Phil Collins

I could also mention Phil's stuff on Robert Fripp's Exposure. :)

Cinema Show is probably my favorite play-along song.
 
Good Evening everyone, first time posting here and I wanted it to be on my favorite Rock oriented drummer. I managed to read the small amount of replies to this post and truly not surprised that many are not familiar with Phil's drumming asides for those that posted here.

As a drummer, Phil is highly distinctive in his hybrid style of playing. The mention of Phil's playing from 1974 through 1980, but to hear Phil playing live, now that is a different story. There is a reason why many of Genesis peers and his teammates thought him as the most musical member of Genesis, his drumming took the often stoic music of Genesis to different heights. And as great of a drummer Chester Thompson is, you could tell Phil takes over the song. But getting back to Phil's drumming you have the superb Genesis Live and the Brand X's Livestock but being a major Genesis fan, to truly appreciate how devastaing a drummer Phil was during the 70's, you must seek out Genesis' bootlegs from Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and really see how great this guy was.


Phil is one of the few drummers from the UK Prog scene that possessed a soulful quality of to his drumming.
 
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Yes Phils drumming on the 4 Tops tunes is memorable for sure. I liked his drumming on Finger Tips Part 1, you could tell its Phil right away, being a lefty and all.
Honestly has the meaning for the word "Great" changed over the years? Phil Collins is a better drummer than most musicians would give him credit to be. He has strength and drive and is a strong pocket player too. A drummer who can sing and accompany other vocals is a rare musician however GREAT I'm sorry that word has been watered down to the point of no return. Buddy Rich, Chick Webb, Elvin Jones are a few others that are/were Great! Phil Collins is not Great and sometimes opinions need to have some knowledge and experience to bare them out. Theirs actually people who think Sting is a Great bassists but they also have never heard of Ray Brown or Stanley Clarke so go figure that. Can't he be "really good" "a perfect fit for genesis" "extremely tastey" most of his unque style is that hes a lefty so strokes do have a sound and feel different for right handed players. I like Phils style and his approach to drumming I also like his use of cymbals but the word Great means exceptional and inventive and eminent. Sorry to rant on this but it gets ridiculous to keep hearing how every popular pop drummer are Great. Try hes my favorite or I really like his approach to the drums but Great is a word for exceptional and in pop music theres really very few musicians who are Great. Popular Yes!!! Charlie & Ringo & Keith & whoever are Unique to their audiances and those fellows fit their bands very well but Great? Com on, Really. Doc
 
Phil Collins is not Great and sometimes opinions need to have some knowledge and experience to bare them out. Theirs
I respect your opinion....but your wrong! ;0)

Have you heard his work on albums such as Selling England, The Lamb and countless 1970's sessions?

A totally different drummer to the '1980's Phill Collins style.

Did you know Buddy Rich had asked Phil to work with him just prior to his death? Does that not tell you something about the respect he had / has?
 
Yes Phils drumming on the 4 Tops tunes is memorable for sure. I liked his drumming on Finger Tips Part 1, you could tell its Phil right away, being a lefty and all.
Honestly has the meaning for the word "Great" changed over the years? Phil Collins is a better drummer than most musicians would give him credit to be. He has strength and drive and is a strong pocket player too. A drummer who can sing and accompany other vocals is a rare musician however GREAT I'm sorry that word has been watered down to the point of no return. Buddy Rich, Chick Webb, Elvin Jones are a few others that are/were Great! Phil Collins is not Great and sometimes opinions need to have some knowledge and experience to bare them out. Theirs actually people who think Sting is a Great bassists but they also have never heard of Ray Brown or Stanley Clarke so go figure that. Can't he be "really good" "a perfect fit for genesis" "extremely tastey" most of his unque style is that hes a lefty so strokes do have a sound and feel different for right handed players. I like Phils style and his approach to drumming I also like his use of cymbals but the word Great means exceptional and inventive and eminent. Sorry to rant on this but it gets ridiculous to keep hearing how every popular pop drummer are Great. Try hes my favorite or I really like his approach to the drums but Great is a word for exceptional and in pop music theres really very few musicians who are Great. Popular Yes!!! Charlie & Ringo & Keith & whoever are Unique to their audiances and those fellows fit their bands very well but Great? Com on, Really. Doc
Sorry Doc, that's just your opinion and you are entitled to it, but in the Progressive Rock world, Phil Collins is a GREAT drummer made even more outstanding that he played in one of the most influential Progressive Rock bands of that era.

Sting usually get mentioned as a great bassist because he plays both the electric and upright bass and unless you tried to play both there are major difference asides the obvious.

But yes when you bring it to that point and deviating from the thread by bringing Sting and comparing him as a bassists to Ray Brown and Stanley Clarke, than it goes to the ponderous Neil Peart/Billy Cobham argument. On other forums, a poster would mention Neil Peart then someone else would throw a Billy Cobham's faster... Apples and Oranges.
 
I respect your opinion....but your wrong! ;0)

Have you heard his work on albums such as Selling England, The Lamb and countless 1970's sessions?

