Sides

Sides is the fourth studio album by English musician and composer Anthony Phillips. It was released in April 1979 by Arista Records in the United Kingdom and in June 1979 on Passport Records in the United States. After completing Private Parts & Pieces (1978), an album of home recordings that Phillips had recorded years before but remained unreleased, Phillips returned to making a commercial record. The UK release saw the first 5,000 copies of Sides packaged with a Collectors Album edition of Private Parts & Pieces. Background and recording Following the release of his second album Wise After the Event in May 1978, Phillips started work on his next record which was to be an album of all fresh material. However, the writing sessions had Phillips in doubt as to whether his re-emergence as a recording artist in 1977 was at the right time, as his progressive style of music was becoming increasingly out of fashion. Phillips also had difficulty in deciding what musical direction to undertake, and saw little value in recording more folk and romantic-oriented music which he had done on his first album The Geese & the Ghost (1977) and Wise After the Event. His label, the US-based Passport Records, put pressure on him to deliver more radio friendly songs. During the preparation of the album's material, Phillips called upon producer and songwriter Rupert Hine and drummer Michael Giles to assist, both of whom had worked on Wise After the Event. Phillips was soon advised by Passport and his management to include guest vocalists as they deemed his songwriting ability strong enough, but figured other singers would benefit the material in a commercial sense. Phillips was attracted to this idea as he lacked the confidence to handle all the lead vocals himself, and hired singers Dan Owen and Dale Newman, the latter once a member of the Genesis road crew. Before recording began, Phillips and the group rehearsed for two weeks at Farmyard Studios in Buckinghamshire. They completed some songs there, including "Um & Aargh" which was an easy track for them to put together, and "Nightmare". Recording began in October 1978 at Essex Studios in London. The best takes of each track were transferred to a 24-track master to allow room for overdubs and vocals, and it was decided to mix down the original 16-track recordings for four songs, "Sisters of Remindum", "Bleak House", "Magdalen", and "Nightmare", straight onto the master.