Serendipity and Genesis, a great way to start the day

[Yonni]

Years ago I lived in a small village in Surrey, England, and a certain drummer whom I’ll call “Phil” lived nearby. One day me and a couple of school mates plucked up the courage to go and knock on his door. Guess who answered? Phil Collins himself! We had bags of albums and I had a Wind & Wuthering/ A Trick of the Tail songbook, which he happily signed and chatted to us for about 15 minutes. This was around the time of Duke and pre solo stuff. Roll on 35 years or so and I’m now learning bass and wondering what happened to the book. Well, I found it under a pile of photography books and guess what? It actually has the treble and bass clefs for all songs! I’m stoked and have a busy weekend ahead.

 

[Oddly]

Very cool.
I've always thought he was a nice guy...he's seemed to generate a lot of dislike over the years, never really understood that.

Great documentary on youtube...

 

[Yonni]

He’s an ace guy. I stayed in that village until I was 19 and met him again in the local pub. My friends family ran it and his dad ( the landlord) became good friends. I recently picked up his autobiography in the library and leafed through it. I found reference to the village (Shalford) and he wrote a nice thank you to my friends parents (the Maskrey family) in it. Always had time for people and was a genuinely funny guy. Apparently there were a few after hours sessions in the pub featuring Phil and Eric Clapton on spoons and washboard! I wasn’t lucky enough to see any of that though. My mate, the son of the landlord, ended up with Phil’s drum machine, as featured on the Duke album. He had it complete with set list attached if I remember correctly. In that very same pub (The Queen Victoria, Shalford) Bruce Foxton of the Jam bought me a pint. But that’s another story...