U2 were never more fun than they were during the Zoo TV tour in the early 90s. It was the era of their tongue-in-cheek, pint-in-hand peak, where they had seemingly decided that everything had got a little too serious and sincere off the back of The Joshua Tree’s gargantuan success and so they wanted to have some fun. Sometimes, that fun could be at the expense of other people, and a certain occasion it was at the expense of one Phil Collins.
It was the Billboard Awards in 1992, a ceremony that took place in early December at the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. Bono & co. were up for Billboard Number One Rock Artist, beating fellow nominees John Mellencamp, The Black Crowes and Van Halen to scoop the award. It was down to Collins, one of the biggest solo stars in the world at the time, to present the award to them. They weren’t present, though – after a hard year’s touring, they were back home in Dublin. In the pub, to be precise, despite the fact that due to the time difference it was the early hours of the morning. By the looks and sounds of it, many pints of the black stuff had been sunk and speaking to the band over a satellite link-up, poor old Phil now found himself the target of some dry (but also drunk) Irish wit.
“It’s only half past one,” Adam Clayton tells Collins as he takes another sip, the bassist flanked by Bono and The Edge. “Where’s Larry?” asks Phil, unwittingly opening a slight door that the band immediately kick down.
“Larry isn’t here, Phil,” answers The Edge. “I’m afraid he’s absent. He’s actually acting a bit funny these days, you know the way drummers get, they get a bit weird when they start singing, you know what I mean?”
Phil, of course, knows exactly what they mean, having graduated from Genesis drummer to Genesis frontman to solo star himself. “I understand,” Phil says with a little grin on his face, at which point U2 are presented with their awards from Paddy, the barman in their pub. “Phil,” says a slightly inebriated Clayton. “Paddy is a very big fan of your music, as are all of our parents,” Paddy immediately making the situation worse by retorting, “I’m not that old!”
It’s at this point that the scene really starts to resemble 1.30am in a pub, a spaghetti junction of people talking over each other and, bizarrely, Bono pretending to take a call from US President George Bush and walking off. Phil, though, takes it all on the chin, you imagine he can probably give as good as he gets if he’s so inclined. Watch the full back and forth below:
