Phil Collins Biography

Philip David Charles Collins (born January 30, 1951 in Chiswick, London) is an English rock and pop musician. He is best known as the lead singer and drummer of progressive rock group Genesis and as a Grammy and Academy Award-winning solo artist.

In total, Collins sang the lead vocals on eight American chart-toppers between 1984 and 1989; seven as a solo artist and one with Genesis. His singles, often dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", to the dance pop of "Sussudio", to the political statements of his most successful song, "Another Day in Paradise". His international popularity transformed Genesis from a progressive rock group to a regular on the pop charts and an early MTV mainstay.

Collins' professional career began as a drummer, first with obscure rock group Flaming Youth and then more famously with Genesis. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied only backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel; it would not be until Gabriel's departure in 1975 that he became the group's lead singer. As the decade closed, Genesis' first international hit, "Follow You, Follow Me", demonstrated a drastic change from the band's early years. His concurrent solo career, heavily influenced by his personal life, brought both him and Genesis commercial success. According to Atlantic Records, Collins' total worldwide sales as a solo artist, as of 2002, were over 100 million.

Collins received a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle made him a makeshift one that he used regularly, and his drumming skills improved. As Collins grew they were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practiced by playing alongside the television and radio, and never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he uses a system he devised himself.

Collins looked for every opportunity to perform. His professional training began at fourteen when he entered Barbara Speake Stage School. He began a career as a child actor and model, and won his first major role as The Artful Dodger in a London production of Oliver!. He appeared as an extra on The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, as part of a crowd scene. He also auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968).

Despite the beginnings of an acting career, Collins continued to gravitate toward music. While attending "Chiswick Community School" he formed a band called The Real Thing and later joined The Freehold. With the latter group, he wrote his first song titled "Lying Crying Dying".

Collins' first record deal came as drummer for Flaming Youth, who released a single album, Ark 2 (1969). A concept album inspired by the recent media attention surrounding the moon landing, Ark 2 failed to make much commercial success despite positive critical reviews. Melody Maker featured the album as "Pop Album of the Month", describing it as "adult music beautifully played with nice tight harmonies". The album's main single, "From Now On", failed on the radio. After a year of touring, band tensions and the lack of commercial success dissolved the group.

An early theme in Collins' music, although never specifically mentioned in his albums, involved his then recent divorce. Two songs he wrote on the Genesis album Duke (1980), "Please Don't Ask" and "Misunderstanding", dealt with failed relationships. With the recording of his first solo album, Face Value (1981), Collins attributed his divorce as his main influence.

Collins’ marital frustrations formed the bulk of his first solo album as well as his sophomore effort, Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982). With songs such as "Like China" and "I Don't Care Anymore", Collins' early albums had a dark presence, usually heavy on the drums. Regarding Face Value, he says, "I had a wife, two children, two dogs, and the next day I didn't have anything. So a lot of these songs were written because I was going through these emotional changes." There were occasional poppier influences – Face Value's "Behind the Lines", for example, was a jazzy remake of a Genesis song he co-wrote. Face Value was a critical and commercial success, and saw Collins' profile increase further. However, despite a UK #1 cover of The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love", "Hello, I Must Be Going!", Face Value's follow-up, was seen as overall disappointment by many critics, the album failing to capitalise on previous successes, and spawning no other signifiant hits. It did nevertheless reach #2 on the UK album chart, spending well over a year there.

A notable episode in Collins' career took place in 1982, when he produced Something's Going On, a solo album by Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida), of ABBA fame. Frida, who had just parted with bandmate and husband Benny Andersson, had been heavily impressed by Collins' solo efforts and the personal, emotional load they conveyed and consequently, she approached Collins with her own solo project. The resulting album, featuring Collins himself on drums, brought the 1982 smash hit "I Know There's Something Going On" (Russ Ballard) and Collins' duet with Frida titled "Here We'll Stay." An edit featuring Frida on all vocals was released as a single.

A turning point in Collins' musical style came when he was asked to compose the title track for the film Against All Odds, a song which he re-worked to become "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" from an original Face Value session out-take entitled 'How Can You Sit There?'. The emotionally charged ballad was an instant classic and shot to #1 in the US but #2 in the UK, unable to get past Lionel Richie's "Hello". It is seen by many critics as the beginning of Collins' move away from his earlier darker and more dramatic material and towards a more pop-friendly, middle of the road, electronic-driven style.

In 1984, Collins garnered attention when he produced Philip Bailey's Chinese Wall album. He performed a duet on one of the album's tracks, "Easy Lover" which went to #2 on the U.S. pop chart and spent 4 weeks at #1 in the UK. Collins worked with the horn section of Bailey's band, Earth, Wind & Fire (later known as the Phenix Horns) throughout the 1980s, both on solo and Genesis tracks. By the end of 1984, Collins participated in Bob Geldof's Band Aid charity project, as well as, playing drums on the Band Aid single "Feed The World (Do They Know Its Christmas)".

