SUMMARY
Phil Friend is a singer/songwriter currently living in Pickering, North Yorkshire. After moving there from Leeds some years ago, he expanded his love of music listening & playing to include song-writing. He plays acoustic guitar and sings. Reflecting his wide-ranging musical tastes, his songs are contemporary with influences in folk, country, blues, psychedelia, elements of jazz - and fusions of many of those genres. Phil plays his music around many acoustic clubs mainly in North & East Yorkshire - he is also a member of the well-established Ryedale Songwriters’ Circle.
As well as solo performances, Phil plays in :-
Blue Kites - with Lynn Sunley.
North Wood Drift - with Dez and Cathy Allenby.
The Sweet Martinis - with (amongst others) Martin & Penny Robertson, Alison Lawson, Steve Jennings & Phil Wright.
He has also sung with local community choirs - most recently with various Community Choirs led by
Em Whitfield Brooks.
Phil Friend is a singer/songwriter currently living in Pickering, North Yorkshire. After moving there from Leeds some years ago, he expanded his love of music listening & playing to include song-writing. He plays acoustic guitar and sings. Reflecting his wide-ranging musical tastes, his songs are contemporary with influences in folk, country, blues, psychedelia, elements of jazz - and fusions of many of those genres. Phil plays his music around many acoustic clubs mainly in North & East Yorkshire - he is also a member of the well-established Ryedale Songwriters’ Circle.
As well as solo performances, Phil plays in :-
Blue Kites - with Lynn Sunley.
North Wood Drift - with Dez and Cathy Allenby.
The Sweet Martinis - with (amongst others) Martin & Penny Robertson, Alison Lawson, Steve Jennings & Phil Wright.
He has also sung with local community choirs - most recently with various Community Choirs led by
Em Whitfield Brooks.
MUSICAL BACKGROUND, INFLUENCES & CURRENT COLLABORATIONS
As for many of us, Phil’s first exposure to music was through listening to broadcasts and recordings at home. Parental and sibling interest covered Latin & big-band jazz (along with the leading “crooners”), ‘60s pop, folk & blues. At school, Phil was always keen to sing with the choir - something he continues to enjoy today with various community choirs around his local part of North Yorkshire. He started playing guitar around the age of 11 using a nylon-strung guitar (maker long-since forgotten) bought from a school pal for a fiver and the infamous and deceptively-titled “Play In A Day” by Bert Weedon. Several layers of finger-skin, ear-plugs and guitar acquisitions later, he graduated to playing with fellow guitarists and singers at the 6th-form folk club run jointly by his boys-only school and the adjoining girls school. His first gig was with a band comprising himself, 2 other boys & 2 girls - the band was called Fyfolk - playing to the Co-op pensioners club in Leeds. It was an “interesting” experience but probably the start to Phil developing some kind of broken-chord finger-style playing.
With the explosion of progressive music in the ‘60s & early ‘70s, Phil stretched his listening pleasures across all progressive genres including folk, rock, blues & jazz - and the pop world was left far behind. Working life and family commitments left music performance taking a back seat for many years with only a couple of forays into musical collaboration happening during that time (one such foray was with a 4-piece band, “Raven”, with whom Phil played bass guitar). “I have no regrets regarding that situation”, he says, “my skills were very basic and, although I would have dearly loved to forge a musical career, I wasn’t equipped to carry that through.”. He maintained his love for guitar playing during those days but mainly for self-indulgence at home. Later on, as things started to settle down and more free time was available, he augmented his primitive guitar skills with input from a couple of teachers. This enabled him to develop some fundamental electric playing but also expanded his knowledge of chords to a more satisfying level.
