A vocalist, multi instrumentalist, performer & award winning bass guitarist; Phil is also a well known vocalist & guitarist in the North West area, performing solo or with his band all over the local area & beyond.

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He's played everywhere from major to small festivals, arenas, venues, ale houses, to weddings, birthday parties & corporate events. He continues to grow his roster of gigs & never fails to get the crowd singing with a big repertoire of melodic pop/indie/soul originals & cover songs.

 

 

For most of his life Phil has been a songwriter, so it's only natural that he carried on writing songs & playing them at his cover gigs, which has now evolved into it's own musical entity under his name.

All his songs can be played solo acoustically or as a full band arrangement, plus he has a constantly growing repertoire of cover songs to tap into.

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His previous band 'Breaking Waves' have two full studio albums & an E.P available to listen to on all digital music platforms, plus two C.D releases of the same work & have toured the country numerous times including North America & Europe promoting said work.

He's performed alongside classic artists such as John Power (Cast) & has played many festivals such as Edinburgh Fringe festival, Darwen live & the world famous Great British Rhythm & Blues festival to name a few.

 

 

Before starting to becoming better known in the Lancashire area, Phil was playing bass guitar & singing all over the UK & Europe, supporting bands such as Blackstone Cherry, Michael Schenker, Gun & Andy Cairns (Therapy) in the band Exit State.

 

 

Over this time he won bass guitarist of the year in 2013, which led on to playing bass guitar in the classic rock band Marseille, as well as session playing for many more.

From playing venues such as Shepard’s Bush Empire & having regular play on cable music channels with the previous band, Phil has worked hard in his professional career & continues to play music locally & out in the wider world plus growing as a singer/performer/multi instrumentalist & guitar/bass/vocal teacher.

 

 

Phil started out mostly performing covers when stepping into the solo singing world in 2016 & still has an ever growing repertoire of covers but also carried on song writing in that time & found himself playing more original songs at the gigs.

In 2020 everything stopped for most people, especially for musicians, so he took the time to record a debut album, plus recording the extra songs he'd wrote during that difficult time. That album is called 'Ruling Days' & is OUT NOW to stream/download on all major streaming sights & buy in CD form.

 

 

 

 

Bio & more info....

 

 

Before I started playing music I was a performing arts kid, attending various drama groups in and out of my school years. As a teenager I couldn’t sit still & I craved for further creative outlets and found myself drawn more & more to music, something I always loved.

 

 

This instilled in me a burning ambition to play an instrument and around that time, rock & roll started to grab a hold of me. A real defining moment for me was hearing John Paul Jones bass work on the Led Zeppelin song ‘Whole Lotta Love’.  His distinctive tone on that track really indented in my mind and it became obvious which instrument that I first wanted to play.

 

 

At fourteen I put my hands on my first bass guitar and things started to click into place.  I knew that playing bass, making music and one day becoming a professional musician was all that I wanted to do with my life.  As most inspiring musicians do I started playing in bands with my school friends, playing classic songs, tracks of the day & having a go at writing our own music. In this time my young obsessive mind became hooked on understanding music theory, learning various techniques, musical styles and experimenting with composition. All this solidified with lessons from music teacher and session guitarist, Gerard Sink, whose great understanding of music put me on a track of learning scales/modes, composition, general music reading and also led me on to passing my grade 8 bass guitar after 4 years of playing in 2005.

 

 

Having covered a broad spectrum of genres by playing in Preston based progressive rock/metal bands Spiral Tower and King Casanova; I developed a passion for stage performance, improved my singing and pushed my technical abilities to the max, especially during my front-man duties for Spiral Tower. One of my other bands House on Fire, (who formed from a previous band King Casanova) started out on the same prog-rock path but then made the musical transition to hard rock, which was how I was spotted by Exit State.

 

 

A decade later, I had toured all over the UK & Europe in countries such as Finland, France, Belgium and Spain. I had supported artists such as Michael Schenker (ex-UFO and Scorpions), Therapy?, GUN, Black Stone Cherry, Blaze Bailey, Reckless Love and Mallory Knox, enjoyed regular rotation with multiple videos on Kerrang/Scuzz TV and also achieved the coveted No.1 most requested video slot during Aug 2010 with the bands video for ‘Lost Beyond Belief’.  This vastly increased the bands visibility & lead onto me winning Bassist of the year at the Pure Rawk awards 2013, an award that I was proud to receive, as it highlighted the amazing support I have from friends & fans.

 

 

In May 2014 Exit State disbanded but in the 5 years I was in the band we had a few waves of success, one of my most memorable experiences being the Micheal Schenker tour, were we got to play Iconic venues such as Shepherd’s Bush Empire (London), O2 ABC (Glasgow), HMV Ritz (Manchester) and Wulfrun Hall (Wolverhampton) to name but a few. Exit State also released three studio albums in that time, one of which featured ‘The Prodigy’ guitarist Gizz Butt.

 

 

Through playing with Exit State and the exposure it provided, I was delighted to get the chance at performing alongside one of my childhood heroes, TV’s Neil Buchannan of Art Attack, and his band Marseille, one of the very first New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands (NWOBHM) forming in Liverpool during 1976.  Marseille reformed in 2009 with original members Neil and Andy Charters, playing to a new generation of supporters all over the UK and beyond.  During the search for a new bass player, and having toured as main support for them in 2010 with Exit State, I was really happy when I was asked me to step in on bass guitar duties & becoming their bass player for a few fantastic tours.

 

 

Diverse musical influences such as Prince, Devin Townsend, Led Zeppelin, E.L.O, plus bassists & guitarists such as Victor Wooten, Mark King, Paul Gilbert & Lindsey Buckingham have all inspired me to become the musician I am today.  But inspiration is only a part of the puzzle.  I have always tried to remain focused, ensuring I keep my playing style as original as possible whilst pushing the musical learning curve. Over the years because of my constant need to improve I saw myself picking up the guitar more and more.  At first, experimenting with chords and using it for song writing purposes but then, just like playing the bass, pushing myself technically with the instrument to achieve a high standard of lead & rhythm playing.

 

 

By now you know that I possess an unwavering passion for music from, playing it, to listening to it, even talking about it, and now I share my musical experiences and skills with others by teaching guitar, vocals & bass as a private music tutor.  I really enjoy giving my pupils an all-encompassing musical education, teaching them all aspects of theory and practice spanning many genres and preparing them for examinations. I like to think I install my enthusiasm for playing with other musicians and my overall enjoyment of music into each and every one of them.