Daily Mail

You can’t hurry Phil ... 66-year-old Collins totters to stage on cane

- By Susie Coen Showbusine­ss Reporter

THE title of his new tour says it all – Not Dead Yet.

Propped up on a microphone stand and a walking stick, Phil Collins cut a fragile figure – a far cry from the rock and roll frontman he used to be.

While contempora­ries such as 73-year-old Mick Jagger are still able to leap about on stage, Collins, 66, was forced to perform the whole Royal Albert Hall concert seated.

Following years of back, nerve and tendon problems, it is his first tour in a decade, with tickets sold out in minutes.

The drummer, Genesis singer and Eighties pop star has said: ‘Sixty years of drumming messed up my back and hips. I’ve had surgery to sort it out but it’s left me with a dropped foot. I’m hoping it will get better as my nerves regenerate.’

Collins, who is worth £110million and has sold more than 150million albums after scoring hits such as I Missed Again, In The Air Tonight and You Can’t Hurry Love, did play piano.

But despite fans’ hopes that he might play the drums, percussion duties were taken up by his 16-year-old son Nicholas, who has had lessons from his father since he was five.

The concert on Monday was Collins’s first in London since he performed with his Genesis bandmates ten years ago.

During the series of 2007 shows, he dislocated a vertebra in his neck, undergoing years of surgery, electrosho­ck therapy, water therapy and physiother­apy to sort it out.

 ??  ?? Stage prop: Collins, 66, holds on to his stick and a microphone stand
Stage prop: Collins, 66, holds on to his stick and a microphone stand
 ??  ?? Sitting comfortabl­y: He performed the show from a chair
Sitting comfortabl­y: He performed the show from a chair
 ??  ?? Status cymbal:l Nicholas,Ni h 16
Status cymbal:l Nicholas,Ni h 16
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