A totally different drummer to the '1980's Phill Collins style.

Did you know Buddy Rich had asked Phil to work with him just prior to his death? Does that not tell you something about the respect he had / has?

John Bonham before he died, mentioned to a young Jason Bonham that he wanted to him to drum like Phil Collins. He loved Phil and Genesis so much that he gave his son two albums; Second's Out and Duke.

I read that Jason met up with Phil years later to tell him that story.

Josef Zawinul wanted Phil to play in his solo Syndicate group but Phil declined because he could not read music.

Drummers indebted to Phil Collins as a drummer: Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Nick D'Virgillio, Brann Dailor.
 
Lets just say everyones Great!! Everyone who plays in a rock band that sold millions of recordings must have Great musicians in the band, right? I mean how can you sell so many records and become millionaires if your not great? Imposible ofcourse their Great Charlie Watts and Ringo are Great Drummers aren't they? Is Keith Moon a great drummer ofcourse he was he was a tremendous showman so he had to be Great, right? How come the Devo guy isn't Great oh thats right not enough Sales?? Or was he in a project years later were he showed his Greatness, I forgot. As to listening to Buddy spout out compliments my guess was there was some money floating his way cause the man didn't do much unless he would be heavily compensated for his time. Ofcourse Mr. Collins was Buddy's equal, hell if you paid Rich enough he'd say so just to retract it once the check cleared HA! Well I feel better to hell with the word GREAT it has little to NO meaning anymore. The new meaning is slightly to well above average and I won't forget it either.
Some think the jazz guys are a bit snobby when it comes to talking down about rock drummers but I know theres very talented players in the land of rock but not every guy is Great its ridiculous to hear this every other day. Theres so much hero worshiping on this forum I sometimes think I'm at a fan club meeting. Between swearing to the world that the drums they own are the sliced bread of drum companies to the exhaulting of a good rock drummer as a Great one starts to get a little juvenile. Again the children of the Rock Gods have spoken so let it be known the genre known as Rock only has Great Drummers. Doc
 
I wasn't priveleged to see Phil and Genesis in their hey day ,having lived in Australia but I did go to the Invisible Touch Tour.

The audience all came for the hits and I came for the In The Cage (Los Endos) Medley.

Really boring audience they had.

Noone was really into em having only probably heard the latest stuff which I don't mind but I came for the proggy stuff and boy was I blown away.

When Phil came on to join fellow legend Chester Thomson(Zappa's One Size Fits All oyeah),I was amazed at the amount of left foot work he was doing with the hats.
He was doing a kind of splash with the cymbals in Los Endos.

Tony Banks wall of keyboards and the varilights creating this otherworld cave of colour-I was in heaven,transported to a greater place.

I remember as a kid thinking I was born in the wrong country even though now I've realised Australia aint bad at all and we have alot of talent but prog rock just seems to escape Australian listeners.

Hmmm.

I still know if Rush ever came here,they would sell out the 15k tennis Centre at least 3 times.

My wish is to see Rush perform in Australia.

My last wish.
No i'm not dying but the band I grew up idolising as a 14 year old teenager(now I'm 45) I might never see in my lifetime.

I even played in a band doing a few Rush covers as an 18 year old when I was a Rush freak.

I used to wear a cape LMAO for one metal gig I was that into Rush.

Missed out on Tull.

Anyway,was a fan of the 70s Tull so no loss.

Barlow,Anderson,Barre,Palmer(hes a she now but I still love her lol),Evans,Glascock.


Peart was the one and David Jones(Aussie legend) at a clinic who inspired me to be a better drummer.

I will cry tears seeing Rush in Australia.

I will cry.

Please Rush.

Come here just once!

I know it's hard to bring all the gear over and I know you don't like to compromise but it would be the most amazing thing on Earth.

All the Aussie Rush freaks like a family.
 
John Bonham before he died, mentioned to a young Jason Bonham that he wanted to him to drum like Phil Collins. He loved Phil and Genesis so much that he gave his son two albums; Second's Out and Duke.

I read that Jason met up with Phil years later to tell him that story.

Josef Zawinul wanted Phil to play in his solo Syndicate group but Phil declined because he could not read music.

Drummers indebted to Phil Collins as a drummer: Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Nick D'Virgillio, Brann Dailor.

Buddy Rich never read music and practiced little and was the best drummer on Earth lol.

Noone has Buddy's touch on the drums.

Same with Phil.He had the touch.
Not as technical but he had what counted,moved the soul not the brain.

I love this Buddy quote

"how do you warm up?'

"I take my hands from my pockets"

LMAO.

Buddy legend.

Thank God Phil didn't read or Genesis music would be filled with polys and rubbish and the music would be destroyed!

He played from the soul.

Musician not mathemetician that's why he was a great singer.

Had the music in him.

If our heart played polys,we'd live to 30 hehe.
 
