Phil Collins turns 75! On 30 January 2026, legendary drummer and singer Phil Collins will celebrate his 75th birthday. We take a look back at the most important milestones in his career.
Phil Collins can look back on an amazing career since entering the music business in the late 1960s. He was the drummer and later also the singer of one of the biggest rock bands of the 70s and 80s, and at the same time launched a phenomenal solo career that made him one of the most successful pop stars of the last 50 years, with more than 100 million albums sold.
Collins’ biggest hit, “In The Air Tonight,” is one of the most recognizable pop songs of the 1980s and features what is arguably the most iconic drum fill of all time.
Phil landed his spot in Genesis through a newspaper ad
Born in London on 30 January 1951, Phil Collins received a toy drum set for Christmas at the age of five. When he had just come of age and learned that the band Yes was looking for a new drummer, he signed up for an audition, but then changed his mind and didn’t show up. In retrospect, this was probably the right decision, because the next audition, which would have a massive impact on the rest of his life, followed shortly afterwards…
The band Genesis, which had already made a name for itself with the 1969 debut album “From Genesis to Revelation”, was looking for a new drummer in 1970 and placed an advertisement in the British music magazine Melody Maker. They were looking for “a drummer sensitive to acoustic music”.
Phil felt this was the job for him and successfully completed the audition at Peter Gabriel’s parents’ house. His debut with Genesis was the 1971 album “Nursery Cryme”. After two more albums, Genesis delivered a masterpiece in 1974 with the concept album “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, on which Phil Collins showcased the full range of his powerful and imaginative playing.
Genesis live in 1974:
The singing drummer
“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” marked an important turning point for Genesis, and Phil Collins in particular. Peter Gabriel left the band after the following world tour, leaving them without a singer. So Genesis held auditions to find a new singer. However, no one made the cut, and Collins had already sung a few songs on previous albums, so the band decided to give him the dual role of singing drummer. Since Phil Collins’ voice sounded convincing and was as recognizable as Peter Gabriel’s, the critics quickly fell silent, and the fans also got used to the new line-up after a short time.
For concerts, the band decided to enlist a second drummer, so that Collins could play drums for the instrumental tracks and take centre stage as the singer for the vocal pieces. Bill Bruford, who had previously drummed for Yes and King Crimson, was hired as the second drummer in 1976. He was followed shortly afterwards by Chester Thompson, who had already played drums for Weather Report and Frank Zappa. Thompson remained with Genesis until 1992 (and made a brief comeback for the 2007 tour), regularly performing spectacular drum duets with Phil Collins at concerts.
Genesis live in 1976:
His solo career began in 1981 with “Face Value”
In 1976, Phil Collins ventured out on his own and joined the British jazz rock band Brand X for the next four years, which played mostly instrumental music at a very high technical level. Here, Collins was able to fully showcase his instrumental skills. Shortly after leaving Brand X, he began making plans for a solo album, which was finally released in 1981 under the name “Face Value”. At the time, Collins was still a permanent member of Genesis.
On the album, he experimented with a surprising variety of styles, easily sweeping away his prog rock image. Tracks such as “I Missed Again” featured the horn section of the funk soul group Earth, Wind & Fire, and with the Beatles cover “Tomorrow Never Knows”, Collins even ventured into psychedelic territory. The undisputed highlight of this album, however, was of course the mega-hit “In the Air Tonight”, which probably spawned as many “air drummers” as Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” spawned air guitarists.
Phil Collins “In The Air Tonight” live in 1982:
Around the world at supersonic speed
While he continued to release successful albums with Genesis in the 1980s, his solo career gained momentum and brought him numerous chart successes, including the Supremes cover “You Can’t Hurry Love”, the ballad “Against All Odds” from the film of the same name, and Phil’s statement on homelessness, “Another Day in Paradise”.
Collins was also in high demand as a guest drummer. For example, he played on the solo debut of former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and even performed with him and the remaining band members, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, at the Live Aid concert in 1985 following John Bonham’s death. Collins managed to perform at both the Live Aid concert in London and the parallel event in Philadelphia on the same day by flying to the United States on board a Concorde immediately after the London gig.
Phil Collins had several more big hits with Genesis in the early 1990s – “I Can’t Dance”, “Jesus He Knows Me” and “No Son of Mine” – before leaving the band in 1996. Shortly afterwards, he returned to his earliest musical roots for a few years with the Phil Collins Big Band. In 2000, he had another huge hit with “You’ll Be in My Heart” from the film “Tarzan”, which even won him an Oscar.
Phil Collins took another step into the past in 2010 with his latest studio album, Going Back, which embraces the sound of the 1960s with a special focus on the Motown sound that had already played an important role on his first solo albums.
Phil Collins Big Band “Pick Up The Pieces” live in 1982:
Phil’s motto in life: Not dead yet
After a long hiatus, Phil Collins once again went on tour between 2017 and 2019. The motto “Not Dead Yet” was in keeping with the title of his 2016 autobiography. The 14-piece band included his son Nicholas “Nic” Collins, who had yet to celebrate his 18th birthday, but played drums on stage due to Phil’s health problems. Genesis also took to the stage one last time in 2021/2022, featuring the original members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, as well as Nic Collins on drums again. By this time, Phil was already having such serious back problems that he performed sitting down. Since then, Phil Collins has retired from public life and retreated to his home on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Documentary about “The Last Domino?” tour:
Phil’s equipment
During his early years with Genesis, Phil Collins used fairly conventionally configured drum kits from Gretsch or Premier, combined with cymbals from Paiste and Zildjian and a 14″ x 6.5″ Ludwig Super Sensitive snare drum. In the early 1980s, he had a brief interlude with Pearl before switching back to Gretsch around 1983, a brand he remained loyal to until the end of his drumming career. From this time onwards, he played a 14″ x 8″ Gretsch snare drum with a wooden shell and, from around 1990, a Noble & Cooley with a 14″ x 3 7/8″ maple solid shell.
From the mid-1980s onwards, his cymbals came from Sabian, who even created a signature model for him, the 21″ HH Raw Bell Dry Ride. Phil Collins played an old Ludwig Speed King bass drum pedal for almost his entire career. He also remained loyal to his beloved Beyerdynamic M88 microphone, which he used for most of his vocal recordings.
Since the late 1970s, Phil Collins’ drum kits prominently featured a set of concert toms equipped with Remo Ambassador Clear heads, usually six pieces with diameters ranging from 8 to 18 inches. Due to the lack of resonance heads, these drums produced the typical punchy sound that can be heard in its purest form on tracks such as “In the Air Tonight” and “I Don’t Care Anymore”. If you want to learn more about Phil Collins’ iconic drum kit, be sure to check out the videos of his son Nic, who used an identically configured white Gretsch USA Custom Kit in tribute to Phil while performing with his father and the band Genesis.
Nic Collins on Drumeo in 2023:
Phil Collins is undoubtedly a drumming icon. What comes to mind when you hear his name?
Phil Collins is undoubtedly a drumming icon. What comes to mind when you hear his name? Let us know in the comments!
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