![\"Phil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Phil-Collins-1989-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Warner Music<\/p>\n
Sun 21 June 2026 11:49, UK <\/p>\n
Phil Collins<\/a> knows more than a thing or two about Led Zeppelin. Regrettably so.<\/p>\n After all, he was an honorary member of the band for a brief Live Aid reunion that he won\u2019t have forgotten. The world certainly hasn\u2019t, ascribing the charitable as perhaps the most disastrous comeback in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll history.<\/p>\n Collins had big shoes to fill, and Jimmy Page thought he took up the late John Bonham\u2019s mantle about as well as David Moyes stepping in for Sir Alex Fergusson. \u201cRobert told me Phil Collins wanted to play with us. I told him that was all right if he knows the numbers,\u201d Page said. <\/p>\n That trust was perhaps a little casual for the most hotly anticipated comeback show in history on the world\u2019s biggest stage. Page would soon live to regret it. \u201cBut at the end of the day, he didn\u2019t know anything. We played \u2018Whole Lotta Love,\u2019 and he was just there bashing away cluelessly and grinning. I thought that was really a joke,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Collins felt this joke unfurling in real time, but he insists he wasn\u2019t the punchline. \u201cIf I could have walked off, I would have done,\u201d the drummer explained. \u201cIt was a disaster, really. Robert wasn\u2019t match-fit with his voice and Jimmy was out of it, dribbling. It wasn\u2019t my fault it was crap,\u201d the prog drummer insisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n All in all, the whole thing was a horrible ordeal, so it says a lot that Collins still loves the band\u2019s music and isn\u2019t too scarred by the incident to hail the group\u2019s most sensational moments.<\/p>\n In fact, he was inspired to become a drummer in the first place thanks to John Bonham. \u201cNow, when I was growing up \u2013 obviously, growing up as a drummer<\/a> \u2013 there were quite a few drummers that caught my fancy over the years,\u201d he recalled..<\/p>\n But one was clearly ahead of the pack. \u201cRingo to Charlie Watts to Ginger Baker to Keith Moon. But one of the finest, I think, drummers I\u2019ve ever heard, and the first drummer I ever gave a standing ovation to was John Bonham,\u201d he said when selecting his favourite tracks for iTunes.<\/p>\n For the former Genesis man, the stand-out moment where Bonham perfectly came together with his bandmates was the stirring blues epic, \u2018When The Levee Breaks\u2019. He went even further on another occasion and claimed, \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the best drum recordings ever made in pop music.\u201d <\/p>\n The power of the beat might catch the ear, but Collins says it has got it all: \u201dIt\u2019s just groove, sound, attitude.\u201d Arriving in 1971, it perfectly captured the sound that the band would call their own.<\/p>\n That sound in question is borne from Bonham placing his drums in the stairway of the grand old building where they were recording. This gave his beat a cavernous wallop that cuts right through the mix. But perhaps more importantly than that, it also mystically honours the history of the song. \u2018When The Levee Breaks\u2019 is an old blues anthem, and the echoey nature of the recording sounds like the track\u2019s past howling from within the new interpretation.<\/p>\n It defines his majesty and exemplifies the control he was capable of. As Jason Bonham proudly told Q, \u201cIt\u2019s the drum intro of the Gods. You could play it anywhere and people would know it\u2019s John Bonham. I never had the chance to tell dad how amazing he was \u2013 he was just dad.\u201d That original is the product of caring for every aspect of the drumming without overriding what the rest of the group were doing.<\/p>\n As the engineer Andy Johns said of Bonham\u2019s innovation, \u201cI had never heard anything like it, and the drum sound was quite spectacular<\/a>.\u201d Somehow, the performance is laden with a degree of mystery beyond the prowess that Genesis would later look to bring into their own shrouded sound.<\/p>\n It makes for a profound recording that still softens the blow of a disastrous moment in Collins\u2019 lauded career. In his view, he wouldn\u2019t have been on the stage to flop in 1985 without it, and there are two ways to look at that. Thankfully, the cheery drummer chooses to see the bright side of it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Phil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Phil-Collins-John-Bonham-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy \/ Genesis<\/p>\n
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