THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL

Introduction:

Following a very successful career on the Bridge of one of the most powerful ships in the Finance and Banking World during its most dynamic and competitive period in recent history, Phillip decided to pull into Port to exercise his creative genes.

I first met Phillip through a mutual friend and our mutual love of classic motor cars of which Phillip has been the custodian of some exemplary and important examples including a Ferrari 250 SWB and a 275 GTB, a Lancia Stratos and a Porsche 904 – good taste indeed.  However, one car, his very first classic car, is particularly close to his heart and that car is his light blue Dino 246 GT which, was also his late Father’s pride & joy and is now Phillip's most cherished motor car – a keeper without any question. The emotional bond that motor cars are able forge between Father and Son, and in this case daughter too, is often forgotten and it is therefore a joy to see that Phillip's eldest son Gus and daughter Lola have inherited his love of guitars as well as his ability to play them…fast and well!

Phillip has a great sense for culture and beauty and has a fine collection of Russian literature as well as post-war art, thanks in part to the fact that his wife, Ellie, is Director of the well-respected Lisson Gallery.

Phillip has been collecting guitars now for 30 years and as with everything he does, has extended his knowledge deep into the subject.  So much so in fact that Phillip felt the desire to write his very own stage production to showcase the history of his collection of significant guitars.  That show is Seven Decades and its most recent staging was at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London – testament not only to Phillip's love of the object itself but also to his hunger to ensure that these beautiful works of acoustic art and 20th Century cultural value are exercised and continue to enthral audiences in the same way that their creators and the legendary musicians that played them had originally intended. 

Collector's guitars:

What is it that draws you to electric guitars? 

This is simple. Aside from a love of playing of course, it is the remarkable story of how the acoustic instrument came to be electrified. The story begins at the end of WW2 with The First Great Migration of African Americans from the cotton fields of the deep south, up the Mississippi and to the big cities of Chicago and New York. With this came the birth of the big bands and guitarists now needed a way to be heard above the wail of trumpets and trombones. Venues also got bigger and Rowdier. As you know, I tend to focus very narrowly on three guitars, the Fender Stratocaster, the Gibson Les Paul, and the Telecaster, largely because these are the instruments that duelled for dominance in the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the States in the early 1950's. But I am increasingly attracted to Rickenbacker, not to just because of their beauty and musical associations, but also because of the pivotal role they played in the invention of the instrument 20 years prior. 

Tell us about a recent find?

A Fender Jazzmaster from 1958 in a unique sparkle finish ‘surfburst’. This guitar may have been owned and played by the guitarist Nick O’Malley in the seminal surf guitar band the Dick Dale and the Del-Tones of Miserlou fame. Fender didn’t have the skills to laydown these sparkle finishes in those days and this guitar was handed out to a guy called Dennis Swiden who did the best sparkle and pearl finishes back in the day. Either way this is a special guitar and a lovely time capsule of that uniquely west coast cultural era.

What’s the first collectible guitar you ever owned?

A 1957 Strat. This vintage is generally considered to be the strat at the peak of its evolution, 3 years after its launch and some of my favourite players have played one. Clapton, Frusciante, and Buddy Guy to name a few. It is my daily player!

Original or restored?

Unlike cars, guitars drop drastically in value and appeal when restored. A refinished (which means repainted guitar) is worth less than half an original finish and merely returning it to its original colour is considered an irrelevance. The only tinkering that is tolerated is when a guitar has been celebrity owned and the changes are a natural consequence of the player striving to perfect their tone. On a technical point, changes also make it harder to confirm originality which normally requires careful comparison of exposed paint finish to the parts hidden under pick guards or against other guitars and examination of solder and all that.

Form or function (if the best sounding guitars were made from papier-mache and looked like shoeboxes with scrawny necks would you still be attracted to collecting them)? 

This is a tricky one. As an essentially shallow person who is typically attracted to how an object looks (also called an aesthete in some circles!), but is also compelled to play these things, a paradox presents itself. If forced to give a single answer I would say ‘function’, but the truth is that some instruments are so beautiful or ‘important’ that that logic goes out of the window. I would cite George Harrison’s Futurama as the best example of this. George often said it had terrible action, but it got him through the Hamburg years and the Cavern, was used on their first recording "Cry for a Shadow", and I pinch myself when I walk past it hanging there on my wall.

Are you all about the Bass or all about the Treble?

Treble for me though I do have a single bass - A sunburst Fender Jazz bass with a gold guard from 1958. I use it to record and only need one!

Best amplifier?

Undoubtedly the Fender Vibroverb, the first amp to have reverb and tremolo built in. Only 600 were made in 1963 and I am lucky to have two. One is beaten up and Is my daily player when I need to play loud, and the other is mint and under a dust cover! The sound is caramel sweet and when it starts to break up at around 7 on the dial, it gives off the most beautiful harmonics hidden in the distortion.

Beauty is important to the aesthete but how important is being able to experience the object (driving the classic car, playing the guitar, reading the Russian novel)? 

Usability used to be everything to me. Indeed, my show at the V&A, Seven Decades came from my frustration at not being able to use all my guitars so for me, buying a ‘zero miles’ guitar was heresy. I’ve since relaxed that and have allowed myself a few mint ones because they are just the most wonderful time-warps. My loose rule is that 80% of my guitars must be for playing and by playing I don’t mean a lazy strum on the sofa, I mean on stage and with scant regard for their value! 

Which instrument would you love to master (other than a guitar)?

