In a Nutshell....

To be honest, the Phillips’ don’t really have much musical talent sitting on the family tree. Have a listen to Red, White and The Blues and, hopefully, you won't think I’m upholding that tradition. Still, we’ve dipped our feet into showbiz before – My cousin John was a Come Dancing champion in the Eighties, long before Strictly Come Dancing or Dancing With The Stars if you’re reading this on the other side of the Atlantic.

I wasn’t really into music as a kid. Drama was more my kind of thing. Culture Club and Pet Shop Boys were plastered all over Smash Hits back then while I was a bit too young for cool bands like The Smiths so I just stuck to kicking a ball around at break time. Not sure what mum would have made of me singing “William, It Was Really Nothing” whilst eating my cornflakes before school.

The first record I ever brought was “Pump Up The Volume” by MAARS. Well, I say brought…It’s more likely that I taped it off the radio and then got the latest Now album for Christmas or something.

Going to college saw me get into bands like the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Oasis and I started playing guitar by strumming along to The Beatles and, strangely, Neil Young’s Harvest album. Not sure how that got into my baggy heavy record collection! From there I placed an advert in a local guitar shop and started up a band called Magic Bus.

We didn’t do too badly either, played gigs across London and Manchester, opened for Ocean Colour Scene and even got on a CD featuring some of Britain’s best unsigned bands.

It was a bit of a blow when we ended the band. It just felt like our time had been and gone really. Looking back we probably didn’t offer anything different from all the other hopefuls out there. The tunes were always melodic but a bit too Britpop to stick out I suppose. So, that was that really. I stuck my guitar in the corner and concentrated on finding a “proper” job, a term used by every mum and dad across the country when they want their kids to start doing something with a bit more secure.

A few years later I got back into songwriting and used to play and record a few tracks with Joe Darrington who I’ve known for donkey’s years and played bass in Magic Bus.

Click here for part two of Matt's biography.