emotional, personal, matrimonial logic? Let’s say I am perhaps less clear on that front. Andy’s response can be paraphrased thus: “Well, if you do that, we’re not going to be together this time next year.

But Tony, Mike and Smith ask me to hold my horses. If I need some compassionate leave, I can take it. So I set off for the Canadian west coast. And none of it—the expat-living, the house-buying, the wife-wooing—makes any difference. After four months, nothing changes. My marriage is over.

I’m rattling about in this house, just me and the cardboard boxes. I would have jumped straight back into Genesis, but Mike and Tony have taken advantage of my emotional sabbatical to begin making the solo albums after which they’ve long hankered. In the course of 1979 both spend time in Stockholm, recording at ABBA’s Polar Studios. They hadn’t considered that my love-dash to Vancouver would be so abortively short. Nor had I. Lest I go completely off the rails, I start channeling my energies into whatever musical distraction I can find. Someone recommends me to English singer-songwriter John Martyn, he of the seminal 1973 folk jazz album Solid Air. John asks me to drum on the album that will become Grace & Danger. As we become close, he discovers I can sing a bit, and I add background vocals on the beautiful “Sweet Little Mystery.” I fall in love with John and his

Later in 1979 we continue the reunion at London’s Townhouse Studios, where I play drums on four tracks on his third solo album, which is being produced by Steve Lilywhite and engineered by Hugh Padgham. Notably I play on “Intruder,” the song on which we develop the so-called “gated” drum sound. More of which anon.

In these post-Andy dog days of ’79, robbed of any Genesis distractions, I visit Hurtwood Edge most days, often staying into the night. I befriend all of Eric’s Ripley pals, friends from his teenage years. We often travel en masse up to London to see football matches at Tottenham and West Ham, though Eric is a diehard West Brom fan.

Then: the Beatle dumps me off his album, and nobody tells me. First they cut me from A Hard Day’s Night, and now this. What have I ever done to the Fab Four?

He thinks maybe Peter can collaborate. We all went to see The Exorcist on the Selling England tour and loved it, so we know Friedkin is someone to be reckoned with. For Pete it’s a dream come true: the chance to collaborate with a visionary artist at the top of his field in another medium, to work from home, and also be there for his wife. He asks, “Can we put the album on hold? Give me time to do this, then I’ll be back.” He doesn’t say he’s leaving. We all say, “Sorry, Peter, ’fraid not. You’re in or you’re out.” From my point of view, if it comes to it, Peter leaving needn’t be the end of the world.

He thinks maybe Peter can collaborate. We all went to see The Exorcist on the Selling England tour and loved it, so we know Friedkin is someone to be reckoned with. For Pete it’s a dream come true: the chance to collaborate with a visionary artist at the top of his field in another medium, to work from home, and also be there for his wife. He asks, “Can we put the album on hold? Give me time to do this, then I’ll be back.” He doesn’t say he’s leaving. We all say, “Sorry, Peter, ’fraid not. You’re in or you’re out.” From my point of view, if it comes to it, Peter leaving needn’t be the end of the world. My stoutly practical solution is that we reconfigure Genesis into an instrumental four-piece. At least that way the music can finally be fully heard. To this suggestion, the other three’s reaction can be summed up thus: “Don’t be so fucking stupid. Us, without singing, without lyrics? Get back in your box, Phil.” And of course they’re right.

During the mixing sessions at Basing Street a schism develops, between daytime Genesis and night-time Genesis. Peter and I sometimes mix till two in the morning, then Tony comes in the next day, hates it and scrubs it. Sometimes we’re still recording when we’re supposed to be mixing. Time is short, the mood is tense and everyone is tired. There’s too much music, there are too many lyrics, we’re rushing to get finished, the narrative nuances of this double-vinyl concept album are a mystery to all of us (including, we suspect, Peter)—and any minute now we’re due to go on tour. A tour on which we’ve decided to play this entire album. A tour with a big production attached.

