Phil / Biography

Singer, drummer, songwriter, actor, producer. The british artist Phil Collins is a huge multiple talent - and this made him a 500 times millionaire. More than 70 million sold discs proof the success of his music. If you also consider his work with Genesis and his co-operation in other projects, you reach an amount of 200 millionen sold copies, on which Phil Collins made hisself immortal.

Philip David Charles Collins, his full name, was born on January 30th, 1951 in London. He visited a drama school. Since he was 12 years old he played drums. First he worked as an actor, but his real career began in 1971 when he paid attention to an advertisement in a newspaper. The young and quite unknown band Genesis with lead singer Peter Gabriel were looking for a drummer. The singer Gabriel - in former years drummer too - was convinced by Phil Collins capacity in playing the drums.

Genesis became known quickly. When Peter Gabriel left the band in 1974, there was a "run" on the free place. The rest of the band listened to a lot of demo tapes and invited many candidates, but nobody could be a substitute for Gabriel. Finally Phil Collins, who already has been a background vocalist before, became the new lead singer. It´s not exaggerated to say that it was his salient voice which made Genesis really popular in the following years. With his influence Genesis developed a style which was more accessible to a big amount of music lovers.

Although there was a lot of work when Genesis became a popular band, Phil Collins was still involved in a band called Brand X, which mainly played jazz and wasn´t really successful. May be at that time Phil Collins never thought about starting a solo career. But personal problems led him that way.

In the late 70s Genesis made a big US-tour in order to conquer the difficult american market. His wife Andrea couldn´t handle the fact that Phil would be absent so long. She told him that she couldn´t manage such a relationship. Phil promised that it would be the only long tour of Genesis. But when he returned Andrea had left him.

This was a big shock for Phil Collins. He retreated and spent the free time at home alone, mostly sitting behind his musical instruments. Not knowing that he produced his first solo disc by playing around on his instruments, he wrote sad and melancholy songs - among them the legendary song "In The Air Tonight". His first album called "Face Value" was published in 1981 und contained 12 songs, among them two which found the way into the US-top 20 ("In The Air Tonight" and "I Missed Again").

Parallel to his work with Genesis Phil Collins produced further solo albums. By title they were: "Hello, I must be going" (1982), "No jacket required" (1985), "But seriously" (1989), "Serious hits... live" (1990), "Both sides" (1993) and "Dance into the light" (1996).

Collins made "Both sides" completly on his own. Every instrument was played by himself. "Both sides was part of a big change in my personal life", he said. "I felt, that nobody else would understand quite where that music was coming from". In fact the music is just as melancholy as in "Face Value", but still it´s more matured.

Since publishing "Both sides" a lot has happened in Phil Collins´life: as far as his work as an musician there is the resignation from his long co-operation with Genesis. While working at "Both sides" he noticed that he only wanted to spend effort on his solo career from now on. He met Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, who accepted his decision totally. But more important for Phil´s musical direction at that time was his second divorce, a new relationship and the change of residence to Geneve (Switzerland).

The following album "Dance into the light", which was published in 1996, shows a new Phil Collins. It expresses joy of life. Phil Collins says: "This new record is a turnaround in that it's really up and optimistic, which is the way I feel at the moment." Without doubt: the new disc reflects the new living conditions of Phil Collins, especialy a happy relationship with his girl-friend Orriane Cevey. This time Collins made the disc together with his band. In contrast to "Both sides", where the drums were the most important instrument, "Dance into the lights" is a guitar-orientated album. A nice gift to all fans: beside of 12 new songs there´s a cover-version of Bob Dylans "The times they are a-changin´".

In 1998 Phil Collins published the album "Hits", with 15 songs on it. It contains a collection of his greatest hits and soundtracks (for example: "A groovy kind of love" taken from the gangster film "Buster", 1988).

Regarding his occupational activities, Phil Collins always managed to go on two-tracked. Beside his music he was involved in movie projects, as actor as well as composer. First time in "Tarzan" (1999) as producer. In doing so he showed that he could play sensitive parts (e.g. "Buster") as well as eccentric and comedy parts (e.g. "Frauds"). In the end this shows how much he´s a multiple talent.

Next to work his social involvement is very important for Phil Collins. He combined both in the Live Aid Concert on July 13th, 1985, which was organized by Bob Geldof. Collins played in Wembley (Great Britain) and afterwards it he flew by Concorde to Philadelphia (USA). Thus he was the first artist to act on the same day in europe and in america.

A few words about Genesis: Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks found a new lead singer in Ray Wilson. His style may be hard to get used to after so many years to Phil Collins and Genesis fans. At the moment is seems that Genesis cannot return to the success, which they had reached with Phil Collins in former times. There are rumours about a Genesis-tour in the old formation with Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks in order to promote an compilation album. But there are no further information up to this day.