For the credits: the interview was made by Lise Delobel and Oliver Hoehne
on January 22nd in Lausanne at the Rehearsals Area.

Courtesy of Oliver Hoehne. Copyright (C) 1997.

*****

Question:  Tell us about your birthday, your youth and so on, please.

Brad Cole: I just turned 44. I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on
December 10th 1953. I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and my
father lives there. My parents are divorced. I went to a school called
the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. I can teach
music in Connecticut. When I moved to LA in 1978, I played with all
kinds people before having the pleasure to play with Phil. 

Q: Did you ever teach?

B: Not yet, but probably when I get older! (laughs) When I grow up I m
gonna teach. Sometimes it s really hard to think of teaching because I
just do it. I probably have to learn how to teach it. There is a way of
communicating to someone and I don t do that that well. I just say, 
 here s what I do, now do that!" And that s not good enough, they don t
really understand. Sometimes I take it for granted and I do what I do
and I don t think about it. It s hard to explain, especially with
Synthesizers. I had one student once, who wanted to learn about synths,
and I was the worst teacher! I said,  here s a sound." And she said,
 how did you get that sound?", and I said,  I don t know. Now you get."
That s not how you teach. So if I m going to do that I have to learn how
to do it. Some day I will.

Q: When did you come in touch with music?

B: I think when I was very very small my father played me two records.
One was Tchaykowsky piano concerto, and the other was Ravel. Mostly
Bolero, and stuff like that. Also he played me a lot of Broadway Show
music. I remember that from when I was a baby. He used to play me
classical music to put me asleep. I got into that first when I was very
very young. And I started playing piano, taking piano lessons when I was
about ten. The first instrument was clarinet, and then saxophone, and
then flute. I played flute and saxophone with Supertramp. More news for
the fans! I also became a singer in school. I wanted to be an
opera-singer. (Luis Cont‚, who just entered the room, starts singing
like an opera singer. Brad and he are fooling around before Brad tells
Luis that he s having an interview and gets back to that) and then I
spoke so terrible that I switched back to the piano as a major
instrument and stayed with that. 

Q: Did you ever play in a band when you were young?

B: I played sax in one band at high-school. It was rock, like Chicago,
Blood Sweat and Tears. That band was called Witch Hazel. You know what
that is? Witch Hazel was a rock band with two horns, keyboards, organ.
We did all that kind of stuff, late 60ies, early 70ies. And then I never
did pop music again until I got over college. After I ve decided that I
couldn t be an opera-singer I wanted to be a conductor. And then I
studied that for a while, I had that vision Meanwhile I m still playing
piano but I was not really thinking I could do it for a living or I
could become a famous conductor or a famous something. 
When I got out of college I didn t know what to do so I took a job with
a band in Hartford which was where I was going to school. We ended up
playing in clubs and that was  where I got interested back in pop. I
didn t know anything about Genesis or Phil until much later on.

Q: Did you listen to Genesis or Phil?

B: No. I heard the name Genesis, but I didn t connect it to anybody
until I met Daryl, back in  79. I knew Daryls name from Jean Luc Ponty
and Gino Vinelli. He played me just after he had done his very first work
with Genesis, in 78 I think, Wind & Wuthering, And Then There Were
Three. Honestly it wasn t my cup of tea at that time. I was more in
funk, r&b, that kind of things. But the next year (Luis begins to shout
outside,  He is a teacher!!"; everybody is laughing) Daryl played me the
tracks of Face Value before it came out. And I felt madly about that
stuff. That was kind of Genesis and the r&b, what I loved. So I got
interested in Genesis by first getting interested in Phil. And then he
played me Duke, which was just to come out, and I liked that. I was
interested in the 80-versions of Genesis, and then I started to go back
to listen to some of their older stuff, hearing it differently by coming
into it by Duke. Upon to that time I had never heard of these guys! It
was Daryl who turned me on to it. 
In those days Genesis was very-  still the Peter influence. Very
theatrical, the big orchestral sound, and  it didn t really reach me at
that time. Now I really totally admire Tony. I think he s great. But it
took me a lot to understand. There are a lot of great artists that do it
that way to me, I don t get it right away and I come around to it 
eventually.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to nowadays?

