PHIL
COLLINS
(UK, twelve Top 40 hits, four Top 40
albums)
It's amazing how rich you can get
when your missus dumps you. Usually it's the other way round, but Genesis
stickman and vocalist Collins put all his pent-up emotions and vitriol over his
wife eloping with the painter and decorator into songs which were intended just
to let off steam, yet turned him into the most successful British solo male of
the decade, with particularly enormous superhuman status in America. For years
it's been easy and fashionable to scorn and slag off the balding former child
actor, but statistics don't lie. Eight Top 10 hits, three No.1 albums and
continued success smacking the cymbals and supplying the voice to Genesis made
for a decade which Collins dominated completely. It all heralded from the day in
'78 when his first wife did a runner, leaving Collins distraught, furious and
emotionally vulnerable. The rest of Genesis allowed him some time off to sort
out his affairs but the long and messy divorce proceedings made him so vitriolic
that he started writing a plethora of songs, originally intended for consumption
by Genesis. Some were rejected by the band, so Collins set about doing a solo
album (something which he had never considered before) and the result was
"Face Value", publicised by the haunting, distressingly emotional
"In The Air Tonight" ("well
if you told me you were drowning I would not lend a hand") which
catapulted solo Collins to No.2 in the early part of '81, with sympathy
emanating from the sparse, black-and-white video and his hate signal of a
decorator's paintbrush placed on top of his piano when he did TOTP.
OUTPOURINGS
A
lucrative part-time job was looming
as a result, and the album shot to No.1, with the similarly outbursting "I
Missed Again" (one of the songs rejected by Genesis) adding more fuel to
the fire. Collins only intended to make one album, but his split got messier and
messier, and he found more lyrical outpourings to construct a second long-player
"Hello, I Must Be Going" in '83, from which his cover of the Motown
classic "You Can't Hurry Love" gave him his first No.1, helped by a
brilliant, minimalist flick in which he played himself and the two Supreme-esque
back-up singers. His tour de force came with the title soundtrack to the
unremarkable '84 film "Against All Odds" ("take
a look at me now, where there's just an empty space"), a beautiful
piano ballad to be cruelly slaughtered 16 years later by Westlife and Mariah
Carey.
HISTORY
The
increasing star for such an unlikely
hero (squat, balding, sweaty top lip, patterned tanktops) made his lone projects
more successful than those with Genesis (who were always much more of an album
band anyway) and Collins ended the year on a high by putting the drums on to the
Band Aid single. The third album "No Jacket Required" saw him change
direction a little, with more emphasis on power drums and brass riffs and less
on piano weepies, and the opening single "Sussudio" ("there's
a girl who's been on my miiiiii-nd, all the time, Su-Su-Sudio") just
clicked with the unconvinced section of the intrigued world, still unsure of
whether a now re-married Collins could cut it as an artist in his own right
without having inspiration from personal crises. His weakest single of the
decade followed, the insipidly stark "One More Night" ("and
I was wondering should I call you, then I thought maybe you're not alone")
and the summer of '85 arrived, a time when Collins would be put into the history
books when, at Live Aid, he wandered on to the Wembley stage, did "Against
All Odds" at the piano and then leapt into a chopper to fly across the pond
and perform the self-same song in Philadelphia a few hours afterwards. The third
single was released a fortnight later, the slow-burning but utterly enjoyable
"Take Me Home" ("cause I
don't rememberrr!") which was ripe with clever percussion and crowned a
memorable year for both personal and professional reasons, which also comprised
of successful duets with Philip Bailey and Marilyn Martin.
UNHIP
The
next three years were a solo
wasteland, as Collins concentrated on Genesis (and appeared in "Miami
Vice") but a leaner, refreshed Collins appeared in '88, guaranteeing a
return to public consumption with a remix of "In The Air Tonight"
before his soundtrack to great train robbery "Buster" (in which he
played the lead role) took hold of the second half of the year. Collins went
back to No.1 with a cover of "A Groovy Kind Of Love" ("when
I'm feeling blue, all I want to do is take a look at you") and
consolidated his revamped Top 10 status with the simple-but-effective "Two
Hearts". By now, he was enormous in America, but his homeland had started
to scorn him as old hat, predictable and samey, not to mention totally unhip
and, frankly, ageing. But the hardcore stayed loyal and Collins went ishoo based
with the fourth album "But Seriously" in '89, the biggest worldwide
seller of them all, complemented by the heartfelt homeless anthem "Another
Day In Paradise" which charted as the 80s ended and reached No.2, winning a
BRIT award on the way for Best Single, to be followed by no less than five more
vinyl offerings from that terrific album.
FORMULAIC
Collins
has since dumped his second wife by
fax, got a second divorce, defied the scathers, written soundtracks, quit
Genesis, married a much younger woman, flirted with more acting, blubbed after
winning an Oscar (for music, not thespianism) and moved to Switzerland where he
can count his money in peace and no little satisfaction. Very rich, affable and
honest, his success boils down to a great talent being realised rather than the
wave of sympathy which initially made him the most famous wronged hubby in the
public's consciousness. He will always be knocked for sticking to his simple,
formulaic principles, but he had the last laugh, and then some. One suspects,
however, that he insists on doing all his own decorating.
Biggest
Hit: "You Can't Hurry Love", "A Groovy Kind Of Love", both
No.1, 1983 and 1988
Defining Moment: All four album covers contained stern, close-up photos of
Collins from different angles.
Matt
