Leiria is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of 565.09 square kilometres. It is the seat of its own district and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leiria-Fátima. The city is part of the historical province of Beira Litoral.
Never thought I’d write about a band from Leiria, Portugal, but here we are.
There’s a Soundcloud by the band Phase that has all of their 1996 recordings. They had uploaded it 9 years ago, sometime in 2014 or 2015. Why? Well, it seems they got back in 2015.
But let’s go in order. In chronological order on the stuff I’m finding online.
The recordings are part of a demo called “Dreams of Heaven” that looks like a proper album, 11 songs. These were “Dream”, “Touch Me Down”, “You Were”, “Waking Up”, “Today Forever”, “Dreams to Heaven”, “Scope”, “Sunshine Smile”, “Sound Logic”, “Butterfly” and the weirdly titled “I Was Fucking Your Sister”.
The band was an important part of their city’s music scene. They were formed by Luís Mendes on vocals and electric guitar, Ricardo Fiel electric guitar and casiotone, Filipe Rocha on drums and vocals and Nuno Filipe on bass.
There was another demo which is not online. It was called “52 Minutes of Your Time” that was released in 2000. From what I understand Rachel Goswell from Slowdive appears on this demo.
After Phase the band members were involved in many projects included Sean Riley & The Slowriders, David Fonseca, Born a Lion, The Allstar Project or Dr. Majick
But as mentioned, in 2015 the band reunited to play at the Beat Club in Leiria, on December 26th. Tickets for that night were just five euros. So cheap.
To find more info there’s a Facebook of the band that was set up in 2014.
There’s a bunch of photos of the band and I find a discography. Thanks to that I track down a discography on Discogs. Four releases all from 2000. Three singles and an album.
The singles were “The Single” a promo CD release on Polydor and Universal Music Portugal that included the song “The Single (Radio Edit Version)” that was recorded at Clarion Studios and Melway Studios in Brighton and Noisy Studios in London. The producer was Darren Allison, who also mixed the tracks at Inovation in London. The mastering was done at Abbey Road in London.
“Get Down” was the second single. It was also a CD release that included just the title song. Recordings, mastering and mixing happened at the same locations. The one interesting bit here is that there was a brass section for this song, Julian Nicholas played sax, Damon Brown trumpet and Billy Romfit trombone.
“City” was the last CD-single. The information is the same for technical side of the CD. On this song now there is a string section, Maria João Silva played violin, Luis Norberto viola, João Costa cello, Lúcia Costa violin. Adam Blink arranged the strings.
The album “Fifty Two Minutes of Your Time” was the one and proper release by the band. Has a catalog number on Polydor and Universal Music Portugal (157 487-2). Again technical information is the same as in the singles and now we find 12 tracks: “Get Down”, “The Single”, “The Sun”, “She’s a Girl”, “Sorry”, “City”, “Hey Girl”, “Falling Down”, “Mars Babe” (credtis here for Dr. Sarilla nEon for electronics/radiophonics), “Outside”, “Wonderstar” and “God’s Trial”. It is on “Hey Girl” that Rachel Goswell contributes. David Fonseca of the band Silence 4 contributes on the song “City”.
And then they were on a bunch of compilations! I counted 9, all between 1997 and 2002.
“Sunshine Smile” appears on “Noise Sessions” a CD comp released by Garageem (GCD-004) in 1997. Then in 1998 the band contributes “Scope (All I Can Get)” to “Santos da Casa” a CD comp released by Coimbra B (CBEV 00398) and four songs, “Falling Down (On Me)”, “The Sun (Burn to Ashes)”, “(Nice) Wish” and “Sound Logic” to “4×4 (A)Tracção Fatal” also on Coimbra B (CBEV 00498).
“Dream” appears on another compilation, “Cais do Rock Vol. II” in 1998. This was released by LowFly Records (LF 054). Then in 1999 “Falling Down” appears on “OnLeiria” a promo CD comp released by Artes & Leilões (A&L00006). This last one came out alongside the magazine “On”.
Universal Music Portugal would promote their band in 4 different compilations. On 2000s “Nºs 1 O Melhor Do Pop Rock Português” they include the song “City (I Breathe This Pure Air)”. That same year the big label releases another compilation with the same name and on that one the song “Get Down (Get Down, Get Down)” is the one that appears. Tracklist, catalog number and artwork look different, but not sure why both comps are just called the same.
Then in 2002 the band has “Get Down (Get Down, Get Down)” on “O Melhor do Pop / Rock Vol. 1” and then “Mars Babe” on “O Melhor do Pop / Rock Vol. 2”, both released by Universal Music Portugal.
Universal Portugal believed in the band and a promo video was made for the song “Get Down“.
And that’s all I wanted to share today. Maybe we’ll find more about them soon. Pretty cool to find a band from a small Portuguese city that started small and at some point ended up signing for a big label. They must have quite a story!
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Listen
Phase – You Were
