Phil Collins kicked off Barclaycard presents British Summer time Hyde Park on Friday night (30.06.17) with a greatest hits set which covered his entire five-decade spanning career.
The music legend opened with ‘Another Day In Paradise’, followed by ‘Something Happened On The Way To Heaven’ and Genesis classic ‘Follow You Follow Me’.
Speaking to the sell-out crowd, Phil, 66, thanked everyone for coming and admitted he had missed playing during his hiatus from the music business.
He said: ”Good evening Hyde Park, good evening London. I do understand that I said I wasn’t going to do this any more. The truth is that I missed you … so let’s have some fun.”
After singing ‘Wake Up Call’ from his album ‘Testify’, Phil then introduced his entire band, which included his 16-year-old son Nicholas on drums.
Nicholas took his dad’s place on the iconic drum solo from ‘In The Air Tonight’ and Phil couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he proudly looked on.
Phil had to perform sitting in a chair for the duration of the concert due to his back problems but he health issues didn’t dampen his performance or the atmosphere.
After playing ‘Easy Lover’ and ‘Sussudio’ Phil returned for an encore of ‘Take Me Home’ and he got off his seat and abandoned his walking stick for the final track.
Phil’s former Genesis bandmate Mike Rutherford performed earlier in the evening with his band Mike + The Mechanics and concert goers were also treated to sets by Blondie, The New Power Generation – made up of Prince’s former bandmates – and Starsailor.
BST Hyde Park continues with Green Day headlining the festival on Saturday night (01.07.17) and fans can go to Bst-hydepark.com to purchase tickets.