{"id":77296,"date":"2022-08-22T07:39:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T05:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=77296"},"modified":"2022-08-23T19:00:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T17:00:04","slug":"interview-with-david-philp-of-the-automatics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2022\/08\/interview-with-david-philp-of-the-automatics\/","title":{"rendered":"AUTOMATICS FOR THE PEOPLE – David Philp On The Dangers Of Being A Punk, His Japanese Revival, Selling The Film Rights To His Life Story AND Upsetting Queen’s Freddie Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s 1978 and as the frontman of up and coming punk upstarts The Automatics<\/strong> David Philp<\/strong> seemingly has it all.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The band’s single When The Tanks Roll <\/strong><\/em>Over Poland Again<\/em><\/strong> is sitting at the top of the Punk\/New Wave charts and the the quartet is signed to major label Island Records<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But almost overnight a change of leaderhip at the record company deals a deathly blow to the Automatics’ dreams of stardom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Island throw their support behind a bunch of Irish hopefuls called, er, U2<\/strong> and The Automatics are dumped before the release of what would be their debut album Walking With The Radio On<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dismayed, the band rapidly implodes and Philp decamps to LA to rebuild his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that would have been the end of the story, but for the intervention of some determined Japanese punk revivalists – some 20 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here Philp tells <\/strong>EP‘<\/strong>s Matt Catchpole<\/strong> about his extraordinary musical revival, the risks of being a punk in the violently tribal late ’70s and why a spot of guerilla marketing put Freddie Mercury<\/strong>‘s nose firmly out of joint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FULLY AUTOMATIC – David Philp in action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A fan of rock ‘n’ roll artists like Gene Vincent<\/strong>, Philp was among a host of proto punks who hung around Barry Jones<\/strong>‘ basement apartment studio in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Pistols came through there, The Damned came through, recording. Although everything that came out of that studio at that point was fairly wobbly, it was fun. And there’s something in the air, you know? And later, people gave it a name.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That name was Punk and Philip would get his first taste of fronting a punk band with The Boys<\/a>,<\/strong> before hooking up with Wally Hacon<\/strong>, Bobby Collins<\/strong> and Ricky “Rocket” Goldstein<\/strong> to form The Automatics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at the basement studio that Philp met Steve Lillywhite<\/strong>, who would go on to become a big name producer with credits including Talking Heads<\/strong>, Peter Gabriel<\/strong> and the aforementioned U2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lillywhite, then a tea boy and tape op at Phonogram<\/strong>, became a friend and flatmate of Philp’s, taking advantage of dead time at the studios to produce the Automatics’ early demos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philp would also lend a hand as a tape op, helping out on recordings by the original line up of Ultravox<\/strong> led by John Foxx<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“John used to come round to the flat in Comeragh Road and settle down and play my old Gibson Aaron guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n