B: I listen to lots of different stuff. Right now I m going through a
big classical moment. On the road, I brought a Beatles Antology, of
course. And some film soundtracks that I ve been listening to. I wanna
try to start getting more into that more. When I m not working with Phil
I try to do the compositional kind of stuff. Some jazz things.. there is
so much going on on the rehearsals that I m really not listening to
anything right now cos there is just too much  music during the day.
When the day is gone I don t really want to hear any music. But on the
road we start playing on concerts and we start listening to lots of
other stuff just to keep fresh. I listen to lots of different things
because I want to be versible with style I don t know. I worked with
Kassav' 95, they came to my house to do some keyboard overdubs on
my A-DATs  . I have never heard of Zouk music before. They gave
me all their records, and that stuff is fabulous. There is always a way
to find new influences. I love hearing about stuff I ve never heard of
before and I want to know what it is and why it sounds the way it sounds
and what makes it happen. 
When I ve been jogging today, I have been listening to a nostalgy
station. Amazing! Some of this old stuff is fascinating to me. France
Gall , people from the 80s, French, their style is so different from
American music. They allow so much more stuff to go on. They are not so
worried whether it will fit into this type of music or this type of
music. It is like it is. 

Q: We wonder what you re actually doing when you re not on tour or
rehearsing apart from listening to nostalgy radios?

B: (laughs) We did the Big Band the past summer and after that it was
really kind of slow in LA.  There was not much work. So I spent the
whole fall losing weight and getting in shape for this tour. I didn t do
all that much music and I didn t mind. It was not work, but since the
tour was coming I didn t have to think about finances.  I got myself a
bicycle and I was riding my bike, exercising, and just getting ready for
this year. This was what I was doing. When we finish in April with the
American tour  I gonna decide if I ll stay in LA or not. I m considering
moving somewhere else like Nashville or even NY. 

Q: Will you come to live in Switzerland like Phil?

B: I don t know. (laughs) My French doesn t get any better. Its amazing,
I study it and study it and I still can t  understand anybody. They talk
so fast! They said that if you live with it long enough you absorb it.
Hasn t happened yet! It was that way with Jonasz: It got better to a
point and then it stayed that way. Even working with French musicians. I
don t absorb. I don t know what it is. Some people have a gift, they
just take it in, they can get a language without thinking about it. I
have completely to think about French and translate it first, and not
speak it, and that s wrong. 

Q: You told us about your tape-system...

B: They wanted to change keyboard sounds on one of their projects they
were working on. I have A-DATs. A-DAT is a 8-track digital
tape-recorder, I have four of those, I have 32 tracks of digital
tape-recording at home. They look like video-cassettes. We were
replacing sounds they had already done but they wanted better sounds, so
we worked on that stuff during the day. My studio is like my keyboard
rig here plus the A-DAT system. It s all mobile so I can take it where I
wanna go. But it s not all that fancy, it s might be smaller than that
room here. I have done some projects there with Paula Abdul, and I have
done a couple of records there. I ve been doing the keyboard parts on
the A- DATs and then taking the A-DATs to the studio and copying them
there.  Basically it is a studio for me to do either demos or to do
song-writing or projects where the artists can rehearse or prepare on
A-DATs, it s really nice to have it, I m happy.

Q: Did you ever work as a solo artist?

B: No, I never had any desire to do that. I don t see myself doing that,
not yet. I have a couple of ideas coming up, but until now not really. 
There s too many piano players in LA who are solo artists. And keyboards
is a very difficult instrument to achieve any success as a solo artist.
Record companies will sign up solo artists when you are a saxophone
player or maybe a guitar player, but mostly sax. There is like a 100
saxophone players out there. And it s all like the same stuff. I just
didn t want to be another guy doing the same stuff. If I was going to be
a solo-artist it would have to be something really unique and I haven t
quite come up with it yet. I have a plan to do a record as a composer, a
kind of Quincy Jones thing, where I write the music and produce it.  But
it s not really a keyboarder record, it s more like a song-concept. 

Q: Tony had a lot of problems with his solo albums.

