Biography
Monophobia was a London-based indie band formed by bassist/songwriter Phil Quinton in 2000 and predominantly based around the songs of singer/songwriter/guitarist Tony Longworth with Phil occasionally co-writing.
Monophobia was also the name of a comedy studio project fomed by Phil Quinton and guitarist Bryn Rosenwould as students of West Herts College in Watford between 1992 and 1994.
Read full biography ↓
Phil resumed recording as Monophobia in 1997 at which point he met Tony Longworth through an classified ad in Melody Maker and started rehearsing with Tony's as yet unnamed band. Initially recording solo he then recorded with guitarist Steve Hearne (whom he'd met whilst playing in indie/pop band Jeray), singer/songwriter/musician Chris Gregory and finally Tony Longworth in 1999. In 2000 Phil started recruiting bandmembers with a view to getting Monophobia on stage. Some rough demos were recorded with keyboard player/programmer Graeme Brown, singer Helen Gayle and Steve Hearne. Brown dropped out and Mark Titcombe joined as drummer, followed by Tony Longworth who had until then been playing in his other bands Tremens and Free State Prophets. They started rehearsing with songs being written by all of the bandmembers and vocal duties shared between Tony, Steve, Phil and Helen. Monophobia the band was born.
Following a disastrous debut gig at the Rock Garden in London's Covent Garden the band split up. Tony and Phil continued to write songs together and reformed the band 3 months later with German keyboard player/songwriter Zizi Schuh and drummer Dave Bateman. They played their "official" debut at the Bull & Gate, Kentish Town in 2001. Nimesh Hathiwala joined as guitarist later that year and the band started playing the London "toilet circuit". Dave Bateman routinely left the band prior to every recording session and was briefly replaced with Canadian Todd Suggitt then, more permanently, drummer/singer/songwriter Kian Chanter.
Zizi Schuh and Kian Chanter left the band in the autumn of 2002 and the remaining bandmembers eventually split. Tony Longworth and Phil Quinton recorded one last song together in 2003 which was peformed live six years later at a one-off reunion gig at the Purple Turtle in Camden Town in 2008 (with Dave Bateman on drums) . The reunion was followed a year later by Phil and Tony producing one of Tony's old songs with Dave on drums.
Tony now occasionally collaborates with Phil on his current studio project Cold Steel Blizzard (AKA Mr Dogbolter) with a free-to-download album - Fallen Idles - to be completed in 2011.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.