Phil Gould recalls working with Bowie and speaks about the tragic death of his brother

Phil Gould, drummer and former founder member of 80s Jazz Funk phenomenon Level 42, recalls working with Bowie and speaks about the tragic death of his brother, fellow Level 42 star Boon Gould, whose guitar playing features posthumously on a new album.

Phil Gould is a founder member, drummer and songwriter of the hugely successful British group, Level 42. At the height of the band’s popularity, he played to packed venues the world over, headlined Glastonbury and enjoyed major chart success with singles including ‘Something About You’, ‘Lessons In Love’ and ‘Running In The Family’.

Born in Hong Kong, the youngest of five children, the family relocated to the Isle of Wight when he was just six months old. Phil spent most of his youth on the Isle of Wight, playing drums from the age of 15 in local bands, often with his brother Boon, and later went on to study percussion and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London. A group of men.

Following attendance at the Royal Academy, Phil founded the group Level 42 along with Mark King, Mike Lindup and Roland (Boon) Gould, with Wally Badarou becoming an unofficial fifth member and contributing to almost all of the band’s recordings. This original Level 42 line up recorded 7 studio albums and one live album, achieving international success across Europe and North America.

Following the many successes achieved by Level 42, Phil decided to take his own solo route, spending his time raising his family whilst exploring other music genres, collaborating with myriads of talented artists, and continuing to write away from the pressure of a major touring band. Now having finished his first signed project since his Level 42 days, Phil is finally ready for the world to hear his new sound. Here he talks about a time in the early days of his career when he met Bowie, and for one moment, he questioned the sanity of getting into the music business.

'BOWIE WAS IN TEARS WITH HEAD IN HANDS AND SAID THE MUSIC INDUSTRY WAS DESTROYING HIM'

I met David Bowie in the summer of 1979, when I found myself in Montreux, Switzerland, recording an album with Robin Scott - who was soon to have a huge worldwide hit with 'Pop Muzik', an influential track that rode the wave of the late 70’s synth pop zeitgeist into the early 80’s, along with Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Human League and others. Aged 22, it was my first proper studio session (the previous year I was playing summer season at a holiday camp). Montreux seemed a truly exotic place, where liberal Swiss girls bathed topless round the pool and attitudes seemed a great deal more open and ‘permissive’ than they ever did in my home town of Shanklin, Isle of Wight. A week or so into the session I was recording a new drum track, when I came down the stairs to the control room and was stunned to find David Bowie sitting by the mixing desk, chatting to Robin.

I had no idea he’d be coming by, as Robin had never mentioned the association. Bowie had this unique charisma. He was at the same time this stunning looking human with an electric presence (he really did look every inch a superstar) with the gravitas that came from the stellar career he’d had in the 70’s, while at the same time being the most down to earth person you could meet, with that disarming Brixton accent of his. Our first interaction consisted of him putting his hand on my knee, as we sat listening to the playback, and saying to me; “listen son. If you’re going to hit ‘em, hit ‘em!” Apparently, my playing was a little too polite for his taste and his advice was essentially ‘stop messing about, go do it again and this time sound like you mean it!’. He was used to muscular rock and roll/funk drumming, not the tippy tappy offerings of a first year percussion student who’d only recently been playing holiday camps, where all he had ever heard from the band leader was ‘keep it down’! I did the track again and this time it seemed to please him.

The session moved into other areas after that and I found myself singing backing vocals with Robin, his partner Brigitte, and Bowie. In a lull between tunes, while the engineer reset the mics, Bowie came over to the piano where I was fiddling with some chords, and began humming along. The thought flashed across my foul-mouthed yet innocent young brain… ‘F*** me! I’m writing a song with David Bowie!!!’ Of course, the engineer soon broke my reverie by calling us to the mics again, but for a brief moment I had big dreams. At some point, as the afternoon turned to dusk, wine appeared from somewhere, which derailed the session somewhat and we all sat around chatting while the two old friends had their long awaited catch up. And Bowie clearly wanted to talk. What happened next was one of the most disturbing moments of my young life. Bowie began to explain how he felt that he been ripped off for years in the music industry [PLEASE LEGAL], had no end of financial problems, and just didn’t know how he was going to get out of the hole he now found himself in. I later learned that he was coming out of the drug fuelled years of stunning creativity but which had truly taken a toll on his health, the seriousness of which would only become evident some years later, with his heart attack in 2004. I only recently learned that his son's life had also been threatened so his reasons for being in Montreux appeared to be threefold; to save tax, to recover his health and equilibrium and to make sure his son was safe.

