36-631: Invisible Men is the eighth studio album by English multi-instrumentalist and composer Anthony Phillips . It was released in October 1983 by Passport Records in the United States and in April 1984 by Street Tunes in the United Kingdom. After he released his Private Parts & Pieces III: Antiques , the third instalment in his generic album series, Phillips started work on his next full studio album. Phillips
72-520: A 2-disc deluxe edition of the album. Disc 1 contains a new remaster of the original stereo mix of the album. Disc 2 contains 16 previously unreleased demos and contemporaneous material. The deluxe edition also includes an illustrated booklet with a new essay by Jonathan Dann. Side one Side two Source: Credits adapted from the album's 1984 release. Musicians Production Anthony Phillips Anthony Edwin Phillips (born 23 December 1951)
108-481: A drum machine as well as singers for additional vocals. Phillips wrote about this period: "The money was flowing out. It wasn't a wholly happy time." In addition, pressure was placed upon him to change his image and to present the album under the name Anthony Phillips Band, something with which he did not agree. Invisible Men was cut by Ian Cooper at Townhouse Studios in London. Phillips encountered problems in finalising
144-628: A full, standard album, his first since 1984 (1981). At this point in his career, Phillips was pressured by management at his record label, the independent US-based Passport Records , to deliver more commercial and radio friendly songs. Also in early 1982, he had bought a house in Clapham, south London and has since called Invisible Men his "mortgage album". He set up studio in his home which he named Englewood Studios, and did additional recording in Atmosphere Studios in central London. To help him with
180-444: A member of Garden Wall , another disbanded school group, to play keyboards. Banks agreed, and suggested involving his Garden Wall bandmates, singer Peter Gabriel (the same one who was the drummer for Spoken Word) and drummer Chris Stewart . After the five made a demo tape, it was given to Jonathan King , who signed them to his publishing company and had them record some singles. He named the group Genesis , and suggested they record
216-426: A more proficient musician. In 1974, he became a qualified music teacher and gave lessons to students. By 1977, he was playing classical guitar and piano, and studied orchestration. After leaving Genesis, Phillips studied classical music (especially classical guitar) and made recordings in collaboration with Harry Williamson , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins , among others. His first solo album, The Geese &
252-491: A musical project and had also coached Rutherford. After the backing tracks and rough vocals had been put down for about five songs, Phillips presented his work to his manager Tony Smith and recalled that he was "extremely impressed". This was when Phillips was enthusiastic about the album until it became increasingly difficult for him to maintain such a level of interest. During recording at Atmosphere Studios, session drummers were brought in to play parts originally programmed on
288-459: A picture of a woman and did not credit Phillips or Williamson, which led to it often being filed under "female vocalist" in record shops. In the mid-1990s, he released an album entitled The Living Room Concert , which featured solo acoustic versions of his earlier material. He also provided archival material for the first Genesis box set, Genesis Archive 1967–75 , released in 1998. Several of his albums feature artwork by Peter Cross . In 2008,
324-665: A result of commercial pressures, and would subsequently eschew mainstream success in favour of more specialised material. He co-wrote "Tears on the Ballroom Floor" for I Hear Talk by Bucks Fizz . Since leaving Genesis, Phillips has remained involved in a variety of musical projects, including soundtrack work in England, often for the label Atmosphere, part of the Universal Music Group . In 1988 he recorded an album with Harry Williamson called Tarka . The album's cover featured
360-605: A similar musical heritage. The label's founder is Mark Powell, who has been a freelance music consultant for Universal , Sony and EMI since 2000; he has also worked with Soft Machine , Caravan , Camel , Man , and Hawkwind , as well as producing label retrospectives covering Deram , Decca , Vertigo , Harvest and United Artists . His consultancy work led to the formation of an independent reissue label, titled Eclectic Discs, to license overlooked releases he considered worthwhile but weren't of sufficient commercial stature to interest major labels. Other releases are sourced from
396-450: A studio album, which became From Genesis to Revelation . Phillips was particularly angry when King added string arrangements to their songs without their knowledge, since the limitations of the recording technology meant that everything else on the album had to be reduced to mono as a consequence. Phillips said he had little role in Genesis's songwriting during this period, and that most of
