http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/p...a-1060111.html
Well, he talks about a lot more than just VdGG, but...
Phil Collins is coming out of retirement and was recently interviewed by the German mag "Der Spiegel". He spoke a bit about the prog bands of the '70s and, after copping to liking the very early Yes stuff, and only the very early stuff, sort of slagged Pink Floyd and bigged up VdGG:
"I wasn't too keen on Pink Floyd. Van der Graaf Generator were, in fact, the better Genesis. They were the best anyway, much darker than all the other bands of that era."
I have to say that Phil was extremely cool when I met him in '07 and it doesn't surprise me to hear him bigging up the Graafs. He'd helped with The Book (a VdGG biography written by me and Phil Smart) a few years before. When I heard Genesis would be in town (Chicago) in '07 I arranged with his management to drop off my copy of The Book at their hotel for him to sign (since he's heavily quoted in it, etc). Genesis were in town for 2 or 3 shows and I dropped the book off at the front desk. The next day I went back around 5pm and there were hundreds of people in front of the hotel (obviously word had gotten out that Genesis was staying there; not from me, I promise!!) and several limos were out front to pick up the band; I saw Banks and Rutherford out front signing autographs and walked right by them into the hotel. I went right to the front desk in the empty lobby to ask about getting my book back and, at that point, I saw a little guy all bundled up, looking like a homeless dude, with some big bodyguard, getting off of the elevator. I could tell it was Phil. I walked toward him. "Phil?" said I, as the bodyguard tensed up and PC looked a little concerned. "Hey," I said, "You helped me with my Van der Graaf book, I'm Jim Christopulos." At that point he totally eased up and held out his hand, "Oh, hi mate!" It was great that all the fans were outside and that no one thought to come into the lobby. Phil and I spoke for about ten minutes, he told me that he signed my book and that it should be at the desk up on the second floor, etc. We talked about the old days and VdGG quite a bit. He was friends with all of them, but he told me that he was really close to drummer Guy Evans and that he really missed him. Knowing that I was in touch with the guys, he asked me (made me promise, almost) to let Guy know that he said 'hi'. It seemed like he really missed those days. And then he was out the door. He was reeeaaallly cool with me, but I've read since that he was in great physical pain on that tour and he retired shortly thereafter; I've also read about depression setting in around that time. In retrospect it makes sense. He seemed very low key and sort of half-heartedly resigned to walking out that door (he looked almost scared like he was not looking forward to the gig). It must have really been weird going to play that gig after he lit up talking about the old days and hanging with VdGG in the 70s. At any rate, he signed my book and even drew a cool self-portrait sketch in it for me! So, say what you will, PC is very cool and quite alright by me!
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