Still Collins
| Still Collins | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Still Collins' vocal performance |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Bonn , Germany |
| Genre (s) | Rock , pop |
| founding | 1995 |
| Website | www.stillcollins.de |
| Founding members | |
| Sven Comp | |
| Martin Littfinski | |
| Christoph Wüllner | |
| Stefan Hansel | |
| Uli Opfergelt | |
| Markus Hartmann | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Sven Comp |
Drums |
Martin Littfinski |
Keyboard |
Christoph Wüllner |
guitar |
Uli Opfergelt |
Keyboards, backing vocal
|
Wolfgang Braun |
bass |
Markus Hartmann |
Backing vocal |
Katja Symannek |
| former members | |
Keyboard, backing vocal |
Andreas Wegener |
Backing vocal |
Caren Schweitzer-Faust |
Backing vocal |
Meike Anlauff |
Keyboard |
Stefan Hansel |
| Extended cast & credits | |
Backing vocal |
Samira Saygili |
Backing vocal |
Jeannette Marchewka |
| Tom Tom Schäfer | |
| Greenhorns | |
| Stefan "SM" Marenbach | |
| Dave Murell | |
| Jürgen Lagemann | |
Still Collins is a German tribute band whose repertoire consists mainly of songs that the British musician Phil Collins performed on the one hand as a solo artist and on the other as the front man and lead singer of the rock band Genesis . In addition, the program also includes titles that became known by Peter Gabriel or from his own time as a Genesis singer, e.g. Solsbury Hill , Carpet Crawlers , I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) . Since 2003 the band has also been writing and playing their own songs.
Still Collins was founded in 1995 in Bonn - initially under the name Feel Collins - and is active nationwide with around 80 concerts a year. The main focus is next to an adequate selection of titles on the original interpretation of the pieces in terms of sound, playing technique and musical arrangement. The pivotal point here is the pronounced similarity between the voice of lead singer Sven Komp and that of Phil Collins.
As a concert event, the band is a frequently booked act for festivals, open airs and events of all sizes, sometimes with over 100,000 spectators. In addition, there are engagements for companies, galas and trade fairs in a wide variety of industries and occasions. Still Collins are also regularly engaged as support for national and international greats such as Fury in the Slaughterhouse , Manfred Mann's Earth Band or Leningrad Cowboys . In December 2012 the band gave their 1000th concert.
Band history
Beginnings
In autumn 1995 the drummer Martin Littfinski, the keyboard player Christoph Wüllner and the singer Sven Komp met in a hotel in Königswinter , where Komp gave a small entertainment show. The striking resemblance of his voice to that of the musician Phil Collins gave Littfinski the idea of founding a band that would only cover Collins and Genesis titles , live and true to the original. A few months later they had rehearsed a complete program with guitarist Uli Opfergelt, bassist Markus Hartmann and keyboardist Stefan Hansel, all of whom had joined the band in the meantime, and the first live concerts began in spring 1996 in front of a home audience.
The concept and the performance delighted the audience and resulted in Feel Collins , as the band still called themselves at the time, was passed on for other events, including as the opening act for Manfred Mann's Earth Band in front of around 3,000 fans. Over time, the number of events and spectators steadily increased. This reached a preliminary climax in July 1997 with the reception of Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich from Team Telekom on the Bonn market square, to which Feel Collins was invited to give a concert in front of 20,000 enthusiastic cycling fans . From 1998 onwards, additional guest musicians were hired for brass parts , percussions and later also for the backing vocals at larger events .
On the road to success
In 1999 they were forced to change the band name Feel Collins to Still Collins for trademark reasons , but this did not detract from their success. After a long search, the group initially completed their cast list in 2000 with the singer Caren Schweitzer-Faust, who had already played with stars like BAP , Udo Jürgens and Roland Kaiser . In 2001, founding member Stefan Hansel left the group for personal reasons, but remained on friendly terms as an occasional replacement on the keyboards and as the maintainer of their website . Keyboardist Andreas Wegener joins the band for Hansel.
The successes continued into the new millennium with increasing audience numbers and good reviews and confirmed the concept. This was followed by gigs of various sizes all over Germany. Worth mentioning are Kemnader See in Flammen (2000), Brauer-Power Hachenburg (2001) and the Kieler Woche (2004) with five-digit visitor numbers each, as well as the Cologne events Ringfest (2000) and Rhein in Flammen (2006) with over 100,000 spectators.