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#1733085643902432-707: A teenager, Phillips briefly lived in the United States. In April 1965, Phillips attended Charterhouse , an independent school in Godalming , Surrey. In the following month, he formed a band with fellow pupils Rivers Jobe , Richard Macphail , Mike Rutherford , and Rob Tyrell, naming themselves Anon . They based their sets on songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones , and recorded one demo, Phillips's song "Pennsylvania Flickhouse". The group disbanded in December 1966. Phillips
468-543: A three month delay, the label suggested a new mix but realised it would cost additional money, so they agreed to release the album. "Exocet" is a political song inspired by the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, which took place during the recording of the album. In one incident in the conflict, an Exocet missile struck a British warship and killed 20 crew members. One of Phillips's musician friends, Argentinian guitarist Enrique Berro Garcia, had to leave
504-611: Is an English musician, songwriter, producer and singer who gained prominence as the original lead guitarist of the rock band Genesis , from 1967 to 1970. He left in July 1970 and learned to play more instruments, before he began a solo career. His departure from Genesis on the eve of the group's breakthrough to mainstream popularity has led him to be dubbed "the Pete Best of progressive rock " (though unlike Best, Phillips left voluntarily). Phillips released his first solo album, The Geese &
540-540: The Falklands War. Invisible Men was released in the United Kingdom on 13 April 1984 on Street Tunes, an independent label. Phillips was pleased with the label's enthusiasm towards the album. A 12-inch single of "Sally" was released which Phillips believed was not the best track for a single. The 1996 Blueprint reissue states that its track order was rearranged to the originally intended order. On 13 October 2017 Esoteric Recordings (a Cherry Red Records label) released
576-508: The Ghost , in 1977. He continues to release solo material, including further solo albums, television and film music, collaborations with several artists, and compilation albums of his recordings. Phillips was born on 23 December 1951 in Chiswick , England. He attended a preparatory school , during which he formed a group and took part in a performance of " My Old Man's a Dustman " in the school hut as
612-504: The Ghost , was issued in 1977. Following the commercial failure of The Geese & the Ghost , Phillips was pushed in a pop direction by his record labels. They released his second album, Wise After the Event , in 1978. This was followed the next year by Sides . Both of these albums were produced by Rupert Hine and were intended to reach a mainstream audience, though neither album was successful in that regard. In its initial release in
648-465: The Pound , the 12-string guitar style developed during Phillips's era was still important to Genesis's work and he felt Phillips deserved more credit for "architecting the sound of Genesis". After leaving Genesis, Phillips lacked a solid direction. He recalled listening to Jean Sibelius around the time of his departure and recognised his musical ability was "terribly limited", which encouraged him to become
684-548: The UK, Sides was accompanied by a more experimental album entitled Private Parts & Pieces ; in the US and Canada the two albums were issued separately. Private Parts & Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion followed the next year, and several further sequels were issued in the 1980s and 1990s. According to Phillips, the series "arose partly out of poverty. I was just getting by, library music
720-410: The United Kingdom. The end of the song includes a segment of a news report of the war, which was originally a recording error but Phillips decided to keep it. Upon finishing the album, management of Street Tunes Records, the UK label that released it in the country, deemed "Exocet" too political and ordered its removal. It was replaced with "It's Not Easy". The track "The Women Were Watching" also concerns
756-491: The album's release in the US as Passport rejected two cuts that Cooper had prepared, coupled with the opinion that none of the songs were suitable for a single. After the second cut was rejected, Phillips recalled that Cooper "was a bit beside himself - he just didn't know what else to do", and received notes from the label's engineer in New York with suggestions to improve it, with which Phillips expressed some disagreement. Following
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#1733085643902792-479: The artists themselves, while the label has also been involved in the release of DVD material from artists including Barclay James Harvest . Speaking in 2008, Powell said: The inspiration is the way that labels like Island or Harvest worked between the late 60s and early 70s, whereby things could be stylistically different but appealed to a similar kind of audience. Some of the stuff will be folk, some jazzy stuff, some harder rock, some psychedelic, some electronic –
