Phil Collins Comes Out of Retirement with European Tour

Phil Collins has decided to come out of retirement following a 10-year hiatus with an European tour.

The rock veteran, whose hits include In The Air Tonight and Against All Odds, will play a five-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall in June 2017.

That will be followed by similar five-night stints in Paris and Cologne.

Phil Collins, now 65, announced his retirement in 2011, after nerve damage left him unable to play the drums.

Although the musician has recovered some dexterity, he said he was unlikely to sit behind the kit on the new tour.

He said his 15-year-old son, Nicholas, would fill in for his dad on tour.

Image source Wikipedia

“Nicholas is in the learning stage, and he’s already a fantastic drummer,” Phil Collins said.

The star made a tentative return to the stage at a one-off show for his Little Dreams Foundation in 2015, at which Nicholas played drums “and all the band were very impressed”.

Phil Collins also sang two of his hits at the opening of the US Open tennis in New York in August.

With characteristic understatement, Phil Collins’ comeback tour will be called Not Dead Yet Live.

Phil Collins first came to prominence as the drummer and then frontman of Genesis.

He made his solo debut with his 1981 album Face Value, which included the hit single In the Air Tonight. His other hits include Easy Lover, You Can’t Hurry Love, One More Night and Another Day In Paradise.

Phil Collins played down his image as a 1980s soft-rock balladeer.

“People tend to think of me as shiny BMW music,” he said at a press conference announcing the tour.

“That’s a misconception.”

The Royal Albert Hall dates will take place on June 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

The German dates start in Cologne on June 11 and 12; with the Paris dates the following week.

Tickets go on sale on October 21.

Phil Collins’s memoir Not Dead Yet: The Autobiography will be published later this week.