SIMON PHILLIPS

BY ILONA SAARI

Rolling Stone Magazine — January 21, 2021.

Born in London, or “more precisely Bushey Heath in Hertfordshire, a London suburb,” as Simon describes it, he became a professional musician at age 12. Was it in his DNA? Perhaps. His father, Sid Phillips, was a well-known clarinet musician and band leader in the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. After writing for and playing with various bands in the ‘30s, then serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Sid formed his own quartet in 1946 and wrote several pieces for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, then in 1949, started and led a Dixieland jazz band with various revolving sidemen, including legendary George Shearing, and a young Simon on drums.

Simon’s mum, Judy, was a private recording archivist, mainly archiving Simon’s father’s recordings. Again, DNA?

Except for harboring a passion for playing cricket, Simon always knew that his goal in life was to be a musician — specifically, a drummer, after seeing his first set of drums as a young boy. “Being exposed to my father’s band at such an early age left me no choice than to follow in his footsteps — which, by the way, he absolutely did not want me to do. It was my mum who persuaded him to have me in his band at a time where most drummers in the U.K. did not want to play old-fashioned Dixieland music. I grew up listening to his music and even play that music.”

Simon’s formal education “started off in the very posh private English education system,” he explains, and was supposed to continue at Harrow, but because at the ripe old age of 12 he had already become a professional musician, touring the country playing gigs with Sid’s band, there was no way he could go to boarding school. Instead, he went to a technical high school and later to a secondary modern state school. “I never studied (music) — I was self-taught! I learned from all the records I listened to…” “I did go to a drum teacher, Max Abrams, who used to play in my father’s band, to learn to read music. I was sent by my mum on the London Underground into central London on my own at age 8!”

Simon played on his first recording session for Sid when he was barely out of knickers, and from then on he played on all Sid’s recording sessions as well as his father’s gigs until Sid died in 1973. Simon’s first music “love” was “big band” jazz, which progressed to modern jazz to jazz rock and finally rock music. At age 16, Simon became the on-stage drummer in the band for the new London theatrical sensation, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Simon’s passion and talent led him to play with some of the rock’n’roll greats: The Who, Mick Jagger, Mike Oldfield, Judas Priest, Jimmy Page, and Jack Bruce to name a few, and to play in countless recording sessions from 1973 on with musicians such as Robert Palmer, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He cowrote four tunes with Tony Hymas and recorded music for and with the recently deceased Jeff Beck, including “The Pump” and “Space Boogie, ”and played on Pete Townsend’s “Let My Love Open The Door.”

At a charity event, Simon’s love for playing cricket put him on Mike Oldfield’s team. “I had the enormous pleasure of blowing out Richard Branson (Virgin Atlantic Records) who refused to leave the wicket saying it was ‘no ball.’ The umpire disagreed. The next batsman was John Hurt, the actor, and he did look splendid in his cricket whites. Unfortunately, he was not as good a player as he looked and he was bowled out on the first ball I unleashed upon him. He didn’t even lift his bat — I felt terrible!”

Between touring with rock bands and playing on recording sessions Simon lived in and around London until he moved to the countryside in 1982, where he stayed for 10 years. But he dreamed of living in America so, in 1992, he settled in Studio City, California, then moved to Sherman Oaks where he lived for 22 years and had a commercial recording studio. Shortly after Simon settled in the States, the drummer for the band, Toto, died and Simon was invited to be its new drummer. He agreed and was part of Toto until 2013.

In 1983 Simon formed “Ph.D,” a pop band, but left before the first LP was released as he wanted to move in a different musical direction. In 2003, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer magazine Hall of Fame. In 2015 he won a Jazz Instrumental Album of the year award for “Protocol II,” a band Simon had started years earlier. In 2019 the “Protocol 4” album was nominated for a Grammy in the Contemporary International Album category. He has also released several solo albums.

Meanwhile, in 2017, Simon sold his studio and moved to Ojai. “I was introduced to Ojai by Toto’s then-sound engineer, Dirk Schubert, who invited me up here. I would sometimes visit for the day but never thought about moving here until after I sold my studio in Sherman Oaks. Frankly, I didn’t know of any other place besides Santa Barbara that I wished to move to. It’s also closer to LA and I prefer the more rural aspect here.”

Thus, Simon got into his car, drove to Ojai and stopped at the first real estate agent he encountered, who drove him around the Valley to look at houses, eventually finding a property he loved in Upper Ojai. He moved into his new home in July, 2017 … five months later the Thomas fire swept the area and destroyed everything.

“Of course, anyone who had been the victim of such devastation will know the feeling of having lost personal possessions. The sore point is the loss of letters, photos, diaries.” Furniture, etc. can be replaced … “it’s the irreplaceable items that sting the most.” And, “thanks to having good insurance my (recording) equipment was replaced within months. That was my livelihood. Thankfully all my drums were stored elsewhere apart from a couple pieces of vintage gear.” Jason Mariani of Carbonite Studios made his studio available to Simon when he could, allowing Simon to work. After the fire, Simon continued to love his property and in 2019, he broke ground and rebuilt his house, adding a separate studio.

While his home was being rebuilt, Simon needed a place to live. “People were so kind here and I must make mention of John Adair and his wife, Lisa, who were so kind to let me use their studio and even put me up in their guest house for a few weeks until I found a place to live.” On his own on Valentine’s Day, Simon decided to grab dinner at The Deer Lodge where a band was playing. He knew the bass player and asked if he could sit in with them. When the set was over, he met the tavern’s owner, Sophia Miles, and pitched the idea of doing a jazz series at Deer Lodge where he would invite great Los Angeles musicians to come up and play with him. Each concert had a different theme, and, although it proved to be a lot of work to organize dates around the musicians’ schedules, it was a lot of fun and, “at that time very necessary for me to play to get away from the daily routine of insurance companies, lawyers and all the other stuff post-fire.”

Simon has also “played it forward” by donating equipment and helping put together a recording studio at Rock Tree Sky Learning Center, which offers an experimental education to kids from five through 18.

When asked what he misses about living in England, he says: “I miss playing cricket and motor racing. I used to race (with a huge lack of talent) in Formula Ford 1600 (single seater chassis), I did learn so much from that experience which helped with my playing — believe it or not.” He also confesses he misses real Brit bangers-andmash suppers, and bacon, “proper bacon — not what we call ‘streaky bacon.’ Apparently, the pigs here are different. I asked at Watkins butchery” (in Meiners Oaks). Who knew?

Simon Phillips talent and passion for music led him to be a songwriter, recording engineer, record producer, and, of course, a brilliant drummer. Can’t beat that!

Available Simon recordings — Protocol 1, 4 and V on Amazon, and Studio Live Session (Little Big Beat Records) — Vinyl only

Previously released titles available on download and CD Baby: Protocol II and III as well as Out Of The Blue —Another Lifetime - Symbiosis — Vantage Point Force Majeure (all on Phantom)

(Also check out Phillips on episode 118 of Ojai Talk of the Town podcast).

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