Phil Collins recalls early failings as Genesis frontman

A picture of Phil Collins onstage with Genesis in 1976 — Phil Collins onstage with Genesis in 1976 (Image credit: Getty)

Phil Collins has recalled his early failings as a frontman when he took over the Genesis limelight from Peter Gabriel.

Drummer Collins took over on lead vocals after Gabriel quit in 1975. And he says it was filling the gaps between songs that he found most difficult.

He tells Uncut: “My main worry was what I was going to say to the crowd as the band are tuning their 12-string guitars between songs.

“You can’t let the dead air settle, you have to fill it, and that’s what Peter became good at.”

And when he attempted to tell a humorous story during a show in Spain, Collins realised he was out of his depth.

He adds: “I used to tell little stories. Sometimes it was terribly embarrassing. I concocted this story for The Cinema Show. We were in Spain in a bullring and for some reason I can’t quite fathom, the story involved an inflatable doll.

“There was this guy, trying to blow the doll up, and he’s smoking and of course he bursts the doll. It was quite funny on paper.

“But I’m standing there in this bull ring, telling my story, which is written on a bit of paper in my hand, in pidgin Spanish, trying to blow up an inflatable doll. It became quite clear this story was going to take a good half hour.”

Collins recently announced a run of shows for 2017 and he has hinted that he could play drums on the dates.

Phil Collins European tour 2017

Jun 04: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Jun 05: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Jun 07: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Jun 08: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Jun 09: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Jun 11: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Jun 12: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Jun 18: Paris Accor Hotels Arena, France
Jun 19: Paris Accor Hotels Arena, France
Jun 30: London Hyde Park British Summer Time festival, UK

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.