Stairway to ..Phil Collins??

Tony Thompson was the drummer driving the band (which also wasn't that great), Phil Collins didn't have a clue as to what to play. As a professional musician (and drummer), Collins should have been able to at least "hold his own." Hell, it was all just blues-based riffs. He was an embarrassment to himself and to his profession.

Now granted, Zeppelin themselves were a bit out of practice as well, but it was their physical presence that was the draw. Plant sounded decent, with the exception of his timing - I didn't really notice the hoarse voice. And Page wasn't at full strength physically or musically at that time when it came to performing live. I'll bet that 95% of the world-wide audience never even noticed the anemic performance.

I've read many things on John Bonham from how great his timing was to how well he could groove to he's a basic simpleton on a drum kit. With the exception of Jason Bonham, nobody who has ever sat in on stage with Page, Plant, and Jones have ever sounded good or right with them. Bonzo left incredibly big shoes to fill.
 
mmulcahy1 said:
...... Phil Collins didn't have a clue as to what to play. As a professional musician (and drummer), Collins should have been able to at least "hold his own." Hell, it was all just blues-based riffs. He was an embarrassment to himself and to his profession.
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Sheesh, harsh, especially given the backstory on his appearance at all.
 
opentune said:
Sheesh, harsh, especially given the backstory on his appearance at all.
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Really? Phil Collins was at the height of his career at this point, that's why he played on two continents on the same day and all. Even though he was ill-prepared, he still should have been able to "jam" to the music but he was hopelessly lost.

You can tell from this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxwtp4FB1kM, Robert Plant and Phill Collins are trying desperately to make the best of what they knew was a lousy performance. Collins even tries to justify being lost during the music as, he just stopped playing to watch the crowd and see what a good time they were having.

Live Aid was built around Phil Collins and he was supposed to be the main bi-continental headliner and the Zeppelin "reunion," which it really wasn't, was the big headline of the day. Collins wanted to be part of that and blew it.

Don't get me wrong, I like Phil Collins and his music, but it came out like mixing oil and water - not too well.
 
DrumEatDrum said:
More from Phil:

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10...ot-to-blame-for-led-zeppelins-live-aid-fiasco

And if you can find the footage (the Zeppelin camp have done their best to scrub it from the history books), you can see me miming, playing the air, getting out of the way lest there be a train wreck. If I’d known it was to be a two-drummer band, I would have removed myself from proceedings long before I got anywhere near Philadelphia.
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How could he have NOT know that Tony Thompson was going to play too? Excuses... plain and simple.
 
mmulcahy1 said:
How could he have NOT know that Tony Thompson was going to play too? Excuses... plain and simple.
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Well, he knew before he hit the stage, but he made is clear he didn't know before he agreed to appear.

Phil played on Robert Plant's solo albums. They had a working relationship.

I don't know, why are so many people keen on slogging Phil Collins for one bad show out of a mega career? Hasn't everyone had that one bad show? Most of us are just lucky enough that one bad show wasn't live in front of a large TV audience and filmed for posterity.

I think there are plenty more things much more deserving of slogging in Phil's career, like the video for "Don't Lose My Number"
 
I saw the Page/Plant tour in 94.

Jimmy Page was in such bad shape they had another guitarist play the solos for Jimmy. But I guess that was Phil Collins fault too. lol.
 
I'm a massive, lifelong fan but sadly, 'Zep and friends' in Philadelphia was a shambles and major disappointment (although the fans still went wild).

By way of contrast, over on our side of the Atlantic at Wembley Stadium, Queen were well-rehearsed and stole the show with a stunning medley of their songs.

I wish Zep could have taken the same approach!

As for Phil Collins, a great drummer with Genesis and Brand X - and a big Bonham fan too. He played on Robert Plant's early solo albums and toured with him.

At Live Aid it just didn't work. It was a stunt. He performed at Wembley, then flew to the US on Concorde. As others have pointed out there was already a drummer, Tony Thompson. Collins didn't know the songs and mimed for parts of it. John Paul Jones was also a late arrival for the show.

Zep's 1988 Madison Square Garden reunion was also a mess - but thankfully they got it dead right at London's 02 Arena in 2007!
 
Personally, going on stage high, drunk, hung over, etc is inconsiderate, and if you are guilty, you,re done. Unfortunately back then it was accepted because the crowd was 90% wasted, and if you were a famous rocker, like Page, you had immunity. I have no respect for musicians getting loaded to play, its just the way I was taught.
Now, going back to the likes of Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Krupa, and hundreds more, they did the same thing long before the head bangers!!
Back to Collins; he had a serious drinking problem most of his life, so I'm thinking that had something to do with his show in question....To each his own.
 
mmulcahy1 said:
Tony Thompson was the drummer driving the band (which also wasn't that great), Phil Collins didn't have a clue as to what to play. As a professional musician (and drummer), Collins should have been able to at least "hold his own." Hell, it was all just blues-based riffs. He was an embarrassment to himself and to his profession.

Now granted, Zeppelin themselves were a bit out of practice as well, but it was their physical presence that was the draw. Plant sounded decent, with the exception of his timing - I didn't really notice the hoarse voice. And Page wasn't at full strength physically or musically at that time when it came to performing live. I'll bet that 95% of the world-wide audience never even noticed the anemic performance.

I've read many things on John Bonham from how great his timing was to how well he could groove to he's a basic simpleton on a drum kit. With the exception of Jason Bonham, nobody who has ever sat in on stage with Page, Plant, and Jones have ever sounded good or right with them. Bonzo left incredibly big shoes to fill.
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Having seen it and read interviews about it, one of the very significant problems was that Jimmy Page, to put it politely, was suffering from significant substance misuse issues at the time. Phil Collins is no more to blame for it than anyone else on the stage. The whole thing was an under-prepared shambles. But when all is said and done it was only 20mins so who really cares.... It's well known as a car crash performance and the worst bit of Live Aid as a whole, but the day was a huge success.
 
Back when they were good they had the ability to anticipate Page's off-timing. He always seemed to play with an early insinuation that usually recovered nicely if the rest of the band was on point.

Queen, on the other hand was a full, big, pro arena rock performance like I remember from the old days.
 
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