11 hours Ago
Prog “Growing up, my music taste was like osmosis from what my parents were listening to, which was Phil Collins’ solo stuff. I got used to all the big hits; and, for me, the drumming thing came from , an iconic moment in music that just happens to be on the drums. I then worked backwards from the pop hits and started listening to Genesis.
On and his drumming is incredible, with so many intricacies there. Those records were lauded at the time but unknown to kids like me in the 90s. was my school friend’s godfather and our era was – I remember him saying he’d seen them play Torquay on that tour.
I started to get the Genesis live albums and I’d drum along to them all the time. Ninety per cent of drummers are interchangeable, but you definitely know when Phil Collins is playing. He brings a bit of Motown to the sound – he’s done it on all his solo records but it’s there even in his early recordings with Genesis.
There’s a pulse going; his playing is danceable when he hits a groove and he’s really musical, which is different to the two-and-four drummers – especially myself! I wish I could be as creative as him. Then there’s his voice. It’s incredibly difficult to be a good drummer; it’s incredibly difficult to be a phenomenal singer.
It’s even rarer to put them together. I saw him last year at the Royal Albert Hall and he wasn’t terribly well, but his voice was still fantastic. Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! It’s the ‘flats-in-Dagenham’ stuff that will always get me, though.
What makes a great drum solo is when non-drummers can gravitate to it. When you see someone air drumming and they’re hitting in the right place, that’s the mark of a great solo; and Phil’s the master. When Benji won’t shut up on stage, I’ll do ‘the Phil’ to move it along.
The audience go wild – ‘Phil! Yeaaah!’ – so he’s always with us in spirit!” Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for , Supper's Ready.
After being Deputy Editor for for five years and Managing Editor of for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of , where she's been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to . She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators..