B: Well there s a great example. He is a brilliant player. The problem
is because he s brilliant it s harder for him to achieve success. His
music is -I don t want to use the word intellectual, but at least very
thoughtful. I love his last record, Strictly Inc, that s great. I have
that with me. Really interesting song-writing. Maybe not the most
commercial song-writing. I don t think he cares that much about the
commercial as much as he cares about writing really nice material.
That s the more important point. 

I love his records cos I hear the Genesis. You can hear a song of Tony s
and you know where this is where Mike would do something. It would be a
little different if it was a Genesis song. When you hear Mike & The
Mechanics you hear Mike s influence  and you can say, okay,  here Tony
would do something. It s really interesting to hear those guys solo
projects cos you now know why  when they get together and work as a trio
that s an incredible amount of creativity. 
Have you heard any of the new material, the new Genesis minus Phil?

(we were VERY surprised about this question. After some seconds, when we
were really sure that he meant the NEW material we told him that of
course we hadn t heard any of it but that we would love to hear it. Brad
continued then: )

B: Supposedly they have a couple of  hours with new material, with Mike
and Tony doing all the writing. I think they have a new singer. It might
have guessed... but they do have a new singer. I d be very interested to
see how it turns out. 

Q: It is said to be heavier and darker.

B:  Is it? (he seems to be surprised by that question) The people at the
farm have heard it but they are keeping it very much hush-hush.

Q: Which songs by Phil do you prefer?

B: Hm.. (thinks) for example on the new record it's Lorenzo. I did a very
stupid thing, which I didn't know,  when he was first putting the songs
together he sent the demos to us. And asked us for our comments. So I sent
him back a long fax, saying that the lyrics for Lorenzo were some of the
best stuff he ever did. And he sent me back a fax: "Thanks a lot. It was
one I didn't write."
I think Lorenzo is great. I like the Beatles kind of stuff. I think it's
courageous of him to do the guitar. "It's In Your Eyes" is really sort of a
classical sounding song. I like "River So Wide", it's nice on this record.
Let's look for some of the older stuff. "Against All Odds" is great. I
watched audiences, especially women, we played in Hanover last time and I
remember I started "Against All Odds". There was a girl in the front, she
just burst into tears, just weeping. I wondered, "What happened in her life
when that song was played, so that she associates it to that song every
single time?" Some of ballads that Phil has done, like "Against All Odds" ,
or "Separate Lives", even if it's a Steven Bishop song, but Phil does it.
And some of his other ballads are the thing that connects him to the
audience the best. He sings a ballad in such a way that you believe every
word. He's so real. A lot of ballad singers in America are really fake. I
don't want to name any names, but there are singers when they sings it's
emotional but you don't really believe it. But when Phil sings, you will
believe it all. He's an honest performer, and he's really convincing. I
like some of his ballads and he's doing one during the solo section, it's
from Face Value, it might be "You Know What I Mean". That is just
tremendous. And he's doing "Long Long Way To Go". We put that in the solo
section where there is just the singers and Phil. I know that this is not a
Phil Collins song, but "Turn It On Again". We did that one in Knebworth, in
1990. That was such a great song to play! We played it, that was the one
and only time we played with Tony and Mike. Great stuff to play, it's fun.

Q: Is it true that Phil can't read notes?

B: I think he reads a little. In the Big Band, he had made his own charts.
They looked like little lines and arrows and exclamation points and
drawings, like hieroglyphics, followed by a "bish!". So he called them
Bish-Boards. And he learnt it that way. I think he wanted to teach himself
for that tour. You know, he always has a project. Last tour it was the
bag-pipes,  one year with Genesis he taught himself trumpet, that was many
years ago, and he always has some little thing that he's working at. I hope
that this time he wants to learn music as a project.  But I think he
doesn't really read music that well right now.

Q: The guitars might have been a project as well?

B: Oh yeah, I think he wants to that, probably on the tour as well. He did
a video where he is playing but he is not really playing. I think he's
learning some basic chords right now. He has enough knowledge probably to
play one or two of the songs. 

O: Which aspects have Phil and you in common, musically?

