Anthony Phillips began his solo career in the 70’s after departing as Genesis’ lead guitarist in 1970 due to stage fright. Since 1977, he has released several albums taking on different moods, from his poppy Sides to the ambience of his Private Parts and Pieces collections, from the anthemic pieces like “Tarka” or “Slow Dance” to the rock opera of 1984.|—|Anthony PHILLIPS was one of the original founding members of Genesis featuring Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford. Following “Trespass”, GENESIS’ second album, PHILLIPS left (purportedly due to stage fright) and was replaced by Steve Hackett. Nothing was heard again from Anthony until 1977, when he favored us with his first solo, “The Geese and the Ghost”, although PHILLIPS wasn’t the first member of the band to release a solo album (that honor goes to Steve HACKETT, by releasing “Voyage of the Acolyte”, in 1975). A more commercial audience was courted on “Wise After The Event” and “Sides”, to no avail, and PHILLIPS spent much of his time releasing instrumental pieces (both old and new) under the “Private Parts & Pieces” series. Steeped in classical, pre-Baroque, and folk influences, he was able to record entire albums featuring only his acoustic instrument. He is one of the world’s masters on the twelve string guitar and piano compositions that hark back to GENESIS’ original lost innocence. His studio recordings reveal a distinctive character to his compositions on those instruments as well.
Some of his albums are more “progessive” than others, especially “Sides” (INTERESTING CD), “Private Parts and Pieces II” (A MUST! for fans of early GENESIS), “PP&P IX”, and “Wise After the Event” (A MASTERPIECE); others are more “classical” in style like “PP&P III”, “PP&P V”, “PP&P VI” or “poppy” like “Invisible Men” and a few tracks on “Sides”. Anthony PHILLIPS’ 1977 debut album is one of the best works, but all of them are excellent. This album (1977) by Ant is my second favorite PHILLIPS album after “Wise After the Event”. Even more its a jewel for every Rock collection, but in its own particular genre (a mix of those quiet moments of “Trespass” of GENESIS+the medieval folkprog style by GRYPHON). As you well have gathered, “Anthology” (1995) is an album that has a compilation of tracks from his solo career. This album is the perfect introduction to the world of Anthony PHILLIPS. |
