Phillips' Sound Recording Services
Encyclopedia
Phillips' Sound Recording Services was a studio in the house of Percy Francis Phillips (1896—1984) and his family at 38 Kensington, Kensington
Kensington, Liverpool
Kensington is an inner city area of Liverpool, England. It is located immediately to the east of Liverpool city centre, and is bordered by Everton to the north, Fairfield to the east and Edge Hill to the south....

, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Between the years of 1955 and 1969, Phillips recorded numerous tapes and acetate discs for Liverpool acts, people and businesses in a small room behind the shop his family owned.

Phillips first sold bicycles and motorbikes, but later started selling and recharging batteries in a shop in the front room of his house in 1925. After a decline in demand for batteries in the early 1950s, he started selling electrical goods and popular records. In 1955, Phillips set up a recording studio called Phillips' Sound Recording Services.

In 1958, The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, initially formed in Liverpool in 1956, that eventually evolved into The Beatles in 1960...

 (John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

, John 'Duff' Lowe and Colin Hanton
Colin Hanton
Colin Leo Hanton was a drummer for The Quarrymen—the band which would later evolve into The Beatles....

) recorded "That‘ll Be The Day", and "In Spite of All the Danger
In Spite of All the Danger
"In Spite of All the Danger" is one of the first songs recorded by The Quarrymen, then composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, pianist John Lowe and drummer Colin Hanton....

" in the studio. Other clients included Billy Fury
Billy Fury
Billy Fury, born Ronald William Wycherley , was an internationally successful English singer from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. Rheumatic fever, which he first contracted as a child, damaged his heart and ultimately contributed to his death...

, Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...

, and Marty Wilde
Marty Wilde
Marty Wilde is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, and is the father of pop singers Ricky Wilde, Kim Wilde and Roxanne Wilde.-Career:Wilde was performing under the name Reg Patterson at London's Condor Club in...

. Phillips died in 1984. The Quarrymen recording and the site of the studio was commemorated in 2005, when a Blue Plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....

 was unveiled by two of The Quarrymen (Lowe and Hanton) on the front of the house.

Early years

Percy Phillips was born in March 1896, in Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

, Lancashire. He was a veteran of the First World War, and left the British Army (Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) at the rank of Corporal in 1918, since he was wounded before the war ended. His Army Service Number was 34446.

After the war, he started selling bicycles and motorbikes in a small shop in Brunswick Street, in the Kensington Fields area of Liverpool. He began selling and recharging batteries in 1925, opening a shop in the front room of his family's three-storey Georgian terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...

, called Phillips’ Battery Charging Depot, and had to install large accumulators
Accumulator (energy)
An accumulator is an apparatus by means of which energy can be stored, such as a rechargeable battery or a hydraulic accumulator. Such devices may be electrical, fluidic or mechanical and are sometimes used to convert a small continuous power source into a short surge of energy or vice versa...

 in the cellar. Phillips ran the business for 30 years, even during WWII, but due to a decline in demand for batteries in the early 1950s (most people having electricity by then) he started selling household electrical goods. By late 1954, the shop was only selling records and record players; customers would buy recordings of American Country and Western, and Big Band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 music. As Phillips had supplied batteries to the Burtonwood
RAF Burtonwood
RAF Burtonwood was a Royal Air Force station in England, 2 miles north-west of Warrington, Lancashire. During World War II and the Cold War it was used by the United States Air Force and was also known as USAAF station 590.- Overview :...

 air base during the war, he could buy and sell the latest records from America via his contacts there.

Studio

In 1955, several customers asked if Phillips could make demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

 discs, so he bought a 1/4 inch tape recorder (replaced in 1963 with a Vortexion portable
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....

), a MSS (Marguerite Sound Studios - after the owner's wife) disc cutting
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 machine, an amplifier, a 4-track mixer, three microphones (a Reslo, an HMV ribbon microphone, and an AKG), and three pairs of headphones for £400, while on a trip to London to visit his son Frank, who was there for a sound recording course with EMI Electronics.

