“Brand X was great fun to play with – not so much fun to listen to”: Phil Collins’ adventures outside Genesis with Robert Plant, Eric Clapton and others made him so big he had to apologise

Phil Collins.

When Genesis’ future was in doubt after Peter Gabriel left, Phil Collins indulged his jazz-fusion passions with Brand X. It started the ball rolling on a solo career that saw him working as a session drummer, producer and pop star. In 2016 he reflected on an era that was so successful he had to apologise.

If Phil Collins played anything too fancy while recording Robert Plant’s first solo albums Pictures At Eleven and The Principle Of Moments, the Led Zeppelin icon would tell him not to give him “any of that knitting.” Plant likened Collins’ tricky flourishes to somebody frantically assembling a pullover.