Bands: Phil Collins – Sheryl Crow
Date: 21/06/19
Location: RheinEnergieSTADION
Promoter: Konzerte Köln
Phil Collins is without doubt one of the most successful musicians of all time. The now 68-year-old singer and songwriter is currently impressing thousands of fans with his Still Not Dead Yet Live Tour. I couldn’t let pass the chance to see such a legend at a concert, so I visited his show on the 20th of June at the RheinEnergieSTADION (Cologne).
The opening act was the American female rock singer Sheryl Crow. Because of the parking situation and that I got lost twice I was a little late and missed most of her show. However, I entered the interior space when her song “All I Wanna Do” was played and I can say that I had a lot of fun on this night.
At first music started to play from the speakers and old photographs of Phil Collins were shown on two large screens. Then he and the rest of the band entered the stage and it was a very special feeling when you cheer, scream and clap hands with about 45,000 other people.
As a result of health problems, Phil Collins mostly sat on a chair which did’t harm his sound volume. His voice is still freaking beautiful.
After the song “Who Said I Would”, he introduced the audience to the musicians of the fourteen-member band who accompanied him on tour. The members of the band are Dan Fornero (trumpet), George Shelby (saxophone), Luis Bonilla (trombone), Harry Kim (trumpet), Ronnie Caryl (rhythm guitar), Daryl Stuermer (lead guitar), Richie Garcia (percussion), Leland Sklar (bass guitar), Brad Cole (keyboards), Arnold McCuller (backing vocals), Amy Keys (backing vocals), Lamont van Hook (backing vocals), Bridgette Bryant (backing vocals), and last but not least Phil Collins‘ son Nicholas Collins (drums, piano).
The drum trio provided pure goose skin as Nicholas Collins, Richie Garcia and later Phil Collins showed with their rythmic beats what they can do on the drums. It was also a fantastic transition into the song “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven”. The show included calm and very emotional songs like “Separate Lives” as a duet with Bridgette Bryant or “You Know What I Mean” (which is a song that Phil Collins taught his son and he accompanied him on the piano) and of course many greatest hits such as for example “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “Invisible Touch”, “Easy Lover”, “Sussudio”. The atmosphere was very cheerful and exuberant during the entire evening, everybody danced, sang, clapped and had a really good time. With the very fitting song “Take Me Home” the concert came to an emotional end. Meanwhile it was dark night and the audience held their mobile phone lights in the air and this made it look like thousands of shining stars, really beautiful.
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