INTRODUCTION
Got my first guitar at the age of 8 and 'played the ass' off it ever since! I have been a solo vocal guitar entertainer in my own right but also got roped in to play lead guitar for Gene Vincent on many European tours and also Marvin Rainwater at the Newcastle Empire Theatre when his record, 'Whole Lotta Woman' was Number 1 in the charts. Marvin had a problem with the lead guitarist in his backing band and fired him on opening night. He then invited me to play lead guitar for him for the rest of the week, which came as quite a surprise to me as I was doing my "own spot" closing the first half of the variety show. Marvin was obviously watching my spot and listening to my guitar playing and singing. Smart guy! Those were the days when we would be booked to appear for the week doing two shows every night as there were two houses at 6.15 and 8.15 p.m. every night. We also appeared at the London Coliseum and the De Montfort Hall in Leicester! I enjoyed those big old theaters with a seated audience, pit orchestra, good sound and lighting, tabs and nice dressing rooms too! Man! I had a ball!! But scary also! There I was a kid just starting out on my professional career suddenly finding myself on the biggest stages in Britain with backing from the top bands and orchestras in the land such as Ivor Rabin and his orchestra, Basil Kirchin Big Band, Arthur Greenslade and the G-Men, Tommy Sanderson and the Sandmen, Betty Smith Quintet (Betty was one hell of a sax player and her husband Jack Pebody who was her bassist and MD said about me and I quote "Phil's a great artist, backing him is no problem".) Thanks Jack for those kind words. Another bass player I was involved with was Jack Fallon, a Canadian who settled in London. He was one of Britain's top bass players, but also liked to play country music on fiddle with his band 'Sons of the Saddle'. Jack used me as his frontman on one nighter's all over the country, so talk about diversity - I DID IT ALL! Yet another giant of jazz, bass player Johnny Hawksworth who was the bassist with Ted Heath and his orchestra used to take out a small combo in between times as he had the deb scene in London's Mayfair sown up. The combo comprising of a nucleus of musicians from the Ted Heath Orchestra were Frank Horrocks on piano, Eddie Blair on trumpet, Bob Efford on tenor sax, Ronnie Verrel or Ronnie Stephenson on drums and Johnny himself on bass, and Johnny used me as his front man. It was a great honour for me as Johnny was a genius on string bass and he even invented his own bridge for the bass, and of course toured with the Heath Orchestra around the world including the USA and also backed the great Nat 'King' Cole. Johnny had a wonderful sense of humour too. He did a super recording of 'I've grown accoustomed to her face' but changed the title to 'I've grown accoustomed to my bass'.
These were seasoned musicians of the highest calibre and the best anywhere in the world and I still tremble when I think that I was playing with them. I am most grateful to all those wonderful bands and musicians who had a great influence on me. And by the way, being the methodical guy that I am I have retained Contract Copies for all the Radio, TV and other big shows I appeared on - to prove!
About my singing. I learned how to sing in the Church choir. My parents took us kids to Church almost every day, and in my opinion there is no better singing school or better singers than the Black Gospel singers of America.