Hi, I’m Paddy Phillips
Songwriter and Musician

I have always been crazy about music. When I was 2, my glamorous great-uncle, who lives in the Bahamas and was a great friend of the late Sean Connery, nicknamed me the "Little Bopper". He recognised my love of music, even at that age. When I was 7 or 8, my older cousins started a rock band and after that, there was no going back, I just knew my life had to be in music. But how? 

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The complication was I was born with a mild physical disability (hemiplegia) which effects the left side of my body, giving me reduced motor skills in my left hand. So as a natural right-hander, it was always going to be a huge challenge to learn to play my dream instrument  - the guitar. But I tried anyway, even though fretting the notes and forming the chords was next to impossible. 

 

Salvation came one day when I was about 16 and I met the father of a boy who had the same disability as me.  Luckily, he also happened to be a guitar teacher. He recommended flipping  around the  nylon strings on my cheap acoustic and playing left-handed. It worked!  Hundreds of hours and lots of blood, sweat and tears (and blisters) later,  I’m a decent guitarist with a Diploma in Guitar Performance, and now a Degree in Songwriting from BIMM, Brighton.