FORMER ELO 2 STAR AND FRONTMAN PHIL BATES VILLAGE VOICE SOLO ACOUSTIC UK TOUR MARCH 2025

Event information

Doors & Bar 7pm
Music 8pm

For many years now former ELO 2 star Phil Bates has lived in a rural area in Hay On Wye and knows first hand the vital role village halls play in the cultural life of many communities. Therefore he has decided to undertake a village voice solo UK tour in 2025 - & we are so excited to welcome him to Village Concerts!

The show will see Phil play a mixture of material songs from his own repertoire.

He has released four critically acclaimed albums and one live album. After he left ELO 2 he toured with the highly regarded Eleanor Rigby Experience; so expect some fabulous reworkings of his favourite Beatles Songs and of course the show wouldn’t be complete without him performing some of those ELO timeless classic hits which made them one of the biggest bands in the world

​Phil’s connection with ELO music goes back 30 years when, in 1993, he joined Bev Bevan, Kelly Groucutt, Mik Kaminski, Lou Clark - all ELO members - and Eric Troyer, in ELO Part2.

ELO Part2 toured the world in the next 6/7 years, doing concerts in USA, Canada, SouthAmerica, Central America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Russia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Scandinavia, and the UK, many times with full orchestras.

In fact, Phil’s connection with ELO goes farther back to the 1970s when Phil’s band, Trickster, were labelmates, resulting in Trickster supporting ELO on their groundbreaking 1978 Spaceship Tour.

In the 1980, Phil formed Don’t Panic with wife, Joanna Bates, and spent 3 years playing in Middle East in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi.

Phil and Jo were also members of Birmingham legends, Quill.

1990s saw Phil sing the theme tune from the TV show, The Gladiators, alongside songwriting, lead vocals, guitars and bass for AOR band, Atlantic. The album, ‘Power’ is legend amongst AOR fans to this day.

1993 to 2003 saw Phil take a break from music and study for BA Hon in History at Lampeter University. Phil joined Bev Bevan in a project that became Bev Bevan’s Move in 2003, but left to join old friends from ELO Part2 in The Orchestra in 2007. Then he toured the UK with the highly regarded Eleanor Rigby Experience who specialised in reworking the classic songs of Lennon and McCartney and not forgetting Harrison. Phil Bates colleague in The Eleanor Rigby Experience vocalist Tina McBain was also part of Phil’s Beatles,Blues,And,Blue, Violin project alongside another of his colleagues Mik Kaminski (ELO ELO 2 The Orchestra) they released one album and did three UK tours.

Alongside this, Phil has been the major player in a German ELO project, which still gigs extensively all over Europe, and points east, to this day. These days known as Phil Bates Band play the music of ELO.

Phil’s solo albums - Naked (1996) - Agony and Ecstasy (1998) - Alter Ego (2003) - One Sky (2005) - Retrospektiv (2007). Then a LONG gap, which will be broken by the release of ‘The Story So Far …….’, probably early 2024, and ‘The Truth’, hopefully later in 2024.

A 3-track single ‘Port in a storm’, ‘Empty Rooms’, plus one of Phil’s re-imaginings of an ELO song will escape later in 2023.
‘Up Close and Personal’ sees Phil solo, playing reimaginings of ELO, Beatles, Trickster, Atlantic, classic songs from the extensive pop/rock/blues songbook, and songs from some of Phil’s favourite songwriters - Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Gerry Rafferty, Keb Mo, Ry Cooder …… plus a smattering of blues, and a soupćon of Celtic.

Plus, some talking about 56 years of Phil Bates musical history ….. if anyone wants to hear an old fart talking about ‘the good old days’.

You won’t want to miss Phil Bates’ performance on 8th March!