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From The Desk Of Britta Phillips: “Keith Richards: Under The Influence”

You know Britta Phillips from the bands Luna and Dean & Britta, but now she has a debut solo album, Luck Or Magic. The record features five Phillips originals alongside covers of songs by the Cars, Evie Sands, Fleetwood Mac, Dennis Wilson and ABBA’s Agnatha Fältskog. Phillips will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.

Phillips: I just watched Keith Richards: Under The Influence and realized I’d met every single Xpensive Wino, including Richards himself. Crazy. In 1987, my manager introduced me to Steve Jordan (an amazing drummer who started as a teenager in Stevie Wonder’s band) because his band, the Raging Hormones, was looking for a singer who could play some guitar.  Sara Lee (Gang Of Four, B-52s) had started the band with Charley Drayton (another great drummer and multi-instrumentalist who’s played with the B-52s and Neil Young and co-produced Fiona Apple’s last album). The songs were really cool post-punk pop, and we rehearsed a bunch of times. I still remember how it felt to play with Steve on drums. He made it easy to play well, somehow. Steve invited me to the studio while he was finishing Talk Is Cheap with Keith. I remember walking in while he was singing “Big Enough” and thinking the phrasing and melody reminded me of Sting. But I take that thought back now. Keith was down-to-earth and generous and even sat down to show me some open-tuning chords on the guitar and said I learned fast. He’s the most famous person I’ve ever met and didn’t feel nervous around him. Bowie and Lou Reed, I could barely look at. Keith was easy. I met Waddy on the set of the movie Satisfaction. He was there to coach me on guitar and “guitar moves.” Anyway … I really enjoyed the doc on Keith. He’s a true lover of “music as life.”