Melvyn Desmond Collins (born 5 September 1947, Isle of Man) is a British saxophonist, flautist and session musician.
Collins has played in several progressive rock groups, having been a member of King Crimson on two occasions (the first from 1970 to 1972 and the second from 2013 to 2021) and having played with Camel, the Alan Parsons Project, Roger Waters and Chris Squire. He has also worked in a wide variety of contexts ranging from R&B and blues rock to jazz.
Collins was born into a family of musicians. His mother was Bebe Collins a singer while his father was Derek Collins a saxophonist and session musician who toured with Judy Garland and Shirley Bassey.
Collins has worked with a large number of notable recording artists,[1] including 10cc, Alexis Korner, Alvin Lee, Child, Clannad, Eric Clapton, Bad Company, Pino Daniele, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry, Roger Chapman, Marianne Faithfull, The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters,[2] Gerry Rafferty, Tears for Fears, Go West and Joan Armatrading.
He was a member of progressive rock bands King Crimson, Camel, and sessioned with The Alan Parsons Project. For King Crimson he was Ian McDonald's replacement, playing on the albums In the Wake of Poseidon (1970), Lizard (1970), Islands (1971) and Earthbound (1972). He left King Crimson in 1972, later contributing to the album Red (1974) as a session musician. He played on the Crimson Jazz Trio's second album, The King Crimson Songbook, Volume Two, released in 2009.
Collins played the saxophone solo on The Rolling Stones 1978 hit single, "Miss You",[3] and joined Dire Straits in 1983 on their eight month long Love over Gold Tour and their live album, Alchemy. He was one of the members of Kokomo with Tony O'Malley, Neil Hubbard, Paddy McHugh, Frank Collins, Dyan Birch, and Alan Spenner, and is a frequent performer with Tony O'Malley.
In 1983, Collins played the saxophone solo on the hit single "Private Dancer", the title cut on Tina Turner's album by the same name. His solo was recorded in England at the Wessex Studios.[4]
In 1984 Collins played saxophone in Pino Daniele's album Musicante, having previously toured with the Neapolitan blues man. In the same year, Collins toured with Roger Waters to support the album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. In 1985 Collins was part of the supergroup 'Willie and the Poor Boys' appearing in their video with Bill Wyman and Jimmy Page. He toured again with Waters on a second leg of the 'Pros and Cons' tour. That same year, he also appeared on the album Songs From The Big Chair by Tears for Fears, playing saxophone on "The Working Hour". In 1986 he was a musician on the animated film When the Wind Blows. He worked again with Waters in 1987, appearing on both the album Radio K.A.O.S. and the subsequent tour, and in 1988 again with Daniele on the album Bonne Soirée and the subsequent tour.
From 1996-2004, we was a band member on Die Harald Schmidt Show, with band leader Helmut Zerlett.[5]
From 2002–07 Collins was a member of the King Crimson offshoot group 21st Century Schizoid Band, with other former Crimson members.
In May 2008 Kokomo was reformed temporarily. With Collins were Tony O'Malley, Neil Hubbard, Mark Smith, Adam Phillips, Andy Hamilton, Paddy McHugh, Dyan Birch, Frank Collins, Bernie Holland, and Glen Le Fleur.
Collins played woodwinds on the 2011 King Crimson ProjeKct 7, A Scarcity of Miracles, appearing on a King Crimson related album for the first time since 1974. In September 2013, Robert Fripp confirmed that Mel Collins would be a member of King Crimson again, the band being referred to as King Crimson VIII.
Collins was also a member of Pete Haycock's reformation of the Climax Blues Band in 2013, prior to Haycock's death in October 2013.
Collins is currently a member of Dire Straits Legacy, a band dedicated to playing music by Dire Straits, dubbed as "the closest you’re going to get!"[6] The band features Collins on saxophone, alongside fellow former Dire Straits touring members: Danny Cummings (percussion, vocals) and Phil Palmer (guitar, vocals), former Dire Straits members: Alan Clark (keyboards) and Jack Sonni (guitar, vocals) alongside record producer Trevor Horn (bass, vocals) as well as Marco Cavigila (lead guitar, vocals) and Primiano Dibiase (keyboards).[7] The band have recorded on Studio album "3 Chord Trick".[8]
Collins has done session work for many different artists, among them Joan Armatrading, Bad Company, Camel, Jim Capaldi, Clannad, Bryan Ferry, Alexis Korner, Alvin Lee, Phil Manzanera/801, Anthony Phillips, Chris Squire and Gerry Rafferty
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Rare film footage of KOKOMO – filmed by The Red Lion, Brentford and held in the music archives of Peter Hubbard. Featuring: Tony O’Malley (keyboard/vocals) Dyan Birch (vocals) Paddie McHugh …
THINGS come and go in the music business but quality musicians are never very far away from the centre of the action. So it is with Kokomo, one of the …
[Show slideshow] Thanks to Julian Crook
