PHD

PHD are perhaps best known for their 80s chart successes, with top ten hits including “I Won’t Let You Down Again”. Famous as PHD around the world, Tony and Jim the founding band members are also well respected in their own right. Keyboard player Tony Hymas is highly renowned on the jazz and classical scenes as a player and composer, having toured, recorded and co-written with the Jeff Beck Group and the Jack Bruce Band, amongst many other credits. The other original member of the band, singer Jim Diamond, was born in Glasgow and he has received wide critical acclaim for his work - receiving 5 star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, where The Scotsman proclaimed him a writer of “Incredible hidden depths", to the Guardian calling him "the voice of an angel” and Blues and Soul saying he’s "the timeless jewel in the crown of Scotland's musical heritage." The band’s line-up is enhanced tonight with the addition of some of the finest musicians on the scene today. Exceptional guitar player John Parricelli rose to fame as one of the founders of Loose Tubes and since then has pursued a varied career working with many well-respected and influential performers as well as working as a session musician on some of the biggest projects around. Formerly with the LSO, over the last 20 years cellist Nick Cooper has established himself as one of the UK’s leading performers of contemporary music, both classical and Jazz. Paul Clarvis is a drummer’s drummer and one of the most versatile, and successful, musicians around. An old friend of the Club he includes work in the studios, on tour and in the concert hall on a cv that encompasses jazz, rock, classical and contemporary music. Between them they have played or recorded with the likes of Jeff Beck, Sting, Andy Sheppard, Michael Nyman, Harrison Birtwhistle, Michael Brecker, Van Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, and Lee Konitz. The music is a mix of the old classics plus, as Tony puts it “…a whole raft of new songs written specially for this ensemble”. Not surprisingly with the talent and pedigree of this band the last gig they did here was truly something special. Highly recommended. "[Jim Diamond] Sheer talent, sheer soul and fun, fun, fun” Blues and Soul; “...beautiful and challenging…Hymas is an extremely versatile musician and composer [who]…successfully blends romanticism and dissonance…masterful” AllMusic; “Having Parricelli in the band is like having several world-class musicians, all in the one chair” LondonJazzBlog