B: Interesting... My back ground was more jazzy, his is more r&b, very
American black music, I think. When I came into the band I was just so
amazed that he played drums the wait that he sounds on the records! The
first time when we were rehearsing in Stanbridge in England, he set down to
play something and showed Chester how to do it. I was just knocked over: He
really did play that way! The way he plays the drums like there on stage,
-you can stand next to the drums- it sounds like on the record, because he
makes the drums sound that way! I was amazed because very often it's all
done in the studio, tricks and so on. Not him, he just plays his style. 
He's got a very unique way of playing the drums. Nobody else sounds like
him. So when I came in the thing I related to him straightaway was the
drumming and of course the singing. Musically I've had to learn his
language. The thing I play on the keyboards for Phil, it has to be just his
way all the time. He doesn't want somebody coming in and fooling around,
bringing in a lot of other notes, and other chords, and other this and
that. The whole point is to play it exactly like the record, to play it in
that style, with those sounds, every night in the same way. Because it does
not sound like Phil Collins once you loose that way. It starts to sound
like anybody else the more extra stuff you bring in. 
When we go on tour, you get tired, and night after night after night- you
start maybe "oh, lets try this chord". "And how about this chord here?" And
after a while you've changed it completely and you don't even know about
that! And eventually Phil looks around and you realize that there are too
many different things and you have to go back to the original, to
therecord. You get it back to where it was. Because the audience only hears
it once. If they come along and they hear it after we've added 15 chords or
so they think"what the hell is that? That's not what I've heard on the
record." You have constantly to remember that the audience is there for the
first time. Even if we've played it a hundred times you it has to sound on
the hundredth show like on the first, and you keep it that way. 

Q: Was is then difficult to play those songs like on Both Sides, where
everything was played by Phil first? More difficult than the other stuff?

B: No. By the time he did that record I understood him musically pretty
well. And I know that if something- in my natural way. The first rehearsals
for the Serious Tour was when I had to learn that the way he played it or
the way he played on a record, sometimes it is the same chord, but there is
just a little difference, a little different version, or a different
voicing. And if he played the wrong chord, or even the wrong voicing, it's
not right! I became very aware how little things make a big difference. So
by the time Both Sides came out, I already knew that. The song I've
Forgotten Everything for example has - is really simple chords if you write
them down on a piece of paper. But the way he voices them on the keyboard-
if you don't do it exactly that way it doesn't sound like that! In America-
he's got a solo-section in the middle of the show, his piano comes up, in
the middle of the stage, and he plays alone. He hasn't played this song for
years, and he can't remember his voices. I've been showing him the right
way to play. He plays it his way, or the way he thinks he remembers it, but
sometimes it doesn't really sound like that. He's got now to go back and to
learn how he did it on the record. I understand now quite well the way he
thinks and the way he plays, especially keyboards. He doesn't have to show
me that very often- I hear. 

Q: Let's talk about the Unplugged..

B: ..Nobody much likes the Unplugged. I don't like it. I liked the idea,
but I think there were just too many problems. First of all we just came
over from the States, and I was tired, I felt jet-lagy, and we had
rehearsals, we've had rehearsed all through the tour in the states. We
didn't really get to focus on it the way we should have. If I had been in
charge I would have said more do it, more rehearse during the tour. But a
week before the Unplugged, all together in England and work it out,
concentrate on that. When we finally went on we had a whole day of
rehearsals there after flying over. Everybody was very tired and the next
day we had a run through and then we were taping. At the time we went to
the taping Phil was already tired, vocally. We were tired, I wasn't happy
with the piano sound, I had problems, I had this Elton John 11 foot
Steinway which was great, but I didn't like the way they put it on. I just
didn't like the sound and I never felt comfortable doing it. It just felt
weird. I wish we could do it again, because we would do it so much better.

Q: You would like to do it again?

B: Oh, I would love to do it again. I think the concept was great, but we
did not do enough. I would have loved to have done more string quartets,
other instrument like the accordion. Or for the rehearsal one time we had
that pump-organ, where you move your feet up and down, and we did "The Roof
Is Leaking" that way.  It was so cool! It was probably what it was supposed
to be. I don't know why we- he didn't like it, or something happened so we
didn't do it. I just felt like we didn't take the songs and turned them
inside-out, unplugged. We should have fooled around, a bit more special. As
it was we just played them the way we normally do, with the piano and
organs. I would have liked to do more special kind of stuff. I wish we
could do another one again. I don't know if we ever will. I don't know if
he wants, he didn't enjoy it either. 

