Phil Judd

aka Mr Phudd, Judsy


Troubled genius, avant-pop savant, call him what you will, Phil Judd is one of the most significant talents to have emerged from the claustrophobia of mid-70s NZ, and his career path the most bewildering.

Think about it: from Split Enz to the Suburban Reptiles to The Swingers to solo soundtrack work to Schnell Fenster to Mr Phudd. It's quite a stretch, but everything Judd has turned his attention to has contained his tense, acerbic humour and singular take on pop music.

Schnell Fenster concert advertisement, Powerstation Auckland, Jan 6 1989. From Book of BiFim, 1988.
Phil Judd, circa 1982
Phil Judd backstage 1976
Phil Judd, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975
Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection- Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043B-34
Phil Judd & Tim Finn - Long Hard Road
The Swingers at TV2 Studio, Auckland, November 1979.
Photo credit: Peter Tocher
The Dream Away solo single, 1983
Phil Judd in 1976 onstage with Split Enz in Auckland
Phil Judd with The Swingers at Mainstreet, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Peter Tocher
The Swingers at Mainstreet, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Photo by Peter Tocher.
Schnell Fenster - OK Alright A Huh Oh Yeah
Phil Judd's 2014 album Play It Strange, built around a song of the same title, written and performed - but never recorded - by Phil Judd with Split Enz in the mid 1970s
The Swingers - Counting The Beat
Phil Judd with Glenn Nacey at left, loading out of The Windsor Castle in Parnell, Auckland, after a Swingers gig in the early 1980s
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
The Swingers - It Ain't What You Dance It's The Way That You Dance It
Split Enz- Spellbound (The Grunt Machine)
Schnell Fenster - Heroes Let You Down
Phil Judd - Rendezvous
The Swingers at TV2 Studio, Auckland, November 1979
Photo credit: Photo by Peter Tocher
Phil Judd - Dream'n' Away
The 1990 Phil Judd and Tim Finn single The Hard Road, taken from the soundtrack of the 1990 movie The Big Steal. To date it's the only single released by the founding members of Split Enz as a duo.
Schnell Fenster - Love-Hate Relationship
Phil Judd in a 1983 Mushroom publicity shot
The Swingers in 1981 - Phil Judd, Bones Hillman, Buster Stiggs
The Swingers - More
Phil Judd with The Swingers at Mainstreet, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Peter Tocher
Phil Judd - No-One’s Best Man
The Swingers - One Good Reason
Phil Judd and Tim Finn, 1975
Phil Judd with The Swingers at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Peter Tocher
Phil Judd with The Suburban Reptiles on the Saturday Night Stay At Home video shoot. L to r: Zero, Buster Stiggs, Phil Judd
Photo credit: Simon Grigg Collection
Untitled, the 2008 album by The UnTh!nkables, a duo of Phil Judd, and Roger Grierson (a New Zealander, formerly of Australian band The Thought Criminals).
Phil Judd 1976
Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection
Phil Judd in his flat in 1985 just before heading to London to play on Tim Finn's Big Canoe album
Phil Judd in a still from Starstruck
Suburban Reptiles - Saturday Night Stay At Home
Split Ends 1973 L to R: Wally Wilkinson, Phil Judd, Mike Chunn, Geoff Chunn, Brian "Tim" Finn
The Swingers - One Track Mind
Phil Judd, 1976
Phil Judd and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, London 1976 while recording Split Enz's Second Thoughts album
Phil Judd recording in Auckland with For You with Split Ends, February 1973 at Stebbings Studios, Auckland
The Enemy with Phil Judd - Alec Bathgate, Chris Knox, Mike Dooley, Phil Judd
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Split Ends at Ngaruawahia, January 1973 - Mike Howard, Phil Judd, Brian Tim Finn, Jonathan Michael Chunn
Photo credit: Photo by Larry Jordan
Schnell Fenster's 1988 single, Whisper
Labels:

Ripper


Mushroom Records


Mana


MCA

Trivia:

Judd is also an accomplished visual artist, and has incorporated his flair with a brush and paint into his album artwork. His brilliant cover for the classic Enz album Mental Notes is a case in point, although his distinctive visual style can be found dotted throughout his career, even up to the arresting artwork for his last two solo albums. He has exhibited sporadically, and several galleries own his work.

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