Phil Collins Tour Update: July 2, 2004

Hello Everybody,

We're here in Barcelona for a day off after playing Nimes, France (Wednesday) & Barcelona (Thursday). In Nimes we played in a old Roman arena where today they hold bull fights. Believe me backstage smelled like it too. The arena wasn't big enough to use our two outer screens, although there was a 13,000 seat capacity. They were as usual a wonderful warm audience. Many comments were made about this being the most attractive looking audience on this tour as well. The first half of the show went smooth. Then in the 2nd half as I played the big power chord in the introduction of "In The Air Tonight" the stage electrical power went down. It was off for about 15 minutes. The audience started singing and doing the wave as if they were at a soccer match. They made the best of things. Leland, Brad, Chester, and I stayed on the stage to reassure the audience that we'll finish this as soon as it's ready to go. The power eventually came back on and we started again from the atmospheric keyboard introduction prior to the guitar power chord. Fingers crossed and everything went on the way it should. We are still not sure what caused the power outage.

Barcelona was the only indoor concert where "The Mechanics" played with us. Again a warm and wonderful audience that we have come to expect from the Spaniards. They never seem to disappoint us. I had breakfast with Mike Rutherford this morning and he told me that he has a house in Spain. So I said, “only one”?

So today's a lazy day off. We have a couple hard days ahead with late night after show runners to the plane and another arrival at 3:00a.m. to check in at the hotel. But it's hard to complain when there are so many rewards in a job like this.............. Did I say job?

All The Best,