Phil grew up in central London, then his family moved to the West Country – Torquay, Devon. He was offered an apprenticeship at the local newspaper.
At sixteen he joined a youth club, bought a guitar and learned to play – graduating to a local band call The Travellers. The band quickly became popular and started playing gigs at halls and youth clubs. They caught the eye of businessman and agent, Lionel Digby, who promptly signed the up with LMD Entertainment. Under his guidance The Travellers were offered support gigs to acts including The Kinks, Searchers, Cream, Pink Floyd and many others.
The band expanded to include a keyboard player and went through a name change, becoming The Phaze and continued to play regularly all over Britain for many years.
Phil married his sweetheart, started a family of his own, then emigrated to South Australia in 1981. Welcome to the lucky country!
Once settled Phil joined a band called Nite Shift, who played regularly around Adelaide venues for a number of years. Later Phil played with a rock and roll band called The Blue Comets, and later The Runaway Boys.
Wanting to engage more with his creative side, Phil formed the band Strange Brew who successfully performed mostly original material. After several years Phil took a break from performing.
After a well-earned break, Phil formed a duo with friend Mark Langford. They started attending and performing at an open mic held at the Old Barn, near Sedan. It was here that Phil met Peter Kowald and invited him to play drums with them and Strait Up was born. Later Peter’s wife Julie also joined the band, bringing her strong vocals and bass to complete the trio.