Introducing: Phantom Limb

07 August 2008

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You only get two tracks to impress the notoriously choosy selectors from Austin Texas. Get past three panels and you’re into the prestigious showcase that is South By South West. They loved Phantom Limb’s demo in Austin – ‘they undoubtedly belong in the Deep South’ – so they got to play at the 2008 festival.

Also by chance one of the Glastonbury stage managers came across the band at a small gig In Bristol, he brought the booker down to a further gig, and they were promptly offered a slot on the Jazz World Stage this year. Not bad for a band from Bristol, UK, that only a year before nearly folded when the singer lost her voice.

Phantom Limb is a band that shouldn’t be. A collection of seriously experienced musicians doing something they never did before, something so out of time that it’s just right. It’s a musical hunch that bucks the logic and comes up trumps just because of that. It’s the itch in a leg that isn’t there but seriously demands to be scratched. Yet again it seems that the Bristol melting pot has thrown up something truly original yet strangely familiar.

The Phantom Limb sound is an indefinable blend of classic southern soul and country blues. They blend modern song writing and rich acoustic music with powerful gospel-inflected vocals. Already comparisons are being made to Mavis Staples, Aretha Franklin and The Band

The band started when a group of musician friends in Bristol got together for a jam. As a Christmas present to themselves, they decided to go to the studio and record the results. It was an egg-nog fuelled session in December 2004 and only afterwards did it dawn on them that this should be a band, Busy though they were, they began to find time to put together some songs and an album was formed, by late ’06 they were back in the studio recording. Then disastrous illness struck vocalist Yolanda Quarty, preventing her singing indefinitely, and it looked like it might be all over.

The album (and the band) stayed on ice for over six months while she recovered her voice and then it seemed a good idea to start quietly with acoustic rehearsals. These proved revelatory as a more intimate yet powerful sound emerged, electric guitars where swapped for acoustics and double bass was brought in, Yolandas voice was really allowed to soar and beautiful country-gospel songs emerged. It was a whole new start - the recording process began all over again and Phantom Limb was reborn. Almost by happenstance they’d discovered a strand of raw 60s Southern soul for the new millennium and subsequent gigs around Bristol have shown there’s a real appetite for it. Now they are launching on a national scale with a string of major festival appearances through out the summer, it seems that the Phantom Limb is really there, after all. The Musicians

Yolanda Quarty (vocal) – since her amazing soul-jazz debut at 16 in The Instrumentalists she’s been singing (‘at the top of my voice’) and MC-ing in Drum’n’Bass, Breaks and Broken Beats with the likes of Freeqnasty, Bugz In The Attic, Jazzanova and the Cuban Brothers. As well as fronting Phantom Limb she’s currently recording and performing with Massive Attack (among other prestige studio work).

Stew Jackson (guitars/banjo/vocal) – at aged 9 he got a guitar and learned to play like AC/DC (‘if it wasn’t them I wasn’t interested’), by 16 he was writing songs and starting rock bands Fanducci and Milk with Ian Matthews (who left to join Kasabian). Set up Robot Club studio with Dan Brown in 03, producing music for films and albums including Halo, Phantom Limb, writing/production with Daddy G for the new Massive Attack album, Will Young and Skin.

Dan Brown (bass) – After ‘two minutes’ of an English degree in Leeds Dan Brown switched to learning the bass, becoming a founder member of legendary funk band The New Mastersounds (‘I was very limited – they actually wrote a tune called One Note Brown about me’). He returned to Bristol in ’97 and became part of Virgin-signed chill-hop band Ilya and then Elevator Suite (with Dan Moore). Met Stew Jackson at a jam session and their shared enthusiasm for production and writing led to the creation of Robot Club, leading to collaborations with Massive Attack, Will Young, Skin and Fortune Drive.

Dan Moore (piano/keyboards) – trained in classical piano from aged 6 until ‘I realized I didn’t have any taste in music when I was 15’ so began studying jazz and playing in blues bands around Dorset. Gigged with jazz sax legend Don Weller aged 17 before studying ‘weird things’ at Dartington Music College. Moved to Bristol in search of Drum and Bass and worked with Roni Size as well as big name jazz gigs and a stint in Elevator Suite with Dan Brown. After three years on the worldwide road with smooth-rockers Cousteau he returned to Bristol and jazz work with Andy Sheppard alongside funk with JB star Pee Wee Ellis.

Luke Cawthra (guitar) – Luke was 14 when he saw his dad playing in Dr Feelgood and ‘literally the next day’ he started playing guitar himself. After a string of college bands and moves he ended up in Bristol and Emily Breeze’s band in 03 thus meeting Matt Jones and Stew who was recording them. After starting prog-instrumental band Nuge with Matt and others he formed Lena Rez in 06 and was invited into Phantom Limb’s first acoustic gigs in 07.

Matt Jones (drums) Began drumming aged 13 (‘I was nuts for Bob Marley’) and played in jazz and covers outfits (including a steel band) en route to Guildford’s Academy of Contemporary Music. Ending up in Bristol in ’02 he joined Emily Breeze and Nuge (with Luke Cawthra) but since has moved on to Afrobeat band Helele and prog-jazzers Smith & Willox as well as Phantom Limb.

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