Phil’s song-writing never really took-off until he made the move to Pickering. Two things helped that along. One was Pickering Acoustic Music (aka PAM), a multi-genre, mostly-acoustic club that had been founded a few years before Phil arrived in Pickering and was in full swing at The Sun Inn by the time he did arrive. In a friendly & relaxed environment, people were playing & singing different styles & genres of music, all with varying levels of ability - this presented him with an opportunity which seemed too good for him to miss. In fact, it gave him enough of a kick up the proverbial to dare to perform solo in front of an audience. “It was pretty scary at first”, he says, “although choosing to sing my first ever song at PAM a capella seems crazy with hindsight” - it also made him work on lots of covers material to enable him to give a more presentable “start-to-finish” polish to the songs he wanted to perform. The other thing that he noted was that there were quite a few songwriters performing their own stuff at the club - “I was still working full-time in those days and wanted to make better use of my time on weekday evenings - song-writing fulfilled that requirement really well - and I had become much more open-minded to the sort of material I should try & produce.”. As a songwriter, he was also able to join Ryedale Songwriters Circle (which met, and still meets, in Pickering, initially under the watchful and kindly eye of David Swann but now run more as a cooperative with Phil taking an organisational role) - this encouraged a more continuous song-writing approach - it also helped him to further develop his guitar-playing style.
Phil also enjoys the opportunity to play with other musicians and currently plays with a local group, “The Sweet Martinis” based in Pickering - they play a variety of traditional folk songs and folk covers and the line-up currently includes vocals (with some harmonies), guitar, accordion, cajon and occasional violin and flute/whistles.
In 2019, Phil teamed up with Lynn Sunley to form duo - "Blue Kites". Together, they perform a mix of self-penned songs and rock, blues, jazz, folk & country covers, blended in their own particular style. "Lynn brings a lot of energy to the duo and complements my own appreciation of many musical styles, particularly jazz & blues, but certainly not discounting our other mutual influences." says Phil. "Lynn has got real road experience of organising & directing groups of vocalists - anyone who has heard local combos like 'The Four Quarters' and 'The Harmonettes' live can vouch for that. Lynn also plays whistles, ukelele, guitar, mandolin & violin, although she is far too modest about that." he adds.
Phil also plays, albeit rarely these days, with a 3-piece band, “North Wood Drift” along with Dez Allenby and Dez’s wife, Cathy. They play a variety of Phil’s & Dez’s songs along with some lesser-known prog.folk covers. “I think you’d call us a progressive or psychedelic folk collective.” says Phil, “We do harmony vocals accompanied by guitar, cittern, bouzouki, mouth organ, English concertina, kalimba, shruti box, percussion and anything else Dez can get hold of !”. He also adds, “Whilst Dez and I are the tunesmiths and instrumentalists of the band, Cathy adds a beautiful vocal tone, percussion and a warm, positive stage-presence to the line-up - really important for a more watchable live performance”.
Things have continued to develop and Phil writes his guitar-based songs in standard, drop D and DADGAD tuning. He has also written a few songs which are based on cittern (in GDGAD tuning, unison pairs) following the fortunate acquisition of such an instrument one birthday, courtesy of Mrs. F - lucky boy! He plays:-
Phil cites many musical influences & genres and some specific groups or artists within each one - blues, folk, gospel, soul, psychedelic, country, jazz, progressive variants of those, world music etc etc - John Martyn (especially influential in song-writing), Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Miles Davis (& other great jazz exponents), John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, BB King (& other blues greats), Robben Ford and loads more - too many to mention.
As for many of us, Phil’s first exposure to music was through listening to broadcasts and recordings at home. Parental and sibling interest covered Latin & big-band jazz (along with the leading “crooners”), ‘60s pop, folk & blues. At school, Phil was always keen to sing with the choir - something he continues to enjoy today with various community choirs around his local part of North Yorkshire. He started playing guitar around the age of 11 using a nylon-strung guitar (maker long-since forgotten) bought from a school pal for a fiver and the infamous and deceptively-titled “Play In A Day” by Bert Weedon. Several layers of finger-skin, ear-plugs and guitar acquisitions later, he graduated to playing with fellow guitarists and singers at the 6th-form folk club run jointly by his boys-only school and the adjoining girls school. His first gig was with a band comprising himself, 2 other boys & 2 girls - the band was called Fyfolk - playing to the Co-op pensioners club in Leeds. It was an “interesting” experience but probably the start to Phil developing some kind of broken-chord finger-style playing.
