Phil Ryan is an English musician, writer and entrepreneur. He has toured with The Animals and is co-founder of The Big Issue and The 12 Bar Club.
Phil Ryan is an English musician, writer and entrepreneur. He has toured with The Animals and is co-founder of The Big Issue and The 12 Bar Club.
Ryan started his musical career as a session guitarist, recording with various well known artists and headlining at festivals all across England throughout the 1980s. The early 1990s saw him touring Europe and the United States, with performances in Stockholm, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Barcelona, Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin, among others. In 1992, Ryan joined The Animals as lead singer and performed with them at the 'Children of Chernobyl' benefit concert in Moscow's Red Square in front of an audience of 100,000. [1] In 2001, he recorded his first solo album, Storm Warning, and toured European festivals, such as the Bardentreffen in Nuremberg, Germany, with it. He contributed the charity single "Thanks for loving me" to the Jack Brown Appeal. [2] Ryan was a featured artist at Rooftop Records where he mentored aspiring musicians. [3] From 2015 he was involved in the Save TPA Campaign group trying to protect the historic Musical and historical heritage soaked Denmark Street in London's West End street from complete destruction and re-development into Luxury Flats and shops. Phil was part of the team that made the documentary film 'Tin Pan Alley Tales' capturing the history of Denmark Street (the developers won the battle and now much of the street and surrounding area has inevitably been re-developed as luxury apartments including a luxury hotel and shopping area) The Documentary features the stories of the people who made the street and area the leading and world music business influencing place it once was. In 2017 the film started production after a successful crowdfunding campaign and was later released in late 2018. [4] The Director was Henry Scott-Irvine, Phil was an Executive Producer. [5] In 2017 Phil also worked with German Film Composer Jan Willem De With [6] (Hamburg/Zurich) to orchestrate his song 'As we grow Old', which was released in mid 2018 to support his European tour festival dates. On 1 December 2017 he released the song 'Walking Down This Lonely Street' [7] in co-operation with The Big Issue to raise funds for Homeless People over the Christmas period and beyond. The track is still available via AWAL on major download platforms.
He also recorded and filmed a new collection of songs across 2018/19. Some of which regularly feature in his current live special guest performances. His website allows access to his current musical projects.
In late 2018, Ryan was featured on the Your London Legacy Podcast - he was chosen to be an interviewee as an Inspirational Londoner. He talked about his life and journey so far. There are two podcasts available to listen to. [8]
In late 2019 Ryan shot a promotional video for the new remix of his song 'As we grow Old' (available on YouTube) The song has its own stand-alone website where a free download (released in February 2020) can still be sent to the person of anyone's choice. At the time of this entry the track has been streamed 605,621 times on Spotify.
In 2020 the Covid-19 Epidemic forced him to pause his career and cancel his session work and live shows in Europe. From late 2023 there are plans underway to launch a series of intimate shows and performances called ‘An Evening with Phil Ryan’ across the UK and in 2024 in selected European locations.
