Phillip Edwin Lionel Shutt (31 March 1951 – 14 March 2018), known professionally as Phil Curtis, was an English session musician and bass guitarist known for his work with Arthur Brown, Kiki Dee, Steve Gibbons, Larry Carlton, Chris Rea, Gilbert O'Sullivan, John Morgan, Denny Laine, Steve Marriott, The Bay City Rollers and many others.
In his later years he worked as a composer for television and radio, as a sound engineer and as an educator.
Phil was born in Newton Longville, Buckinghamshire in 1951. His first instrument was the trumpet, which he picked up at the age of 6 before switching to bass guitar during his school years. He joined his first band, The Stormbeats, in 1961, playing at the local cinema on Saturday mornings. When asked on his motivation for becoming a musician, Phil claimed that it was "to get girls!".
Phil went on to study music at Watford College of Music before moving to London in pursuit of a career in music.
Early career
In 1968 Phil joined The Spirit of John Morgan. The group toured the UK extensively. In May 1968 the band began a fortnightly residency at the Marquee Club in London alongside Jethro Tull and 10 Years After.
The group recorded their self-titled debut in September 1969 at Olympic Studios for the Carnaby Label. Their second album "Age Machine" was released in 1970.
Phil was briefly a member of the Steve Gibbons Band. Phil also rehearsed with Thunderclap Newman around this period but decided against joining the group - the band went onto have a #1 single with Something In The Air.
Arthur Brown & Kingdom Come
Phil joined Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come in October 1971 as replacement for Desmond Fisher. In the early days of the group Phil, Arthur Brown and Andy Dalby lived together in a band commune in Beckenham and occasionally crossed paths with a young David Bowie. Phil recorded bass, vocals and percussion on two Kingdom Come albums: Kingdom Come (1972) and Journey (1973). Phil helped cement the title "Journey", as Arthur Brown explained in the liner notes for the 2010 re-release: "I had this song which had the line ‘I’m going on a journey/I’m not coming back’, and it was Phil who suggested we call the album Journey – and we never really did come back.” The band were renowned for their theatrical stage shows and exuberant costumes. Phil played the role of the Pope on stage. He sported a Golden cassock and headdress with the black and white face-paint that had become Arthur Brown's signature. “We all wore costumes. And we had a light show projecting images onto a gauze screen that you could lower or raise. You could make us disappear behind images, or appear in the middle of those images- As though we were part of the picture. We had huge cartoon figures that went into the audience. It was a multimedia presentation…. one of the band became a traffic light and wore that costume. There was the captain of the ship - of consciousness that society was trying to force to come back aground- so I wore a huge boat around me. There was death. There was the school master. There was the Pope. And so on, and all these had costumes.” - Arthur Brown interviewed in 2012.
"Journey" was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Whilst it had originally been planned that Dennis Taylor would produce the album, Dave Edmunds, who was also at Rockfield during the time, expressed an interest in the record and took over the producer role. It was the first rock album ever to use a drum machine (The Bentley Rhythm Ace) exclusively.
The album was released in 1973 by Polydor in the UK and Passport Records in the US. It was considered a pioneering album and has retrospectively gained praise from critics: "Journey was so far ahead of its time that you have to keep checking the sleeve to make sure that it really does say 1973 and not 1983… not only Arthur Brown’s masterpiece, but also one of the truly great albums of the seventies."
Author and journalist Mark Paytress said the album "remains a classic of pioneering electronic rock, up there with Kraftwerk and assorted krautrock trailblazers."
"Journey" was rotated on Radio Luxembourg. During this period Kingdom Come opened for Duke Ellington’s Orchestra.
Arthur Brown has since called it a "classic album."
Phil's time with Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come culminated in 3 BBC Radio 1 John Peel Show Sessions in 1971 and 1972. These were later included in both the 2003 and 2010 re-releases of "Journey" by Castle Music and Esoteric Recordings respectively. The Peel Sessions were recorded at Kensington House, Shepherd's Bush and Maida Vale 4.