Saturday 24 July 2010

World Popular Song Festival - Shawn Phillips


In 1973 four countries won the Grand Prix at the World Popular Song Festival. One of them were the U.S.A with Shawn Phillips and the song All The Kings And Castles. He also won an Outstanding Performance Award.

Shawn Phillips (born February 3, 1943, Fort Worth, Texas, USA) is a folk-rock musician.

Phillips has recorded twenty albums and worked with musicians including Donovan, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin, and many others. The Texas-born singer/songwriter was called: The best kept secret in the music business by the late rock impresario Bill Graham.

In the 1960s, Phillips worked as a session player on several Donovan LPs including Fairytale, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, performed at the Isle of Wight festival, sang on the Beatles' "Lovely Rita (Meter Maid)" song, and was cast to play the lead in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar but he had to withdraw due to his heavy recording and touring schedule. In February 1969 Phillips wrote and performed, with The Djinn, the music for the controversial Jane Arden play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the Arts Laboratory on Drury Lane.

Phillips worked the folk music scene in Los Angeles, New York Greenwich Village, and London. In 1967, Phillips moved to Positano, Italy, where he remained throughout the 1970s, recording the albums Contribution, Second Contribution, Collaboration and Faces'.

Four of his albums Faces, Bright White, Furthermore and Do You Wonder made it into the Billboard Top 100. In addition, the singles Lost Horizon and We made Billboard's top 100 in 1973 (63 and 92 respectively), although Woman and Anello (Where Are You) didn't. One of the most sought after Christmas songs[citation needed] is Phillips' 1970 release of A Christmas Song.

His album No Category, featuring his longtime collaborators Paul Buckmaster and Peter Robinson, was released in 2002.

In 2007, his first live album, Living Contribution, was released, along with a Live DVD of the same title.

Today, Shawn lives in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with his wife Juliette and their son Liam. He divides his time between writing, touring, and his work as an emergency medical technician, firefighter, and 1st Officer, Navigator, and Extrication Specialist with the NSRI National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa.

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