Phil McMullen
Phil McMullen was born in Wells, the second smallest city in England, in 1958. Living in a small rural community led him to write about the music he was voraciously discovering as a teenager, since he was otherwise unable to express his excitement by sharing it with non-existent contemporaries. His first opportunity as a published writer came with the launch of Nigel Cross' Bucketfull of Brains magazine in the early 1980s, a now legendary magazine which Phil continued to contribute to during the following decade. His name was soon appearing as a reviewer and feature writer in innumerable other underground fanzines and magazines across Europe and America, with regular columns in Rockerilla in Italy, Ruta 66 in Spain and The Bob in the USA.
Since handing over the reins of Ptolemaic Terrascop magazine to a new editor in 2006, Phil has concentrated on publishing his work online, and curating a series of international festivals and multi-media events that bring together what's become known as the "terrascopic community".
11 articles
List of articles in the library
Retrospective and Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, November 1997
THE MUSIC of Help Yourself was never easily categorised. American-flavoured country-rock to begin with, albeit still somehow redolent of pastoral England, by their second and ...
Frank Zappa, The Mothers Of Invention: Mothers of Invention Don Preston and Bunk Gardner
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, Winter 1992
DON PRESTON: a man whose career with Frank Zappa spanned the period 1966 to 1974 all told, with time off for good behaviour in between, ...
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, November 1992
SOME DAYS are made in heaven, some days are made in hell and some inhabit a nowhere-land somewhere in-between. ...
Obituary by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, March 1997
SO, HE'S GONE THEN. If Nick hadn't metaphorically picked me up by the scruff of the neck and encouraged me to start writing the interviews ...
Jefferson Starship: Pete Sears
Retrospective and Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, 1995
BASS GUITARIST and keyboard player Pete Sears occupies what I believe to be a unique position amongst Terrascope interviewees to date, his career having begun ...
Guided By Voices: The Robert Pollard interview
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, September 1993
PT: WHAT DRIVES you? Is there some kind of creative force inside you just bursting to write new songs all the time? ...
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, 1996
"You are about to have probably the most unusual musical experience of your life. The music will enter areas of your mind never before opened ...
Profile and Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, January 1996
ROLL THE NAME around your mind a while and try to imagine what they sound like, and whatever you come up with I guarantee you'll ...
Davey Graham: A Terrascopic Interview
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, 1991
THERE ARE VERY few people who can genuinely be accredited with changing the face of a certain field of music. Most of that rare breed ...
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, September 1996
NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL isn't so much a band as a concept. The product of the singularly imaginative mind locked inside Jeff Mangum's head, it's been ...
The Misunderstood: Rich Brown and Mike Stax: Like, Misunderstood
Book Review by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, January 2008
THE MISUNDERSTOOD were one of the most innovative and enigmatic bands of the '60s and one of the psychedelic era’s best loved groups. ...
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