Ahead of the Field

 Anthony was a founder member of the British Rock band Genesis. Ant was born in December 1951 in London. In 1965 Ant found himself at Charterhouse Public School. It was here that he met up with Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks. It was also at Charterhouse that the pre Genesis band Anon got together and performed at a concert playing three Rolling Stones songs. At this time there were two bands at Charterhouse The Anon and The Garden Wall. In 1967 various factions of both bands joined forces and became one band. This band was to go on to become Genesis.

Anthony recorded the albums From Genesis To Revelation and Trespass and also performed a great many gigs with the band before deciding to leave the band following a particularly bad bout of stage fright and also suffering a debilitating bout of bronchial pneumonia.

It was between the years 1970 and the release of his debut

album The Geese And The Ghost in 1977 that many fans

lost sight of Anthony Phillips. In actual fact much of the

material that would make up the Geese And The Ghost and

also the later Tarka album would be written during this time.

Anthony also felt he needed to improve his arranging skills

and musical education and learnt to sight-read music. It

was also during this time that Ant continued writing with

Mike Rutherford and recordings were made of songs like

Silver Song, which included Mike Rutherford and also Phil

Collins. Some of these early recordings and demos from

this period can be found on the album The Archive

Collection Volume One. Much of the first two albums and

even material that would go on to be released on The

Private Parts And Pieces series

As many fans of Ant's music will know Ant has been

involved for many years in the composition and production

of "Library" music. This music is music which is normally

commissioned for film and television projects and over

the years Anthony Phillips has been responsible for a

great many recordings in what has become a legitimate

genre of music and sought out by his fans.

Ahead of The Field is an album of music originally recorded

in 1985 and is released as part of the series of recordings

Music For TV and Film. The music contained on this album

has been long admired by Ant's large and dedicated fan

base receiving only a limited release when it was originally

recorded in the eighties. Tracks include; High Potential,

Stress Factor, Data, Express and Time Runner.

Anthony Edwin "Ant" Phillips (b. 23 December 1951, Chiswick, west London) is an English multi instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of the band Genesis.[1] He played guitar and sang backing vocals until leaving in 1970, following the recording of their second album, Trespass. He left due to suffering from stage fright, after being told by his doctor that the best thing would be to leave the band. He is known for his twelve string guitar work, and his influence can be heard throughout Genesis's early output.
Genesis's first album after Phillips's departure, Nursery Cryme, featured two songs which were holdovers from the days when Phillips was in the band: "The Musical Box" (originally called F#) and "The Fountain Of Salmacis." "The Musical Box" especially remains a favourite of fans.
After leaving Genesis, Phillips studied classical music (especially classical guitar) and made recordings in collaboration with Harry Williamson, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, among others.He played the keyboards on the demos for Peter Gabriel in 1976. His first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, was issued in 1977.
Phillips released his second album in 1978, entitled Wise After the Event. This was followed the next year by Sides. Both of these albums were produced by Rupert Hine and were intended to reach a mainstream audience, though neither album was successful in that regard.
In its initial release in the UK, Sides was accompanied by a more experimental album entitled Private Parts and Pieces; in the U.S. and Canada the two albums were issued separately. Private Parts and Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion followed the next year, and several further sequels were issued in the 1980s and 1990s.
Phillips began writing material with Andrew Latimer of Camel in 1981, and was a featured performer on that band's album, The Single Factor (released in 1982).
Phillips released a mainstream pop album entitled Invisible Men in 1983. He later claimed that this project went "horribly wrong" as a result of commercial pressures, and would subsequently eschew mainstream success in favour of more specialised material.
Phillips remains involved in a variety of musical projects, including extensive soundtrack work in England often for the label Atmosphere part the Universal Music Group. In the mid-1990s, he released an album entitled The Living Room Concert, which featured solo acoustic versions of his earlier material. He also provided archival material for the first Genesis box set, Genesis Archive 1967-75, released in 1998.
Several of his albums feature artwork by Peter Cross. 

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