Cocteau Twins

On March 16th, however, the reunion was cancelled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons.".
12/23/1989 "Another Day In Paradise" #1 The Billboard Hot 100. On January 31 2005 Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Festival on April 30, 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates through the fall would be added. He is married to his third wife and lives in Switzerland. Elizabeth Fraser provided vocals for two songs on Massive Attack's Mezzanine in 1998, the soundtrack to the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (and the second installment: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), as well as for other, less known projects and groups, and is rumoured to be working on a solo album. He played drums for the likes of Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne and Cliff Richard. Raymonde has released the solo album Blame Someone Else. Guthrie released his first solo effort Imperial and continues to create music with his band Violet Indiana. The previous year he accepted an invitation to be the drummer in the 'house band' at the rock concert celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee.

Guthrie and Raymonde formed the record label Bella Union, and have produced releases from new bands signed to that label. In recent years he has reportedly been losing his hearing in one ear, and in 2003 announced a farewell tour. The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. Collins does not read and write conventional musical notation but uses a system of his own devising. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with re-releases of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs. Disney hired Collins in 2003 for the soundtrack to another animated feature film, Brother Bear. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs--hand-picked by the band members--released during their years with 4AD, all digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. His song "You'll Be in My Heart" won an Academy Award.

The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with some rare and/or unreleased material included. Collins is a successful songwriter, and was asked by The Walt Disney Company to produce the score for the animated film Tarzan in 1999. In 1999, Bella Union released a double-CD compilation entitled BBC Sessions. The Phil Collins Big Band also did a world tour in 1998 and performed at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. Fans of the group weren't however, left entirely empty-handed. In 1996, Phil formed the "Phil Collins Big Band", which, with Phil as drummer, performed jazz renditions of Phil Collins and Genesis hits. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that it will likely never be finished or released in any form. Collins' passion for Big Band music is well documented.

In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth and final LP, the trio suddenly disbanded over irreconcilable differences (mostly related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser). Testify featured the Leo Sayer cover Can't Stop Loving You, and Come With Me - a heartfelt father-to-child song originally written in 1990 but finally recorded for Collins' baby son Nicholas. There were two singles for it, Tishbite and Violaine (both exist in two versions, with different b-sides included on each). The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album--their last with Mercury--and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking on their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch," which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, was the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. His latest studio album, 2002's Testify met with a similar fate, adored by fans but failing to make much impact on the mainstream charts. The record, which some hailed as a "return to form," with heavily layered guitars and voice (Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely), was released in 1996 to somewhat mixed reviews. The album failed to elicit much commercial interest, although stylistically it harked back to the sound of his '80s smashes. As it turned out, some of the tracks on both Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses. Phil Collins' 1996 album Dance Into the Light included songs like "No Matter Who", a rendition of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" and the comical music video "Wear My Hat" which featured Danny DeVito.

Both EPs were labeled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band released in the past. Collins' total worldwide album sales, including Genesis albums, are approximately two hundred million. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano, acoustic guitar and voice; Otherness, by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of Cocteau Twins' songs. Subsequent releases never reached the levels of his 1980s albums. 1995 saw the release of two new EPs: Twinlights and Otherness. Collins' record sales dropped after the 1993 release of Both Sides, a largely experimental album which ironically, according to Collins is his finest, despite the fact that he abandoned the winning formula that had brought him so much success in the '80s. The band themselves explained that Four-Calendar Café was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser herself undergoing therapy (the two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989). The song went to Number 1 on the Billboard US Charts and won Phil Collins a Grammy for “Record of the Year” (1990).

This, along with audibly comprehensible lyrics--something previously elusive, as Fraser tended to sing in a style that masked or otherwise obscured her lyrics--led to mixed reviews: some critics would accuse the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others would praise the new direction as a worthy successor to Heaven or Las Vegas. In 1989, Collins produced another hugely successful album, But Seriously..., which featured the anti-homelessness anthem Another Day In Paradise. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, featuring crystal-clear, minimalistic arrangements. He also played a cameo role in Miami Vice and guest starred in some sketches with The Two Ronnies. The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in the fall of 1993. Phil Collins’ rendition of “A Groovy Kind of Love” for that movie reached Number One on the charts. 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set in 1991 that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1987, including a bonus disc of rare and/or previously unreleased material. Collins began 1988 by acting in the movie Buster, in which he played train robber Buster Edwards.

While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Fontana in the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their ongoing US relationship with Capitol. He also recorded the critically-acclaimed Separate Lives, a duet with Marilyn Martin. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas, partially because of conflicts with its founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems, due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs including alcohol. Phil also enjoyed another UK Number 1 with Easy Lover, a duet with Philip Bailey that same year. However, despite the success of the record and the tours, not everything was well with the band. The same year, Collins released his most successful album No Jacket Required, which contained hits like "Sussudio", "One More Night" and "Take Me Home" which featured ex-bandmate Peter Gabriel and Sting as backing vocalists. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the top of the charts immediately after its release. In 1985, Phil Collins performed at the Wembley stadium in England and flew to Philadelphia, United States the same day on a Concorde to perform with Live Aid, sing his solo material and then drum for Genesis and Led Zeppelin, making him the only man to perform in two continents on the same day.

