Defend Phil Collins

This may not have been you, but I once head John say in an interview that Phil Collins had stolen the PiL drum sound! Apparently, after hearing the drum sound on 'Flowers' Collins requested the same engineer that PiL used and set up the drums exactly the same! Is this true? Was it you!

Yes, this is true, and it was me. John is correct but there is a bit more to it. I learnt how to get that "kind" of drum sound by watching Hugh Padgham record in the same Stone Room at the Townhouse. Hugh recorded Peter Gabriel's 3rd album and if you listen to a song called 'Intruder' you will hear what I'm talking about. When It came to doing the PiL album I used similar methods to achieve a similar sound. During the making of the 'Flowers of Romance' I bumped into Phil Collins in the corridor of the Townhouse, I had worked as an assistant on his first LP, and he was very inquisitive about how I was surviving working with the evil Johnny Rotten! I told him John was a top class geeza, and promised to introduce them if he was keen.

Later that day me and John went to the Townhouse canteen to eat boiled cabbage and mash, and in walked Phil so I introduced them. Much to all our surprise they got on like a house on fire! Anyway back to the drum story... Much later Phil was producing a Chris Bailey (of Earth Wind and Fire) album, and he wanted THAT drum sound, but Hugh was off working with the Police. Phil had by then heard snippets of the PiL album. So, the day we were in mastering the 'Flowers' single remix at the Townhouse cutting rooms next door, I got a call from Phil saying HELP! So I went in for an hour or so and dialed it up!

Pardon granted for: Squonk

There is lots of Phil Collins-associated music that I like, and lots that I loathe. I generally find him to be unbelievably smarmy, though, so it's hard to like even the good stuff.

(this, btw, would also fit into the ILE "funniest things said while having sex" thread)

"No really, Gail, he was there and John Martyn was on guitar, and he talked him into playing and John Stevens said halfway through one improv piece "Right you lot, Phil and I are gonna have a little chat on the drums now so the rest of you cunts can just shaddup, alright?"

"Yes, that sounds like good old John," sighed G. Four-second pause. "Dirty old man that he was..."

(according to G, every Brit improv legend is or was a "dirty old man" heheh).

Anyway, as a drummer the boy Collins dun good on the John Cale Island trilogy and also on Bob Fripp's Exposure. The latter, come to think of it, is not currently available on CD either except as an expensive and not recommended import.

Has no one noted what a brilliant 'video actor' Phil Collins is? Not every artist puts their *all* into their visual performance (nevermind exact proper lip-synching) as Phil Collins does. Like, in the video for 'Mama', he literally looks like he's going mad with rage, hatred and desire, and you really believe it, you can't take your eyes off him... It is hard to believe this is the same guy who's being all cheery and silly in some of his other videos. That's what I love about Phil Collins, he is so multifaceted, as well as multi-talented. I don't claim to love *all* his songs (some of them I downright can't stand) but I don't turn my nose up at him as a musical artist. It takes talent to write a good pop tune, and that Phil Collins has written so many well-loved hits is testament to his song-writing skill, on top of being a brilliant drummer, a very decent keyboardist, and emotive vocalist. Now that I think about it, Phil Collins was the first pop artist I ever got into as a teenager. Ah, memories! :)

Haha that was me, babbling about "Domino"!

So what about that New Toyota Ad with Phil Collins?

-- Fabrice

Yes. I used to have a copy, but I left it on my desk and it was the victim of office theft. It's hillarious, and again the word here is 'unintentionally'.

(I'm speaking of Trick of the Tail and Abacab)

"it's no fun/being an illegal alien!"

holy shit new modern drummer has FOURTEEN PHIL COLLINS BEATS

"He's totally punk rock, he's got on sneakers and a suit! It's crazy!"

per the Miami Vice argument upthread, Phil actually had a song on the Miami Vice 2 sdtrk, one of his best solo songs, 'Take Me Home.' fcking great tune.

do you still subscribe to modern drummy, cutty

Phil is an Honorary Negro. That's all the justification he needs.

I hate myself for reviving this thing TWICE, but I just listened to Hello I Must Be Going, and he can do the untrustworthy-cad-narrator as well as Randy Newman. Not all the time, but when he's on. "Like China" is probably the smartest song ever about defloweration. "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away" is probably bad advice.

Also, my wife learned in her master's percussion methods class that Phil has an official cadence named after him. You know what it sounds like. DA-dum!, DA-dum!, DA-dum!, DA-dum!, dum-dum ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight...."). It's also in "Thru These Walls" and probably a ton of other shit.

Not that Phil needs any more defending, but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy52yueBX_s

Or rather...

http://adweek.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/31/gorilla.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy52yueBX_s

Har!

Has no one noted what a brilliant 'video actor' Phil Collins is? Not every artist puts their *all* into their visual performance (nevermind exact proper lip-synching) as Phil Collins does. Like, in the video for 'Mama', he literally looks like he's going mad with rage, hatred and desire, and you really believe it, you can't take your eyes off him

i was listening to "abacab" the other day...it's such a weird album, sort of mainstream 80s pop, but there's still odd structural and instrumental passages that betray that they used to be prog chops dudes, strange mix and i kind of love it...there's a weird subgenre of music like this, all the prog dudes really embraced the 80s, like the 80s yes albums, and asia, stuff like that...maybe rush's 80s albums like signals and grace under pressure have that same vibe (tho rush wasn't really prog exactly)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QZOc-DbE5ko

"the "gangsta" way he dealt with his wife's affair with his decorator (ie, an ultra-spiteful appearance on TOTP with a tin of paint on the piano)."

anyone have a youtube of this?

i was listening to "abacab" the other day...it's such a weird album, sort of mainstream 80s pop, but there's still odd structural and instrumental passages that betray that they used to be prog chops dudes, strange mix and i kind of love it...

This goes for a lot of late 70s/early 80s AOR by musicians with a prog background.
Not a fan of "Abacab" though.

Heh. This is a pretty good read:

https://thesundae.net/2021/01/21/talking-nonce-sense-in-praise-of-paedogeddon/

I had no idea that

Tricking people into making erroneous or embarrassing statements on TV like this was actually illegal in the UK at the time, and the subsequent amendment to the broadcasting standards that permitted such deceptions in future for entertainment purposes is commonly known as the Brass Eye clause.

Was just thinking how perfect it would be if he's called his album Butt Seriously.

Haha, even better with a typo, I'm sober

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEWCawEYUis