📍Hounslow, London TW3, UK
1951 – 1970“Phil Collins was born in Chiswick, west London, in January 1951 and grew up in Hounslow, a busy suburb under the flight path to Heathrow, in a family home on Hanworth Road. He was the youngest of three children; his father, Greville, was an insurance agent, and his mother, June, ran a toy shop and later became a theatrical agent. His sister, Carole, was a professional ice skater, and his brother, Clive, became a cartoonist. He was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five, and his uncles then built him a makeshift kit that fitted into a suitcase. He practised for hours, playing along to the radio and television, and as he grew older his parents bought him proper drums. At Chiswick Grammar School he formed his first band. His mother's work brought him into the theatre: he became a child actor, and in 1964 he left school to join the Barbara Speake Stage School and played the Artful Dodger in the West End production of Oliver!. That year he was also an extra in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night. But drumming was his real passion. In 1970 he answered an advertisement in Melody Maker and auditioned for Genesis at Peter Gabriel's parents' house in Surrey, and got the job. He later became the band's lead singer and then a hugely successful solo artist, with songs like In the Air Tonight. It all began in a west London suburb, with a little boy banging out rhythms on a toy drum kit.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today