Simon Phillips

All Music Guide:

An innovative, aggressive drummer, Simon Phillips embarked on his musical career at an early age. He showed affinity for the drums quickly -- beginning with a toy kit at age four, moving on to a snare and cymbal set at six; by age 12, Phillips was performing and recording with his father's Dixieland jazz band.

After his father's death, Phillips left the jazz band and began exploring other musical styles, including rock and musicals. A gig as a drummer for a production of Jesus Christ Superstar led to session work, drumming on the demos of various cast members. As his connections in the music scene grew, so did his session credits: From the '70s onward, Phillips performed with prominent rock and jazz artists like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Gil Evans, Stanley Clark, Frank Zappa, and Peter Gabriel.

By 1997, however, Phillips was ready to lead his own band. Joined by a cast of seasoned rock and jazz musicians including guitarists Ray Russell and Andy Timmons, saxophonist Wendell Brooks, bassist Anthony Jackson, and percussionist Peter Michael Escovedo, Phillips began touring as a bandleader. This lineup also recorded Phillips' 1997 album Another Lifetime. Three years later, Vantage Point was released.

Wikipedia:

Simon Phillips (born 6 February 1957) is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.

Career [edit]

Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's (Sid Phillips) Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. He quickly became a sought-after session player and in 1992, he released two instructional videos displaying some of his best work.

Phillips found an early prominence as the drummer on the 1976 LP 801 Live with Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno. He went on to play with a wide array of musicians including Big Jim Sullivan, Pete Townshend, Big Country, Toto, Steve Lukather and Los Lobotomys, Jeff Beck, Whitesnake, Jack Bruce, Brian Eno, Duncan Browne, Toyah, Mike Oldfield, Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Gary Moore, 10cc, Mick Jagger, Ph.D., Joe Satriani, Russ Ballard, Mike Rutherford, Phil Manzanera, John Wetton, flamenco guitarist Juan Martin, Asia, Stanley Clarke, Jimmy Earl, Derek Sherinian, Nik Kershaw, Gordon Giltrap, Camel and Jordan Rudess.

He was the drummer for The Who in their 1989 American reunion tour, and appeared on solo recordings by band members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. He has also worked with Tears For Fears on their album The Seeds of Love and with heavy metal act Judas Priest on Sin After Sin (1977) and Michael Schenker's debut album The Michael Schenker Group.

Phillips has played on, co-produced, and mixed five Derek Sherinian solo records - Inertia (2001), Black Utopia (2003), Mythology (2004), Blood of the Snake (2006), and Oceana (2011). He also co-produced and mixed two albums by Mike Oldfield. Phillips also appeared with Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and others in the video for the 1983 A.R.M.S. concert benefit for Ronnie Lane. In the early 1980s, Phillips formed part of RMS with fellow session musicians, Mo Foster and Ray Russell.

He has released four studio albums of varying styles.

In 2006, Phillips released a DVD with his jazz band, Vantage Point, called Resolution with writer and pianist Jeff Babko, trumpeter Walt Fowler, saxophonist Brandon Fields and bassist Alphonso Johnson.

Toto [edit]

In 1992, Simon was asked to fill in for Jeff Porcaro after Porcaro died during rehearsals for the upcoming tour to promote Toto's Kingdom of Desire album. Steve Lukather stated that he would only go on tour so shortly after Porcaro died if Toto could get Simon to play the tour, so he was the first and only drummer that the band contacted to replace Porcaro. After the 1992/93 tour Simon was asked to join Toto as a permanent member.

Nicknamed "Si-Phi" or "Si" by his bandmates in Toto, Simon is noted to be the group's 'technical' guru; handling the engineering duties on both the 2002 Through the Looking Glass and 2006 Falling In Between albums. He also engineered the 1999 Livefields album, and the Live in Amsterdam DVD from 2003.

After the decision (15 July 2008) "to go their separate ways and begin new chapters in their lives", on 27 February 2010 former members of Toto announced on official band's website a reunion for a brief 2010 summer tour in Europe to honor their brother Mike Porcaro who is living with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). They also have scheduled more dates for a tour in 2011, ended up with the DVD performance in Villafranca Di Verona. Phillips is going to be touring with Toto in 2012.

Recent projects [edit]

In 2009, Phillips joined with keyboardist Philippe Saisse and bassist Pino Palladino in forming an instrumental jazz/funk rock trio: Phillips Saisse Palladino or PSP, who toured in Europe in 2009 through 2010, spotlighting the talents of each performer in the songs chosen for their set list. Phillips also performed on Joe Satriani's album Super Colossal, appearing on multiple tracks. Phillips appears in Alan Parsons' Art & Science of Sound Recording educational video series, as well as the program's single "All Our Yesterdays". He played in the Michael Schenker Group album In the Midst of Beauty and took part to the band's 30th Anniversary world tour in 2010. Phillips is featured on Hiromi Uehara's 2011 album, Voice.

Selected Discography [edit]

Solo albums [edit]

801 [edit]

Judas Priest [edit]

Duncan Browne [edit]

Phil Manzanera [edit]

Jeff Beck [edit]

Mike Rutherford [edit]

Michael Schenker Group [edit]

Ph.D [edit]

Jon Anderson [edit]

Toyah [edit]

Mike Oldfield [edit]

Russ Ballard [edit]

David Gilmour [edit]

The Who [edit]

Big Country [edit]

Toto [edit]

Disney [edit]

Derek Sherinian [edit]

Trilok Gurtu & NDR Bigband [edit]

Hiromi Uehara [edit]

Drum equipment [edit]

All drums are TAMA Bubinga Elite

Snare Drums

Cymbals

Simon Phillips Anniversary Snare Drum SP1465HA

+ certification card

^This is a custom piece of equipment.