Finally! My First Final Phil Collins tribute kit

And now my Second Final Phil Collins Tribute Kit!

So I've been working on replicating another one of Phil's kits, this time moving back to 1980. The tour in support of the Genesis album Duke was the last time Phil played double headed toms on stage with Genesis. I already had a head start on a few of the drums, so I picked up a few more to round out his Duke tour kit.

Once again primarily Ludwig drums...






The 8 and 10" toms are Keller shells I bought from Precision Drum. Ludwig never made 8x5.5" or 10x6.5" double headed toms, and it was quicker and easier to just get raw shells.

There are no great photos of Phil's Duke Tour kit, but he did use most of that kit a year later when Genesis played on Top of the Pops, minus the small toms and some cymbals. All Premier drums with a Ludwig Supersensitive.


Duke is such a fantastic album. My wife got it for me on vinyl during a 50 cent milk crate dive at a local record shop during her college days. I love how spacey and weird their earlier stuff with Peter was but man Duke, from the point of view of a 'pop' album, is nearly perfect.
 
Duke is such a fantastic album. My wife got it for me on vinyl during a 50 cent milk crate dive at a local record shop during her college days. I love how spacey and weird their earlier stuff with Peter was but man Duke, from the point of view of a 'pop' album, is nearly perfect.

I totally agree. It's my second favorite Genesis album, next to Selling England By The Pound. It has the perfect mix of everything that made Genesis special, I think. And the drumming on the album is really good and the double tracked drum kits made things even more interesting.
 
One of the cool things about having a shell bank is I can try other set ups too.

So now I'm heading back to 1974 and Phil's set up from Selling England By The Pound.






My "timbales" were a power tom I had Precision Drum cut in half for me.

Here's Phil from the first part of that tour:



On the second leg of the tour he added two Slingerland timbales to the side of his kit.



This is the beginning of him using high pitched tom sounds that would develop into using four timbales on the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, then Roto Toms with Wind and Wuthering in 1977 and finally the all concert tom set up he started in 1978 and played almost unchanged pretty much up to now.
 
That has taken me some time getting used to as well. Having the snare angled a lot like he does helps create a *little* extra room, but it takes practice.

There are some aspects to his playing, namely the way he throws in some two handed broken 16th note hi hat patterns that are a LOT easier to play with them so low.

His kit is an ergonomic nightmare. It worked for him for a long time, but led to back and wrist problems later in life.

Those short signature sticks of his didn't help, either. I had a pair of those, thinking "I'm a short guy, too, maybe I need shorter sticks". They made it hard to reach anything and I had to stretch my arms and shoulders to make contact. I can't imagine hitting cymbals raised as high as his are with those shorties.
 
The Selling England kit isn't too bad when it comes to ergonomics...Everything's a lot lower.

But I totally agree his typical kit from '78 onward IS a bit of a nightmare. Using that set up does make playing his stuff make more sense, but I couldn't imagine playing on it for the 30 or so years he used it. Between the set up and the crappy throne he sat on it isn't surprising he developed the problems he has. :(
 
One of the cool things about having a shell bank is I can try other set ups too.

So now I'm heading back to 1974 and Phil's set up from Selling England By The Pound.






My "timbales" were a power tom I had Precision Drum cut in half for me.

Here's Phil from the first part of that tour:



On the second leg of the tour he added two Slingerland timbales to the side of his kit.



This is the beginning of him using high pitched tom sounds that would develop into using four timbales on the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, then Roto Toms with Wind and Wuthering in 1977 and finally the all concert tom set up he started in 1978 and played almost unchanged pretty much up to now.

If you feel like a brief departure during your experimentation, throw those timbales on your right side above your ride and middle tom and crank 'em way high then have some fun with some 80s KC bruford grooves!
 
Can two play the game? :)

I also enjoy playing Genesis and Phil Collins, so when I bought my DW shell bank, I configured it for playing their music from the early 80s on. Mine's not as faithful a tribute set as yours, though!

IMG_0443.JPG
 
My pearl midtown set up as 3pc with just hats and ride (my usual set up) could occupy the space between your snare and hats lol
Yes, I admit to have developed some bad posture and other bad habits when I learned to play :LOL:.
 
Yes, I admit to have developed some bad posture and other bad habits when I learned to play :LOL:.

Hey, me too haha. My playing posture isn't great and in some aspects gets worse as I get older.

That's just always something I notice. I prefer my hats overhanging my snare by 1-2 inches (really tight set up) so when I see something besides that it just stands out to me.
 
His kit is an ergonomic nightmare. It worked for him for a long time, but led to back and wrist problems later in life.

This. I loved Phil's playing. Like Ringo, he had a way of playing those fills and grooves that was uniquely him, and you knew him when you heard him. That being said, given what happened to him, I would not want to replicate his setup, if it meant subjecting my back and body to the same stress that ended up damaging him and robbing him of his ability.
 
This. I loved Phil's playing. Like Ringo, he had a way of playing those fills and grooves that was uniquely him, and you knew him when you heard him. That being said, given what happened to him, I would not want to replicate his setup, if it meant subjecting my back and body to the same stress that ended up damaging him and robbing him of his ability.

Especially when you can use the same drums, heads, tuning, cymbals, etc.... Set up in a more 'proper' fashion. You can capture the sound without capturing the bodily harm. And 95% of people wouldn't even know it's a phil tribute kit when they look at it regardless.
 
This. I loved Phil's playing. Like Ringo, he had a way of playing those fills and grooves that was uniquely him, and you knew him when you heard him. That being said, given what happened to him, I would not want to replicate his setup, if it meant subjecting my back and body to the same stress that ended up damaging him and robbing him of his ability.

Yeah Phil sat low with a rounded back, and tended to reach up and out when playing with arms constantly extended, especially on cymbals and toms. He was a short guy playing a large kit for most of his career, which certainly didn't afford any ergonomic favors.

Despite this, watching (and hearing) him play one was always struck by the ease and flow of his playing. An absolute genius behind the kit.
 
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