In April 2023 he launched his Lucky Seven online TV channel on YouTube, featuring a vast body of his music work, including studio performances, location performances, live performances and even tutorials on the art of song writing. He hopes to return to live concerts in Europe in late 2025 with a new song collection. Linked to his passion for music was his 2023/4 joint weekly column with Culture Editor Laura Kelly at The Big Issue as part of their Venue Watch Campaign to save the UKs Grassroots Music venues (in partnership with The Music Venues Trust)
Ryan was a co-founder of The Big Issue , a magazine written by professional journalists and sold by homeless people. Originally meeting John Bird to start a literary magazine. Ryan assisted Bird as his number two in setting up and creating the original concept for The Big Issue. The funding for the project came from businessman and Body Shop Chairman Gordon Roddick. Ryan and Bird in the first year sharing an office on Richmond Green and putting a full team together. Ryan negotiated with the Metropolitan Police regarding vendors being allowed to sell on the streets. Going on to write the vendors’ operating rules still used today. Also he toured hostels and centres recruiting the first Big Issue vendors [9] Swithinbank sadly erroneously reporting that Ryan was merely taken on in the early stages of the magazine's creation by John Bird, who founded the project with Gordon Roddick. [10] [11] [12] In September 1994 Ryan started the 12 Bar Club with Lars Ericson. The music venue was located in central London and featured performances by artists such as Nick Harper and Boo Hewerdine as part of Ryan's music policy. The 12 Bar Club was awarded Live music Venue of the Year '95/'96 by Time Out magazine. Ryan also ran Storm Books, an online publishing platform set up in 2010 that was designed to make the work of up and coming writers available to a wider audience. [13]
In 2015 Phil became a BBC Radio London 'Listed Londoner' on the award-winning Robert Elms show. He talked about the city, his favourite things to do and what London means to him and his career. [14]
In 2016 The Big Issue magazine ran its 25th-anniversary edition [15] featuring an original picture of John Bird and Phil Ryan in their original office in Richmond, London. The article featured information on Phil's pivotal role in the early days of the magazines set up. [16] In the same month Phil launched a new fundraising song for the Big Issue initiative at the Proud Gallery Camden Wednesday 19 October 2016. The song was released in late 2017.
In 2017 he launched a podcast of his written works in audio format on AudioBoom under his Storm Productions company name. In the same year, he was also featured in a book of influential Londoners 'For the Love of London' by Conrad Gamble - published by Octopus Books via Hachette (publisher). [17]
July 2018 saw the UK premiere of the Film Documentary 'Tin Pan Alley Tales' which Phil was Executive Producer for and also appears in. [18] The Documentary garnered various industry awards.
In 2018/19 he helped create and launch a new literary and literacy magazine 'The Chapter Catcher'. [19] It was a quarterly magazine available by subscription. [20]
Through the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020/21 he set up his latest publishing projects. He created a book trilogy ‘The Covid Diaries of Phil Ryan’, currently under consideration for release in late 2024.
His latest creative business project The Story Hive launched on February 10, 2023, it is an online audio story website. Available completely free to users, it features streamable audio versions of all of his novels and short story collections. The first 'Story Hive Live performance event' took place in January 2025 - see Stage section)
Ryan also turned his hand to theatre: his first stage play, The Blessed was performed at Theatro Technis, Camden, London in 1989. His musical adaptation of George Eliot's novel Silas Marner premiered in London in 2000, also at the Theatro Technis. The Arts Theatre was the venue for The Phil Ryan Show, a show that featured selected acoustic musicians and singer songwriters including Peter Conway, Art Fazil, Evi Vine, Baby Sol, Dean Dyson and Chris Newland, which Ryan launched in 2007. [21] In the following year Ryan wrote a song for And Then They Came for Me , an award-winning play which charts the lives of two of Anne Frank's friends who survived the Holocaust. Ryan himself featured in John Bird's two-man show The Naked Bird, a critically acclaimed piece that was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008 and at the Theatro Technis in London in May 2013. [22] The BODS Theatre Company in Reigate mounted a full production of the Musical Silas Marner in November 2016 [23] (to critical acclaim on the NODA Website). [24]
In 2019 Ryan completed a full set of master recordings featuring a full cast for a major new production of 'Silas Marner'. The musicals plot and key songs can be found on its page on . Sadly because of the Covid-19 crisis the show's original funding was lost, unavoidably delaying its release until mid 2026. It will very likely then make its premiere performances in Europe around that time. As part of his Story Hive Audio Stories platform he launched its new Live stage version as 'The Story Hive Live an evening of stories and songs' with Phil Ryan, Lord John Bird (Big Issue Founder) and Marisya Tremblecka in late January 2025. The first performance was held at The Farsight Gallery 4 Flitcroft Street, London WC2H 8DJ.
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally, it referred to a specific location on West 28th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan, as commemorated by a plaque on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth. Several buildings on Tin Pan Alley are protected as New York City designated landmarks, and the section of 28th Street from Fifth to Sixth Avenue is also officially co-named Tin Pan Alley.
