For a great long while, Genesis drummer and replacement singer to the band’s original singer, the much beloved and high revered Peter Gabriel — a progressive rock superhero, songwriter, record producer and activist extraordinaire —  when he broke away from the band in 1975 to launch a solo career, Phil Collins replaced him, which proved to be a far from salutary development for the band and for Collin’s nascent career, with Collins quickly becoming a figure of widespread derision among music critics, longtime fans of the band, and most members of the general public.
Phil Collins with first wife Andrea Bertorelli and daughter Joely, circa 1979.
As if thing weren’t bad enough, in 1978 Collins went on a year-long hiatus from the band, moving to Vancouver in what would was destined to emerge as a vain attempt at repairing his marriage to Andrea Bertorelli, who had decamped from England to Lotusland, with Collins also working to maintain his relationship with his daughter Joely, an endeavour the was doomed to fail, with Collins returning to England in late 1979, at which time he went into seclusion for more than a year, despondent, near suicide and a drunk.
During his year-long period of seclusion, with regular therapy he eventually quit drinking, and at the suggestion of his therapist turned to his first love, writing music and lyrics, something he’d not done since early in his career, coming to terms with his divorce by pouring his heart out into 10 songs that eventually became his début album, Face Value, released in February 1981 on Virgin-Atlantic Records, reaching number in the charts across the globe, from the UK, U.S., Canada and Sweden to Austria, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the album certified 5-times Platinum. Not bad for a washed up and much derided musician.
Today, then, Phil Collins’ Face Value, which 40 years ago helped me to traverse the shoals of my own nasty, contemptible and painful divorce.
