For the avoidance of doubt, my "hating" Phil Collins is not really serious, it has becoming a running joke and is just a bit of fun.
I do genuinely dislike most of his solo music but I'm sure he is a nice bloke and it would be nice to have a pint or a jam with him.
This is a good article:
http://www.holymoly.com/celebrity-news/phil-collins-decides-leave-music-throws-toys-out-pram-says-no-one-loves-him53870It actually makes me feel a bit sorry for him. He seems to genuinely be upset that he isn't "relevant" anymore. And I think he's right - he isn't.
The problem he has is that he chased the dream, and he got it. He's right in that article, in the 80s and early 90s he was EVERYWHERE. Now, this doesn't happen by accident. He and the record company will have spent millions promoting him. He will have put a great deal of time and effort doing interviews etc with one purpose - to get people to see him.
And it was a huge success. But now he is finding the down side of that - that people are now fed up of him, due to overexposure.
He also has a more fundamental problem, relating to his music. It doesn't have any
substance. His solo music was basically chasing the catch-all, middle ground, bubblegum pop market. Nothing wrong with that per se, you can sell a lot of records that way. But tastes change, younger artists come along to fill that slot, and then what are you left with? Can Phil Collins make a "serious" record, something with meaning that people will cherish? Not really, because people don't really take him (but) seriously. He's the cheeky chappie who sings Can't Hurry Love isn't he? He's not Leonard Cohen.
So he releases an album of Motown covers last year hoping to capture that middle ground again, but hardly anybody buys it. So he says, and it's fair enough, why bother? What is trhe point of Phil Collins in 2011? There is no point. Quite sad really.
Sting I feel is in sort of a similar position - he's not really taken seriously as a mature solo artist either, hence the reason he has to find other "gimmicks", whether it's reforming The Police, doing lute music, performimg his old hits with an orchestra etc.
Which brings us on to MK. Now, we know DS had huge hits too in the mid 80s, but MK says it was an accident and I'm inclined to believe him, sure he would have gone out and done promotion etc too. And then in 1991 with OES they try to do the same thing again, try to have hit singles, try to have flashy videos etc. But it doesn't really work. MK knows that the writings on the wall in the "pop" game and goes back to being the serious artist that he always was. And that's for the best IMO. The people who would like to see DS reunited should have a look at Phil Collins and ask if that is how they would like things to turn out for MK.