When he returned to Liverpool, Phillips set up the equipment behind the record shop in the (12 square feet) middle living room, with a piano and an overturned tin bath in the cellar (a speaker and microphone was linked to the studio above) as a reverb chamber. The recordings would normally be on tape, and then transferred to disc. The tape was recorded over again at the next session. Because of trams, trucks, and horses going up and down Kensington, Phillips had to hang heavy blankets over the studio door and rear window to minimise the noise. Phillips' first recording was of himself singing "Bonnie Marie of Argyle", (unaccompanied) and a few days later he recorded "Unchained Melody
Unchained Melody
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages....

", with local dance band singer Betty Roy. The first disc he cut in the studio was on 7 August 1955, with his eight-year-old daughter, Carol, singing, "Mr Sandman". All the discs had "Play with a light-weight pick-up
Magnetic cartridge
A magnetic cartridge is a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a turntable or phonograph. It converts mechanical vibrational energy from a stylus riding in a spiral record groove into an electrical signal that is subsequently amplified and then converted back to sound by a...

" on the label, as this would increase the life of the disc which would eventually wear out.

Phillips advertised the studio as Phillips' Sound Recording Services (also advertised as P. F. Phillips' Professional Tape & Disc Recording Service) and his business cards read, "PF Phillips, 38 Kensington, Liverpool, 7. Television and Battery Service. Gramophone Record Dealer. Professional Tape and Disc Recording Studio." He started cutting discs for members of the public, as well as for actors from the Liverpool Playhouse
Liverpool Playhouse
The Liverpool Playhouse is a theatre in Williamson Square in the city of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It originated in 1866 as a music hall, and in 1911 developed into a repertory theatre. As such it nurtured the early careers of many actors and actresses, some of which went on to achieve...

, who often stayed in the first-floor boarding rooms
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...

 above the studio, and who were asked by Phillips to record monologues and poems. These included the actors John Thaw
John Thaw
John Edward Thaw, CBE was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being police and legal dramas such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.-Early life:Thaw came from a working class background, having been born in Gorton,...

, Richard Briers
Richard Briers
Richard David Briers, CBE is an English actor whose career has encompassed theatre, television, film and radio.He first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines in the 1960s, but it was in the following decade when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life that he became a...

, and the ventriloquist Ray Alan
Ray Alan
Ray Alan was an English ventriloquist and television entertainer from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the puppet Lord Charles and later also with the puppets Tich and Quackers.-Biography:...

.

For the first couple of years, Phillips made music compilation discs for local businesses such as the local ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...

 or cinema, men singing songs for loved ones, children playing an instrument, or even a neighbour’s dog howling along to piano accompaniment. As the record shop and studio took over the business, he had a brass plate made which he put on the wall just outside the front door, and had labels made for the discs, but changed the design of the disc label every year. By 1957, Phillips was recording more and more groups of young men with guitars, basses, washboards and drums, who played skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

.

Ron Wycherly (a.k.a. Billy Fury
Billy Fury
Billy Fury, born Ronald William Wycherley , was an internationally successful English singer from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. Rheumatic fever, which he first contracted as a child, damaged his heart and ultimately contributed to his death...

) recorded several songs onto disc in the studio, including, "I'm Left You're Right She's Gone", "Playin' For Keeps", "Paralyzed" and "Come Go With Me" (all previously released by Elvis Presley) as well as, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You“ (Lulu Belle and Scotty
Lulu Belle and Scotty
Myrtle Eleanor Cooper and Scott Greene Wiseman , known professionally as Lulu Belle and Scotty, were one of the major country music acts of the 1930s and 1940s, dubbed The Sweethearts of Country Music.-Career:Cooper was born in Boone, North Carolina; Wiseman was from Spruce Pine, North...

) and his own composition, “Yodelling Song“. Fury's mother sent the songs to impressario Larry Parnes
Larry Parnes
Laurence Maurice "Larry" Parnes was an English pop manager and impresario. He has been described as "the first major British rock manager... Parnes' stable encompassed most of the most successful pre-Beatles British rock singers."...

, which started her son's singing career. The songs were released on DVD/CD in 2008.