The music of New York City is a diverse and important field in the world of music. It has long been a thriving home for popular genres such as jazz, rock, soul music, R&B, funk, and the urban blues, as well as classical and art music. It is the birthplace of hip hop, garage house, boogaloo, doo wop, bebop, punk rock, disco, and new wave. It is also the birthplace of salsa music, born from a fusion of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences that came together in New York's Latino neighborhoods in the 1940s and 1950s. The city's culture, a melting pot of nations from around the world, has produced vital folk music scenes such as Irish-American music and Jewish klezmer. Beginning with the rise of popular sheet music in the early 20th century, New York's Broadway musical theater, and Tin Pan Alley's songcraft, New York has been a major part of the American music industry.
David Albert Alvin is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He is a former and founding member of the roots rock band the Blasters. Alvin has recorded and performed as a solo artist since the late 1980s and has been involved in various side projects and collaborations. He has had brief stints as a member of the bands X and the Knitters. He often refers to himself as "Blackjack Dave," in reference to his 1998 album and song of the same name.
Ann Ronell was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards "Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933).
Christopher Chiyan Tin is an American composer of art music, composing for film, television, and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He is a two-time Grammy Award winner.
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Denmark Street is a street on the edge of London's West End running from Charing Cross Road to St Giles High Street. It is near St Giles in the Fields Church and Tottenham Court Road station. The street was developed in the late 17th century and named after Prince George of Denmark. Since the 1950s it has been associated with British popular music, first via publishers and later by recording studios and music shops. A blue plaque was unveiled in 2014 commemorating the street's importance to the music industry.
"I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)" is a popular song with music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Roy Turk that was published in 1928. Versions by Nick Lucas, Aileen Stanley and, most successfully, Ruth Etting, all charted in America in 1929.
The 12 Bar Club was a music venue in London that opened in 1994 on Denmark Street – known as Britain's "Tin Pan Alley" – just off Charing Cross Road and close to Soho.
Ian Timothy Whitcomb was an English entertainer, singer-songwriter, record producer, writer, broadcaster and actor. As part of the British Invasion, his hit song "You Turn Me On" reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965.
Art Fazil is a Singaporean singer and musician. He spent his childhood in Singapore and Malaysia. He grew up listening to his uncle's record collection which included legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Deep Purple. Later on he turned on to U2, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Ali Farka Touré.
Fine Arts Films was a production studio based in Northern England and Hollywood. It was founded in 1955 by the animator John David Wilson as a means to preserve the notion of animation as an art form. It shut down in 1996.
"I'm Just Wild About Harry" is a song written in 1921 with lyrics by Noble Sissle and music by Eubie Blake for the Broadway show Shuffle Along.
George Eugeniou was a Cypriot actor, director and writer. He was the founder and artistic director of Theatro Technis in London, England, which was established in 1957.
Angelique Rockas is an actress, producer and activist. Rockas founded the theatre company Internationalist Theatre in the UK with her patron Athol Fugard. The theatre featured multi-racial casts in classical plays.
Peter Loveday is an Australian singer-songwriter.
Nicholas James Donnelly is a British filmmaker, author, media platform founder and former music video producer.
The Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is an annual festival of songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established by the 4,000-member Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1993. The festival is typically a five-day session for songwriters including nights of "songwriter in the round" shows held at 10 or so venues around the city, usually Nashville's top singer/songwriter hotspots. According to Tennessean writer Dave Paulson, the festival allows country music's rising stars to take the stage alongside their closest collaborators. The festival is not about country music per se — it includes all genres of music, and features both professional and amateur composers in the U.S. and abroad. The name was derived from Tin Pan Alley, a district of Manhattan near West 28th Street, where music publishers flourished as far back as 1885. As of 2019, Tin Pan South is "the world's largest songwriter festival" according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation. The 31st annual (2023) event will feature performances by hundreds of songwriters.
Theatro Technis is an independent multi-cultural arts centre with a 120 -seat theatre located in the heart of London Borough of Camden. It contributes in general and specific ways to the cultural and social life of the people of London.