Phil Collins is learning what Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones have known for years: Your new record doesn't have to be a hit in order to mount a hit tour. Collins's latest disc, "Dance Into the Light," danced off the charts rather rapidly, but his new tour has packed them in since starting in Florida a few weeks ago.
"If the album had been a Top 5 album, I would not have been surprised," says Collins, who plays the Fleet Center on Monday night. "But the reaction that we're getting is amazing. We can't believe it. It's weird."All those years of past hits, as a solo artist and in the group Genesis, have evidently built the public's trust in Collins to the point where he's a sure ticket-seller like Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, Elton John and James Taylor.
Collins has piqued more interest with his new, in-the-round stage. It's the first time he's tried that format, which has been used by Diamond, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Prince and Reba McEntire. Collins's stage was designed by Patrick Woodruffe and Mark Fisher, the brains behind the last few tours by the Stones and Floyd.
Collins and his 12-piece band run around a five-level stage shaped like a boat, with some lifesavers and ropes on it. "The tour is called a `Trip into the Light,"' says Collins, who has been dressing in nautical whites. "I'm kind of like Humphrey Bogart on the African Queen. It has nothing to do with the music, to be honest, apart from the fact that we take the audience on a journey. It's a very abstract journey."
For rehearsals, the stage was set up in Lausanne, Switzerland (Collins now lives in Geneva), and was enhanced by a special novelty. "We actually had a curtain going all the way around us that had people painted on it, so we could get used to the concept," he says. "It was my idea . . . Some people thought, `He's so out there that he has to have an audience, even if it's just painted."'
Collins says he was persuaded to try an in-the-round stage by his manager, Tony Smith. "He thought I'd enjoy it. I was arguing with him until the last minute because I'm not a Rod Stewart or Mick Jagger. I'm not a performer in that sense who really works a stage. But I've found parts of myself that I didn't know were there. I've had to respond. And seeing the other guys in the band do it as well has been a useful exercise.
"I think it's turned out fantastically well," he adds. "I saw Prince in the round on his `Lovesexy' tour. And Stevie Wonder did it. But until you've done it yourself, you never know."
Collins also beefed up his lighting design to accommodate the new stage. "We didn't have enough lights at first," he says. "Playing in the round, you have to light everything from every angle. If you're playing down the end of a hall, you just light things for people to look at from one place. Whereas if you're playing in the middle, the people at one side need to have the same effect as the people on the other side. Therefore you actually do need more light."
Collins is featuring many of his solo hits, from "Sussudio" and "In the Air Tonight," to "Against All Odds" and "Another Day in Paradise."
Meanwhile, Collins is enjoying the road. "I actually thought that America had forgotten me," he says. "The reaction to this tour completely contradicts that, and I'm touched by it."