Belfast Airport
Interviewing and discovering new music is where Xan Phillips is happiest as a broadcaster. If you need a style description he’s sometimes funnier than Jeremy Vine but usually more serious than Jonathan Ross.
In July 2009 he was the first presenter invited to join Amazing Radio, the only national DAB station in the UK playing unsigned music. For ten months he hosted ‘Xan Down South’ which concentrated on south coast musicians.
And it was radio that brought him to the south coast. In 2006 he was part of the team that launched Original 106fm, the regional station owned by Canadian media company CanWest.
During the station’s two year life span he presented six specialist shows a week with the most succesful being Sunday night’s ‘Original Showcase’.
It featured the best of independent artists from the area and gave many the opportunity to have proper radio exposure. The show also proved that playing ‘unsigned music’ on commercial radio can not only be popular but also a benefit the community.
Before the move he freelanced with BBC Southern Counties, was part of the award winning team at GU2 and also a prolific podcaster. His podcasting highlights included 30 minute specials on the Iraq demo and a ‘live’ report from the Dublin Castle watching Artic Monkeys playing their first London headliner.
His perfect radio show would be a cross between the current issue format of Jimmy Young/Jeremy Vine and the promoting of new talent that John Peel so successfully achieved.
Out of the studio…
You’ll find Xan’s column in the Southern Daily Echo every Friday. He’s in his third year of writing about new bands in the area and trends from the music scene. Occasionally he has articles and photographs printed in the local media.
This activity in the new band arena has led to invitations to judge the ‘Dorset Music Awards’, ‘Southampton Takedown’ and ‘Quest of the Chest’.
Before radio Xan had a long careerer in television as a picture editor and he has recently formed a creative partnership with Still Moving, a south coast video production company that is bringing art into the world of business. For their first project he co-directed a video for Southampton trio ‘Band of Skulls’.
In 2009 he published Eamon Nancarrow’s autobiography ‘Holywood Star: the life and times of a rock and roll misadventurer.’ Many people have given Eamon’s book rave reviews and through word-of-mouth sales are continuing to rise.
Also that year he was invited to become project co-ordinator for ‘Music in the City’ a festival that invites musicians to put on shows around Southampton. During his assignment he made the pilot event a success, launched the festival in January 2010 and planned a weekend of piano playing around the city. He also designed the logo and came up with the strap line “Make Southampton your stage” which saw him achieve youthful ambitions of being a copywriter.
Very occasionally he’ll promote a band night or perform a DJ set. He enjoys cooking and being with his family fills any spare time.
Audio CV
In the course of his radio career Xan has interviewed many people and some examples can be heard in this Audio CV.
Currently it relives the moments when Pete Doherty picked a local band to support him at the Opera House in Boscombe, Joan Armatrading waxed lyrical about her Grammy nomination, the production techniques Hollywood director Peter Bogdanovich used to make the Tom Petty documentary and former Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell about his solo career and the punk rock days.
It also has an epic journey in search of the Dorking Chicken that was part of a BBC farming series.
About this website
The site uses software from www.wordpress.org , the design template comes from www.woothemes.com and is hosted by Flipside Digital
Xan would like to thank Dave Cartledge (Flipside) and Rob Ball (Mintsouth) for their input and support during the transition.
