Phil Collins

Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis and had a successful solo career, achieving three UK number-one singles and seven US number-one singles as a solo artist. In total, his work with Genesis, other artists and solo resulted in more US top-40 singles than any other artist throughout the 1980s. His most successful singles from the period include "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "One More Night", "Sussudio", "Another Day in Paradise", "Two Hearts" and "I Wish It Would Rain Down".

Born and raised in west London, Collins began playing drums at the age of five. During the same period he attended drama school, which helped secure various roles as a child actor. His first major role was the Artful Dodger in the West End production of the musical Oliver!. As an accomplished professional actor by his early teens, he pivoted to pursue a music career, becoming the drummer for Genesis in 1970. He took over the role of lead singer in 1975 following the departure of Peter Gabriel. During the second half of the 1970s, in between Genesis albums and tours, Collins was the drummer of jazz rock band Brand X. Collins began a successful solo career in the 1980s, initially inspired by his marital breakdown and love of soul music, releasing the albums Face Value (1981), Hello, I Must Be Going (1982), No Jacket Required (1985) and ...But Seriously (1989). Collins became, in the words of AllMusic, "one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond". He became known for a distinctive gated reverb drum sound on many of his recordings. He played drums on the 1984 charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and, in July 1985, he was the only artist to perform at both Live Aid concerts. He resumed his acting career, appearing in Miami Vice and subsequently starring in the film Buster (1988).

Collins left Genesis in 1996 to focus on solo work; this included writing songs for Disney's animated film Tarzan (1999), for which he wrote and performed the songs "Two Worlds", "Son of Man", "Strangers Like Me" and "You'll Be in My Heart", the last of which earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He rejoined Genesis for their Turn It On Again Tour in 2007. Following a five-year retirement to focus on his family life, Collins released his memoir in 2016 and conducted the Not Dead Yet Tour from 2017 to 2019. He then rejoined Genesis in 2020 for a second and final reunion tour, which ran from 2021 to 2022.

Collins's discography includes eight studio albums that have sold 33.5 million certified units in the US and an estimated 150 million records sold worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists. He is one of only three recording artists, along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, who have sold over 100 million records both as solo artists and separately as principal members of a band. He has won eight Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards (winning Best British Male Artist three times), two Golden Globe Awards, one Academy Award and a Disney Legend Award. He was awarded six Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the International Achievement Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. Ranked by Rolling Stone at number 43 in the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.

Philip David Charles Collins was born on 30 January 1951 at Putney Hospital in what was then the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (now the London Borough of Wandsworth) in south-west London, England. His mother, Winifred June (née Strange, 1913–2011), worked in a toy shop and later as a booking agent at the Barbara Speake Stage School, an independent performing arts school in East Acton, while his father, Greville Philip Austin Collins (1907–1972), was an insurance agent for London Assurance. Collins is the youngest of three children; his sister, Carole, competed as a professional ice skater and followed her mother's footsteps as a theatrical agent, while his brother, Clive, was a cartoonist. The family moved twice by the time Collins had reached the age of two; they settled at 453 Hanworth Road in what was then the Municipal Borough of Brentford and Chiswick.

Collins was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five years old, and later his two uncles made him a makeshift set with triangles and tambourines that fitted into a suitcase. As he grew older, these were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. Collins practised by playing along to music on the television and radio. During a family holiday at Butlin's, a seven-year-old Collins entered a talent contest, singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"; he stopped the orchestra halfway through to tell them they were in the wrong key. The Beatles were a major early influence on him, including their drummer Ringo Starr. Collins followed the lesser-known London band the Action, whose drummer he would copy and whose work introduced him to the soul music of Motown and Stax Records. He was also influenced by the jazz and big band drummer Buddy Rich, whose opinion on the importance of the hi-hat prompted him to stop using two bass drums and start using the hi-hat.

At around the age of 12, Collins received basic piano and music tuition from his father's aunt. He studied drum rudiments under Lloyd Ryan and later under Frank King, and considered this training "more helpful than anything else because they're used all the time. In any kind of funk or jazz drumming, the rudiments are always there." Collins never learned to read or write musical notation and devised his own system, which he regretted in later life. "I've always felt that if I could hum it, I could play it. For me, that was good enough, but that attitude is bad."

