Anthony Edwin Phillips (born 23 December 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, and composer who co-founded the progressive rock band Genesis. He served as the group's original lead guitarist from 1967 until his departure in 1970, performing on their formative studio albums From Genesis to Revelation (1969) and Trespass (1970). His early 12-string acoustic guitar arrangements heavily shaped the band's signature pastoral sound. Phillips voluntarily left the group on the eve of their mainstream breakthrough due to increasing stage fright and health complications. This exit has frequently led music critics to compare his trajectory to that of other early departed band members.

Following his departure, Phillips stepped back from the music industry to pursue formal education in classical orchestration and music theory. He emerged as a solo artist with his debut album, The Geese & the Ghost (1977). He subsequently established a prolific and diverse multi-instrumental solo career. His catalogue spans mainstream pop projects, ambient and experimental recordings, and his extensive multi-volume Private Parts & Pieces series. Alongside his solo discography, Phillips is a highly active library music composer for television and film, originating from his first productions in 1976 which intensified from 1981 when he signed with the production music label Atmosphere.

Early life

Phillips was born on 23 December 1951 in Chiswick, then a part of Middlesex, and grew up in the nearby Putney and Roehampton areas. He attended St Edmund's preparatory school in Hindhead, Surrey, during which he formed a group and took part in a performance of "My Old Man's a Dustman" in the school hut as the singer, but forgot the words and was kicked out. This led to his decision to learn the guitar. The Shadows were a major early influence on Phillips, who learned enough to perform a rendition of "Foot Tapper" in the school lounge. At thirteen Phillips acquired a Fender Stratocaster and wrote his first song, "Patricia", an instrumental about the first girl he had a crush on. It gradually evolved into the Genesis song "In Hiding", which appears on From Genesis to Revelation. However, early in 1970 the constant touring had become wearing on Phillips partly due to the lack of scope for solos in the band's set and the shortage of time to develop new material. To further complicate matters he had developed stage fright which got progressively worse as time went on, and battled with it for three months thinking it was a passing phase. After falling ill with bronchial pneumonia, Phillips was advised by his doctor to quit the band. In June 1970, Phillips had recovered enough to reunite with his bandmates and record their second album, Trespass. Despite his various problems at the time, Phillips enjoyed the recording sessions. By this time Genesis songs were more often written by the group as a whole, and Phillips was pleased when a song he had originally written by himself, "Visions of Angels", was expanded with a group-composed middle section that he felt made the song much more powerful. After recording finished in July the band resumed touring, though early into the tour Phillips announced his decision to leave. His final gig took place at Haywards Heath on 18 July. He had recently listened to the Karelia Suite by Jean Sibelius and recognised his musical ability was "terribly limited", which encouraged him to become a more proficient musician. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London on a part-time basis and from 1972, began teaching classical guitar. Released in 1978, it also failed commercially. In the same year, a compilation of off-cuts and incomplete pieces was released as Private Parts & Pieces on Passport Records the US. According to Phillips, the series "arose partly out of poverty. I was just getting by, library music was just getting going. I had to issue a collection of twelve-string or solo-piano stuff to boost my income."

Sides was his final album released on Arista, and features one side of pop-oriented material and another of more adventurous and progressive rock-inspired tracks.

In 2024, Phillips revealed he had a potential new album of solo piano pieces, but ongoing wrist problems has prevented him completing it. He had expressed a wish to produce another full-scale album like Slow Dance, but said he lacked energy to practice, write, and record, and was no longer interested to become familiar with contemporary recording equipment.

Library music

Since leaving Genesis, Phillips' main source of income has been from his library music for television and film. In 1981, he signed with the newly-formed production music label Atmosphere (now a part of Universal Production Music) and has appeared on many of its releases. In 1994, Atmosphere was acquired by BMG and the uptake in commission work secured him financially: "I made almost nothing for the first 25 years of my life, then was very lucky."

Other projects

Phillips began writing material with Andrew Latimer of Camel in 1981, and was a featured performer on that band's album, The Single Factor (released in 1982). He co-wrote "Tears on the Ballroom Floor" for I Hear Talk by Bucks Fizz.

In 2008, Italian journalist Mario Giammetti published a biography on Phillips entitled The Exile.

Discography

With Genesis

  • From Genesis to Revelation (1969)
  • Trespass (1970)
  • Genesis Archive 1967–75 (1998; box set compilation)
  • Platinum Collection (2004; compilation)
  • Genesis 1970–1975 (2008; box set)
  • R-Kive (2014; box set compilation)
  • BBC Broadcasts (2023; box set of live recordings)

Solo

Appears on

References

Sources

  • Anthony Phillips Official Site