Phil Collins doesn't believe the moon landings took place

He said: "They had the premiere of our album, 'Ark II', at the Planetarium (London venue), where they played the music and projected a light show on the ceiling. It was all in the air.

"We'd already recorded the LP and we spend an evening - the evening - when the Americans apparently went to the moon...

"It's a can of worms and I don't know if I should open it. But I have a lot of questions about that.

"Anyway, we were on the rooftop of their very glamorous Hampstead period townhouse, looking up at the moon and watching it on TV. It was a very heady time.

"It was basically the beginning of serious discussions about space travel and that's what 'Ark II' was based on."

The 65-year-old musician went from drummer to frontman when Peter Gabriel quit Genesis and the thing he found hardest was filling the gaps between songs.

He recalled to Uncut magazine: "My main worry was what I was going to say to the crowd as the band are tuning their 12-string guitars between songs.

"You can't let the dead air settle, you have to fill it, and that's what Peter became good at.

"I used to tell little stories. Sometimes it was terribly embarrassing.

"I concocted this story for 'The Cinema Show'. We were in spain in a bullring and for some reason I can't quite fathom, the story involved an inflatable doll.

"There was this guy, trying to blow the doll up, and he's smoking and of course he bursts the doll. It was quite funny on paper.

"But I'm standing there in this bull ring, telling my story, which is written on a bit of paper in my hand, in pidgin Spanish, trying to blow up an inflatable doll... It became quite clear this story was going to take a good half hour."