Phil, under duress, had piano lessons from the age of eight. On the same day of his first lesson, his mother told him he also had a dental appointment that day, to which he ungratefully replied, ‘Can’t I just go to the dentist instead?’ At age ten he played a piano trio with two friends on stage, his first ever live performance concert, which laid the foundation for his future worldwide adventures; piano playing was not so bad after all! He formed his first band at thirteen and played at a school event which impressed the girls.
His first band out of school took him to Milan for a month’s residency, alongside the classic Hammond organist, BRIAN AUGER, and his band. Back home he was playing with different bands and was once chaperoned at a West End night club where there was a night of DAVID BOWIE and his band ‘LOWER THIRD’.
On to the prodigious night clubs of the late ‘60s and ‘70s: The Scotch of St James, Bag O’ Nails, Sibylla’s, The Speakeasy Club, Blaises, and the Playboy Club where the band performed for the 1966 England World Cup winners, who, along with their wives, danced to their music. Shortly after that, in the same club, the DJ played the song, ‘Hey Joe’, by a brilliant American guitarist, JIMI HENDRIX. Around the same time Phil had a one-way conversation with JIMI after a show at the Speakeasy. It was a fairly quiet night. There were a few people sitting away from the stage eating and chatting. Amongst them was JIMI, with a couple of friends. Phil pointed him out to the others. When they carried their equipment out to the street, Phil sat on one of the speaker cabinets as he waited for it to be loaded. JIMI and his friends surfaced and headed off home, but not before JIMI said to Phil, “Nice combo, man.” Phil froze, speechless, as he watched the great man disappear down the road. He told the others what JIMI had said when they came out of the club, but they didn’t believe him! PAUL MCCARTNEY and ERIC BURDON were just some of the other people who hung out at the Bag O’ Nails. Frequenting the SOHO clubs, bars, and pubs, filled a lot of the early-mid ‘70s for Phil.
Influenced by the massive influx of music being created at this time, Phil was now heavily into songwriting and composing. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1973 to 1975, studying harmony and counterpoint, flute, and piano. Inspired by classical music, he wrote a Mozart-style string quartet with local musicians from Tonbridge School. The performance was recorded on tape. The late ‘70s consisted of finding the right kind of rock band to suit his needs. In 1980, GRAND PRIX, a melodic heavy rock band, was formed. Phil co-wrote three albums for the RCA record company, and they toured with IRON MAIDEN, SAMMY HAGAR, NILS LOFGREN. During this time he played on many other peoples’ recording sessions, and on a couple of hits for HOT CHOCOLATE and BUCKS FIZZ , including backing the song, “Making Your Mind Up”. In 1985 Phil joined THE SWEET (‘Blockbuster’, ‘Ballroom Blitz’) and co-wrote three songs on their live album, “Live at the Marquee”. Two extensive tours of Australia and New Zealand followed.
The following year, 1986, he joined URIAH HEEP, whose bass player, Trevor Bolder, had been in DAVID BOWIE’s 1970s band, ‘THE SPIDERS FROM MARS’.
Phil has written and co-written nine studio albums for URIAH HEEP. Among these releases are countless ‘bootleg’ versions from various cities around the world resulting from years of touring. At the latest count, the band has played in 68 countries, half the countries on the globe. In December 1987, they played for ten nights at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Moscow to a crowd of 120 thousand fans: the first hard rock band to play in Russia. The band also performed at a huge free concert in Freedom Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the early ‘90s playing to a crowd of a similar size. Touring and writing continued throughout the ‘90s, not only in Europe, the USA, and Scandinavia, but also to such places as Iceland, the Faroe Isles, South America, India, Dubai, Singapore and throughout the UK. The band also worked alongside other bands such as DEEP PURPLE, JUDAS PRIEST, and TOTO.
From the beginning of the new millennia, and mostly written whilst on tour, Phil began a trilogy of novels entitled “The Evil With a Thousand faces”, published by Pegasus Publishers. This led to him studying screenplay-writing with film and TV writer/producer, Brian Degas (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0214659/) who also introduced him to the world of musicals. Their musical, ‘THE GOLDEN DOOR’, started life as ‘HEARTBREAK ISLAND’, and the rest is history. Phil recorded two self-penned solo double albums in 2018 and 2021 with arranger/orchestrator RICHARD COTTLE and producer SIMON HANHART and with artwork by the well-known artist, MICHAEL CHEVAL. Phil has also co-written and played on a song, “Wake the world” from the album THE ALCHEMY PROJECT by Dutch orchestral/metal band EPICA. As a sideline he began a series of abstract artworks, numbering five hundred to date. He has held exhibitions in Florida, as well as in the U.K. His artwork can be seen on Instagram: phillanzon
Phil lives in East Kent with his partner, Patina. He has three children from his one and only marriage, nine grandchildren and three great-granddaughters – Scarlet, Mia and Delilah. All wonderful and living in Hampshire.