1978: Assistant Engineer Morgan
studios
1979: Assistant Engineer Lansdowne Studios
1980: Assistant Engineer Regents Park Studios
1982: House Engineer Regents Park studios
1984: Free-lance Engineer/Producer/Mixer
EARLY CAREER:
Phil started his engineering career at Morgan Studios in ’78. He
spent 6 months there, assisting on sessions with Andrew Lloyd Webber,
Coliseum, Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy and The Jam, before being offered an
assistant engineer’s job at Lansdowne Studios. At Lansdowne, the
clients ranged from library music sessions for Bruton Music and De Wolfe’s,
to Jeff Wayne and Mike Batt. Stiff Records also booked several months
of studio time for artists including Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric and Henry
McCulloch. Phil assisted on these sessions and was also credited on the
Jack Nitsche produced, Graham Parker & The Rumour album, “Squeezing
Out Sparks”. He also assisted on The Sex Pistols' "Rock 'n
Roll Swindle" sessions.
After a year, Phil moved to Regents Park Studios to assist producer, Stephen
Lipson (Annie Lennox, Will Young). With Stephen, Phil worked on albums
by Lindisfarne, Mike Heron and Sniff And The Tears. Stephen Lipson left
Regents Park Studios and Phil became one of the house engineers and recorded
Dave Stewart and Colin Blunstone’s “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted”
which went to No. 7 in the charts, and Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin’s
“It’s My Party” which went to No.1. During this time,
he also recorded much of Japan’s seminal album “Tin Drum”
with producer Steve Nye, recorded Orange Juice’s debut album and
albums by The Raincoats, Pere Ubu, Jim Capaldi, Richard Thompson and Kirsty
MacColl.
FREE-LANCE ENGINEERING:
In ’84, Phil became a freelance engineer and gained experience working
in a variety of studios in London. He also worked for Stiff Records as
the FOH live sound engineer on the nationwide tour by the Passion Puppets
and worked on projects in France, Switzerland, Italy, Holland and Germany.
In the mid 80s, Phil free-lanced at Sarm Studios, assisting Stephen Lipson
and engineering for Trevor Horn on a range of ZTT projects including some
of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood sessions. In ’86, he also worked
at the newly built Strongroom Studios where he recorded and mixed the
first Housemartins album, the first Proclaimers album and John Cale’s
“Artificial Intelligence”. In ’90, Phil achieved a Billboard
No. 1 with his remix of Maxi Priest’s “Close To You”.
And had several more top ten hits on both sides of the atlantic with his
co-production of Cathy Dennis’ debut album “Move To This”.
He continued working with The Housemartins and recorded and mixed all
their records and built a reputation as a mix engineer with artists such
as Carmel, Dead Or Alive, Zuccherro, Sinead O'Connor, Captain Sensible,
Sunscreem, Brand New Heavies, Apache Indian, M People, Mark Morrison,
Stevie Wonder, Wax, Made In London, The Sugarcubes, Sade, Russell Watson,
Gareth Gates, Tina Turner, Emmylou Harris, Murray Head, Jerry Dammers,
ABC, Simple Minds, Blancmange, Annabella Lwin and Billy McKenzie. More
recently, Phil has recorded and mixed for S Club 7, Shea Seager, The Sugarbabes,
Lene Marlin, Anya Garbarek and Brian Kennedy. 2004 also saw Phil mixing
tracks for Ray Davies’ solo album “Other People’s Lives”.
And in 2005, Phil mixed Portugal’s best selling artist, Rui Veloso’s
album “A Espuma das Cançôes”
Since then, Phil has worked with
Alison Moyet, Jamelia, Lily Allen, Beverley Knight, Sheryl Crow and most
recently, The Spice Girls, mixing one of the shows from their reunion
tour for broadcast on Radio 2.
COLLABORATIONS:
In ’85, Phil worked with producer Paul Hardcastle of “19”
fame, remixing tracks for a variety of artists including Carol Kenyon's
“Don’t Waste My Time” and Phil Lynnot's last solo single:
"Nineteen". In '86, Phil started working with producer and A&R
director, John Williams on the first Housemartins album. Phil worked with
John on all the Housemartins records, the first Proclaimers album, and
more recently Matthew Marsden's hit single, "Heart's Lone Desire".
Phil also worked extensively with dance music producer/remixer Danny D
on the D Mob album/singles (which also featured Cathy Dennis) and 12”
remixes of pop hits for artists such as Diana Ross, The Fine Young Cannibals,
Jermaine Jackson, Ralph Tresvant and including Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t
Nothing Going On But The Rent”, “Rumours” by The Timex
Social Club and “I Know You Got Soul” by Eric B & Rakim.
In ’96, Phil started working with producer Mike Peden and mixed
3 hit singles from the Lighthouse Family’s first album and went
on to mix their multi platinum second album and singles in late ’97.
He also recorded and mixed Shara Nelson's second solo album "Friendly
Fire" for Mike. Phil later joined David A Stewart’s production
team recording and mixing for Shakespeare’s Sister, Chris Braide,
Imogen Heap and Bryan Ferry and contributing mixes for Dave's feature
film "Honest" which featured the Appletons and Bootsy Collins
on the soundtrack.
In 2000, Phil teamed up with Cathy Dennis once more to co-produce S Club
7’s “Natural” which reached No 2 in the British charts.
He also mixed 2 more tracks on their albums.
FILM/TV/DVD/5.1:
In ’95, Phil started to work with film score composer Stephen Endelman,
recording, programming and mixing in 5.1. Over the following years, he
worked on several film projects with Stephen including “Evelyn”
in '02, starring Pierce Brosnan and “Delovely” starring Kevin
Kline in ’03. Gemma Hayes contributed a song for the end credits
of "Evelyn" which was co-produced by Phil and Stephen Endelman.
While “Delovely” featured cameos and Cole Porter songs sung
by Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Lemarr,
Mick Hucknall, Vivien Green, Diana Krall and Elvis Costello and was Grammy
nominated in ’04. For this project, as well as recording and mixing,
Phil was also employed on set as music editor.
More recently, Phil worked on Dido’s live DVD and in early ’05,
mixed Will Young’s live DVD in 5.1 which went to No. 1 in the British
charts. He also mixed Sheryl Crow's Golden Globe nominated "Try Not
To Remember" from the feature film "Home Of The Brave".
Phil is also in demand as a dubbing
mixer for short films and tv programmes. He mixed all the sound for the
animations included in Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball
in 2006 (one of which won a British Animation Award), and continues to
mix, edit and contribute sound design for short films and tv.
|