Without doubt it would be the trumpet which I played as a kid. For many years now, I have had a recurring dream in which I am brilliant Jazz player. I wake up and cling to the belief for about 30 seconds before recalling in horror how my trumpet career ending abruptly when my parents made me play the Israeli national anthem at my Bar mitzvah. Anyhow, I’ve come to terms with that now and am focussing on my dreams having just bought a new trumpet and a pile of "how to play" Jazz trumpet books. I will keep you in touch but suffice to say, I am currently better in my dreams. 

Do you think there is common ground between collecting guitars and collecting classic cars?

I think there can be, but people are so unique, and it’s hard to generalise what makes one person buy a car, and another a guitar, and another both. There are definitely many points at which the passions converge. Both cars and guitars evoke the past. In many cases they define the cultural ethos of a point in time. I for one was always drawn to Leo Fenders adoption of car manufacturing techniques to mass produce his guitar, an innovation that is most likely responsible for their ubiquity today. And I love the use of Dupont Ducco paints on custom colour guitars in the late 50s and 60s. You could have a Burgundy Mist Strat to match your Plymouth Barracuda! How cool is that?     

If you could only have one guitar?

There are so many but if you are forcing me to have only one, then it would have to be George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360/12 from 1963, serial number CM107. Its finished in a cherry sunburst called Fireglo and was a personal gift from Rickenbacker’s owner F.C. Hall (whose son runs the company to this day). This guitar’s history is so rich, from the circumstances of the gift, to it playing the chiming opening chord on “Hard Day’s Night”. I’ve held this guitar and it made my skin tingle. 

Top 3 guitarists of all time?

An impossible question to answer so I’ll have to attempt to cover a few bases!

Hendrix, of course.

Roy Buchanan. The master of the Telecaster and a true eccentric. He genuinely believed he was a wolf, once quit the guitar (having been asked to play for the Stones) to train as a hairdresser and had total mastery of the "volume swell" technique that would inspire Hendrix’s use of the wah-wah pedal. He called his guitar Nancy and his story ends tragically.

Joe Pass. Beautiful melodic jazz player who also met with a tragic end.

Which guitar solo or track do you play the most often?

The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin. It’s a remarkably beautiful song and with a great acoustic guitar in Page’s open tuning, is so enjoyable to play. 

The last music you bought/downloaded?

Possibly not what you think! My close friend Freddy Clode co-hosts and produces a brilliantly funny Rugby podcast called the Rigbiz podcast, and they, with the help of about 20 Rugby pros (and me on guitar) are going for the Christmas number 1 this year in support of a charity called Restart Rugby.  Curious, watch the video here and please buy the track to support Restart Rugby:

YouTube

Vinyl or digital?

Increasingly vinyl mainly because I am trying to have some discipline and listen to entire albums, and also fill a number of gaps I have in the ‘classics’. I find with my short attention span, the temptation to skip tracks when using digital media is too great.

Desert Island top 5 songs/tracks?

Another impossible task subject to the same problem that happens when you do your weekly shop whilst hungry!

The Smiths – Cemetery Gates

Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song

Jimi Hendrix – Little Wing

The Beatles – The End – mainly because it is the last time the Beatles will all be together in the same room recording and features, in my opinion, the most beautiful single moment in music at 1:30 when the keyboard ushers in the words “and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make” as the strings make way for drums and the end of the last full song on the greatest album of all time.

Caravan - Winter Wine

You have successfully combined your love of guitars, music and story-telling – tell me how and why?

I’d been playing the guitar for many years having been in bands when I was younger, and over the years had started to acquire more guitars than I could practically play. As I mentioned earlier, my focus was very narrow, and I only bought 3 guitar models. I was, am, obsessed by the timelessness of these guitars, their designs impervious to the whim of fashion. If you want to look cool today you pick up a Tele, Les Paul, or a Strat, and that was the same in 1954. And their story, summarised in three maps (shown in the images) I designed for a companion exhibition to the live show, is so fascinating. 

Anyhow, watching their cases gather dust in a spare bedroom had become a deep frustration so along with my friend Michael John Ross, I set about designing a live concert in which we could play the whole collection in some sort of logical order. It began as an instrumental gig played in pubs with a few stories told in between songs, and after many different iterations, it ended up as a live documentary which brings together music, film, and a spoken narrative to tell their wonderful story. The current version of the show was commissioned by the V&A and run at the museum in January last year. 

Watch Seven Decades at the V&A

Pandemic permitting, we will be back with a new version, and more besides next year.

Aesthetics:

How would you describe your aesthetic? 

I am drawn to geometric, abstract design.

What’s your favourite piece or era of design? 

Anything Bauhaus.

Which is the one artist you would collect if you could?

Kazimir Malevich.

Which designer do you think has most impacted your aesthetic sensibility?

Roger Rossmeisl – Rickenbacker Guitars.

Do you have a favourite architect? 

If pushed Frank Lloyd Wright but I can’t claim any real expertise.

Building, monument or location that inspires you?

The Four Seasons Restaurant at the Seagram Building in New York. A collaborative effort between Mies van der Rohe, who designed the building, and Phillip Johnson, who designed the restaurant.

Is there an interior design style that you love?

West Coast Mid-century modern.

If you could travel back in time as your 30-year-old-self to any year in the 20th Century, which year would it be and why?

Hamburg 1960 to see the Beatles play. 

What was the last thing you bought and loved?

A complete set of D-DAY landing instructions which should have been burnt on D-DAY +1.

An object you would never part with?

My Dino!

Is there something you have your eye on?

Yes, a very rare, one of a kind 50s custom colour Strat that I cannot justify buying!

Your desert Island trunk must contain?

Well trunk size dependant, obviously a guitar!

I'm extremely grateful to Phillip Hylander for his insights and perspective on the fascinating world of collectable guitars - perhaps he'll be back at some point to tell us about his other beautiful obsessions!

http://www.sevendecades.com