Q: There are people saying that you will do the Unplugged again this year,
in the UK and elsewhere?

B: Could be. We were supposed to do it again in '94, but it never happened
because MTV didn't want to pay for it twice or something like that. I only
hear rumors too!

Q: So you just did this one time in England?

B: Yeah, that was it. And I have never seen it! They never played it in the
States. If you watch it you can see nobody has really a lot of fun!
(smiles) You can tell that. 

Q: You seemed to enjoy the Big Band very much...

B: Absolutely. I loved -I went to the piano, I didn't have to worry about
if it's going to break down or not. It was just the piano. It was more
about the music. There is so much technical stuff going on, and very often
I'm just wrapped up in that, worring wheter this sound or this level is
right. This thing was more about the plain song, that's great. Plus I loved
the "Wot Gorilla" arrangement, and the "Always" arrangement, I really liked
that. They asked me to arrange the song that Tony did, "Wot Gorilla". It's
a little two minutes piece- it's great. I've never heard it, I've never
listened to that album. Very clever piece of music. It's very short. In a
Big Band you usually arrange the theme and then you have solos. This didn't
sound like that kind of piece, it was more Tony's little composition,
almost like a film soundtrack. I decided on my own, and later on I asked
for permission, because I wanted to connect this one with Afterglow. I
wanted to pick a song that everybody would, first, so I made "Afterglow" in
the middle and let the saxophone play that. I don't know wheter they were
succesful or not. 
We returned at the end of that to "Wot Gorilla" again. The horn players
told me that was the hardest part to play because they never stopped! They
just continually (sings) - you're not supposed to write that way. When we
were rehearsing that thing  these people went purple from playing that. It
was so much! But the energy- I would like to hear a tape of that, because
actually I've never heard any recordings of it, how good it was. In the
rehearsals, when we were in LA, it was colourful. There is supposed to be a
record of the Big Band, I think, sometimes. You know more about that than I
know.

Q: Was the Big Band an old project?

B: Big Band. I know that he was talking about it in 94. He's a big Buddy
Rich fan, that jazz Big Band drummer. He always wanted to do something like
that. I thought, this is really complicated. I was very surprised that it
actually happened. They put it together, Tony Smith and Phil. They worked
out the whole thing themselves. I think it goes back to some years, it's
not that old. I've never played in a Big Band before, but playing in one in
Montreux, that's amazing. I wouldn't have thought to play in Montreux with
any other band I've been in. That was really fun, with Tony Benett, David
Sanborn, and Quincy and all those people, it was a treat! I've been very
lucky, I've played with some amazing people in my life. I sometimes forget.
I take it all for granted. This is what I've dreamt of doing! I always
wanted to play with the best people, and to be worthy, to be good enough to
play with the best group. There's that picture of me showing Quincy Jones
how to conduct "Wot Gorilla"! I used to listen to Quincy when I was about
12. I thought: "how (?) wow!!!!" I'm really amazed. I think we may do it
again. They wanna do one in the United States. I'd love to do it in
America. There are lots of great horn players to put in a band. As much as
I liked the people from Cologne, they were great. There are lots of Jazz
Festivals in the States, and that would be a real fun. 

Q: Is it true, that the Big Band had an influence on the album?

B: I don't think so. It will have more an influence on that show. We
brought in some arrangements, like the Big Band arrangement of "Against All
Odds", we put it into this version, for the solo. There's Phil little- good
influence. I think he enjoyed hearing them arranged by somebody else.
There's some little bits of that will show up in this show. Eventually he's
going to do something from the Big Band here. 

Q: Who arranged the songs for the Big Band?

B: Lots of arrangers from the United States. One was John Clayton, Sandy
Mastical did "Invisible Touch". Was fun, it has got that sound. Than there
was Harry Kim, he did brilliant, "Los Endos" and ITAT was one of his. Harry
is played a lot of big band in his life, he is very similar with that
style. That LE was fabulous. And me..(smiles).

O: How was the work in the studio with Phil? Did you ask him if you could
play on this album or was it the other way round?

