Portfolio II
In the early 80's he was Associate Producer for 'The Tube', being largely responsible for its adventurous musical policy, booking acts such as Fine Young Cannibals long before they made the charts. 'Tube' boss Malcolm Gerrie described him as "the Mickey Most" of the Tube for this talent spotting role which also included 80's icons Twisted Sister, Housemartins, and Billy Bragg. During this time, Chris also helped give vital exposure to the careers of Tina Turner and Culture Club through award-winning films. Talent spotting was a role Chris also reprised in 1987 for Channel 4's 'Famous for Fifteen Minutes' series, where he supplied a cream of new untried talent and gave 11 new unsigned bands Prime Time TV exposure, by sifting the acts from more than 2000 tapes. In his choice of subjects for his 'Famous for Fifteen Minutes', only Little Angels and Catherine Buchanen proved him wrong by getting major record deals - the rest vanished!
Chris' talent spotting was also in demand in the 80's and 90's for major drama productions - BBC1's 'Paradise Club' and Lynda la Plante's 'Comics'. For these he was commissioned to create genuine music gig atmospheres as required in the plots. Chris also launched into documentary productions such as the bio-documentary 'Joan Armatrading Acoustic', featuring special guest Elton John, and 'Motor City Music Years', a series charting the history of English Midlands Pop and Birmingham's rock culture - from the Moody Blues, Black Sabbath, The Spencer Davis Group, The Move, Traffic, Electric Light Orchestra, Dexys Midnight Runners, Duran Duran and UB40. Chris' contribution as co-producer of the documentary film 'Bob Marley: Time will Tell' included a collation of Bob Marley's own commentary from sourcing more than a decade's worth of rare television, radio and archival interviews - rewarded by positive reviews of the show's mould-breaking intimacy and rawness. Other TV Production credits include 'Mojo Working', 'John Shuttleworth's Guide to Stardom', 'Club X', 'Big World Cafe', and 'The White Room'.
Over the past three years, Chris has worked with Baaba Maal in Senegal, Bond composer John Barry in New York and acted as musical consultant for Holland's 'Single Luck' series - the latter requiring tracing on a world wide basis every living group member, producer, promoter and engineer, among other personnel, to reassemble the stories behind three decades of "One Hit Wonders".
Not content to be limited to music, in 1999 Chris Phipps also co-produced the major ITV Documentary 'My Son Murdered his Mother' for the 'Real Life' series, which attracted over 6 million viewers and major Press controversy.
In 2000, Chris was busy co-producing 'Cover Their Tracks', a Tyne Tees/Honky Tonk production profiling the tribute band scene in North East England. He also contributed to 'Top 100 Number One Records' for Channel 4, locating such legends as Giorgio Moroder, Bill Haley's Comets and Andy 'Thunderclap' Newman. The programme received a 5 million audience rating.
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