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
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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." ...
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. ...
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... ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Faces: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971
They're fantastic! ...
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! ...
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 ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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... ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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