Still Collins developed into a professional show band. The performance also became more sophisticated and went far beyond the manual reproduction of the titles and their mere reenactment. Dealing with the audience became more communicative and relaxed, video sequences were built into the program so that the events now also have a good deal of happening character.
Further development
Some changes in line-up did not lead to any significant negative effects either. The number of annual concerts and events increased, also in terms of their dimensions (including Bridge Forum Bonn, Forum Peine, Albert Einstein Forum Kaarst). The group also performed in clubs such as Café Hahn (Koblenz), Zeche Bochum , Kantine (Cologne) or Rex (Lorsch / Bensheim) and at other small events such as the open-air concert "Rock am Friedensdenkmal" in Edenkoben .
Starting in 2003, his own compositions began to appear in the program , which were received consistently positively by the audience and in 2004 led to a CD release with exclusively his own material. The compositions and arrangements were heavily based on Phil Collins' music in order to fit into the overall context.
In 2005, keyboard player Andreas Wegener was lured away by the Cologne band Bläck Fööss , which, however, did not lead to any resentment among the musicians, who certainly allowed him to switch to the prominent line-up. Wegener was replaced by Wolfgang Braun from Bamberg , who from then on was a permanent member of Still Collins.
Caren Schweitzer-Faust left the band in 2009 for personal reasons, and it was decided to reorient the vocal parts conceptually. For this purpose, the backing vocals were distributed to three new singers with individual emphases: Meike Anlauff , who had already been successfully on an indoor tour with Peter Maffay in 2005, Samira Saygili , known for various jazz and rock projects and others. a. with Mark Hochstein, and Jeannette Marchewka, who gained her experience in dozens of musicals, band and TV projects. In the past, all three of them had repeatedly taken over the backing and duet vocals at Still Collins and now enabled a broad vocal base and variability in this formation.
In the same year, Genesis' former lead singer Ray Wilson was a prominent guest with Still Collins on the stage of the Bonn Bridge Forum. The end of the season concert at the end of each year, which has become a permanent fixture, became an anniversary event for the 1000th concert in 2012.
In 2015 there was a change in female singing voices. Katja Symannek took over the position of full-time singer for Meike Anlauf, who left Still Collins. She joined the band in 2013 and had previously worked professionally for many years as a singer for various TV and live productions, including the live band of DSDS and Die Fantastischen Vier .
In 2020/2021 the band will celebrate their 25th anniversary with an extensive anniversary tour.
Program concept
Still Collins pursue an unusual marketing concept. In addition to their standard program, which includes a wide range of Phil Collins and Genesis titles, they also offer special topics. Thus, complete events are carried out which, as Genesis Live Special, have exclusively known Genesis songs from the mid-1970s in the program. Another variant of these concept events is a concert with the calm and serene ballads & love songs by Phil Collins and Genesis, which are usually neglected in the normal course of the event.
Discography
- 1999: Live - but seriously!
- 2001: Something happened
- 2004: Beautiful Thing - only own material
- 2005: Promo Cut DVD - Live recording of the Golden Oldienight concert in the Jabachhalle Lohmar
- 2006: Ballads & Love Songs - live on April 28, 2006 at Harmonie in Bonn
- 2008: Best of Online-Tracks - live 2006 ( MP3 album)
- 2012: Genesis Live Special - selected Genesis titles as part of the Genesis Live Special concept event
- 2015: The very best of Phil Collins & Genesis Live - Anniversary release for the 20th anniversary
Web links
- Official website
- BackstagePro: Still Collins - Phil Collins and Genesis Tribute Nr.1 from Bonn, since 1995
- Still Collins at discogs.com
- Still Collins - Rock am Friedensdenkmal, 2014. Neustadt ad Weinstrasse
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Still Collins' website - Credits
- ↑ Uli Opfergelt on facebook
- ^ Official website of Markus Hartmann ( Memento from April 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Season- end concert and large cast, December 1998 ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Official website of Caren Schweitzer-Faust
- ↑ Main-Spitze - Concert Review, February 2011
- ↑ Diane Bödrich: Interview with Still Collins in the Musicians Magazine, issue 04/2009
- ^ Official website of Meike Anlauff ( Memento from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Official website of Samira Saygili
- ^ Official website of Jeannette Marchewka
- ↑ Meier Music Hall - Still Collins - "Best of Phil Collins & Genesis" Live ( Memento from November 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ 25th Anniversary Show - Still Collins