In 1985, Collins was invited to perform at Live Aid, Bob Geldof's charity concert, at both Wembley Stadium in England, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in the U.S. He accomplished this by performing earlier in the day at Wembley as both a solo artist and alongside Sting, then boarding a Concorde to perform his solo material, and drum for Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton in Philadelphia. Also around this time, Phil worked with Howard Jones on a single. Howard Jones re-recorded his song "No One Is To Blame",off his Dream into Action album, and it featured Phil Collins as drummer, backing vocalist, and producer. He has also played drums on singles for Robert Plant, and Tina Turner on their respective albums. He also produced & played drums on the Eric Clapton album Behind The Sun. His solo success, as well as his concurrent career with Genesis, led to a 1985 cover story in Rolling Stone.

Collins released his most successful album, No Jacket Required, earlier that same year. It contained the hits "Sussudio", "One More Night" and "Take Me Home". The album featured Sting, Kate Bush and ex-bandmate Peter Gabriel as backing vocalists. He also recorded the successful song "Separate Lives", a duet with Marilyn Martin, and an American number one, for the movie White Nights. Collins had three American number-one songs in 1985, the most by any artist that year. No Jacket Required went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.

No Jacket Required received criticism that the album was too safe despite its upbeat reviews and commercial success. A positive review by David Fricke of Rolling Stone ended, "After years on the art-rock fringe, Collins has established himself firmly in the middle of the road. Perhaps he should consider testing himself and his new fans' expectations next time around." "Sussudio" also drew criticism for sounding too similar to Prince’s "1999", a charge that Collins did not deny. Nevertheless, the album went straight to #1 in the US (selling faster than "Thriller") and UK.

In 1988 Collins starred in the movie Buster about the Great Train Robbery which took place in England, the movie generated good reviews and Collins did three songs for the movie; "Two Hearts" - which he did with Lamont Dozier, "A Groovy Kind of Love" (Lyrics by Toni Wine, and music by Carol Bayer Sager) and he did the lyrics and music for the song "Loco In Acapulco" performed by the legendary Four Tops.

In 1989, Collins produced another successful album, ...But Seriously, featuring the anti-homelessness anthem "Another Day in Paradise", with David Crosby on backing vocals. (Collins later went on to co-write, sing and play on the song "Hero" on Crosby's 1993 album Thousand Roads.) Another Day in Paradise went to Number 1 on the Billboard Charts at the end of 1989 and won Collins a Grammy for Record of the Year (1990). In the process it became the last #1 hit of the 1980s. He did receive criticism for the song though as he was telling others to give money in order to help the poor and unfortunate while he was a millionaire, and as it typical for most of them, has many homes and cars. Other songs included "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven", "Do You Remember?" (US release only), and "I Wish It Would Rain Down" (the latter featuring long-time friend Clapton on guitar). Songs about apartheid and homelessness demonstrated Collins' turn to politically-driven material. This theme recurred on his later albums. A live album, Serious Hits... Live! (1990), followed.

The majority of Collins' film work has been through music. Four of his seven American number one songs came from film soundtracks, and his work on Disney's Tarzan earned him an Oscar. Collins' acting career has been brief. As a child, he appeared in three films, although two of the films were for brief moments as an extra. Besides the aforementioned A Hard Day's Night (1964), Collins' first lead role was in Calamity the Cow (1967).

He wrote and performed the title song to Against All Odds in 1984. The song became the first of his seven American number one songs and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. Collins was famously not invited to perform the song at that year’s presentation, although he was in the audience and had arranged his tour around the telecast. It was believed that the Academy, despite nominating him, did not know who he was. A note to Collins' label from telecast co-producer Larry Gelbart explaining the lack of invitation stated, "Thank you for your note regarding Phil Cooper (emphasis added). I'm afraid the spots have already been filled". Collins instead watched Ann Reinking perform his song. For a long time afterward, he would inform audiences at concerts, "Miss Ann Reinking's not here tonight, so I guess I'll have to sing my own song," before performing "Against All Odds".

Collins performed (although did not write) "Separate Lives" for the film White Nights (1985). A duet with Marilyn Martin, the single became an additional Number One for Collins as well as another nominee for an Academy Award (it being a songwriters award, Collins was not nominated). The song had parallels to his first two albums. Writer Stephen Bishop noted that he was inspired by a failed relationship and called "Separate Lives" "a song about anger".

Collins' first film role since becoming a musician came in 1988 with Buster. His rendition of "Groovy Kind of Love", originally a 1966 single by The Mindbenders, reached Number One. The film also spawned the hit single "Two Hearts", which he wrote in collaboration with legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier. Movie critic Roger Ebert said the role of Buster was "played with surprising effectiveness" by Collins, although the film's soundtrack proved more successful than the movie.

Collins was married to Andrea Bertorelli of Canada, whom he met at a drama class in London [20], in 1975. They had a son, Simon, and Collins adopted Bertorelli's daughter Joely Collins, now a Canadian actress. They divorced in 1980, and Collins acknowledges the acrimony underlay his hit "In the Air Tonight".

He and his second wife, Jill Tavelman, were married from 1984 to 1996. They had one daughter, Lily. Collins openly admits that some of their divorce-related correspondence was by fax (one, about access to their daughter, was reproduced in The Sun), but denies that this took her by surprise.[21]

He married his third wife, Orianne, in 1999. The couple had two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. They lived in Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva, before announcing their separation on March 16, 2006. Collins has said he will continue to reside in Switzerland to be near the children.

He is a supporter of animal rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2005, he donated autographed drumsticks in support of PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken.[22]

He is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club although has in the past admitted his fondness of Liverpool FC.