As the evening wore on, and the wine found its insidious way into all of our bloodstreams, emotions began to run high and the rest of us thought it best to leave Robin and Bowie to their conversation, which was becoming increasingly private and personal. As we left the studio, I caught sight of Bowie, head in his hands, in tears, seemingly destroyed by the industry, which had given him everything, but had taken even more in return. I never saw him again, but as I drove away, and for the rest of that year and into the next my mind was plagued by a shocking realisation. If the music business could do that to someone as brilliant, as important and as successful as David Bowie, what the hell was it going to do to me? Bowie was ten years older, and I was looking at all manner of possible futures as I fully entered my 20’s and not too many of them looked so positive at that point.

These thoughts stayed with me over that winter and, as there was nothing more to be heard from Bowie as the 70’s ended and a new decade began, I was left to wonder if we might have seen the last of his towering genius. To my great joy in August 1980, almost a year to the day of that strange moment we shared in Montreux, Bowie came storming back with Ashes to Ashes which, for me, is one of his greatest tracks, followed by Scary Monsters, an album full of self-referential lyrics which laid to rest a lot of his demons, and which is often considered his last great album, but which then seemed a blinding return to form.

For my part, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of relief to know that while life, and the business of music, may have knocked him down for a time, it was only going to be a temporary state of affairs for Bowie was far too gifted, far too strong, far too creative to simply fade away, or to become an ultimate rock and roll casualty as happened to so many during the drug fuelled years of the 60’s and 70’s. My own career as a recording and performing artist began with the release of Level 42’s first single, just a few months before Ashes to Ashes. I faced the daunting prospect of establishing the band's reputation with some confidence, some hope, that I might be able to weather the storms, the trials and tribulations, whatever lay ahead, as Bowie had done.

'I WAS MIXING MY BROTHER'S MUSIC WHEN A CALL CAME TELLING ME MY BROTHER WAS DEAD'

Phil's brother Boon was found dead at a friend's house in Devon on April 30th 2019. A coroner ruled that he had taken his own life. Boon had previously been diagnosed as bipolar and had suffered from depression. Phil was mixing a track featuring his brother's guitar solo when he received a phone call with the tragic news.

My brother came to the studio in 2018 to play on an instrumental track. We were trying to do music for films and things like that ... and he just played his arse off. When we were putting the album together there was one track that was problematic and then Simon Rodley (CEO of Abbey Management) said why don't you do that track, use that track that your brother played on. So, I phoned Boon up and I said would you be okay with that? And I made sure it was okay and then the craziest thing was when a few weeks later, when I finally went down to the studio t go through the guitar takes to get the right solo, I got the call in that exact moment as I sat down.

It's kind of really bizarre so I had to steel myself. It was really hard. I had to hurt: I couldn't do anything for months, but I eventually got back into it and had to pretend that my brother had gone out for a cup of tea or something, and I had to go through all those tapes and I had to mix that track. I was mixing with Julian Mendelsohn who was, he is in Australia now, and we were mixing - he is the guy who did the successful Level 42 records, but we were mixing through the night because he is in Melbourne, and to have to hear your brother's guitar over and over and over again. It was kind of a head-bang and I was pretty gone at the end of it.

I had about five months when I couldn't do that, do the mixes, but then we got back and finished it. It was a very strange experience. The whole thing was so dark and horrible, just the nature of it. How that happened. It was so weird. I got the call from my older brother who had just been called by the police. I had literally just sat down at the mixing desk with the engineer, and we started to play the track, it was strange. It was four oclock in the afternoon. I had just arrived on the island, hot there, we had a chat and I sat down. It was pretty weird because it wasn't the day before or the day after - it was so weird. It was such a strange moment, and then I spoke to Mark. It was pretty horrible. You can imagine how dark a moment that can be."

The track with Boon's guitar is now on the new album on a track called The Russian Submariner.

The thing is I am now listening to it and I have got through the thing of (thinking) 'What could we have done about the whole thing?' And now I have accepted the situation. I have accepted the fact that he is not here, there is nothing I can do about that. But we have this amazing moment on a record. And (I think) is this the last thing he did, his last hurrah and it sounds incredible. Eventually I toured it around in my head to work my arse off on that track to make it the best sounding track it could possibly-be, knowing that it was the last thing that he did.

