Today drummer, singer and songwriter Phil Collins turns 69! We celebrate the man who had his start as part of the band Genesis and then began his solo career in the 1980s. In honor of his special day, we want to throw it back to the concert Collins performed on his 32nd birthday, 37 years ago today!
After becoming a highly regarded musician as the drummer and (later) singer of Genesis, Collins was starting to really blossom into his solo chops, and this particular tour was in support of his sophomore album Hello, I Must Be Going!, AKA his first headlining tour as a solo artist! (Debut album Face Value never got a tour). The tour saw Collins perform a total of 56 shows. As you know, Uncle Phil would go on to leave Genesis in 1986.
His birthday performance took place in Cincinnati, Ohio at Cincinnati Garden, where Collins performed an 18-song setlist, including a one-song encore. The icon performed solo hits that were born from his two first albums, including “In the Air Tonight,” “I Don’t Care Anymore” and “Like China.”
I couldn't find any live performances from this exact show... So here is Phil Collins performing "In The Air Tonight" the year prior in 1982:
“In the Air Tonight” is his most performed song at a play count of 716. He also did his second most performed song, “You Can’t Hurry Love,” his popular Supremes cover, at a play count of 706 times.
Here is Collins performing The Supremes cover in 1982:
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He also worked in one Genesis song in the set - popular hit "Behind the Lines." For his encore, he did a song by another band he was apart of, the jazz fusion supergroup Brand X. He performed "...And So to F..." Collins sadly retired this track after 1985 and never covered any other track by the band.
Check out the full setlist right here:
Collins recently performed what might have been his last show ever back in October. You can revisit what went down in our tour wrap blog.
