2010 Speakers

Phil Harding

Phil Harding started in the music industry aged 16 at the Marquee Studios in 1973.  There he worked with some of the top producers in the world as they recorded the great albums of the day.

As Phil’s career progressed, a very hot list of credits soon started to stack up with artists as diverse as The Clash, Killing Joke, Toyah and Matt Bianco, all taking advantage of Phil’s ever-growing reputation as a top engineer.  At the start of the 1980’s, the name of a newly formed production team was added to the list – Stock/Aitken/Waterman.

Phil engineered and mixed their first chart successes (Divine and Hazell Dean) then their breakthrough and first No 1 single, ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead or Alive.

The hits came almost faster than you could count them – Mel & Kim, Bananarama, Rick Astley, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue at the famous PWL Studios in the 80’s.

By the early 1990’s Phil was regarded as pre-eminent in his field and left PWL to set up his own production facility with Ian Curnow at the Strongroom Studio complex in Shoreditch, London.

A further deluge of hits followed but this time with Phil and Ian as producers for: East 17 (including the Christmas No 1 ‘Stay Another Day’), Deuce, Boyzone, 911, Caught in the Act and Let Loose.

Phil is currently Chairman of JAMES and Director of MPG, regularly participating in JAMES Masterclasses / Accreditations and Course Planning.

2009 will also see the release of Phil’s first book – ‘PWL –From The Factory Floor’, a memoir of the famous Pete Waterman / SAW studio in the 80’s.