"I had a chat with Boon's daughter and I just absolutely clarified it, with his daughter that it was cool that she didn't feel that it was exploiting it, because I want people to hear it, I want people to hear his absolutely blistering guitar solo. I'd like to get as many people to hear that track and I want people to hear it because I think my brother was an underrated musician. He was an underrated guitarist in his own mind. He never had any confidence. It's horrible, to think - you listen to his playing now, and one of the things I as a musician am really focussed on is timing and beat placement, and one of the things that I think Level 42 are really good at, when we were really locked we were really tight as a band. My brother's timing was absolutely phenomenal.

The new album

Assembling a network of collaborators, ex-Level 42 drummer and songwriter, Phil Gould returns to the fore with a stunning new album ‘Beautiful Wounds’ – out on June 18th via Abbey Records.

“I see this album as a transition for me” says Phil, “moving from popular music on a major label, and intensely labouring over the finesse of production into a simpler way of making music and leaving the mastery of each musician room to breathe.”

Phil somehow masters this idea of meeting perfection with imperfection and in the process making each track ‘human’ and full of experience and emotion. There is no question as to the quality of musicianship and production here, a real treat for audiophiles.A person playing a drum set

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is the message emanating from the opening title track ‘Beautiful Wounds’, a clear highlight of the album. With intimate layers of rich, front and centre production, the track is a reflection on life’s struggles and how scars ultimately come to define us through enhancing our humanity, rather than detract from it. Amplifying Italian singer Diana Winter’s beckoning vocal, each instrument appears superimposed and pronounced without sounding overwhelming or crowded. The audible blank space only serves to compliment the mix as Gould asserts less is more on this masterful offering. In support of this track, Phil enlisted award winning director Sarah Scherer, together developing a stunning interpretive video that has gone on to appear in a number of film festivals, receiving an "Honorable Mention” at the Venice Film Awards as well as winning “Best Directing” at the Athens International Film Festival.

On Beautiful Wounds, Phil remarks: “Given the parlous state of the world it feels important to remind ourselves of the beauty that comes with our humanity, with all our foibles, our failures, our struggles, our demons and despite (or even because of) the scars we carry from the lives we’ve lived until now. We are all made more beautiful, more human by the wounds we pick up along the way. Often the damage that is done to us, or we do to ourselves, is the basis of our compassion for others.”

We move onto The Dance next, featuring one of the rare vocal performances from Phil. The track focuses in on past, romantic relationships as if through the hazy skrying of an afternoon daydream. The minimal track opening begins with the distorted clicking, like a grand clock’s mechanism turning backwards and slowly reversing time. Soon joined by the gentle lapping, sorrowful, yet driving piano, the track eases into a world of fond memories but nevertheless, of moments and relationships lost. Despite the layering of expert instrumentalism, the track remains sparse like two old lovers alone sharing their last dance in an empty hall.

A feeling that most of us will recognise arises from the next single on the track Faint Love, a sense of loss and heartbreak, juxtaposed with the empowerment of pulling away from a negative situation and the freedom that offers. A testament to his vision and talent, Phil Gould pulls together a myriad of collaborators and musicians throughout the album, here once again working with the immensely talented Wally Badarou (Grace Jones / Talking Heads). Lead by the immaculate vocal from Anji Hinke, Faint Love quickly finds its character and groove as the ostinato marimba invokes the cyclical nature of love and loss. This is perhaps the track that Level 42 fans will reminisce with most as the collaboration hints at the sounds these two music legends have been known for, for many years.

An altogether different style arises from the track Thank You. A stripped back piano ballad, with an exciting vocal performance from young musician Kira Osment. A young voice, given the power and maturity from the subject of thanking people from our pasts.

Equally worthy of highlighting is the track Russian Submariner, not originally destined for the album, but in fact a collaborative piece devised for television, it is the last track ever to feature Phil’s brother Boon. Sadly, Boon took his own life not long after recording these stunning guitar parts and in a bizarre twist of fate, the news was delivered to Phil whilst he was in the studio mixing this very track.

All in all, Beautiful Wounds is an exquisite example of Phil Gould’s writing and musical prowess. A clear vision, offset by the wonderful influences brought together by the talents of each contributing musician. Both existing and new fans will undoubtedly find what they are looking for in this new chapter of his career.

Check out more about Phil Gould on philgouldmusic.com, Instagram @philgould and Twitter @bongosaloon.

The album – Beautiful Wounds will be released this month through Abbey Records, an independent record label based in the Isle of Wight.