In 2014 Esoteric Recordings acquired Anthony Phillips’ back catalogue and this is the latest album scheduled for an updated re-release. Radio Clyde is a rare live recording of performances from 1978. At the time Anthony Phillips was promoting two releases from that year, Wise After the Event and Private Parts & Pieces, touring local radio stations and performing solo with his trusty 12-string. Radio Clyde offered a 60-minute session slot and whilst home recordings of this programme were circulated amongst fans, it wasn’t until 2003 that a copy of the original session was officially released on CD.
The original setlist, that also includes tracks from his debut The Geese and the Ghost, is augmented by a couple of tracks recorded on Pennine radio during the same promotional ‘tour’. Previously unreleased, they are alternative versions of Reaper and Which Way the Wind Blows. The package is completed by an illustrated booklet in which Jon Dann discusses with Mr Phillips the story of the year and the logistics of the Radio Clyde performance.
The recording is of high quality and the content is restricted to the songs and some brief introductions by Anthony Phillips himself, excluding any other contributions from the radio presenter. The introductions are often disarmingly frivolous and I think it’s fair to say that we didn’t lose out as a result of Mr Phillips not giving up his day job to be a comedian.
[Note: This is not the Radio Clyde version]
Effectively, it’s Anthony Phillips ‘unplugged’ and also unaccompanied. The shorter songs work better for me in this context, but it also provides an opportunity for Mr Phillips to tackle new arrangements of the longer form songs, which will be of great interest to fans, guitar aficionados, and those simply with a curious feeling. Whilst the 12-string is the star of the show, his vocal performances are very strong as well, and he also writes a mean lyric.
One of the more notable inclusions is Master of Time, later to covered by Big Big Train, of course. This song was written in 1973 and left off the original version of The Geese & the Ghost, only surfacing on the expanded re-release of that album in 1990.
This is my first significant incursion into Anthony Phillips back catalogue and my main takeaway is that Genesis paid Anthony Phillips the biggest compliment by continuing on the trajectory that took them from Phillips’ composition Visions of Angels, from my desert island Genesis album Trespass, and onward to Wind and Wuthering. Any one of the songs on Radio Clyde could be seen as a potential track for that album. The music is intricate but flowing, it is charming and just a little whimsical in places. His time with Genesis was short but highly significant and it is testament to his talent that he has continued as a full-time musician, in various guises and has so obviously influenced the latest ‘new’ wave of progressive bands.
I will leave the last word to Steve Hackett, who at the time of Selling England by the Pound commented that the 12-string guitar style developed during Phillips’s era was still important to Genesis’s work and he felt Phillips deserved more credit for “architecting the sound of Genesis”.
This a perfect way to begin a new journey discovering music to which I really should have been paying more attention. Esoteric have done another great service to us all in re-invigorating our interest.
TRACK LISTING
01. Reaper (7:24)
02. Moonshooter (5:53)
03. Flamingo (10:58)
04. Conversation Peace (7:32)
05. Silver Song (4:37)
06. Master Of Time (4:10)
07. Which Way The Wind Blows (4:39)
08. Now What (Are They Doing To My Little Friends)? (6:39)
09. Field Of Eternity (5:05)
10. End Of The Season (Postlude) (0:47)
~ Bonus tracks:
11. Reaper (Pennine Radio 1978 session) (6:51)
12. Which Way The Wind Blows (Pennine Radio 1978 session) (4:29)
Total Time – 57:44
MUSICIAN
Anthony Phillips – 12-String Guitar
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Esoteric Antenna | Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 27thJune 2025
LINKS
Anthony Phillips – Website | Facebook | Info at Cherry Red Records | YouTube