Collins attended Nelson Primary School until he was 11 years old. Collins was accepted into Chiswick County Grammar School, where he took to football and formed the Real Thing, a school band that had Andrea Bertorelli, his future wife, and friend Lavinia Lang, as backup singers. Both women would have an impact on his personal life in later years. Collins's next group was the Freehold, with whom he wrote his first song, "Lying, Crying, Dying", and played in a group named the Charge. He was childhood friends with Jack Wild, who would become famous for playing the Artful Dodger in the film Oliver! (1968); the pair both attended the Barbara Speake Stage School after Collins's mother spotted Wild as the two played football in the park.

Collins quit school at fourteen to become a full-time pupil at Barbara Speake. He had an uncredited part as an extra in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (1964), where he is among the screaming teenagers during the television concert sequence. Later in 1964, Collins was cast as the Artful Dodger in two West End runs of the musical Oliver! He was paid £15 a week, and called the role "the best part for a kid in all London". His days as the Dodger were numbered when his voice broke during a performance and had to speak his lines for the rest of the show. Collins starred in Calamity the Cow (1967), a film produced by the Children's Film Foundation. After a falling out with the director, Collins decided to quit acting to pursue music. He was to appear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) as one of the children who storm the castle, but his scene was cut. Collins auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968), but the role went to Leonard Whiting. In 1967, he travelled the UK teaching people the "crunch" dance made popular by a Smith's crisps advertising campaign.

Collins's enthusiasm for music grew during his acting years. He frequented the Marquee Club on Wardour Street so often that eventually the managers asked him to set out the chairs, sweep the floors, and assist in the cloakroom. It was here where Collins saw The Action and newcomers Yes perform, which greatly influenced him. When auditions for Vinegar Joe and Manfred Mann Chapter Three were unsuccessful, Collins secured a position in the Cliff Charles Blues Band and toured the country. This was followed by a stint in The Gladiators, a backing band for a black vocal quartet, which included Collins's schoolmate Ronnie Caryl on guitar. Around this time, Collins learned that Yes were looking for a new drummer and spoke to frontman Jon Anderson, who invited him to an audition the following week. Collins failed to turn up.

In 1969, Collins and Caryl joined John Walker's backing band for a European tour, which included guitarist Gordon Smith and keyboardist Brian Chatton. The tour finished, and the quartet formed a rock band, Hickory, which recorded one single ("Green Light"/"The Key"). Still in 1969, they were renamed Flaming Youth. They signed to Fontana Records and recorded Ark 2 (1969), a concept album written and produced by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley that tells the story of man's evacuation from a burning Earth and its voyage into space. Each member sings a lead vocal.

In May 1970, after Flaming Youth split, Collins played congas on George Harrison's song "Art of Dying", but his contribution was omitted. Years later, Collins asked Harrison about the omission. Harrison sent Collins a recording allegedly containing Collins's performance; Collins was embarrassed to hear that the performance was poor. When Collins apologised, Harrison confessed that the recording was a prank, which Collins accepted in good humour.

In July 1970, the rock band Genesis had signed with Charisma Records and recorded their second album Trespass (1970), but suffered a setback following the departure of guitarist Anthony Phillips. They decided that their drummer John Mayhew, though talented, was not of the high calibre they wanted, and placed an advert in the Melody Maker for a drummer "sensitive to acoustic music" and a 12-string acoustic guitarist. Collins recognised Charisma owner Tony Stratton Smith's name on it, who he had been acquainted with for years, and he and Caryl went for the auditions. The group, who had been a full-time working band for less than a year, consisted of school friends from Charterhouse School, a private boarding school: singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford. Collins and Caryl arrived early, so Collins took a swim in the pool at Gabriel's parents' house and memorised the pieces the drummers before him were playing. He recalled: "They put on 'Trespass', and my initial impression was of a very soft and round music, not edgy, with vocal harmonies, and I came away thinking Crosby, Stills and Nash." Gabriel, a former drummer, said he could tell just by the way Collins sat in front of the drum kit that he knew what he was doing, and was also impressed when Collins mentioned the session with George Harrison. On 8 August 1970, Collins became their fourth drummer. Genesis then took a two-week holiday, during which Collins earned money as an exterior decorator. Rutherford thought Caryl was not a good fit, and for over a month Genesis wrote songs, rehearsed, and toured as a four-piece. In January 1971, the band enlisted Steve Hackett.