Phil Collen is my cousin.
I remember his first guitar was a Gibson SG.
My mum, dad, aunt, uncle and nan all lived in the same house together when we were both born.
Used to go to rehearsals all the time with him with various bands he was in, Lucy was one, Dumb Blonds was another, and he was in different bands with our mates.
Went with him when he auditioned for Girl, when they heard him play they offered him the place of the guitarist straight away.
He was worried he would let his mates down if he joined Girl, as he was in a band with them at the time, but I said to him look your band's not going anywhere, you've got to take this chance. Girl had a recording contract at the time and a tour set up.
We used to go out on our bikes I had a Honda CB250 and he had a older Honda 250.
It's all coming back now, we used to hang about with Paul Taylor who changed his name when he joined Iron Maiden. My Brother made Paul's sister pregnant.
Also went to school with Paul Day who used to sing in Iron Maiden. He used to come to where I worked, with his mate, they were Hell's Angels and we went out on their choppers with them. Paul had a side car because he hadn't passed his test.
Sorry I'm rambling on here. Sorry if I've jacked your thread.
Hung around with Phil until I moved to Iceland.
He really helped me out when I was in trouble with mental illness and got in to debt when I couldn't work.
Then we gradually lost touch.