And The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, now? It’s one of the few Genesis albums I can put on and be surprised by, not that I can ever remember having listened to it in its entirety. But it’s a high-water mark for the band in some respects, and even the Spinal Tap reference is a compliment, backhanded or otherwise. To quote Peter’s final lines onstage with Genesis: “It’s only rock’n’roll, but I like it.

in October 1975, before we’ve had a chance to even start recording A Trick of the Tail, Steve’s album comes out. Also not helping matters is the fact that I choose this period to start seeing another band. My on/off affair with Brand X begins in late 1974 when

But performing with just a microphone stand instead of a row of cymbals between me and the audience—that’s the thing to overcome. If you’re not predisposed toward bat-wing headgear and flying in the air, what do you do when there’s no singing? There are other practical concerns. I’ve already made it very clear that I’m not going to be able to do what Peter did. I will not be sporting Andy’s camisole or a badger pelt. But what will I wear? The workman’s overalls that did the job when I was just the drummer? Or is that too, well, workmanlike? I can wear a flat cap and Edwardian coat for “Robbery, Assault and Battery,” but that’s as theatrical as I’m prepared to go.

During this time Steve’s frustration has also become apparent. He’s released his solo album, but rather than reduce the pressure, it’s increased it. He wants to have more songs on the Genesis albums. One man’s meat is another man’s poison: the new configuration of Genesis has unexpectedly thrown up new songwriting avenues, and while I’m feeling increasingly confident as a writer, Steve still isn’t getting the creative space he believes he deserves.

Whenever he has new artists in his office, Ahmet will play “In the Air Tonight” and say, “Now this is what I would like from you.” My question for Ahmet and his team: how can I open doors that are closed to Genesis? After all, the initial radio reaction sheets from American disc jockeys to “I Missed Again” are promising, along the lines of: “Hey, this is a mover!” I think, “There’s no reason this album couldn’t appeal to R&B fans. It’s got the Earth, Wind & Fire horns on

As Tony Banks pithily says in the 2014 BBC documentary Genesis: Together and Apart: “We wanted Phil to do well. Just not that well.

Few people before or since have enjoyed a hugely successful solo career concurrent with a hugely successful band career.

Few people before or since have enjoyed a hugely successful solo career concurrent with a hugely successful band career. As if that isn’t enough, I enthusiastically embrace a third career: record producer.

Mike plays around with a new toy. As he later describes the harsh rhythmic sound he comes up with: “I programmed that with the very first big Linn drum machine. And I did something the Americans would never do: I put it through my guitar amplifier, a small one, and I turned it up so loud that it was jumping up and down on the chair. What the English do well is take a sound and fuck it up. That’s a prime example. It’s just a horrible but great sound.” He’s not wrong. Straight away it works. We all fall in love with it and, inspired, I do my best John Lennon impersonation, and I also take a vocal cue from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message,” adding in the maniacal laugh. And that’s “Mama,” the lead single from the Genesis album. Our biggest ever U.K. hit, both of its time and timeless, and an enduring stage classic.

What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A drummer. Did you hear about the drummer who finished high school? Me neither. What’s the last thing a drummer says in a band? “Hey, guys, how about we try one of my songs?

I remember the first time I went on tour with Eric, in 1986. We’d just started and I was complaining about blood blisters. He told me his ritual: a few weeks ahead of a tour he’d start filing the ends of his fingers. He’d literally scrape off the pads on his fingertips, they’d scab, then he’d scrape them off again. Eventually they’d be nicely calloused and EC would be ready for another run of blistering solos.

By this stage, I’d been dancing around the high notes for a while. This didn’t happen so much on my solo tours since my music was written for me to sing. But portions of the Genesis set were written for Peter’s voice. And for all the uncanny similarities between our voices, some songs were just difficult for my range. But even if Peter had been singing them, they would have been high even for him at this point in both our lives.

If ever I was going to quit Genesis in favor of my solo career, in theory this would be the time, with the tailwind of No Jacket Required still blowing hard. But at the same time, I’ve missed the guys. Tony and Mike have become more lovable as time goes on, which is the reverse of the traditional rock-band narrative. Tony, formerly rather diffident and difficult to talk to, has become a great friend, funny and witty. He’s a different person, especially with a glass of wine in him. Mike, too, has loosened up.

If I have to sum up what’s causing the breakdown between Orianne and me, I’d say that it’s my fault for not hearing her crying out. I can’t understand why we’re arguing, I can’t understand why I’m being pushed out of the marital bed. I just don’t get it. I’m sorry.

As soon as talk turns to business, we quickly revert to long-standing type: Peter still a little edgy, umming and ahhing; Tony still digging a little at Peter; Steve still the dark one; Mike still the cordial mediator; me still clowning and joking to defuse any tension. Same as it ever was.