The Quarrymen recording

Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne (from Rory Storm and The Hurricanes
Rory Storm
Rory Storm was an English singer and musician. Born Alan Caldwell in Liverpool, Storm was the singer and leader of Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, a Liverpudlian band who were contemporaries of The Beatles in the late 1950s, and early 1960s...

) and singer Paul Murphy recorded a version of "Butterfly
Butterfly (1957 song)
"Butterfly" is a popular song written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann and published in 1957. The song is credited to Anthony September as songwriter in some sources...

" and "She’s Got it" in the studio on 22 June 1957, and Byrne later played the recording to Harrison. On 12 July 1958, a local skiffle group, The Quarrymen (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Lowe and Hanton) visited Phillips’ studio to record two songs, although the date has been disputed, as Lowe remembered that the recording was during cold weather (October or November, 1957) with the band wearing scarves. Hanton also mentioned the cold weather in interviews, and before recording, Lennon suggested that Hanton put his scarf over the snare drum to lower the volume, which supports the earlier date.

The group were surprised to see how small and technically basic the studio was, with only one microphone in the centre of the room. Phillips demanded that they pay for the recording before they set up the equipment, so each member paid 3 shillings and 6 pence, but he then asked for an extra surcharge (£1) to cover the cost of transferring the tape recording to acetate disc. As this was too expensive, Phillips said that for a cut-rate price they would not be taped first, but record directly to vinyl.

The first song they recorded was "That‘ll Be The Day" (sung by Lennon with harmonies by McCartney). Phillips wanted them to immediately record the next song, but Lennon and McCartney could not decide on a song for the B-side of the disc. McCartney suggested the doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...

 ballad, "In Spite of All the Danger" (by McCartney and Harrison, but sung by Lennon) even though Lowe and Hanton had never heard it before. They asked for some time to rehearse, but Phillips refused, saying, "For seventeen and six 17
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

/6d you're not here all day".

Lowe and Hanton busked through the song, which was cut short by Phillips waving his hands to indicate that the cutting needle was getting close to the centre of the acetate. He then handed the band a fragile 78rpm 10-inch acetate record. It was later lost until Lowe rediscovered it in 1981, and planned to put it up for auction at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

, but sold it to McCartney for an undisclosed amount. McCartney later had the two songs digitally re-mastered and pressed 50 copies, giving them to friends as a Christmas present, although the two songs were released on 21 November 1995, as part of The Beatles Anthology (Anthology 1
Anthology 1
Anthology 1 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in November 1995. It was released as the first part of the Anthology trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. It contains "Free as a Bird",...

). McCartney later said, "The strangest thing for me, listening to it, is that it's like drowning, it's like your life flashing by in front of you. From the earliest things by me and John when we used to sag off school
Truancy
Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions...

 and the earliest demo tape we ever made, to the first little record we made which was a version of John singing "That'll Be The Day", and a little song of mine [and Harrison] on the other side that's never been released before."

Later years

Other customers of Phillips’ studio included The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans were a four piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label; "Hippy Hippy Shake", the follow-up, Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly", and "You're No Good", a Clint Ballard song that provided a change of pace and furnished the...

, Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...

, Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr is an English comedian who became famous in the early 1970s. He is also an impressionist and singer, with a chart album After the Laughter and UK Top 10 single, "It's You", in March 1974 to his credit.-Early career:Under his real name, he appeared as a teenager in the film Violent...

, Willy Russell, Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

 supporters club, and players from Everton F.C.
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

. Denny Seyton and The Sabres recorded "Little Latin Lupe Lu
Little Latin Lupe Lu
"Little Latin Lupe Lu" was written by Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers, who had a chart record with the song in 1963 reaching #47 on the Cashbox music chart and #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-Cover versions:...

" (Bill Medley
Bill Medley
William Thomas Medley is an American singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers....

) in the studio in 1963.
Phillips closed the studio in 1969, the record shop in 1974, and died in 1984, at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. The recording of The Quarrymen acetate and the site of Phillips' Sound Recording Services was commemorated in 26 August 2005, when a Blue Plaque was unveiled by two of The Quarrymen (Lowe and Hanton) on the front of the house.

External links

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