Phil Lanzon was born on march 23 1950. At the age of eight Phil learned to play the keyboards. In 1966 Lanzon played in his first band called The Loose Ends. Covers of soul songs were played. With this band Lanzon tours through Europe. There after he played with The Cats Pyamas from 1968 until 1969. With this one a few singles were recorded. One of them was Baby I Love You of  The Ronettes . Then a 15 year period of learning started. He studied and composed music. Lanzon married and got excited again by the music of Styx and Journey.

In 1977 he started his own band Romance. In Neil Carter - later with Ufo and Gary Moore - he had found his ideal partner. The band just exist a short time, but had recorded a demo with 4 very good songs.

In 1978 Lanzon played together with Bernie Shaw in Paris. There's nothing known about the other members. At the end of the seventies Lanzon was often asked as a session musician. Thats why he can be heard on the June 1980 recorded Hot Chocolate hit 'No Doubt About It' and on the Bucks-Fizz Eurovision hit "Making Your Mind Up". Rumors say Lanzon has actually written the Hot Chocolate hit. Thats not the truth. Micky Most was the composer.

Early 1980 Lanzon plays piano on the Chris Spedding album I'm not like everybody else. At the end of 1979 Lanzon joined Grand Prix and played keyboards on three albums. The first album was released in 1980 at RCA-records.

The second album from 1982 There For None To See sings Robin McAuley for Bernie Shaw. The third record SAMURAI is released in 1983 at Chrysalis. The Grand Prix sound can be described as melodic hardrock with some clear Styx and Journey influences. After the third album Grand Prix called it a day. In 1984 Lanzon replaced Vic Emerson at Sad Cafe, without playing on one of the albums. Lanzon appears on both Steve Glen - singles 'That's alright by me'/ 'Just the way we are and 'Down among the dead men' / 'I'm alright Jack. Lanzon is also to be heard on the album 'Look left, look right'.

In march 1985 Lanzon joined the band Operator. His fellow bandmembers were: Robin McAuley ( vocals) ,Chris Glen ( bass, before with SAHB and MSG) , Mick O'Donoghue ( guitar ) and Phil Taylor ( drums; ex - Motorhead) . How promising this line up may looked liked, for Lanzon Operator ended in may 1985 . O'Donoghue, Glen and Taylor started GMT the same month, and recorded the mini LP 'War Games' at 'Mausoleum' with a new guitarist Marcus Schleicher . This record was released on CD in 1991. All 5 songs are co-compositions of Lanzon. The song 'Fall In Line' was played by Lanzon. In November 1985 GMT ended up. Robin McAuley joined MSG, Phil Taylor went to Frankie Miller before he rejoined Motorhead again. In July 1985 Lanzon played Keyboards and drums on 'Big Bang' a album from the german band Tarraco, who recorded their album in Hamburg as in London. It's experimental disco with a lot of drumwork by bandleader Dicky Tarrach ( Rattles ). Lanzon composed one song and did his part on another one. In august 1985 Lanzon ended his work for Tarraco.

In September 1985 Lanzon joined The Sweet. With him joins Paul Mario Day, ex- Wildfire, as a new singer. With this new line up The Sweet recorded their live album 'Live At The Marquee' . At this time Mal Mc Nulty bass, and both founder members Andy Scott and Mick Tucker formed the band.

At the same time a live video was released at Sound and Vision. On this album Lanzon's co-compositions: 'Shot down in flames', 'Over my head' , and 'Jump the fence'.

Lanzon joins Uriah Heep by replacing John Sinclair. With Heep Lanzon goes on a US tour. At that point Steff Fontain was Heepsinger for a few weeks. In February 1987 Lanzon was asked by Andy Scott  to play on the debut single of pub-rockband Paddy goes to Holyhead. Lanzon had his hands free for some time, so he went into the London Bridge Studio. Here the recording s of the single 'The Green Green Grass Of Home / '( Telling me ) All Those Lies'. The band's line up: Danny Hynes ( vocals) , Andy Scott , Mal McNulty, Jeff Brown, drummer Bruce Bisland. The single was not that successful. December of the same year Lanzon again went into the studio to record the maxi - CD with the coversong Delilah. But also this one failed. Also recorded to CD, and released in 1996 are 'The green green grass of home', ' ( Telling me ) All those lies, and ' Delilah' to be found on the CD Box of The Sweet titled 'Hannover Sessions' by Pseudonym. At that time Phil was still helping Sweet on some small gigs and this stopped in 1989 where Phil spend his time with Uriah Heep.

Copyright Uwe Reuters