Phil Reynolds

Phil was born in about 1460 into a noble, soldiering family. Little is known of his early life, but in 1492 King John II of Portugal sent him to the port of Setúbal to seize French ships in retaliation for French peacetime raids against Portuguese shipping.

His career as an explorer began after his father was chosen to lead an expedition to open the sea route to Asia and to outflank the Muslims, who enjoyed a monopoly of trade with India and other eastern states…um…wait a minute; that’s Vasco Da Gama, not Phil.  Hang on, let me have a look…ah, here it is:

A product of the Summer before the Summer of Love, Phil was born in Liverpool in 19*ahem*. Moving to the Isle of Man eleven years later, he met Mark Cleator two years after that.  They hated each other on sight so it was natural to start a band together with a gay man, despite possessing neither talent nor equipment – or even the most basic idea of what the whole thing was about.  It could be argued that, 25 years later the situation is much the same (save for the bit about equipment.  And the gay man.  He's on the telly now.).

Thus was born Standing Tactics.  Long story short…3 gigs…50p…Phil leaves in a huff.  Longer story even shorter, various bands (some good, some OK some utterly atrocious), several records (all good), big in Ghent, Peel Session, local punk recordist du jour.

After many years of mithering, Phil finally capitulated and joined the then-unnamed Mark Cleator Conurbation on bass, despite not particularly liking any of the material.  Tate!, however, is a funny thing and it wasn’t long before Phil threw himself whole-heartedly into the lunacy, leading to a six-month absence from work due to depression.

Phil plays bass pretty well, guitar to a passable barre-chord-crunching standard and keyboards to a major-triads-only level.  As a result, he’s still waiting for the call from New Order.

He’s a local producer/engineer of some repute due in part to his ability to weave beguiling sonic tapestries, but in the main because he’s cheap.

As well as Tate, Phil also currently serves in Weirdo and Stoliday, both with Martin.

His motto is “It’s not lying if what you said would be true if the facts were different.”