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Phil Symes

Phil Symes

Phil Symes wrote for Disc and Music Echo. In August 1982 he formed PR Contact, a public relations company specialising in the international entertainment industry. The company is best known for its work in the independent sector, with among its regular clients over the years FilmFour, Scala Productions, Working Title, Initial, blueLight, Parallax Pictures and Wild Bunch.

43 articles

List of articles in the library

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James Brown: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 20 March 1971

SOUL POWER TO THE PEOPLE... AND HOW! ...

Neil Diamond: A Boy Who Outgrew His Hits

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 20 March 1971

IT TOOK a long while but the U.K. public woke up one day and discovered Neil Diamond. And with 'Sweet Caroline' providing a quick follow-up ...

Freda Payne: After a massive worldwide hit... Freda's looking for love!

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 17 April 1971

FREDA PAYNE looks all set to repeat her success of last year with her new record. Her ambitions, however, are in another direction... ...

Dave and Ansell Collins: Ansell Plays It Cool While Dave Searches For His Mum...!

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971

DAVE BARKER is a well-built Jamaican who talks fast and enthusiastically and punctuates his sentences with finger-clicking and hearty slaps of his right thigh. Ansell ...

Long John Baldry, Elton John: Elton John: How fat Reg lost lbs, and won dollars

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971

ELTON JOHN USED TO BE A FAT GUY CALLED REG WHO FELT INFERIOR. HE COULDN'T WEAR 'NICE CLOTHES'. IN GROUPS HE WASN'T ALLOWED TO SING. ...

Ronnie Spector: Ronnie Tries It Solo

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971

THE SUCCESS of Motown's Supremes somewhat overshadowed most of the other girlie-groups in America back in the mid-sixties. But one trio who managed to hold ...

Shirley Bassey: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971

HOW PEOPLE love Shirley Bassey! There's not another female singer in Britain, nay, probably the world who gets from her audiences so much love. ...

The Faces: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971

They're fantastic! ...

Freda Payne: Freda Speak

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 15 May 1971

IT'S NOT been all peaches and cream for Freda Payne since she had a worldwide hit with 'Band Of Gold'. As she says: "Until recently ...

The Elgins: Down Tools, Folks, It's A Lucky Strike

Report and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 29 May 1971

The dispirited Elgins quit in 1967 and took up humdrum jobs in industrial Detroit. And then it all happened... ...

Funkadelic: When The Circus Hit Town

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 5 June 1971

FUNKADELIC man George Clinton casually made the understatement of the year. There they were, the five front men of the year's most outrageous band, dressed ...

R. Dean Taylor: The Great White Hope

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 5 June 1971

In our March 13th issue we called R. Dean Taylor the great white hope. He didn't have a hit then but he has now and ...

Tami Lynn: Tami Worked Hard For Overnight Success!

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 5 June 1971

"IT'S LIKE a Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland story. Just when you think it's all over it starts to happen." ...

Marvin Gaye: A Study of Marvin Gaye's Liberation

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 12 June 1971

MARVIN GAYE is a mystery man. Most people know him as the singer who made the biggest-selling Motown record ever – 'I Heard It Through ...

Neil Diamond: The Jekyll and Hyde of Pop

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 12 June 1971

NEIL DIAMOND is a latter day Jekyll and Hyde. The quiet, hesitant, sensitive man you meet in a plush London hotel suite is nothing like ...

Slade: When Their Hair Finally Grew

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 14 August 1971

"A YEAR AGO a lot of people back home walked on the other side of the street if they saw us coming so they didn't ...

Pamela Motown — a home-grown hit-maker

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 28 August 1971

PAMELA SAWYER is one of Motown's most successful songwriters. And as such is unique. She's the only English staff writer the company has. ...

The Chi-Lites Are Deep But Not Too Deep

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 28 August 1971

WE'RE ALL familiar with the Detroit "sound." Well it seems the next big American industrial city to become famous for its music will be Chicago. ...

Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions: Curtis Mayfield: Soul Music's Elusive Dynamo

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 4 December 1971

CURTIS MAYFIELD is a hard man to catch these days. If he's not locked away in a studio all night recording himself, the Impressions, or ...

Bloodstone: Diggin' Bloodstone

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972

IF THE reaction to Bloodstone's first London appearance – at the Rainbow Theatre on a recent Soul concert – is anything to go by, then ...

Sly & The Family Stone: There's A Riot Goin' On (Epic)

Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972

SYLVESTER STEWART and Sly Stone (OK so you know they're one and the same but the sleeve credits insist this album was written, arranged and ...

