“Making A Big Noise With The Big Band” - TWR takes a brief look at Phil's big band jazz project. Memorabilia: TWR Archive. Photographs by Juan Lozano and Lasse Ahola Huhta.

Well, just when we thought Phil couldn't take us by surprise any more, the announcement in the spring of 1996 of his intention to tour with a Big Band Jazz outfit had many of us scratching our heads.

Phil himself outlined the background to the project in the Dance Into The Light interview disc recorded that year and it might be a good idea to let us hear Phil's thoughts on it...

“The Big Band is something I've wanted to do for about thirty years, ever since I heard Buddy Rich and his band back in '66 and I wanted to do it since then and, as a drummer, it’s a wonderful opportunity to stretch yourself and believe me, I had to stretch myself as far as I could go. I had a mountain to climb in terms of having a broken wrist here. I had to learn to play again (It's still broken but I can still play) . I had to learn to read music and I had to write my own charts out because I couldn't read proper music. I had to invent my own phonetic language – but it was the most exciting thing I've ever done. I mean it's something that I will pick up and put down over the next few years. It's not something I 'll do all the time – it’s not possible to do this all the time. So I will do a few gigs in Europe this summer at some of the jazz festivals, and we recorded those and in the early part of next year there will be an album (eventually released in 1999 under the title A Hot Night In Paris) I hope there is because what I have heard sounds great. There's also a video of the band in Montreux (Sadly unreleased) So we'll pick that up and down throughout my career if you like because you can do that until you drop.

It's something you don’t have to look good while you are doing it., you just have to sit there by the drums. So we will do that and maybe take it to America next year. But that's not to be confused with the other touring I do which is of course my Phil Collins solo band, the solo 'artiste' with band tour. We are going out next year to America, we're going to do a reasonable length tour of America, then we are going to have a bit of a break because I am doing the Tarzan movie for Disney. I'm doing the music for that; so that is an ongoing thing . I started nine months ago and I will still be doing it in the Christmas of '98 until it is actually in the cinemas. Til those films are in the cinemas and it’s too late to change it, it's changing . So I am doing that – so I need to space these things out so I've got time when they want me to do something, I can do it. So I will be doing that in the middle of the year and then later in the year s0 we'll be doing a tour of Europe. We're playing everywhere; places where people might think 'Oh, we saw Phil Collins and the Big Band advertised in Italy, so when he comes back to Italy he's going to be with the Big Band?' Well the Big Band is something totally separate, that's my little pet project like Brand X was. It's something I'm deadly serious about and it is fantastically exciting to do...”