Phil Legg (born 1959) is an English record producer/engineer, musician and songwriter, probably best known for his involvement with Terence Trent D'Arby's album Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby. The early years Born in Dorchester, Dorset and having studied a Foundation course in Art at The Arts University College at Bournemouth, Legg moved to London in 1978 inspired by the punk rock/new wave movement and joined Essential Logic in February 1979 as a guitarist. Essential Logic signed to Rough Trade Records in 1979 and released one of the first albums on the label; ‘Beat Rhythm News (waddle ya play) - ROUGH5. The band featured in the Rolling Stone article England Reinvents Rock & Roll (issue # 322 24th June 1980) by Greil Marcus and recorded a BBC Session for John Peel in May 1981. They also performed live with various other new wave bands of the time including; Joy Division, The Teardrop Explodes and at the Prince of Wales Conference Centre (under the YMCA), London (August 1979), The Slits, The Pop Group, John Cooper Clarke and The Raincoats as part of the Beat The Blues Festival - Alexandra Palace, London (June 1980). Scritti Politti, The Raincoats, Iggy Pop The Human League, The Lurkers, The Members and Original Mirrors, founded by Ian Broudie who went on to form The Lightning Seeds. Legg toured the UK and Europe with Essential Logic during which time he also worked in the telesales department at CBS Records in West London. Essential Logic split at the end of 1980 and Legg moved into music production. Essential Logic Essential Logic The 1980s and 1990s In 1981 Legg built a recording studio ‘Cold Storage’ in Brixton, South London with art-rock band This Heat. At Cold Storage Legg produced, engineered and played guitar on Lora Logic’s album ‘Pedigree Charm’, engineered on the Marine Girls album ‘Lazy Ways’ and produced, engineered and played on The Gist album ‘Embrace The Herd’ as well as touring Europe with The Gist. From 1984 Legg began working as an engineer at Robin Millar’s Powerplant studios in Willesden, North London where he trained alongside engineers Mike Pela and and between 1984 and 1989 worked on the album Promise, Erasure, Boy George, The Rolling Stones (alongside keyboard player Matt Clifford) and with Martyn Ware the Terence Trent D'Arby album, which sold a million copies worldwide within the first three days of release. Other work outside of the Powerplant Studios included production of tracks on the Des'ree album Mind Adventures and The Pasadenas album 'To Whom It May Concern', mixing of Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence' (with Daniel Miller), and engineering of Curiosity_Killed_the_Cat's album 'Getahead' (with producers Allen Toussaint and Nathan East). Remix work included De La Soul - 'BeakDawn', Lisa Stansfield - 'So Natural' and - 'Stay' (as part of remix team West End), plus composition/production work for “Life, Death & Damien Hurst,” a documentary about the controversial artist's show at the Gagosian Gallery, New York. Sony Playstation placed one of Legg's compositions,High, (released under Legg's drum n bass collaboration with Nick Sykes, TMF) on computer racing game 1 along side artists , The Chemical Brothers, and Manic Street Preachers. Music by Legg and Sykes also appeared on Scuba's eponymous EP in 1999. Legg then went on to write with Marcus Vere (Living in a Box), Felix Howard (who has written for the Sugababes, Amy Winehouse and Sia Furler,) and Neneh Cherry. 2000 to the present In 2000 Legg founded Futureproof, originally a Notting Hill club night which won My Village.com's best club award, but nights were also held at East London venues 93 Feet East and Great Eastern Hotel. 2003 saw Legg release ‘All My Love (Goes Your Way)' by United State feat. Rodney P on Futureproof Records. The release entered the UK's SBN national student chart at number 5 above and by The Thrills. The release was Single of the Month in Echoes Magazine and featured in DJ Magazine and RWD Magazine. In 2009 Legg curated the event Futureproof at Tate Britain, London. Through Futureproof, Legg continues to work with artists as a promoter, digital distributor, consultant and music producer/composer.
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