The Pretty Things’ rebel-in-chief remembered by the people who knew him best: lifelong bandmate Dick Taylor and manager Mark St John

PHIL MAY | 1944-2020

FRIEDHELM VONESTORFF/K & KULFKRUGER OHG/REDFERNS

DICK TAYLOR: “I metPhil at Sidcup Art School in 1961. He had short hair at that point, he always wore a nice, tidy blazer, and he was into tennis - I was sure he always fancied himself as Robert Culp from I Spy! We played guitars in the boys’ cloakroom and we played music in the canteen every lunchtime, everything from Peppermint Lounge stuff through to Howlin’ Wolf, Woody Guthrie, modern jazz. Phil absorbed it all. I was already rehearsing with Mick [Jagger], and Keith [Richards] was also at the school - he had a little archtop that he tried to play like Scotty Moore. Again, Phil would be listening. So when I quit the Stones, Phil nagged me into starting another band.

“As soon as we started playing, Phil transformed. If you look at the early footage, I’m standing there being a bit of a toegazer and Phil is really going for it out front. And although at that time he probably lacked technical skill as a singer, he made up for it in enthusiasm. People really warmed to him. The image was almost unconscious at first. Phil just started growing his hair longer and longer. The image got latched onto by the press - ‘The Wild Men Of Rock’n’Roll’, all that bullshit. Really we were just who we were.