Music legend Phil Collins has held his final concert with Genesis in an emotional farewell due to his ongoing health issues.
Collins, 71, made the announcement alongside bandmates Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks during a performance in London on Saturday.
The bombshell decision also potentially spells an end to the Genesis star’s solo shows.
Collins, who has endured numerous health issues in recent years, sat throughout the performance and quipped in good humour to the O2 Arena crowd that he would need to find a “real job”.
The group’s former drummer has struggled with declining health for the past 15 years.
Collins has required the help of a cane to walk since 2015, when he needed back surgery. A dislocated vertebrae in his neck in 2007 left him with severe nerve damage in his hands.
He has also battled acute pancreatitis.
In September last year, Collins revealed he could barely hold a drumstick anymore, and admitted that his health had changed how he could perform.
“I don’t do anything at all. I don’t practise singing at home, not at all. Rehearsing is the practice,” Collins told The Guardian.
“These guys are always having a go at me for not, but I have to do it this way. Of course, my health does change things, doing the show seated changes things.
“But I actually found on my recent solo tours, it didn’t get in the way; the audience were still listening and responding. It’s not the way I would have written it, but it’s the way that it is.”
Genesis reunited for The Last Domino? world tour this year after a 14-year live performance hiatus.
Phil Collins’ daughter, actress Lily Collins, paid tribute to her father’s final performance with the band after attending the show, saying the night marked “the end of an era”.
“To have witnessed this last show was truly the memory of a lifetime and an event I shall hold in my heart forever,” she said in a post on Instagram.
“Endlessly grateful doesn’t begin to do it justice.
“So much love was left on that O2 stage and an even bigger amount shared between an audience who didn’t want it to end. Thank you Genesis for the memories, thank you dad for being such an inspiration …”
