Can a man from Bonn Beuel sound like a man from London Hounslow? It certainly didn’t hamper his chances of my finding the voices similar that The Phil Collins coverband Still Collinswere playing at a Beer Festival.
The ‘Bonner Bierbörse’ is a place I’ve never actually got around to visiting before. Drinking beer in the heat of a Summers day, with a long walk to a porta-loo? Not usually my thing at all. The music is also not always a magnet. This year (as is often the case) it was down to Guildo Horn to provide the opening musical salvo from the Rheinpark music stage. I didn’t go there myself (honestly!) but I have it on authority from someone who did that some interesting Italian songs with German lyrics added were sung – along with “something by Deep Purple”
Sunday was rather more interesting though. Still Collins have been around since 1995 and have long been on my ‘Must see’ list having regularly played in Bonn when I was otherwise engaged. Sunday though I was free.
It’s 4.30pm when Sven Komp, aka Phil Collins, steps out onto a sun dazzled Rheinaue stage. He makes repeated attempts to abandon his sunglasses, but they are very much a necessity in the blistering heat and light. There will be, he promises, be three sets today that will take us through to 8pm. Not an ideal time to wind up a Rock concert, but fast becoming the watershed it seems.
Also not ideal is the sound level allowed for the show. It’s so quiet that you lose the sound of the band by just walking for two minutes in the direction of the beer tents. What I heard was undeniably an excellent cover band but I really will have to reserve judgement on just HOW good until I’ve heard them somewhere they can actually BE heard.
In answer to my question: Yes, a man from Beuel can indeed sound like he’s a certain man from Hounslow. The man from Beuel had some excellent professionals around him too – I especially liked the guitar work of Uli Opfergelt – a man with seemingly 200 switches on the bottom of his Marshall amp. There was some excellent female accompaniment from (I think) Meike Anlauff and at times I preferred her vocals, but then I was never really a fan of Mr Collins as a singer.
If I was a fan of his, and indeed Genesis (there were some Genesis and even Mike Rutherford songs in the set) then I would enjoy this band. Heck, I DID enjoy this band. I just wish they could have played at a decent volume. I suspect that they do too.