Defend Phil Collins

Alamo historians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY3sBIY0tls

In the UK there's long been an urban myth that he told The Sun he'd leave the UK if Labour came to power in 1997. He divorced a wife via fax.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2018/dec/10/aretha-phil-collins-faxes-famous-divorce-notice

Collins says the persistent rumour that he asked his second wife for a divorce by fax damaged his public persona and was a factor in his decision to retire from music. He insists that it is baseless – although he did fax his wife about their impending divorce. “I was in Frankfurt and sent her a fax because the phone kept going down,” he said in 2016. “I was arranging time to see the kids and referenced the fact that [the marriage] was over, but it was translated as me finishing our relationship by fax.”

Sounds like ex-wife's lawyer angling for an advantage in divorce proceedings tbh.

In the UK there's long been an urban myth that he told The Sun he'd leave the UK if Labour came to power in 1997.

according to the bbc he did: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-32590242

I don't think the BBC have that right - Phil moved to Switzerland in 1996.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Phil had said he'd leave the UK if Labour came into power, but he's subsequently denied it, and I've never seen anyone actually come up with the Sun story where he said that, which makes me skeptical.

Collins’ biggest regret (apart from covering the sappy Mindbenders hit A Groovy Kind of Love) is talking to the Sun about politics. “Anything!” he clarifies. “I regret talking to the Sun about anything.” On the day before the 1992 general election, Bizarre columnist Piers Morgan quoted Collins as saying: “If they put up taxes, I’d consider going abroad.” This single line, mutated via Chinese whispers into a cast-iron vow to emigrate if Labour won, proved disastrous. “I remember getting letters from nurses saying, ‘That’s it, I’m not buying any more of your records,’” he says glumly. “I didn’t mean it the way it came out.”

Did he ever vote Conservative?

“I didn’t vote, actually. And that’s not something I’m proud of. I was just so busy that I rarely was here.”

There's always been stuff about him supposedly moving to Switzerland to avoid taxes, but his (then) wife was literally Swiss. He said at the time, "Her father was dying of cancer, and her grandmother and grandfather were dying from cancer. So I wasn't going to pull her away from them. So that's why I live here. And the only reason I still live here is because my sons are here." Also, even if true, Collins would only be one in a long line of rich Brit rock stars leaving the country over taxes.

Labour supporter Noel Gallagher was quoted: "Vote Labour. If you don't and the Tories get in, Phil Collins is threatening to come back and live here. And let's face it, none of us want that." However, Collins has since stated that although he did once claim many years earlier that he might leave Britain if most of his income was taken in tax, which was Labour Party policy at that time for top earners, he has never been a Conservative Party supporter and he left Britain for Switzerland in 1994 purely because he started a relationship with a woman who lived there. He said of Gallagher: "I don't care if he likes my music or not. I do care if he starts telling people I'm a wanker because of my politics. It's an opinion based on an old, misunderstood quote.

pretty sure the Stones didn't live in France just for the baguettes

when pressedf urther Collins merely replied "Fuck You Fuck Me"

...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).

I went looking for this (from 1981) and found that he repeated this performance, including the paint can, on a special edition of TOTP in 1989.

did Phil Collins kill someone?

y/n

If not him, who dunnit?

He's got a name, he's got a number, he's got a line on you

he said he saw a gorilla running from the scene of the crime.

i bellowed loudly WOT GORILLA?

You misspelled cryme

"Chinese whispers"?

I think he was talking about the Cure EP.

It's what Americans call "telephone" or "whisper down the lane," i.e., a message getting diluted/distorted by repetition, or a self-replicating (ahem) misunderstanding

Please don’t tape drum sticks to Phil Collins hands, it’s not funny.

― Alba, Sunday, September 12, 2021

Not infrequently, the funniest thing I hear all day is on ILM. Today it was this.

"Chinese whispers"?

Yeah, bit surprised the Guardian was using that phrase as late as 2016.

xpost!

Q: What did Phil Collins say when Mike Rutherford was offering the cocaine around at the reunion rehearsals?
A: I'll 'ave plenty! (Aisle of Plenty)

that must be what happened on the way to Heaven

he knows what he likes (in your wardrobe)

Nothing like being in a hardware store in the afternoon with “in the air tonight” playing

I can buy a trowel in this store today
oh lord

If you told me you were leaking
I would not lend a wrench

She calls out to the man in the store
"Sir, can you help me?
My toilet's old and it's starting to leak
Is there something you can sell me?"

They seem to have an acetylene torch yeah

Lol

I still hear the LP version of "In the Air Tonight" at least on a weekly basis, on a whole range of stations, but yesterday was the first time I've *ever* noticed that what is I guess the single version, or maybe the video version, has extra drums throughout!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxV4KipHXFE

Very cool. Sounds like maybe some extra guitar and backing vox on the 2nd verse / chorus too

The “….well I REMEMBA” part gets me every time.

As I move further into my 40s I definitely find myself mumbling “I don’t care anymore” pretty frequently

Try yelling it.

According to the internet - the internet! - the single mix has extra drums because Ahmet Ertegun thought people would get bored waiting for the drums to come in. So he said to Phil Collins "add more drums" and Phil Collins said "yes" and Ahmet Ertegun said "that sounds good" and Phil Collins said "yes" and then the aeroplane crashed into the sea and it was a shark and I used the teeth to make six crowns.

I grew up with the single version so I find the album version unusual. The drum machine was a Roland CR-78, which was all over John Foxx's Metamatic. The pattern is at about 04:50 (it had preset patterns, but there was scope for variation):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-KTcMycoE

Collins strikes me as a man who would be held in higher regard if he had never said anything ever. If he had just shut up at some point in the late 1970s and never said anything. He'd still be held in low regard because of "Groovy Kind of Love" and Live Aid and Buster, but not as low.

What’s up with these covers with Phil looking older ? Am I listening to the original albums? E.g.

https://i.imgur.com/INUQNmv.png

this was after Nicky Santoro put his head in a vice

When they were reissued a coupla years back he reshot all the sleeves as he is now. It's literally an inexplicable move.

kinda rocks imo

As a concept, definitely. The images themselves always stop me in my tracks though.

Hilarious if other artists picked up the baton. Not sure Sly could pull off the Fresh leap now tbh...

So he didn’t re-record the songs on the albums? Just updated the covers?

just take a look at me now

He didn't rerecord them. They include bonus tracks but they're all demos and live tracks from those eras, iirc.

He's a monster but not that sort of monster.

Hilarious if other artists picked up the baton.

You mean like maybe Fleetwood Mac recreating elements of the Rumours cover for The Dance?

My other half worked on those reissues, and people definitely were scratching their heads at his idea of redoing the cover photos.

No Botox Required

...But Senescently

Hell, why not:

AARPbacab

Geriatric Hits... Live!

You'll Be in My Pacemaker

Hello? I Must Be Going Deaf