Kill Phil – Collins stars in new computer game

Phil Collins appears in the new video game Grand Theft Auto – Vice City Stories, just released (for PSP) by Rockstar Games. Collins plays himself in the latest in the hugely popular and successful GTA series, which is set in Miami in the 80s, and great attention to detail has been paid to everything – the cars, the clothes, the music – to ensure period accuracy.
As with all the Grand Theft Auto games, there’s plenty of opportunity to drive around in fast cars and create mayhem, taking out other vehicles, flattening pedestrians, shooting guns and offing anyone who gets in your way.
There’s also the music: Vice City Stories includes more than 100 hits from the 80s, which you can listen to by tuning in to radio stations while driving around the city like a maniac.
Of the many missions you can take on, there are some where you must kill Phil, one of which is by sawing through the cables holding the lighting rig while he’s on stage playing drums and singing his 80s blockbuster In The Air Tonight. Whether or not your success in that mission results in Phil lying on stage in a pool of blood under a pile of mangled cymbal stands and with a bass drum stuck on his head, well, you’ll just have to play the game to find out.
“From the late 80s through until the late 90s I was a big gamer myself,” Collins told Classic Rock concerning his involvement in the GTA game. “I just fell in love with platform games, as they call them – Crash Bandicoot, Spiro The Dragon…”
And what does Collins think of his look and wardrobe in the game?
“Well it’s what I was like, you know – the long mane down the back, with the widow’s peak that was thicker than it is now, five o’clock shadow, the check suits. They spent a lot of time on the look.”