Phil Allcock IF SAM

Phil Allcock first encountered UK filk at a convention in Cambridge in 1985 and arguably neither has ever been the same since. Phil is primarily a singer/guitarist/songwriter but can also occasionally be seen on stage playing electric guitar, keyboards, drums or The Evil Villain. Or just being blamed for pretty much anything and everything (“It’s All Phil’s Fault”).

Phil is perhaps best known for his parodies and has won 8 UK Filk Convention awards (“Sams”) over the years for various acts of applied wickedness including Crying All the Way to the Bank [Ferryman], Beacon Men of Gondor [Bedstead Men] and Thank You Kindly [Thank You for the Music]. Though any court would surely also be asked to take Pies [Lies], Sidney’s Malady [Signy Mallory], Meetings [Feelings], Damn You Autocorrect! [Love Changes Everything] and many other similar crimes into consideration.

Whilst no stranger to making folk cry with what he does to other people’s songs, especially said other people, he is also fond of doing so with his own original material. Anna won a Sam Award for Best Serious Song, but songs such as Golden Gypsy, Precious Moments, One Left Behind, Empty Chair and Men of War are known to often have audiences reaching for the tissues. Or in the case of Men of War, the pianist, but we digress.

Phil was a member of the British filk rock group Phoenix, usually as vocalist or rhythm guitarist, but equally often playing Musical Instruments (so to speak) and covering on keyboards or bass guitar or drums as other band members moved around!  Phoenix released two albums, Dancing Flames (cassette) and Into the Fire (CD), and won two SAM awards in their own right.

He was Guest of Honour at the UK Filkcon Transept in 1995 and Interfilk Guest at Second Concerto in New Jersey in 1997. As part of Phoenix he was a guest at Filkcontinental in Germany in 1998, since when he has been a regular attendee at the German filk convention.

Phil was one of the original contributors to the Before the Dawn shared-world filk saga, introducing the character of The Captain, a role he was (20 or more years later!) to play on stage in both its 2009 and 2014 stage productions.  He also played key part in the production of both those performances, principally in the evolution and maintenance of a (hopefully!) coherent script, but also writing or co-writing additional songs for several characters as needed.

As well as Before the Dawn, Phil has appeared in several other stage musicals or performances at UK cons namely Dan Who? (as the villain), Full Moon on the Water (as The Thief) and Trial by Landsmeet (as the villain).  Typecasting?  No, what’s that?

He got into filkcon-running largely through being In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time (i.e. on stage in the filk concert at the 1988 UK Eastercon) but has since succumbed to this disease on multiple further occasions, having been (including  2016) on the committee for seven of the 28 UK filk cons. He is also one of the few who can claim to have attended all 27 of those conventions to date!

He is married to the lovely Lissa [that’s Lee-sa, btw, not how it looks!], having met her in the Gopher Hole at the 1990 Worldcon in the Hague, and they have two children, Alex and Amy.