In the late 70's along with good friend and saxophone player Clive Osborne vocalist and bassist Dave Phillips formed his first band that a little later, along with the brothers Carlo and Stef Edwards on guitar and drums became the hugely succesful and influential Blue Cat Trio. The band were welcomed everywhere as a breath of fresh air on the Rock n Roll scene and soon built up an enormous following playing many memorable gigs and eventualy recording the album "The Bluecats" Dave left the band in 1980 and the Blue Cats continued with much success with a different singer and bassist. Dave took some time out and returned the next year with new band "The Hot Rod Gang" After a couple of early line-up changes this band soon settled down with Dave once again as lead singer and bassist, Rob Tyler on drums and Mark Harman on guitar. Dave Phillips and the Hot Rod Gang (as they were now known) blazed a trail across Europe and Scandinavia performing some of the wildest gigs ever witnessed on the rockin' cicuit. The band built up quite a reputation along the way but always deliverd the goods. In Nov 1981 they went into the studio to record the classic best selling album Wild Youth. A single was released, Tainted Love which gained lots of national radio play topping the indie charts and reaching the national UK chart. The band spent some time in L.A and New York. Early in '82 Harman left the band to concentrate on his own group Restless and after a brief stint with Mick Malone, Paul Gaskin settled in on lead guitar. A position he was to hold for the next 10 years. The band continued touring and along with infrequent record releases continued as a very popular live act working across Europe, Scandinavia, America and Japan. In the early 90's Dave decided on a change of direction and enrolled in drama college. He has appeared in many stage plays combined with film and tv work. Live apperances with the Hot Rod Gang have been few and far between in recent years and when last heard of Dave had moved to New Zealand to pursue his acting career. Now in 2008 Dave is back with his original Hot Rod Gang and after a blistering set at Viva Las Vegas the band are ready to rock again. Bring it on ! Free MySpace Layouts by Iron Spider