With the explosion of progressive music in the ‘60s & early ‘70s, Phil stretched his listening pleasures across all progressive genres including folk, rock, blues & jazz - and the pop world was left far behind. Working life and family commitments left music performance taking a back seat for many years with only a couple of forays into musical collaboration happening during that time (one such foray was with a 4-piece band, “Raven”, with whom Phil played bass guitar). “I have no regrets regarding that situation”, he says, “my skills were very basic and, although I would have dearly loved to forge a musical career, I wasn’t equipped to carry that through.”. He maintained his love for guitar playing during those days but mainly for self-indulgence at home. Later on, as things started to settle down and more free time was available, he augmented his primitive guitar skills with input from a couple of teachers. This enabled him to develop some fundamental electric playing but also expanded his knowledge of chords to a more satisfying level.
Phil’s song-writing never really took-off until he made the move to Pickering. Two things helped that along. One was Pickering Acoustic Music (aka PAM), a multi-genre, mostly-acoustic club that had been founded a few years before Phil arrived in Pickering and was in full swing at The Sun Inn by the time he did arrive. In a friendly & relaxed environment, people were playing & singing different styles & genres of music, all with varying levels of ability - this presented him with an opportunity which seemed too good for him to miss. In fact, it gave him enough of a kick up the proverbial to dare to perform solo in front of an audience. “It was pretty scary at first”, he says, “although choosing to sing my first ever song at PAM a capella seems crazy with hindsight” - it also made him work on lots of covers material to enable him to give a more presentable “start-to-finish” polish to the songs he wanted to perform. The other thing that he noted was that there were quite a few songwriters performing their own stuff at the club - “I was still working full-time in those days and wanted to make better use of my time on weekday evenings - song-writing fulfilled that requirement really well - and I had become much more open-minded to the sort of material I should try & produce.”. As a songwriter, he was also able to join Ryedale Songwriters Circle (which met, and still meets, in Pickering, initially under the watchful and kindly eye of David Swann but now run more as a cooperative with Phil taking an organisational role) - this encouraged a more continuous song-writing approach - it also helped him to further develop his guitar-playing style.
Phil also enjoys the opportunity to play with other musicians and currently plays with a local group, “The Sweet Martinis” based in Pickering - they play a variety of traditional folk songs and folk covers and the line-up currently includes vocals (with some harmonies), guitar, accordion, cajon and occasional violin and flute/whistles.
In 2019, Phil teamed up with Lynn Sunley to form duo - "Blue Kites". Together, they perform a mix of self-penned songs and rock, blues, jazz, folk & country covers, blended in their own particular style. "Lynn brings a lot of energy to the duo and complements my own appreciation of many musical styles, particularly jazz & blues, but certainly not discounting our other mutual influences." says Phil. "Lynn has got real road experience of organising & directing groups of vocalists - anyone who has heard local combos like 'The Four Quarters' and 'The Harmonettes' live can vouch for that. Lynn also plays whistles, ukelele, guitar, mandolin & violin, although she is far too modest about that." he adds.
Phil also plays, albeit rarely these days, with a 3-piece band, “North Wood Drift” along with Dez Allenby and Dez’s wife, Cathy. They play a variety of Phil’s & Dez’s songs along with some lesser-known prog.folk covers. “I think you’d call us a progressive or psychedelic folk collective.” says Phil, “We do harmony vocals accompanied by guitar, cittern, bouzouki, mouth organ, English concertina, kalimba, shruti box, percussion and anything else Dez can get hold of !”. He also adds, “Whilst Dez and I are the tunesmiths and instrumentalists of the band, Cathy adds a beautiful vocal tone, percussion and a warm, positive stage-presence to the line-up - really important for a more watchable live performance”.
Things have continued to develop and Phil writes his guitar-based songs in standard, drop D and DADGAD tuning. He has also written a few songs which are based on cittern (in GDGAD tuning, unison pairs) following the fortunate acquisition of such an instrument one birthday, courtesy of Mrs. F - lucky boy! He plays:-
- Yamaha guitars - models LL6, AC3M, LL-TA
- Faith - Neptune Cutaway Hi-Gloss guitar
- Blue Moon - cittern
Phil cites many musical influences & genres and some specific groups or artists within each one - blues, folk, gospel, soul, psychedelic, country, jazz, progressive variants of those, world music etc etc - John Martyn (especially influential in song-writing), Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Miles Davis (& other great jazz exponents), John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, BB King (& other blues greats), Robben Ford and loads more - too many to mention.