‘Tomorrow Is Always Too Long’ is a project by Phil Collins that conjures a distinctive vision of Glasgow from the perspective of institutions that describe the scope of human experience and define us as social beings.
In 2014 Collins met people in maternity hospitals, schools, community groups, and social clubs for the elderly, asking them to sing songs, make predictions for the future, debate the status of freedom in today’s society, guide us through the city’s most famous prison, and dance like there’s no tomorrow. These sequences were framed through an imaginary public-access network, one which, high on bad attitude and with just a hint of mayhem, makes an appeal to the epic pleasures of channel surfing and the potential for low-budget television to reinvent itself through its viewers and their take on life as we somehow still live it.
Phil Collins, 'Tomorrow Is Always Too Long' (2014) video still. Courtesy of the artist.
With animation by Matthew Robins and stellar soundtrack contributions from Welsh pop-enigma Cate Le Bon, Mogwai’s very own Barry Burns, local voodoo ravers Golden Teacher, and the esteemed Royal Scottish National Orchestra, ‘Tomorrow Is Always Too Long’ took the audience on a trip deep into the heart of the city and beyond.
Project Details
‘Tomorrow Is Always Too Long’ was presented in Queen’s Park as a one-night-only free event. Centered around an installation of multiple LED screens set up in the old rose garden, an open terrace with views over the city and the hillside beyond, this memorable evening evoked the park’s great tradition of public gatherings, from political protests to music festivals.
An official Festival 2014 event.
