No Jacket Required

Event information

Totally authentic tribute to Phil Collins

Everyone who has seen them on previous tours has raved about their authentic re-creation of the stadium shows of the 80's and 90's, which saw Phil Collins become one of the decade's biggest-selling artists with worldwide hits such as Another Day In Paradise, You Can't Hurry Love and the classic In The Air Tonight. No Jacket Required ARE the UK's ultimate Phil Collins Tribute band.

The line up is exactly the same as how Phil presented his live shows, with a full brass section, percussion and backing vocalists. "One of the best shows we've seen in years"……. "It's almost not right to call them a tribute act, they're so much like the real thing"……. just two of the comments from people who saw them at their sell-out show on Valentine's Night at The Hawth, Crawley, West Sussex last year.

"It's a full two-hour show which features all the hits, plus a few album tracks from down the years – and we throw in a bit of Genesis too!", said Collins soundalike Dave Whitehouse.  Dave is now in his tenth year of "being" Phil Collins, making him Britain's most established tribute vocalist to the former Genesis frontman.  From his vocal style to his on-stage mannerisms, Dave's performances capture the powerful and emotional qualities of Phil Collins, while his stage presence has reminded audiences everywhere of the 'Golden Years' of the multi-award winning singer and songwriter.

The No Jacket Required History

Drummer Graham Goacher, a long-term "serious" fan of Phil Collins and his music, first raised the idea for the band back in 2002. He approached two other music colleagues, guitarist Vic Chase and bass player Chris Peddie-Burch, and the band was born.

When it came to the keyboards role, Kevin Stuart was always going to be the man for the job. All three had already worked with Kevin on other musical projects and so he was the natural choice. Kevin's work with a singing four-piece also meant that he brought some invaluable backing vocal expertise to the group.

Together, the four members worked on the structures and sounds of the songs from Phil Collins' album Serious Hits... Live! until the foundations of a show were in place. They were just missing a Phil Collins!

The band next approached lead vocalist and Phil soundalike Dave Whitehouse, who was already well known on the tribute band circuit as the frontman for the Genesis tribute Invisible Touch since 1998. Having seen him perform in Chiddingfold, Graham and Vic knew that Dave was the final piece of the jigsaw, and he was thrilled to complete the line-up of the core band.

The sounds and atmosphere of the massively successful eighties and nineties tours by Phil Collins was faithfully recreated with the addition of the NJR Horns in the Spring of 2003.  With this complete line-up, No Jacket Required had become a ten-piece band and were ready to take the show out to the general public.

In the summer of 2005, Dave was approached by Opus 78, a Big Band in Luxembourg , to front their tribute show to Phil Collins, a show later transmitted twice on TV in mainland Europe.

No Jacket Required are well-established and still progressing – featuring the country's most established Phil Collins tribute vocalist, a superb band with backing vocals, a four-piece horn section and now also a professional percussionist. They have been performing Phil Collins' shows for over three years and sell out venues across the UK. And as you have just read, they are as experienced a live band as you could wish to see on the tribute circuit. As a fan said to us after the sell out Capitol Theatre show in Horsham recently, "To call you a tribute band is not a fair description – you're so professional, you're as good as the real thing!".

The band is constantly adding to their repertoire of authentic arrangements, and this year is no exception, with new numbers being added to the shows, and brass enhancements to some of the Genesis numbers.

"Backed byan outstandingly accomplished cast of musicians, for over two hours No Jacket Required gave a committed, dazzling and highly entertaining display which exceeded my highest expectations.  This was a Seriously Fabulous evening!" – David Dunnington, Genesis Forum.

So that's the No Jacket Required story so far. We're sure though, that there's a "long, long way to go…"