The years 2008 and 2009 are the best of times and the worst of times. I’ve bought a new home in Féchy, a village fifteen minutes from our old family home in Begnins. It’s a comfortable, modest place and, as I’m on my own, all I need.

I mainly stay out of the conversations about which Genesis tracks will figure—I trust the other guys to carry that torch—but from my albums I pick “In the Air Tonight” (it would be rude not to), “Easy Lover” (partly because it’s not on any of my studio albums) and “Wake Up Call” from Testify (because it’s my favorite song on an overlooked album).

The emotions that are firing these new songs are similar to the ones that gave Face Value its power, impact and, ultimately I hope, resonance. They’re me, laid open and laid bare. On my first solo album, and on this, my fifth, I put it all out there. In the long run this is why Face Value and Both Sides are my two favorite albums, and why No Jacket Required doesn’t come close for me. Specifically, on Both Sides the rage and hurt of Face Value is replaced by the pang of regret, heartache and nostalgia.

One day, from out of the ether, I get together a nice chord sequence. It’s the opposite end of the scale to “The Battle of Epping Forest.” As I feel my way around my new studio, fiddle about with the sounds emerging in my head, the memories of early Genesis songs like that, and like those on The Lamb, are bleating in my head—music that was written with no idea of what would go on top, so it was all a bit busy. There was never too much “space” in Genesis music. Whereas I covet space. For sure the songs I might eventually record will have room to breathe. This embryonic number, built round this nice chord sequence, is the perfect example of the space I’m looking for. Without even thinking about it, I soon have a working title based on the lyrics I’ve sung: “In the Air Tonight.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour will become mythologized, not least in This Is Spinal Tap. This tour would be perfect fodder for the scriptwriters and actors. When that pod doesn’t open? I’ve been there, stuck on a stage with malfunctioning props and an irate guitarist. Is it perhaps no coincidence that Derek Smalls, Spinal Tap’s bass player, is a ringer for Steve Hackett at this time?

When you listen to the music of Phil Collins, heaven and earth enter into a morganatic marriage, with you as a grand witness to this splicing of eternal abodes for the homeward union of heart and soul. His songs, ever so soothing, circulate through your body like blood pumped from a dancing heart.

By the power of Phil Collins, I rebuke you!" she said. "By the power of Phil Collins, who knows that you coming back to me is against all odds, in his name I command you to leave this servant of Genesis alone.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough detailed memories of my dad, happy or otherwise. What images I have, I later put in a song, “All of My Life,” on my 1989 album …But Seriously: Dad coming home from work, changing out of his suit, sitting down to dinner, and then an evening watching TV with just his pipe for company. Mum’s gone out; I’m upstairs playing records. Recalling that scenario now, I’m overwhelmed with sadness. There are so many things I could have asked my dad; if only I’d known I’d be just twenty-one when he died. Simply, there wasn’t much intimacy or dialogue between us. Maybe I’ve blotted out the memories. Maybe they don’t exist.

It is 1963, and the sixties are in full flow. The Beatles have landed and the future can begin. Their first single, “Love Me Do,” came out the previous October and already Beatlemania has me firmly in its grasp.

At a loose end, having stopped managing the toyshop, Mum starts working with her, launching the school’s theatrical agency from our house. June Collins supplies all-singing, all-dancing children to London’s West End, and to the blossoming commercial TV and film world.

Resuming normal service: at Barbara Speake’s I meet two girls who will play significant and ongoing roles in my life, personal and professional, for a long time hereafter. Over the span of my teenage years either I’m going out with Lavinia Lang or I’m going out with Andrea Bertorelli. The three of us seem to date on heavy rotation, and that back-and-forth will reverberate down the decades.

hit the ground running in Oliver!, because I have to: this is a huge, ongoing and usually sold-out show. There’s no time for first-night nerves, even for a thirteen-year-old. On top of that, this is a big part. The entrance of The Artful Dodger is the moment when the show lifts. This tale of Victorian workhouses and grinding poverty is pretty much doom and despair till the chirpy, light-fingered urchin comes on and sings “Consider Yourself.” Then the Dickensian East End of Lionel Bart’s picaresque, exuberant imagination bursts into glorious life. Consider, too, that the Dodger also sings wonderful, now-timeless songs like “I’d Do Anything” and “Be Back Soon” with his gang. They’re my first lead vocals, and I relish performing them eight times a week, night after night (with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays).