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They could feel it coming in the air that night

The Brooklyn Paper

Just when you thought it was going all right, Greenpoint held a Phil Collins Day Parade on Tuesday night.

More than 250 fans of the treacly pop singer showed up — against all odds, if you will — and danced into the light down Franklin Street.

Organizer Heather Kramer and friends have long set aside Feb. 15 for their tribute to the British drummer Collins as an antidote to Valentine’s Day — and because they can’t stop loving him they set aside one more night for the parade.

“This went better than I imagined,” said Kramer. “Everyone had so much fun,” adding that’s just how she feels and that’s the way it is.

Revelers carried signs with Collins lyrics and swarmed around a parade float — a six-foot-tall paper mache bust of Collins’s head affixed to a Nissan — while a Collins impersonator atop another car took requests.

You can’t hurry love, but it turns you could hurry the parade.

Police — not the love police, the actual police — told the impersonator that he ought to know by now that standing on a moving vehicle was unsafe.

“He said, ‘You can do what you’re doing, but you can’t stand on the car,’ ” said the impersonator, Scott Riehs. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life.”

When the parade finished at Shayz Lounge, where there’s a place for us, these Collins fans found a way to our hearts.

But that’s just this neighborhood’s true colors. Indeed, it was another day in paradise — Greenpoint, actually.

Or, as Phil himself would say, “Sussudio.”

Reader Feedback

Joey from Clinton Hills says:
I thought Phil was pretty good on that Miami Vice episode.
Feb. 16, 2011, 10:55 am
Zohra from Williamsburg says:
Well done, Mr.Short!
Feb. 16, 2011, 2:20 pm
JT from 412 says:
"Oft-pathetic"? Isn't the snark supposed to be down here in the comments and not the captions? Otherwise, pretty good article.
Feb. 17, 2011, 5:18 pm
Cynthia from Clinton Hill says:
I wonder if he attended secretly,or even knew about it. overall i love In the air that night.
Feb. 17, 2011, 9:44 pm
dianne roell says:
Phil,

you have so many people who love you and can,t wait for your next song and i am one of them.i have loved you for 25 yrs. i came to NY to see you. i cant wait for the next thing you do, you are a big part of my life, i love you.
March 4, 2011, 7:38 pm
darrell says:
Im glad Phil is retiring and has health problems! Maybe now he has time to think about his counter suit against the phenix horns who helped propel this —— to stardom! He lef tPoor Louis Satterfield and Don Myrick in the poorhouse by discontinuing payments and royalties that they needed to live on after findong a accounting error ! Nice Heart a..ho..!
March 5, 2011, 8:56 pm
Darrell says:
Correction:
Not Donald Myrick but Rahmlee Davis and Louis Satterfield! Its one thing to withold future payments but to countersue individuals who played such a large part in one's success is despicable! Good Riddance Jerk! Be a humanitarian now like Pete Gabriel!! Oh sorry! That would cost too much!
March 5, 2011, 9:14 pm

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