Vintage drum gear: Phil Collins' Pearl DLX kit

Each month Rhythm Magazine tracks-down and checks-out vintage gear in order to marvel at a bit of drum-making history.

Here we look at a Pearl kit briefly used by a certain Mr Phil Collins in the early ‘80s…

For one year during 1982 and 1983 Phil Collins played Pearl drums. Before that it was Premier and ever since he’s played Gretsch. In fact Phil only ever played one Pearl kit and this is it.

It’s a DLX, Pearl’s highly regarded professional birch ply kit, and comes courtesy of drummer Graham Collins (no relation) who, as a teenager, toured America and Europe with the Genesis entourage on the ‘Three Sides Live’ tour.

See the kit in action: Phil Collins live at Perkins Palace, 1982

“Phil received the kit in July 1982 and the tour kicked off on 1 August in Peoria, Illinois,” Graham explains. “Then in late September the band started secret rehearsals with Peter Gabriel for a one-off reunion show at the Milton Keynes Bowl.

“Phil had been double drumming with Chester Thompson and it was seven years since he’d last played drums for an entire Genesis show.”

Straight after this Phil began his first ever solo tour, “which fans often refer to as the ‘In The Air Tonight’ tour,” Graham reveals. “He’d already recorded Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going! before getting his Pearl kit, but he later described the Pearl as the best live ‘In The Air Tonight’ kit.

“In 1983 he performed with Peter Gabriel and Eric Clapton and recorded Genesis plus The Principle Of Moments with Robert Plant using the Pearl before swapping to Gretsch for Plant’s August American tour.”

The kit consists of 8x5½-inch, 10x6½-inch, 12x8-inch, 15x12-inch, 16x16-inch and 18x16-inch single-headed concert toms, 20x14-inch bass and 14x8-inch snare, all in lacquered birch finish.

The toms originally had Premier mounts (back then the Pearl mounts penetrated the shells), but the crew later swapped them for these Gretsch mounting blocks.

“Apart from hardware, the kit is 100 percent original,” Graham says. “My stand bases are DW and Premier Trilok; Phil used Trilok stands and Pearl cymbal stands. I’ve hunted everywhere for the latter but not found any.

“My snare stand is Premier Lokfast - Phil uses a Slingerland Rocket base with a Premier top section - and he also uses a Slingerland hi-hat. Heads are the same as Phil’s: the 8 and 10-inches are Remo Clear Diplomats and the other toms are Clear Ambassadors.”

“The snare has a Coated Emperor batter while the bass drum batter is a coated Ludwig. I got that and the Ludwig Speedking pedal, which Phil always plays, from Len Howe at Classic Drums.com.

“I obtained the kit in December 2009 and believe it’s the only kit Phil has ever let go. Bizarrely, it was the kit I dreamed of owning during the tour as a teenager and now I play it daily.”

Vintage Gear continues each month in Rhythm Magazine.