B: I think it was always his plan to do the record with the whole band,
that was for some years ago. We had some weeks of rehearsals last year in
Gingings, near Nyon. We rehearsed all the songs for five weeks as if we
were practicing for a tour. Then we went home, and we came back in May to
the Chateau. It was so relaxed, because we all knew what we were doing,
there was nothing to learn. It felt like too easy, just playing and then-
"okay, let's get lunch". This fabulous French food, where we really got
rehearsing, it didn't feel like recording. It was such an easy life, there
was no pressure whatsoever. In fact it was fat. It was so mallow, it didn't
feel like doing a record, it felt like some people hanging around playing. 

Q: Did you work with the demos?

B: We worked with the demos more and more. We started out just with playing
and then we referred to the demos quite a lot. The flavor of the demo is
definetely there. He got used to his own sound. There is the performance
aspect of everybody, sometimes I'm playing exactly what he played. Because
I'm playing it it's not different, it just feels a little different, that's
all. Like in "Take Me Down", I play the organ there which is pretty much
like me. It just happened right there. For "Lorenzo" I built up the sound,
based on a demo, but I built it up with that rich sound. I developed a way
of playing it and that's what the liked and that's what he kept. It wasn't
too far from his style, just a little more, a little touch more, not much.
If you're listening to the demos it's not radically different on the
record. He develops a concept on the demo and we stay close to that.

Q: "Take Me Down" is a very fast song, and "Wear My Hat" as well. That's
not typical for him- did you have a lot of coffee before recording them?

B: (smiles) No- I loved "Wear My Hat", when I heard it on the demo. It was
the kind of song, with humor, nice story, he makes a little fun of himself.
It's that east-african feel, that's very amusual for him. I love that song.
It doesn't seem that fast to me, but it's much faster than all of the rest
of the stuff. And it's all very guitar-orientated more than
keyboard-orientated. 

Q: How much are you involved in writing the songs?

B: Not at all. Zero (laughs). If Phil is reading this: I want to be
desperately involved in writing the songs, like Daryl was! Give me a
bridge, give me anything! I'm available! I sent him -we're doing this
Tarzan thing, I've sent him a tape, I created this atmospheric, just in
case he gets to create  not only the songs but also the music that goes
under -  the score of this movie. I sent him a whole bunch of ideas. I
don't think he ever listened to it. Hm- You can't say that I didn't try !
(laughs)

Q: Can you tell us any funny or interesting stories from the rehearsals for
the album?

B: We ate too much. There was a Chateau and we had a whole kitchen. We
would get up and then there was that ridiculous breakfast with everything.
Very often I wasn't playing at all. We were all there, Daryl, Nathan and
me, we've been working on a song and it would be Daryl's turn. Daryl would
do it. They spent a lot more time on the guitars, Daryl and Ronnie. There's
much more guitars stuff on this record than before. There were lots of
hours when I was sitting around playing with my Macintosh or Daryl was
doing whatever. And then it's my turn: "Okay, come on in!". I had
everything together and I could play it and it was over in about 15 minutes
I had my part down. "Okay, let's go back to the Macintosh and wait." And
then: "Okay, it's time for lunch!" More thousands of calories, French food.
Jesus- I got huge sitting around and eating. I think that's the thing I'll
remember that there was too much food. But it was so beautiful. What a way
to do a record- God! It's so much better than sitting in a studio where's
no air, it is dark, everybody is worried because it's overtime, everything
is just so nerve-lacking. This was the opposite of that, this was just
party. It was only a week. That's a great way to work! It doesn't happen in
LA that way- it's always pressure, everybody is worried because it costs
overtime, time is money. I always dreamed of doing a record like this- and
I had a chance to do it!

Q: How was it to work with Ronnie?

B: Ronnie is an interesting character. He's not like Daryl. If you had to
take a second guitar player you wanna pick someone whose strength is
somewhere else than Daryls. Ronnie is a blusier kind of musician. He brings
the real kind of a (??) quality. He's a good blues-  he takes a solo in
(looks up the name: "Again! I know Phil will be mad at me for not knowing
this title)  "No Matter
Who". It's really what that means. Daryl is more technical. 
 
Q: We have some more questions about the next tour.  How's the work going
on? 

