Phil Collins Tour Update: July 6, 2004

Hello Everybody,

We are getting to the end of the European leg of the tour with just Geneva and Montreux to go. I have to give it to the Portuguese audience of 40,000 in Lisbon as the warmest to date. We all felt for them when they lost the "World Cup" soccer to Greece the next day. But congratulations to the Greeks. They were the underdogs!

The day after Lisbon we arrived in Toulouse,France. A group of us went to a 6:00pm English version of "Shrek 2". Together there was percussionist Luis Conte, backing vocalists Lamont, Connie, Lynne, Amy, and bassist Leland Sklar(and I). At some point everyone fell asleep. I looked around after I took a short nap(during the movie) and everyone was out. I'm not sure if it was the movie or just pure exhaustion from the late night runners after the shows. I think it was a little of both. We actually got to our hotel inToulouse at 4:30 that morning. As far as the movie was concerned, it was OK, but I didn't love the first one that much either. But the "Puss- in-Boots" (cat) character was the funniest thing in the movie (voice by Tony Bandera's). After the movie we all split off into groups and went to different places. Leland, Amy, and I went to a cafe on the square near our hotel. We had a waitress with an attitude. After the main course the waitress asked if we would like a dessert menu. The menu never came. After asking twice for that menu we decided to go down the street for dessert. So we asked for the bill/check. Amy also asked in French (although the waitress spoke English just fine). After 2 more inquires about the bill and a long 15 minutes crawled by, we decided to walk away. As we walked out I gave them one more chance. I saw the waitress and said "Get the bill now or we're leaving". She walked back into the restaurant and then started doing something else. Hence we walked out of a $150.00 meal that we tried desperately to pay for. That's the first time I ever had to do that. But we were in France!

I haven't been able to get on line at the hotel, so I have not been able to send any messages until now. I'll hopefully be able to send this from Geneva. I am (so) looking forward to getting home. These last couple weeks have been brutal for everyone involved(especially the crew). We are ending this leg with three shows in a row........Toulouse, Geneva, then a bus to Montreux. Actually the bus will only take about 1 hr 30 minutes to Montreux. We are not using our stage for that last show in Montreux, so it should be a lot of fun because it'll be new and different. Less dancing around, no video screens, and a smaller area on stage to work with, plus a smaller venue than we are use to. I like the idea of that anyway. More intimate!

If I can, I'll update one more for the road. Till next time!

Best Regards,

Daryl