Serious Hits... Live - Phil Collins

Introduction.

When I first saw Phil Collins performing on television with Genesis, I thought, who could be this balding guy who seems to have captured everyone’s heart with his songs. It did not take me long to discover why. This artist has dominated the music industry for so many years, that he is a legend in his own time.
Born in Chiswick, London on the 3Oth of January 1951, he was given his first set of drums at the age of ...
...of percussion instruments. It was to influence his early career, when he joined several bands such as the Freeholders, and performed as many gigs as possible to make a name for himself. He was to play with many bands until he found a struggling band called Genesis in 1970 and joined then as a drummer.
At that time. Peter Gabriel was the vocalist but when he left to go solo in 1975, Phil became the vocalist for the band, something he had not ... more

Introduction.

When I first saw Phil Collins performing on television with Genesis, I thought, who could be this balding guy who seems to have captured everyone’s heart with his songs. It did not take me long to discover why. This artist has dominated the music industry for so many years, that he is a legend in his own time.
Born in Chiswick, London on the 3Oth of January 1951, he was given his first set of drums at the age of five and since then he has had a lifelong love of percussion instruments. It was to influence his early career, when he joined several bands such as the Freeholders, and performed as many gigs as possible to make a name for himself. He was to play with many bands until he found a struggling band called Genesis in 1970 and joined then as a drummer.
At that time. Peter Gabriel was the vocalist but when he left to go solo in 1975, Phil became the vocalist for the band, something he had not bargained for.
Over the next few years, he was to lead Genesis to the top of the music charts until they became a household name. While he was performing with the band, he also wrote most of their songs and was to continue performing with them even when he pursued his own solo career.
However, in the early years there was more to Phil than just his music, he attended stage school and played the part of the cockney Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver, following this acting career as the lead role in “Buster”, a film based on the real life story of the train-robbers.

His energy and enthusiasm knew no bounds, over the past twenty years; he has toured all over the world, but still kept his connection to Genesis until 1996.
This album comes from a tour undertaken in 1990; it was several years later that I bought the CD, which has become the pride of my music collection.
I had not realised until I bought the CD, how much work had gone into that tour. Starting in Japan in February 1990, there following a punishing regime, which would put many modern young bands to shame. The tour took in more countries than I could name here, without making this a tribute to Phil, the musician. The tour went from Australia, Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy ending back in the UK in October. The CD was recorded live and remixed back in the UK.

With the CD, came an eight-page leaflet on the tour, listing all the musicians and the backing crew, Phil left nobody out.
The CD starts with “Something happened on the way to heaven” an upbeat track that soon got the audience going. Throughout the performance, you can actually hear and feel the excitement of the live performance, without it disturbing the tracks themselves. The atmosphere is electric and Phil has the audience eating out of the palms of his hands. You can feel yourself swept up with the audience as the first track follows into “Against all odds” a slower but still powerful song. The balance of the lively, foot-tapping music, blends into the haunting ballads that to me are the best songs for Phil’s vocal range.
All my old favourites are here, fifteen songs in all, they range from the powerful start to the easy-going “Sussulio”, where Phil gets the audience to join in, making this a lively experience.
The gently melodic strains of “A groovy type of love”. “Easy Lover” and the upbeat “You can’t hurry love”, gives way to the ballads that I love and have some special meanings to me.
“Separate Lives” is in a class of it’s own, “One more night” has the saxophone solo, that sends shivers down my spine.
“Two Hearts” is another easy-going song that you can sing along too, while the social commentary of “Another day in Paradise” has the impact of making you think about the words as well as the melody.

There is not one track on this that is not familiar and to me that is a huge bonus. Although I have some of the tracks on different CD’s, this has all the songs that I love.
So many of these songs have some beautiful lyrics, that are missing from modern music, with Phil’s clear voice, you don’t need a song sheet to follow these.
I have followed Phil’s career from 1975 and feel a great sadness that, due to hearing problems, his last tour will be in Amsterdam this year. Currently, he is writing songs for the Disney animations, one newly released is Brother Bear and Tarzan is to follow.
I personally hope that he never retires; he has come a long way from his early beginnings as the cockney rebel, to a mature and talented writer of songs.

I would recommend this to everyone who likes a mixture of songs and lyrics you can hear.
My copy cost me about £9.99. I have searched the web, to find that it is quite hard to get a copy. HMV stock it at £14.99, while W.H.Smith has it for £10.99. One copy is available on e-bay at £2.50, I think this shows how very popular this recording is.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with the words of Phil Collins himself. This is on my booklet, that unfortunately, I cannot upload pictures from, as my scanner is playing up.

“Between February and October we played 127 shows across the world. I would like to thank the band and crew for giving 100% of their love and enthusiasm at every show. I’d also like to thank the fans, who play more a part in a show than they realise, for their love, loyalty and affection."
Humble words from such a skilled performer.
Thank you for reading.
Lisa.
 

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