The style the group began exploring with Head Over Heels reached its peak on Heaven or Las Vegas, released in late 1990. He wrote and performed the award-winning title song to the movie Against All Odds in 1984 and appeared as drummer at the Band Aid recording at the end of the year. While remaining a 4AD band internationally, Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll, in October of that year. Phil Collins continued to record as a solo artist and with Genesis in 1983 releasing a Number One hit rendition of The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” and the Genesis self titled album which went to Number 9 on the Billboard Album Charts,. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back-catalog. Another urban legend has it that Collins performed on Top Of The Pops with a paintbrush on top of his piano since the man for whom his wife left him was a painter. In 1985, with a major-label release still years away, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of Cocteau Twins in the US and elsewhere. This is purely myth; Collins says the song, like the album, refers to his feelings about his divorce from his first wife, Andrea.

He returned to the group for The Moon and The Melodies (1986), which was a collaboration with Harold Budd, and was not released under the Cocteau Twins name. There are many stories around the song, but usually they have to do with Phil seeing a man let someone drown, writing the song about the man, then inviting him to its debut, and singing it while the man is in the spotlight. Raymonde, who was collaborating on the second This Mortal Coil LP, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. The song “In the Air Tonight” launched Phil Collins as a solo artist and is now part of folklore. These included The Spangle Maker (1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985), Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985) and Love's Easy Tears (1986). Phil Collins vented frustrations in his marital life by composing new material which formed the bulk of his first solo album Face Value in 1981. With Simon, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs, exploring their new style. Collins and Gabriel reunited with Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett in 1999 to re-record "Carpet Crawl" ("The Carpet Crawlers") from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for Genesis' "Turn It On Again: The Hits".

In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover-version of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren performed by Guthrie and Fraser, which became a major hit), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as a bass player. Phil Collins parted ways with Genesis in 1995 after a massive world tour. Despite being very different from its predecessor, Head Over Heels was well-received by both press and fans. Most of thier work this year was orchestrated by Leeroy Williams, member of the legendary 80's band GATE and later to join the boys. This led to establishing the Cocteau Twins' signature sound: heavily effected guitars combined with Fraser's ethereal voice. The group also received an MTV “Video of the Year” award for “Land of Confusion”. Since the band's sound on its first three recordings relied heavily on Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalistic guitar and Fraser's voice, Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head Over Heels, had to rely solely on the latter two. With Phil Collins as lead singer, the group scored a string of successful albums, including the 1986 Invisible Touch, which was their first UK Top hit.

Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig. In the 1980s, Genesis moved from an progressive rock base to one that was more pop oriented. Their debut recording, Garlands, was released by 4AD in 1982, and was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. In the 1980s he did session drumming for such high-profile acts as Robert Plant, Howard Jones and Tears for Fears. The name Cocteau Twins itself comes from an early (unreleased) song by Simple Minds. During the 1970s Collins also played drums for the jazz fusion band Brand X. The band's influences at the time included The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols and Siouxsie & the Banshees. The band enjoyed its most commercially successful period with Collins as vocalist, which essentially began in 1978 when the single Follow You, Follow Me became their first UK Top 10 hit.

At a local hotel disco club, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who eventually provided (vocals). The follow up album A Trick of the Tail outsold all previous Genesis albums combined. The band was formed in 1980 by Robin Guthrie (guitar) and Will Heggie (bass), both from Grangemouth, Scotland. The group also recruited former Yes drummer Bill Bruford and later Chester Thompson to play drums during live shows. Their trademark sound of layered, ethereal guitar and indecipherable vocals inspired the 1990s shoegazing genre, which included numerous bands such as Lush, Slowdive, Pale Saints, and My Bloody Valentine. In 1975, after the final tour of Genesis’ ambitious, concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, frontman Peter Gabriel left the group and Collins took over as lead vocalist. Cocteau Twins were an influential and prolific British band formed in 1980, their music becoming nearly synonymous with their record label 4AD. Genesis gained acclaim as major progressive rock outfit with compositions such as their 1972 magnum opus, the 23 minute "Supper's Ready" from Foxtrot.

Stars and Topsoil (2002). Collins also regularly sang backing vocals on all Genesis albums up until 1975. BBC Sessions (2000). Phil Collins gained acclaim as a “technically sound drummer” and sang lead vocals on “For Absent Friends” (from Nursery Cryme) and “More Fool Me” (from Selling England by the Pound). Box Set (1991). Phil Collins impressed the group enough for them to hire him as a fulltime drummer. The Moon and The Melodies (1986) with Harold Budd. During the audition, prospective candidates were asked to play pieces from the group’s sophomore album Trespass.

The Pink Opaque (1985). The ad was for an up and coming rock group called Genesis. Other: