Collins, Phil

Phil Collins

Drummer, singer, songwriter, producer

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

Pop music superstars often strive for the gaudy, flamboyant effect. Phil Collins, a plain, balding rock drummer, would rather let his songs speak for him. Since the late 1970s Collins has served as the lead singer for the British rock band Genesis, and he has simultaneously enjoyed a dramatic solo career complete with Grammy Awards and a long string of Top Ten hits. The affable Collins has also achieved a measure of critical respect beyond the bounds usually accorded to pop musicians; many of his mysterious, wrenching songs about heartbreak and suspicion are hailed for their revolutionary use of rhythm. New York Times correspondent Stephen Holden notes that Collins has “defined a new relationship between rock rhythm, singing and songwriting in which … shifting multicolored drum textures determine the music’s emotional as well as its rhythmic climate.” Holden adds: “As both a songwriter and an instrumentalist, … Collins is especially adept at sustaining a mood of suspense, often heavily tinged with menace. His shadowy song lyrics are suffused with … dread and the suggestion of passions so pent-up they could explode violently, though they never do.”

Ever since Collins began his solo work, observers have speculated that he would eventually leave Genesis. Collins has proven them wrong, managing to write, record, and tour with the group regularly. Collins is candid, however, about how much his individual success means to him. “I feel like I’m in the middle, reaching out to do lots of little things,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. “One of the things I do is Genesis. Another is producing other people’s records… Another thing I do is play on other people’s records. But the main thing is my records.” These solo albums, including Hello, I Must Be Going and No Jacket Required, have sold in excess of six million copies worldwide, assuring their creator fame and fortune. “I make more money on my own than I do with Genesis,” Collins admitted, “so the bottom line, mercenary level is that there’s no reason for me to be in Genesis except that I enjoy it. But, honestly, in the end, I’m doing something on my own, my little self, and that’s the most gratifying of all.”

Phil Collins has been passionately involved with music since his early childhood. The youngest of three children, he was born in the affluent London suburb of Hounslow in 1951. By the time he was five, Collins was experimenting with drums, and his parents bought him a full drum set when he was ten. At first both of his parents seemed inclined to push him in other directions—his father toward a nine-to-five office job and his mother toward an acting career. Collins agreed to try his hand at acting, joining the prestigious Barbara Speake Stage School in 1964. From there he received

For the Record…

Full name Philip Collins; born in 1951 in Hounslow, England; son of an insurance agent and a theatrical agent; married Jill Tavelman, 1984 (second wife); children: (first marriage) Joely, Simon.

Drummer and vocalist with the rock band Genesis, 1970—, lead singer and songwriter for Genesis, 1975—. First worldwide tour, 1978, subsequent tours in 1982 and 1987. Other Genesis members include Mike Rutherford (guitar), Tony Banks (keyboards), Daryl Stuermer (bass), and Chester Thompson (drums).

Solo performer, songwriter, and producer, 1979—. Recorded and produced first solo album, Face Value, 1980, has subsequently produced albums for Eric Clapton (Behind the Sun), Frida Lyngstrom (Something’s Going On), and Philip Bailey (Chinese Wall). Has made numerous solo tours in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, and the Far East. Star of film “Buster,” 1988. Performer for the “Band Aid” concerts to provide famine relief for Ethiopia, July 13, 1985.

Awards: Grammy award and Academy Award nomination, both 1985, both for “Against All Odds” ; Grammy awards, 1986, for best album, No Jacket Required, best song, “One More Night,” and best male vocal performance.

Addresses: Office— Hit and Run Music Ltd., 81-83 Walton St., London SW3 2HP, England.

several professional dramatic roles, including one as the Artful Dodger in a London stage production of Oliver! He still preferred music, though, so in 1967—against his mother’s wishes—he dropped out of school to work as a rock drummer.

Growing up in Great Britain, Collins was naturally influenced by such groups as the Beatles and the Who. He was equally fascinated, however, by the Motown music of the Suprêmes, the Four Tops, and the Temptations. When he began to make his own music, he incorporated the black American rhythm and blues and soul sounds, modifying them to fit the circumstances of his white, middle-class background. By 1970 Collins had earned a reputation as an able studio drummer, so he was asked to audition for an up-and-coming “art rock” group, Genesis. Collins won the audition and began a long tenure in “comfortable anonymity, hidden behind the drums, as the group built its reputation around the flamboyance and theatrics of its leader-’auteur, ’ Peter Gabriel,” according to Rob Hoerburger in the Chicago Tribune. Genesis’s somewhat unique style combined American influences such as folk and soul with long, brooding symphonic suites and allegorical rock operas. Just as the group began to experience a high level of success in Britain and Europe, Gabriel quit to pursue a solo career. The other members of Genesis—Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks, decided to keep performing as Genesis.

