Biography
Dr. Phibes came together during the late 1980s while its members were studying music at South Cheshire College of Further Education in England, soon establishing itself as one of the northwest’s leading dance acts. The group’s name derives from a pair of unrelated Hammer Horror films. Howard King Jnr. supplies vocals and guitars, Lee Belsham plays bass, and Keith York handles drums. Their first release, the 1990 twelve-inch ‘Sugarblast’, paved the way for a full-length debut that arrived in April 1991, topped the independent charts for two weeks, and drew extensive press coverage together with strong critical praise. The band’s sound fuses blues, funk, and psychedelia in an eclectic yet predominantly rhythmic style. Sessions for the follow-up album were interrupted when Belsham suffered a shoulder injury, after which York left in the group’s van unaware that Belsham was still positioned on its roof.