Phil Collins – Live in Rolle & Lausanne 2016: Little Dreams Foundation – Concert report

After Phil finally gave his concert in Miami in March for the annual Little Dreams Foundation Gala, which had been postponed twice, the European counterpart took place in Lausanne on 3 June at the Salle Metropole. Even though tickets were initially available for no less than CHF 250 due to the charitable nature of the event, I had to go, because you just don't know if he'll perform again later or even be able to go on tour. A few weeks before, an additional concert was announced, which was billed as a public rehearsal, to be held the day before in Rolle, also on Lake Geneva. Tickets were available to the public, in only one category and one row, for a mere £250. After some consideration, I gave in and extended my travel plans accordingly.

The concert in Rolle took place in the auditorium of an international private school called Rosey. Although calling this hall simply an auditorium would be a gross understatement. It is more like a hypermodern, stylish UFO that has landed on Lake Geneva. The hall itself is not particularly large, but there is plenty of space around it within the building, and a library is also integrated. The school buildings are located next to this building, so the students, who apparently made up a large part of the audience together with their parents, only had to walk a few metres to the hall.

I don't want to know how much the annual membership fee is, but you can imagine. It is located in a beautiful park, which had been well organised for the evening and partially converted into a car park, and when you drove in, you were directed straight to a spot on the lawn. All around us were luxury cars, and the haute volée got out, dressed very elegantly. But there were no checks anywhere, and no one scanned the tickets; it was all very informal. You could probably have just walked in, but then you wouldn't have found a seat, as it was pretty full.

In the foyer, there were lots of exhibition pieces to admire and bid on, including several signed album covers from the reissues, as well as some framed photos of Phil from his Genesis days. Two acoustic guitars with Phil's dedication were also available for purchase in a silent auction. There were also lots of other photos of this kind featuring other musicians and actors. A programme booklet (12 pages, DIN A5) was also handed out, briefly introducing the LDF and, of course, providing details about the evening's performers.

Basically, everything went pretty much the same way as in Miami that evening – first Phil and Orianne came on stage alone and briefly introduced the evening's programme, and a short film was shown on the screen introducing the LDF. Then some of the singers supported by the LDF performed, followed by the band of Phil's second youngest son (15) and drummer, Nic Collins, called What You Know (WYK), including a drum duet with Nic and Jean-Pierre Espiritusanto JP on the second drum kit.

And then the master himself performed his 45-minute set with a band consisting mostly of old acquaintances. However, there were a few differences in the line-up between Miami and the two Swiss concerts. In Miami, Gerald Albright was on saxophone, Nathan East on bass, Daryl Stuermer on guitar, Brad Cole on keyboards, Luis Conte on percussion and Nic Collins on drums.

In Switzerland, on the other hand, we had one of the musical directors of this show himself, Piero della Francesca from Turin, on saxophone, Leland Sklar on bass, Jason Robello on keyboards, Richie Garcia on percussion and, again, Daryl and Nic. But that was simply because Gerald, Nathan, Brad and Luis already had other plans this time, as it was arranged at relatively short notice. Lou Gramm, who was there in Miami and was also announced for Rolle and Lausanne, was completely absent here.

As far as one can tell from the available recordings from Miami, Phil was in pretty good voice there, even if his performance may have lacked a little practice and routine. He also made a good impression here in Switzerland, but he still either walked with a stick or limped a little without one. When singing, he therefore mostly held on to the microphone stand.

The set list was exactly the same as in Miami: Another Day in Paradise (acoustic), Against All Odds, In The Air Tonight, Easy Lover, Take Me Home, My Girl, Knockin' On Heaven's Door. From Against All Odds onwards, Nic was back on drums. While In The Air Tonight was played with light saxophone accompaniment in Miami, this was not the case in Rolle and Lausanne. Easy Lover in Miami naturally featured Nathan East as duet partner, while here one of the LDF graduates, Luisa Maggioni, also performed very well.

The band had to restart Against All Odds because Phil had messed up the lyrics: 'How can I just walk away from you, when all I can do is… Hang on!' He stopped the song and said: 'This is the kind of mistake I warned you about: How can I just walk away from me, when all I can do is watch me leave.' So he basically parodied his own mistake. Apart from that, however, this 'general rehearsal' seemed to me to be as good as a final performance.

After Phil's set, there was an auction on stage in Rolle – tickets to events that are normally impossible to get hold of, e.g. backstage at the next Oscars, access to Elton John's annual private concert or three days of poker with Warren Buffet. These items sold for around 10,000 to 30,000 Swiss francs, but there were no takers for Mr Buffett… Afterwards, there was a kind of cocktail dinner in the foyer of Rosey's "Aula", where you could eat lots of different snacks and drinks. It was a nice late dinner. Orianne, Nic and Matthew were still standing around in the foyer with their friends, while Phil was nowhere to be seen.

The next day in nearby Lausanne, there were three categories of tickets: interior, seated in the gallery and VIP. A few weeks earlier, discounted interior tickets suddenly became available for only CHF 150 instead of CHF 250, while I had already decided early on to buy balcony tickets for CHF 375. There were also VIP seats for over 600 francs. The latter also included a gala dinner at the nearby Lausanne Palace Hotel, a martial arts demonstration, an auction, an acoustic set by the WYK band, plus an after-party and jam session.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who was there. My balcony seat turned out to be not very comfortable, as it was in the fifth row from the top and you could only see the whole stage between people's heads, even though everyone was seated! The holders of the 250-franc tickets, on the other hand, were able to get the front row in front of the stage if they queued up in time, because contrary to the tickets, there were seats downstairs as well. One can only assume that advance ticket sales did not go as well as expected. However, there was a very attractive 32-page A4 programme booklet with detailed texts about the performers of the evening and the LDF.

The main part of the evening was similar to the show at Le Rosey, except that this time there was a small and, in my opinion, very sensible change to the set list. My Girl and Take Me Home were swapped, so that the latter concluded the main set as usual, and then everyone briefly left the stage, making Knockin' seem like an encore after a "regular" concert. Thanks to my elevated seating position, I had a good view of Nic on the drums in Lausanne, and I realised how talented he is. His work struck me as absolutely professional and tour-ready.

Afterwards, we "guarded" the stage exit with a few other fans, and lots of musicians came out, giving us the opportunity to take selfies with Daryl and Leland, for example. After a while, security put up some barriers to create a corridor from the exit directly to the black van waiting for Phil. Everything was ready with cameras, programmes and pens – and then HE came out – and went as fast as he could straight to the van and off he went.

At the start of the evening in Lausanne, Phil said, 'If we like it, we may do some more' – I would say that's a very good idea!

Author & Photos: Volker Warncke