Genesis auditioned more than one hundred lead singers in an effort to replace Gabriel as the British press declared the group “dead and buried.” Finally Collins, who had never considered singing lead, realized that he was as able as any of the performers he had auditioned. He took over both the performing and the songwriting duties, realizing that changing tastes necessitated a more upbeat, less cerebral style. In 1978 Collins came to a momentous decision—Genesis would have to reach out to an American audience through an extended tour. That choice, he admits, cost him his first marriage, since his wife resented the long separations required by the music business. A long divorce proceeding ensued that left Collins “demoralized, bitter, alone and, eventually, rich,” to quote Hoerburger in Rolling Stone. Although his intentions were anything but mercenary, Collins began to write intensely personal songs about the breakup of his marriage—ballads that were quite different in style and emotion than any of his Genesis work. He recorded the songs on his first solo album, Face Value, released in 1981.

Face Value was more successful than any of the Genesis albums had been, reaching the top ten on the Billboard album chart and spawning two hit singles, “I Missed Again” and “In the Air Tonight.” Amidst rumors of the breakup of Genesis, Collins returned to the group with new songs for it as well. Late in 1981 Genesis released Abacab, its first million-seller, and embarked on a lengthy, multi-million dollar international tour. Only when the tour ended did Collins return to solo work with his next hit album, Hello, I Must Be Going. He also offered his talents as a producer and arranger to several other artists, including Frida Lyngstrom of Abba, Eric Clapton, and Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Collins and Bailey were particularly pleased when their duet, “Easy Lover,” topped both the pop and soul charts.

By 1985 Collins had scored a string of hits, both with Genesis and on his own. Still, critics made much of his bald, paunchy appearance—sometimes to the exclusion of serious commentary on his work. In Rolling Stone, for instance, Hoerburger wrote: “The pop audience was primed for its own Cabbage Patch Kid, and Collins, with his catchy, smartly produced music, fit the bill; he was homely, and he sold.” No Jacket Required, Collins’s 1985 album, forced reviewers to take the artist seriously. An instant top ten album—it hit number one faster than did Michael Jackson’s Thriller—No Jacket Required won three 1986 Grammy awards and yielded three major hit singles, “One More Night,” “Sussudio,” and “Don’t Lost My Number.” Additionally, Collins had earned a Grammy in 1985 for “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” an evocative song about unrequited love. Chicago Tribune contributor Rick Kogan perhaps sums up the revised opinion on Collins’s work when he writes: “After hearing and observing Collins’ eminently satisfying and frequently spectacular performance, one is left not with a series of niggling questions but rather with renewed admiration for the forcefulness of well-crafted songs played in a straightforward manner.”

Phil Collins is a driven artist who constantly works hard, but he is an unusual star in that he prefers to live frugally, dress comfortably, and perform without fancy frills. Having achieved his goal of making not successful pop music but respectable pop music, Collins intends to keep following his own fruitful path—emotion-laden lyrics, soul-inspired rhythms, and inventive harmonies, sung in his inimitable rough tenor. In Rolling Stone, Hoerburger concludes that these days Collins is “free to do just about whatever he wants. Now, everyone knows who he is, and everyone seems to want him…. Collins has brought the music industry to its knees by being an agreeable man who makes agreeable music.” Collins offered a similar appraisal of himself in a Newsweek profile. “I don’t spend a lot of money on anything,” he said. “I’m not fashionable, so I can’t compete. I don’t keep up. I just go my own sweet way.”

Selected discography

With Genesis

Foxtrot, 1972.

Selling England by the Pound, 1973.

Genesis Live, 1973.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, 1974.

A Trick of the Tail, 1976.

Wind and Wuthering, 1977.

Seconds Out, 1977.

Spot the Pigeon, 1977.

And Then There Were Three, 1978.

Duke, 1980.

Abacab, 1981.

Three Sides Live, 1982.

Genesis, 1983.

Invisible Touch, 1986.

Solo albums

Face Value, Atlantic, 1981.

Hello, I Must Be Going, Atlantic, 1982.

No Jacket Required, Atlantic, 1985.

Sources

Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1983; May 19, 1985.

Newsweek, May 27, 1985.

New York Daily News Magazine, June 30, 1985.

People, July 8, 1985; July 6, 1986.

Rolling Stone, February 3, 1983; May 23, 1985; July 16, 1987.

—Anne Janette Johnson