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phil bates
Musician | songwriter |producer|
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Absolutely brilliant gig at Portalen, Greve, Denmark tonight. Fantastic audience, and wonderful hospitality. Jo and I love Denmark so much.Needed a good one after recent trials, tribulations and disappointments with my solo gigs and my body’s refusal to play ball.I did suffer with disobedient hands and extremely painful knees, but there was so much good there as well. Dr Gig was only partially successful😂So lovely playing with and being with all our German friends, band mates, crew etc.We are blessed working with these people, and they make gigging possible in a way I can’t manage on my own 😄🙏☯️❤️
I'm really looking forward to hitting the road in May 2027, this time for a special double headline tour with Cutting Crew!Two bands, some great songs and plenty of memories. It's going to be a fantastic evening of live music, and I hope to see many familiar faces along the way!Check out the tour dates ☝️and come and join us. It would be wonderful to see you there!🙏Take care and see you soon!Phil❤☯😃
Just released a few more tracks on Bandcamp.com. and linked on my websitephil-bates.com/songs/A pretty esoteric collection 😂A couple Celtic-ish instrumentals from me, based around my wonderful daughters. A heavier song that some will know, but I wanted to show a different side to the Bates.Plus, a song from Don’t Panic that Jo and I did in the mid 1980s, having moved on from synth-pop 😜Two demos from 1993 when plans for ‘Moment of Truth’ were starting to take shape. ‘Breaking down the walls’ made it on to the album, ‘Sitting on top of the world’ did not.I was disappointed about ‘Sitting ….’ because I could hear that chorus on the radio. C’est la vie. I even offered a co-write because the lyrics are make weight, but universal indifference ensued 😂 Maybe they were right.(Co-writes were the essence of the Part 2 album, in fact, a necessity to counterbalance the ELO albums everybody worked on with Jeff Lynne)Plus, two quasi-blues tracks I did for a project that got no further than 2 tracks 😂 Or they might have been demos for a Buddy Guy album that our manager(?!?!) told me I might be working on. But then, he even told us we were getting a song on the new ‘Highlander’ film at a point when the film was already out 😂 He often perpetrated such jokes.Then, two instrumental pieces I did for a dance presentation by Worcester Arts Workshop in 1992. Technology was a bit limited in 1992, but the tracks worked well for the dance show. I enjoyed watching the rehearsals and then going home to translate what I had seen into music.Would love to have done more, but nobody ever asked again 😂Anyway, have a listen 😄❤☯🙏
phil-bates.com
Phil Bates – former lead singer of ELO Part II & The Orchestra. Experience the greatest Electric Light Orchestra hits live.
my projects
solo - ACOUSTIC
Reimaginings of ELO, Beatles, Trickster, Atlantic, classic songs from the extensive pop/rock/blues songbook, and songs from some of my favourite songwriters – Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Gerry Rafferty, Keb Mo, Ry Cooder …… plus a smattering of blues, and a soupćon of Celtic.
Plus, some talking about 56 years of my musical history ….. if anyone wants to hear an old fart talking about ‘the good old days’.
Phil Bates & Band
An exhilarating musical journey through the greatest hits of ELO, ELO II and other classics
MEET THE BAND