The Chi-Lites Step Out Of The Shadows

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972

THANK heaven for the Chi-Lites. This four-man Chicago-based outfit has brought back to soul music two elements missing from it for too long – good ...

Isaac Hayes: Black Moses (Stax Super 2628 004, £4.50) ****

Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972

The real test for Hayes ...

The Last Poets: This Is Madness (Douglas SDGL 69102, £2.49)

Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972

THIS ALBUM has had tremendous success in America over the last year and practically become the testament of the Black American. It's not hard to ...

Carly Simon: Carly

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 4 March 1972

CARLY SIMON has been compared to a lot of people. She admits: "I'm told I sound like Judy Collins and my style of writing is ...

Michael Jackson: The One Who Got Away

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 18 March 1972

THE MOST amazing thing about little Michael Jackson's solo success is how calmly he's taking it all. "I think it's great," is all he says ...

Ashford & Simpson, Valerie Simpson: Valerie Simpson: Valerie's Black and Proud

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 1 April 1972

THE HERALDING of one more female songwriter-singer may make you want to throw your hands in the air and mutter something along the lines of ...

The Staple Singers: A Staple Diet

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 6 May 1972

IT ALL seems to be happening at once for Stax Records, the soul record company in Memphis, Tennessee. At present they hold American chart positions ...

Marvin Gaye: Washington's Week Of Marvin Gaye

Report by Phil Symes, Disc, 3 June 1972

AFTER A self-imposed exile lasting almost four years, Marvin Gaye, whose What's Going On album was one of the most acclaimed of 1971, returned to ...

Gladys Knight: Gladys and Her British Problem

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 24 June 1972

"UNDERRATED" is a fond word of Press agents and record companies to explain away lack of success for their artists. So when someone uses the ...

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas: Martha Reeves Goes Solo

Report and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 8 July 1972

MARTHA REEVES is going solo. After 10 years fronting one of Motown's most successful groups, Martha and the Vandellas, Miss Reeves is stepping out alone. ...

The Impressions: Making an Impression

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 22 July 1972

THE IMPRESSIONS are now into the fourteenth year. And everything is fine. Like a small number of other acts around they've become an institution. Over ...

Roberta Flack: Flack and Beautiful

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 12 August 1972

"THE BEST thing that has happened to London since Hitler missed," is how one ecstatic onlooker described Roberta Flack's first London concert. ...

Bill Withers: Leanin' On Bill Withers

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 26 August 1972

THAT OLD saying "never too late" is certainly true in the case of Bill Withers. Withers is just about the hottest male singer in America ...

Al Green: Al Never Forgets

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 30 September 1972

AL GREEN is top of the American chart again. 'I'm Still In Love With You' makes it four in a row. ...

Jerry Butler: Night Affair with Jerry Butler

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 4 November 1972

"THE CONCEPT of my album was to capture variety in a record. 'One Night Affair' deals with the feeling I think all men have at ...

The Stylistics: Stylistics' Soulful Romance

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 4 November 1972

WHAT MOTOWN did for Detroit, writers like Thom Bell, Gamble and Huff, and groups like the Stylistics are now doing for Philadelphia. With their brand ...

Dennis Coffey: The White Soul Guitar

Profile by Phil Symes, Disc, 11 November 1972

DENNIS COFFEY is a white man who plays soul music. Ask any soul fan. Regular pop fans might not be acquainted with his name but ...

Bill Withers: Lots of Sunshine for Bill Withers

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 11 November 1972

MOST SONGWRITERS dream of one day writing a standard. Singers dream of establishing one. Bill Withers does both – frequently. You only have to look ...

The Temptations: Hitler's part in the rise of the Temps

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 13 January 1973

IS IT really eight years The Temptations have been with us? It really only seems like yesterday that Motown's senior male group were making a ...

Eddie Kendricks: When Temptation Got The Best Of Eddie Kendricks

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 10 March 1973

IT'S A big decision quitting a world-famous group, especially when they're on top, and look like sitting pretty for a long while. So it was ...

First Choice: A return of Choice ladies to the scene

Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 23 June 1973

FIRST CHOICE are climbing the charts with a great disco record called 'Armed and Extremely Dangerous'. It is not only their first hit, but when ...

Sylvia Robinson: Not So Much A Debut For Sylvia

Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 30 June 1973

ONCE IN A while a record comes along that nothing will stop being a hit. Not even the fact that radio producers are frightened of ...

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