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Phil had the whole package. Most have no idea just how good he was. I'll cite him as my personal biggest influence, partly because I was into old Genesis when I was in middle school and was relatively blank slate, and partly because to this day I still love his playing & that band. It wasn't a fad for me, he/they really were that good!
 
If Mr. Alan Myers is not a great drummer due to his feel and technique...then some old/young geezer is head twisted for making such statement.

How come the Devo guy isn't Great oh thats right not enough Sales?? . Doc
 

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I didn't get into Phil Collins until I heard about how much my favorite drummer Brann Dailor likes him. After listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway I think Phil Collins is fantastic! The sound that he records his toms with that gated reverb sound I think is a very distinct, when he used to play live before his injury I loved his concert toms because they sound so different from the normal tom sound of deep low tuned toms. I hope he can play drums again one day so I could see a Lamb lineup of Genesis tour!
 
I didn't get into Phil Collins until I heard about how much my favorite drummer Brann Dailor likes him. After listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway I think Phil Collins is fantastic! The sound that he records his toms with that gated reverb sound I think is a very distinct, when he used to play live before his injury I loved his concert toms because they sound so different from the normal tom sound of deep low tuned toms. I hope he can play drums again one day so I could see a Lamb lineup of Genesis tour!

Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins sings the same praises about Phil Collins. IMOF,

This is from the RHCP website, it was an interview they did a few years ago:

Flea: [Foo Fighters] are a completely different band than us. It's like, they are a nice bunch of guys, and I've never jammed with any of them, so I couldn't say what that would be like. But they are a completely nice bunch of guys. Taylor keeps talking about doing some sort of Genesis song.

John Frusciante: "Suppers Ready." [Laughs] He keeps saying, "We can go to the rehearsal room! 'Suppers Ready!'" It's like a half-hour song written by Genesis that was their most ambitious piece they have done to date. I couldn't come anywhere close to playing it on the guitar.
 
Phil and early Genesis were huge for me when I was in high school and college. It might be kind of geeky, but if you stopped me on the street, I could probably sing to you the entire Lamb LDOB as well as various songs including, but not limited to: Battle of Epping Forest, Suppers Ready, Seven Stones, Return of the Giant Hogweed- pretty much anything up through Then There were Three.

Anyone who thinks Phil can't rip it up on the drums is silly. Here are a few of clips from his tenure with Brand X:

From the album Product, "Algon (Where an Ordinary Cup of Drinking Chocolate Costs £8,000,000,000)". It also features the late, great Morris Pert on percussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpgwIiyJO5Y

From the album Moroccan Roll, "Disco Suicide":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAPEEW-OUA&feature=related

Here he is singing Sanskrit lyrics(!) on "Sun in the Night" off of Moroccan Roll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ov1xCZlWo

Here's a local YouTube artist doing an instrumental cover of "For Absent Friends". Phil sings on that cut on Nursery Cryme, his first lead vocal piece on Genesis' 3rd album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WspmUJaUV5k&feature=related

The original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbwAiRYfP0

-John
 
Oh jeez. Words can't say how obsessed my dad is about Genesis. Plays their music allllllllllllllllll the time. Since I was born. I swear I almost know the whole Genesis catalog by a lifetime of what I call, "Genesis by Osmosis" .Some days I'll get up at 8am to Cinema Show, eat lunch to Dance on a Volcano, try to watch a movie in the evening with "Supper's Ready" churning through the apocalypse section, then go to sleep at 1am with a twenty minute Chester/Phil battle raging down the hall. It's insane. INSANE!!

Btw a cousin of mine is a drummer in an emo metal band and her favorite drummer is Phil. Interesting...

JohnW: I'll watch the clips you posted when I get home. My dad will definitely be interested in watching them...
 
30th Jan 1951, Born on this day, Phil Collins, drummer, singer, songwriter who was a member of Genesis, who had the 1986 US No.1 ‘Invisible Touch’, 1992 UK No.7 single ‘I Can’t Dance’ plus six UK No.1 albums. As a solo artist Collins had the 1988 UK & US No.1 single ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’ plus six other US No.1′s and four UK No.1 solo albums. Not bad for someone who started his showbiz life in a West End production!


more here: http://www.musicroom.com/blog/music...in-music/this-day-in-music-phil-collins-51042
 
Its a real shame considering his reputation now.

He was undisputedly one the greats when he was in his prime. Young punks would benefit in studying his amazing talent.

Top technique, great bouncy sound, very musical. He could lay it simple, and he could play very complex stuff too and it would still have a good groove.

I used to say that he mixed the funky style of music at the time with the power of rock. A Cobham/Bonham hybrid. I bet many drummers today have never heard of Billy Cobham!

Maybe his style of playing now is considered a little old-fashioned post-Weckl - he was quite "top-heavy" in his style in that he didn't use his feet as much as drummers today - even though his feet were as good as anyone, as he liked to point out!
 
I am currently working with Phil's son Simon and his new band, Sound Of Contact.

Talk about carrying the torch and then some!
You guys would do well to check the band out - debut CD 'Dimensionaut' is now out and the band are currently on a world tour.
 
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