B: We are amazingly ahead of schedule. We came in, had a couple of days of
coming down here and this and were getting everything set up . And we
played for the first time on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon we were
running the show. I mean everybody is very prepared. So today Phil had a
day off, , we had a vocal rehearsal today and the horns went off and
practiced a couple of things. Everybody is so quick that by the end of next
week when we go to Florida or go to Paris this sounds  great. And it sounds
great now. We are sort of doing details right now. It happens very very
fast. We have only 4 weeks of rehearsals. On the Both Sides tour we had 7
weeks of rehearsals and on the Serious Tour we had 7 or 8 weeks. But he
knows that the music comes together very fast. Everybody knows their job so
well that we don't have to spend the whole time rehearsing. We just do it.
We could probably play most of the show right now in front of an audience.
There is a few things like the drum duet that we're still putting together.
But most of it, all the old stuff definitely, easy. 
We did a show in New York in October. I rehearsed the band for two days and
we even didn't have to do that. We just ran the stuff down and played it
and everything was fine. Then he came down and ran it once and then we did
the show. The stuff never goes away. It's just about having all the sounds
ready to go. It's amazing. Thierry -my new keyboard tech- has done Janet
Jackson and  Paula Abdul and stuff like that. He's amazed. It's day two and
it was so fine- so this all happens very quick. 

Q: How about the stage? Will the light be a special theme?

B: I think it has something to do with a ship but I'm not real sure. They
are changing it a lot. The lights will be in a circle overhead, do you
remember the doors on the serious tour? The carrousel? We're similar today.
It will all come down. I'm not sure if it will be a ship or a space-ship!
We are getting used to the idea of playing all facing out and not facing
towards each-other. That's kind of unusual and a little strange.  I'm
envious of the guys that can run around like Daryl and Nathan, they have
wireless. I don't know if I'll be running! But I may end up with one of
those kinds..I don't know, it kind of depends. But it's interesting: It
will be really different to have an audience all around. Everybody has to
perform. It's not a big stage where I can sit up there and hide. You cannot
hide on this one, I like that. 

Q: Are you looking forward to the tour?

B: Oh yeah. I will like this tour a lot. It's not too long and there's that
great section in the middle of it. It's just right this one.  The '94 was
great but it was just a long time to be out without breaks, we didn't have
gotten any breaks. And I got pretty exhausted by the end of it.  It was
really a long year. This is  great, we are two weeks here, home, then in
Florida rehearsals for a couple of weeks. For me touring in America is no
different from staying at home. Touring for me is challenge to be in Europe
for a long time. That's hard, not hard, but everything that is so easy to
do home, like phonecalls, just life: you have to think about everything.
And everything costs five times as much. Touring in America is a snap, it's
easy.  

Q: Have all the songs yet been chosen for the show? 

B.C.: Pretty much, most. It's a lot from the ones from before, and a bunch
of news ones. Plus the solo section in middle which has never been done in
concert before as I said before. For now - this is what it is for today:

Hand in Hand; Hang In Long Enough; Don't Lose Number; River So wide; Take
me down; Find A way To My Heart; Another Day In Paradise; Against All Odds;
Just another Story; Lorenzo; It's In Your Eyes; The Times They Are
A-Changing.
Solo: We Said Hello Goodbye; I've Forgotten Everything; Long Long Way To
Go; You Know what I mean; All of my life.
In the Air Tonight; Drum/percussion part
DITL; Wear my hat; Easy lover; You can't hurry; Two hearts; Something
Happened; Sussudio
Encores: The Same moon; Take me Home

But we might add to that. It's going to be one long show without a break.
It looks like that is has a great ark, a great shape. And it will be about
two and a half hours like it always is. It gives them their money's worth.

Q: Will you take part to the Disney soundtrack?

B: I really want to. I'd love to be involved. But that's not any decision
that .. it's not than I can say let me do it. It is Disney's side. For
example Elton John, he wrote the songs, but I don't know if his band played
on the songs. Phil would probably say I'd like my guys to do play the songs
but it's Disney's decision. What is my dream is that Disney says you're
doing the songs Phil and we want you to do the score and then he calls me
up the next day and says "help!".  And I would come and collaborate with
him on the score. That  would be great for me, because then I could really
do what I can do best and that's compose, classical.