32 Facts About Phil Manzanera

Phil Manzanera is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music, and was the lead guitarist with 801 and Quiet Sun.

In 2006, Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On an Island, and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America.

Phil Manzanera wrote and presented a series of 14 one-hour radio programmes for station Planet Rock entitled The A-Z of Great Guitarists.

Phil Manzanera was born on 31 January 1951 in London, England, to a Colombian mother and an English father, who worked for British Overseas Airways Corporation, and spent most of his childhood in different parts of the Americas, including Hawaii, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba.

In Venezuela, the eight-year-old Phil Manzanera started experimenting with the sounds of the electric guitar.

Phil Manzanera was determined to join a professional band, and in October 1971 he was one of about twenty players who auditioned as lead guitarist for the recently formed art rock band Roxy Music.

Phil Manzanera received sole composer credit on the following Roxy Music song:.

In parallel with Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera has always pursued solo projects, both recording his own albums and producing for others.

Phil Manzanera played guitar on three tracks of the first Brian Eno album Here Come the Warm Jets, as well as providing guitar and production assistance on Eno's second solo album Taking Tiger Mountain.

Phil Manzanera has co-written material with many artists, including Brian Eno, Tim Finn, Robert Wyatt and Gilmour.

Phil Manzanera co-wrote Pink Floyd's single "One Slip" from their 1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason album.

Concurrent with the recording of Diamond Head, Phil Manzanera reunited Quiet Sun and used the studio time to quickly record a full LP of Quiet Sun material, released by EG Records under the title Mainstream.

Phil Manzanera plays all the instruments, backed only by a drum machine, except for one track that features John Wetton on bass.

In between tracks, Phil Manzanera inserted snatches of dialogue recorded at various rehearsals.

Phil Manzanera has played in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy and the UK, including a ten-date European tour with the Cuban band Grupo Moncada.

Phil Manzanera played at WOMAD festivals in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Phil Manzanera ended the 20th Century by appearing with Bryan Ferry at the British Gas Millennium Concert at Greenwich, the first time they had performed together in 18 years.

Phil Manzanera produced in 1993 the highly acclaimed album Severino from the Brazilian rock band Os Paralamas do Sucesso, which included a participation by Brian May.

Phil Manzanera had a state-of-the-art studio, Gallery Studios, in West London.

Phil Manzanera began singing on his own albums with Vozero in 2001, followed by 6pm in 2004 and 50 Minutes Later in 2005.

Phil Manzanera appeared at The Strat Pack celebration concert at Wembley Arena in 2005, alongside other musicians such as Hank Marvin, Ronnie Wood and David Gilmour.

Phil Manzanera worked as a session musician on Eno and David Byrne's 2008 album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

Phil Manzanera was allocated one-third of resulting royalties and publishing revenue for the song.

Phil Manzanera commented in 2024 that he had earned more from "a brief sequence of maybe twenty notes" than he had in his 50 years with Roxy Music.

In March 2024, Phil Manzanera published "Revolucion to Roxy", a memoir of his life and his time with Roxy Music.

Phil Manzanera has played a variety of instruments throughout his career, but he is best known for his "signature" guitar, a 1964 'Cardinal Red' Gibson Firebird VII, with gold-plated pick-ups and tuners.

Phil Manzanera frequently uses two custom-made Gibson Les Paul guitars, one of which features a mother of pearl inlay in the shape of an iguana.

On tour and in the studio, Phil Manzanera regularly plays Fender Stratocasters, a Fender Telecaster, and Blade guitars.

In 1977, Phil Manzanera purchased St Ann's Court, in Chertsey, consisting of a coach house, which Phil Manzanera converted into a recording studio, and a main house, designed in 1936 by the architect Sir Raymond McGrath.

Phil Manzanera sold the property to 3Dlabs founder, Osman Kent, in 1997.

In 2024, Phil Manzanera was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in acknowledgment of his services to music.

Phil Manzanera's father had been awarded the same honour, but died before his investitute.