Steve Phillips

Nicholas Stephen Phillips (born 18 February 1948) is an English blues and country musician, as well as guitar maker (under the name "N.S. Phillips") and painter. He is mainly renowned for being part of the supergroup The Notting Hillbillies along with the Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and Brendan Croker.

Biography Phillips was born in London, England, on 18 February 1948, but when still a child his family moved to Leeds, where he has lived for most of his life. His father, Harry Phillips,

Steve Phillips & The Rough Diamonds released North Country Blues on 22 July 2013.

In addition to his skills as a musician, Phillips has made a small number of high quality guitars (under the name "N.S. Phillips") and is also a noted landscape painter, specialising in scenes around his North Yorkshire home area. These paintings are notable for their treatment of North Yorkshire's distinctive but elusive light, and have a luminous quality which renders them instantly recognisable as his work. His album, Been A Long Time Gone, has a detail from one of his paintings on the sleeve.

Discography The Best of Steve Phillips (1987) Steel-Rail Blues (1990) Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time (1990) [with The Notting Hillbillies] Been A Long Time Gone (1995) Just Pickin' (1996) Every One A Gem (2000) Solo (2005) Live at the Grosvenor (aka The Grosvenor Sessions) (recorded in 2007, released in 2012) North Country Blues (2013)

Guitars A guitar collector as well as a maker, Phillips uses a wide number of them in his live performances. The National Style O which Knopfler uses in songs such as "Romeo & Juliet" and which became a Dire Straits emblem following its appearance on the cover of the Brothers in Arms album, was sold by Phillips in 1980. This is a list of some of the guitars Phillips has used in his live shows; his current main live guitars are marked +

Acoustic guitars: Gibson L4 (1924)+ Martin 00018 (1931) Martin 0016C (1964) N.S. Phillips 12-string (1977) (known as 'The Wardrobe') N.S. Phillips 6-string (1986)+ Ralph Bown 12 String (1999)+

Electric guitars: National lap steel (1936) Gibson L-50 (1937)+ Gibson ES100 (1938) Beltona electric resonator (1992) – the prototype of this model. + Phillips-Johnson resonator (2002)

Phillip's official website has photographs of many of these instruments.