Phil Emmanuel (ref only)

Phil Emmanuel | two words needing no introduction to Australian guitar afficiandos and those on-pulse with world music

mere mention instantly resonates vision of an electric guitar-playing legend of exquisite musical talent | of dynamic stage performance & presence | of tunes leaving you breathless no matter how often you heard them | of a quintessential Australian borne purely from his country’s earth & salt | of seamless connections with all before him | of everyone’s mate, all with a personal tale to cherish | mostly-and-always just a 'bloody good bloke'

so proudly, personal & professional connections with The Wiz go back to the late seventies, not just with music but with shared passion for wildlife | so fortunately, Naturescape’s timeline is punctuated with many memorable Wiz moments

the soundtracks he produced for my productions | shared gigs: him on stage, me on camera | times spent musing road trips & adventures, wildlife, his latest python hatchlings, tall tales & true

precious moments — unfortunately one forever impregnated with sadness — in celebration of special times with a special bloke and a promise of more from The Wiz to come | it's a personal collection in tribute to his music, his inspiration, his legacy, and most of all ... his mateship !

" Well bugger me! " I can hear him saying.

shot in the Brisbane studio of Matt Farthing in 1998, 'Genie With The Light Brown Lamp' & 'Loose Bootie Boogie' are Phil classics, numbers permanently etched on live playlists in earlier years

they were a spontaneous afterthought when recording Phil’s rendition of Michael Schenker’s ‘Into The Arena’, a track we hoped would be picked up for the Sydney 2000 Olympics — it should've been, and it's criminal it wasn’t

as anyone who knew him well knows, time was never a Jim Khana priority (nor mine) so with a ‘spare ten minutes’ after shooting ‘Arena' these became the live, one-take, instantly-chosen two

of course one had to be Hank B Marvin track (Genie), and of course that could not be performed without a couple of typical Emmanuel-style intros borrowed from an after-hours recording while working for CMT in Tamworth a few weeks beforehand (more of that coming sometime soon)