828-655: The first Anthony Phillips biography, The Exile , by journalist Mario Giammetti, was published in Italy (Edizioni Segno). Harvest of the Heart: An Anthology , a 5-CD box set chronicling Phillips's solo career and collaborations, was released in 2014. Esoteric Recordings Esoteric Recordings is a UK independent record label specialising in 1970s progressive rock , folk , psychedelic , and jazz-rock reissues as part of Cherry Red Records . Its releases include both catalogue reissues and new works from artists who share
864-550: The first girl he had a crush on. It gradually evolved into the Genesis song "In Hiding", which appears on From Genesis to Revelation . He was not entirely a self-taught guitar player; he received some tuition in rudimentary chords from classical guitarist David Channon, who became a big source of inspiration for Phillips, and used sheet music to songs by the Beatles that his mother would send him. Phillips then picked up more chord knowledge, and learned to copy "reasonably well". As
900-426: The four-CD Bill Nelson Trial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours) as well as standalone releases by artists including: Man, Claire Hamill , The Keef Hartley Band , Egg , Michael Moorcock , Gary Farr , Daevid Allen , and Rare Bird . In 2012, Esoteric Recordings started a front line record label, Esoteric Antenna, which put out the debut album by Squackett (Steve Hackett and Chris Squire) called A Life Within
936-426: The group seriously considered disbanding altogether in the wake of Phillips's departure. Nursery Cryme , the next Genesis album, opens with " The Musical Box " which is based on a piece written by Phillips and Rutherford originally titled "F#" (pronounced "F Sharp"). Steve Hackett , who became Genesis's guitarist half a year after Phillips left, commented that at the time of their fifth album, Selling England by
972-421: The project, Phillips invited musician and songwriter Richard Scott to assist in its production. In a later interview, Phillips acknowledged Scott's confidence and enthusiasm, but noted that this would sometimes result in Phillips being pushed into musical areas where he was uneasy, perhaps due to Scott's inexperience, having recently graduated from university and wanting to make a career out of music. When it came to
1008-474: 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
1044-459: The singer, but forgot the words during it and was kicked out. This led to his decision to learn the guitar. He learned enough to perform lead guitar to a rendition of " Foot Tapper " by the Shadows in the school lounge. The Shadows were a major influence for Phillips in terms of acoustic guitar. At thirteen Phillips acquired a Stratocaster and wrote his first song, "Patricia", an instrumental about
1080-410: The songs on From Genesis to Revelation were written by Gabriel and Banks. In September 1969, the 17-year-old Phillips chose not to pursue a university degree and instead reunite with Gabriel, Banks and Rutherford after they had decided to become a full-time band. 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
1116-407: The stuff that I suppose in that period was classed, loosely, as progressive. But that took in an awful lot of things. All of which I love personally, and it's really going through records I have or used to have, and think should be on CD. And luckily there are some people out there who share my view. Among the label's releases have been box sets including the six-CD Jack Bruce Can You Follow? and
Invisible Men - Misplaced Pages Continue
1152-555: 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. Tour manager Richard Macphail later said that
1188-446: The vocals, Phillips was inspired to take them on himself as former Genesis band mates Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks had done vocals on their solo albums, and that he was unable to find someone suitable. Phillips had used different guest singers on Sides (1979), but felt that it did not work as well as he had expected. Feeling his vocals were inadequate, Phillips took singing lessons from John Owen-Edwards, who had worked with him on
1224-542: Was also a member of another band during 1966, Spoken Word, which included David Thomas (vocals), Ronnie Gunn (piano), Jeremy Ensor (bass, later of the Principal Edwards Magic Theatre ), David Chadwick (guitar), and Peter Gabriel (drums). They recorded an acetate , a cover of "Evening". In January 1967, after Anon had split up, Phillips and Rutherford became a songwriting unit and started recording several demos. They invited Charterhouse pupil Tony Banks ,
1260-419: Was just getting going. I had to issue a collection of twelve-string or solo-piano stuff to boost my income." 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). Phillips released a mainstream pop album entitled Invisible Men in 1983. He later claimed that this project went "horribly wrong" as
1296-527: Was pressured by his US label Passport Records to deliver more radio friendly songs, and produced Invisible Men as a collaborative effort with musician and songwriter Richard Scott. Phillips would not release another complete and arranged album of solo material until Slow Dance (1990). In early 1982, Phillips released Private Parts & Pieces III: Antiques , the third instalment in his generic album series containing incomplete compositions, demos, and out-takes. For his next release Phillips committed to
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