“Don't Bend That Programme...” - TWR looks back at the tour programmes produced to comemmorate Phil's solo tours.

I could have spent reams and reams of pages writing about the various collectables which Phil has generated and indeed, the feature on the single B sides gives an indication of just how much there is out there for collectors of Phil's to get their teeth into. One area which I have spent the last forty odd years investigating is that of his tour programmes.

Thankfully for virtually every tour that he has undertaken, some form of commemorative brochure has been produced. These have varied in size and content and we shall examine them all here.

The first tour of Phil's as a solo artist was in support of the Hello, I Must Be Going album in 1982 and the brochure produced an A4+ sized one with the photo from the cover of the album on the front and inside the design was laid out to resemble a series of end of term school report for Phil and the rest of the inmates of the Bill Colic Reform School For Boys (!). Amusing side text and a wealth of illustrations make this one a great start to any collection. It's worth it for the end of term comment on Phil himself which says... “Tries hard, and is quite short...” some things never change eh?

Three years later and Phil was back on the road again for the hugely successful No Jacket Required album and it has to be said this one is something of a disappointment. Taking the album title as its inspiration this one features a series of supposedly comical illustrations of Phil as a demented tailor measuring his band mates up for suits of clothing! To today's eyes it actually looks quite creepy. No text apart from tour dates and tour credits make this one the poorest of efforts, or to keep in with the theme of the above programme... 5/10 must try harder!

The 1990 Serious Tour was without doubt, for me at any rate, Phil's best musically and visually. Who can forget that carousel light show and the sheer scale of the show itself almost three hours in duration! It is a pity that once again, the tour programme doesn't live up to the show it was promoting, and keeping in with the circus theme of the show it features Phil as a circus ringmaster and his bandmates as the various acts you can usually find at such things. Minimal text again I'm afraid.

1994 saw Phil back on the road for the massive Both Sides tour which ran for almost a year from April 1994 to spring of 1995 and taking in virtually everywhere you could think of and some places you might not have thought of! With the stage set up this time resembling a scrapyard, the cover features oil drums and assorted paraphernalia. This time some attempt has been made to provide some informative if basic text about the band Phil has on the road with him and accompanied by the usual selection of images, this one is an improvement on its immediate predecessors.

Phil's Big Band tour of 1996 did produce a brochure which unfortunately has eluded the TWR collection so if anyone has a copy or any details thereof they would be gratefully accepted.

The 1997 A Trip Into The Light tour took its theme from the old Transatlantic liners of yore with Phil as your captain (or Popeye depending on which way you choose to view the image) on the cover. Inside we get a wonderful mix of amusing images – the one of Brad Cole as a preacher is hilarious as are those of Arnold McCuller and Amy Keys as what may be a Twenties gangster and his flapper Moll and the late Ronnie Caryl as a rather disgruntled eastern potentate. All accompanied by brief but informative text, a definite step up in quality and a welcome addition to any collection.

2004 saw Phil emerge out of self-imposed retirement for the humorously titled First Final Farewell Tour. An excellent large format brochure in its own slip cover and featuring for once a healthy serving of text which looked back over Phil's amazing career and accompanied by an equally excellent set of illustrations which hark back to his childhood and all the way through his days with Genesis and beyond. An excellent effort all round.

The establishment of Phil's Little Dreams charity led to a series of events at which Phil attended and/or performed. The second of these took place on 11 th March 2016 for which a commemorative brochure was produced. Featuring Phil and the other artists in attendance including Lou Gramm are all included in this rather nifty A4 sized brochure which is packed with information about the charity and its activities. I am not sure if any of the other Little Dreams events generated any kind of brochure and if you have any information on this, please let us know.

Phil's final (as of yet) solo outing began in 2017 with what was supposed to be a handful of shows in London, Paris and Cologne.... oh and Liverpool! We all know now how massive that tour was eventually to become encompassing gigs in Europe, the UK, America, South America and Australia and New Zealand during the two years its various legs ran. Officially it appears to have generated two tour brochures, both large format and housed in slipcases. The 2017 edition is housed in a black slipcase with Phil's drummer doodle on the front. Inside, it is an excellent mix of images and a very informative text including some tour statistics (wonder where they got those from?) as well as a lovely little booklet of illustrations from the tour rehearsals.

I am not sure if the 2018 tours generated a brochure but the 2019 brochure is housed in a rather garish turquoise coloured slipcase with a rather grumpy be-hoodied Phil on the front. The brochure itself is very similar in content to its predecessor although the contents of the interview featured are different and there is no rehearsal booklet included with this one but altogether another fine edition to any collection.

And there you have it. A brief look at this aspect of the Collins collection. There may be omissions. With tours which have literally spanned the globe, there may be programmes produced in some regions (Japan and South America spring to mind) which we are not aware of and any information on these would be most welcome.