Noel Gallagher calls him “The Antichrist”, Phil Collins brushes him off with irony and awaits the face-to-face in Los Angeles

Phil Collins doesn't believe that Noel Gallagher really considers him "the Antichrist". After more than thirty years of public jabs, the British musician has brushed off one of the most celebrated rivalries in English rock with a touch of irony, explaining in an interview with Mojo that he's convinced there's no genuine animosity behind the provocations of the Oasis guitarist.
The feud between the two dates back to the early 1990s. As early as 1994, at the outset of Oasis's career, Noel Gallagher declared that the band's goal was to "wipe Phil Collins off the charts". In the years that followed he doubled down, repeatedly calling the former Genesis frontman the "Antichrist" of pop music and arguing that his massive commercial success was no guarantee of real artistic relevance.
Musical differences weren't the only thing dividing Collins and Gallagher. The two have also often found themselves on opposite sides politically: Collins has long been associated with the British Conservatives, while Gallagher has backed the Labour Party, even joking in 2005 that nobody would want to see Collins back in the UK if the Tories won another election.

In recent years, however, Phil Collins's image has undergone a profound reassessment. After publicly opening up about his health problems, and thanks to a rediscovery of his catalogue among younger generations - fuelled in part by the numerous samples of his work in rap and hip-hop - the former Genesis drummer and frontman has seen his standing rise once again. As far back as 2015, he had self-deprecatingly predicted that sooner or later he would become "cool" even in the eyes of his detractors.
In the Mojo interview, Collins even attempted to offer an explanation for Gallagher's hostility. He suggested it might all trace back to a Genesis concert Noel saw in the 1980s, during which he was apparently struck by the dark atmosphere of "Mama" and the famous unsettling laugh that characterised its live performance. "I assume he doesn't really believe I'm the Antichrist," he remarked sarcastically.

Gallagher, for his part, has in the past pinned his dislike mainly on "You Can't Hurry Love" (a cover of the famous hit by The Supremes and Diana Ross), accusing Collins of having hogged the British charts with that hit. In fact, the single only stayed at number one in the UK for two weeks. The long-running war of words could, however, take an unexpected turn next November in Los Angeles. Phil Collins and Oasis are both set to be honoured with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and ahead of the ceremony they'll attend a private lunch reserved for the inductees: an occasion that could finally bring face to face two titans of British rock divided by more than three decades of jabs and provocations.

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