ACADEMIC
















Since the 2000s, Phil became closely involved in music education and was appointed co-chair of JAMES (Joint Audio Media Education Support), involved in masterclasses, accreditations and course planning. After writing his first book ‘PWL From The Factory Floor’ in 2010, he went on to complete a PhD at Leeds Beckett University in 2017, has written a number of papers and contributions to other academic books and regularly holds guest lectures at UK Universities and conferences. He recently embarked on a lecture tour during 2020, discussing elements of his new book ‘Pop Music Production’, which is an expansion of his PhD work. 
PhD at Leeds Beckett University
Phil joined Leeds Beckett University in 2014, writing a PhD thesis which shares the secrets of his decades of success in producing ‘manufactured’ pop. His study, ‘Stay Another Day: A reflective and oral history of the culture and technology of the ‘manufactured’ pop and boy bands of the 1990s’, includes his tried-and-tested framework for the perfect pop songwriting and production team and 12-step mixing programme. Reflecting on the ‘manufactured’ pop and boy band scene, Phil has written mainly about the 1990’s but also considers the current marketplace. He breaks down the technology of the recording studio of the 1990s and reflects on his ground-breaking work during that time. 

“It’s been very inspiring to reflect on the work I did in the 1990s. Additionally, I have broken down and analysed some of the records I engineered, such as East 17’s ‘Stay Another Day’, and it has been interesting to revisit them. I also break down the number one single, ‘Words’ by Boyzone, alongside the original 1960’s Bee Gees arrangement, to show what we did differently.” The study includes interviews with some of the key players from the 1990s pop and boy band music scene, such as Tony Mortimer from East 17, the songwriters behind 911, boy band managers and a specialist pop journalist from the era. “The boy band explosion in the 90s was a phenomenon. The term ‘boy band’ didn’t really come into media use until this decade. People said you could have called Bros, the Bay City Rollers, or even the Sex Pistols, ‘boy bands’ when you looked back, as they were all manufactured bands. However, it was only in the 90s that the term really came about”.  

Whilst studying at Leeds Beckett, Phil also shared his skills and experience with music students at the University, running masterclasses and lectures. Getting masters students at both Leeds Beckett and the University of Oslo to try out his methods and theories, Phil developed a new service model for pop music creativity and commerce. Phil explained: “A music producer navigates a specific role in between the creative artist and the commercial industry and I have developed this into a new theory. Beginning in the 1980s, songwriter and production teams became very much established in the 1990s and have remained so ever since. For example, with acts from Boyzone to Katy Perry, when you look at their songwriting credits, there won’t just be one name but a whole team of songwriters. This might be a set of names or a production team name.” 

Working with his production partner, Ian Curnow, at the Pete Waterman Entertainment (PWL) studios in the late 1980s, Phil began the groundwork for his service model idea, which begins with a team leader at the head of a flow chart. In P&E Music’s case (Phil and Ian's team at The Strongroom Studios in the 90s), this was manager Tom Watkins, who had previously managed the Pet Shop Boys and Bros. Phil then goes on to set out the ideal combination of team members for the perfect pop songwriting and production crew. Phil has tested the framework and formula with student group projects to prove that it is a successful and repeatable model. He said: “The results have been really interesting. I set students the task of working in teams to write and produce a song. I set the tempo, arrangement and key, but each team produced a completely different result once human interaction came into play.” 

12-step mixing programme

 Working with undergraduate students at Leeds Beckett, Phil also shared and evaluated his ‘12 step mixing programme’, setting the students the task of using this in their own degree projects. Phil said: “The programme is the reverse of what has been industry practice for a long time. Normally, you start by mixing the drums and work up to the vocals; however, my system starts with the vocals and works down to the drums – ‘top-down mixing’.” Following the successful completion of his PhD, Phil is now officially Dr. Phil Harding and graduated in July 2017. 

Phil said: “I am delighted to have been awarded my doctorate after three years of intense study and reflection. The experience as a postgraduate student at Leeds Beckett has been second-to-none, and I would especially like to thanks Professor Karl Spracklen and Dr Robert Davis of Leeds Beckett University for their guidance and supervision throughout. I feel that I’ve just started my research journey. I’ve now been presenting my service model theory at conferences and I have been motivated to continue with my research work.”


Academic papers and book contributions
leedsbeckett.academia.edu/PhilHarding

‘Service Model’ Conference Paper and academia.eu page... 
The papers on Phil's academia.edu web page (link above) include chapter contributions that Phil has made to other recent academic books. One of those chapters is available as a PDF download (due to the book currently being very hard to find). It's titled 'A ‘Service Model' of Creativity in Commercial Pop Music at P&E Studios in the 1990s' and is from the book 'Proceedings of the 12th Art Of Record Production Conference (Mono: Stereo: Multi)' and you can read or download the chapter hereThe book is a set of papers from this Art Of Record Production event which was held at the Stockholm Royal School Of Music in 2017. Phil presented the paper with co-author, Dr Paul Thompson, on the first day of the conference (1st December 2017). Phil is able to send out PDFs of the other chapters featured on the Phil Harding academia.eu page link above. You can request these by e-mailing phil.harding@virgin.net.

‘Journal of Music, Technology & Education’ - first academic journal publication, December 2021...
Phil is excited to announce his first academic journal publication in the Journal of Music, Technology & Education, (Volume 13, Numbers 2-3, December 2021), written in conjunction with Nyssim Lefford... It is available to review here, article 2: ‘Pop vs Rock - a comparison study of managing sessions in the recording studio and the influences of genre’... Thanks to Andrew King, editor of the JMTE Journal.

‘Analyzing Recorded Music’ - chapter written by Phil Harding for new book, December 2022... 
“In 2014, I started my PhD studies at Leeds Beckett University. That same year, I presented a conference paper at the Art Of Record Production conference in Oslo and there was a huge buzz going around at the conference dinner about acclaimed academic, Will Moylan arriving. I didn't get the chance to chat with Will at that point, but the following year at a conference in Glasgow, I was introduced to him by Dr Paul Thompson and Dr Nyssim Lefford over a ‘wee dram’ in a Glasgow pub. In 2020, I was delighted to be invited by Will to contribute a chapter to his new co-edited book with Lori Burns and Mike Alleyne,Analyzing Recorded Music. They allowed me to analyse a track that I had remixed in 2019 with my PJS Productions team (Julian Wiggins & Simon Dalton). After a very long process (delayed by the pandemic), the book is now out and on sale here. (ISBN 9780367546311 Published December 29, 2022 by Focal Press).

2020 Lecture Tour
Phil's tour of the UK throughout early 2020 to promote the new book. Members of the public were welcomed...

14 January - dBs Music Campus, Plymouth 
21 January - York St. John University 
30 January - Winchester University  
05 February - Huddersfield University  
06 February - Leeds Beckett University 
12 February - LIPA (Liverpool) 
13 February - UCLAN (Preston) 
25 February - University of Kent (Chatham) 
27 February - UWS, Glasgow 
27 February - AES Scotland Meeting, Glasgow Hub  
28 February - Glasgow Cali University  
02 March - University of Hull 
06 March - Sound Training College, Dublin  
09 March - ARU (Cambridge) 
TBC - University of Kent (Chatham) 
TBC - BIMM, London



In Conversation With 
Phil Harding's ‘In Conversation With’ public event that took place on 6th March 2020. It followed a student lecture earlier in the day and was promoted with press coverage and radio and TV interviews...




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