Phil Chisnall
There’s a certain magic in the way music finds us. For Phil Chisnall,
There's a certain magic in the way music finds us. For Phil Chisnall, that spark began as a young boy in the 1960s, when the sound of The Beatles first filled the airwaves and captured his imagination. He remembers sitting in class, sketching guitars in the back of his schoolbooks and being told off for it — the beginnings of a lifelong obsession with six strings and song.
"My brother came home one day with a guitar that my uncle had built," Phil recalls. "To me it looked massive — not like the ones John and George played — but that was it. I was hooked."
For many years, Phil was a familiar face on the local live circuit, playing in pubs and restaurants across Merseyside. But it wasn't until 1998 that he truly found his musical home in the folk scene.
"It was around that time I started teaching guitar in the evenings," he says. "One of my students asked if I ever went to the Magazine Folk Club — I didn't even know about it! From there, I discovered the community, the songs, the people. I thought: this is where I want to be."
That discovery opened up a world of friendships and collaborations that would shape the next chapter of his musical life. From running clubs and concerts to lending a hand wherever music was being made, Phil quickly became one of those "good folk" who keep live music alive on the Wirral.
Phil's songwriting process is something of a mystery, even to him. "Most of my lyrics just fall out of the guitar," he laughs. "There are very few I've ever gone back and changed. It all tends to come in one go."
He credits Dougie MacLean as one of his biggest influences — a songwriter whose warmth and storytelling inspired Phil both as a performer and as a teacher. "One of the things I learned from Dougie," he says, "is that a good song is one people can sing along to by the end of it. It needs a hook, something that stays with them. That's the magic of it."
Like so many musicians, Phil faced a creative crossroads during the pandemic. But from that challenge came a new idea: Lunchtime Live, a daytime event at a local café that's now become a much-loved fixture on the Wirral's musical calendar.
"It started as a way to get a gig after lockdown," he explains, "but it turned into something really special. The café asked me to do it every week — I said maybe not every week! — but we made it work. Now we've had over forty different acts, and it's still going strong."
For Phil, community and creativity go hand in hand. Whether he's teaching, performing, or hosting, his goal is the same: to share music that means something — songs that comfort, connect, and inspire.
As he says with a smile, "It's all part and parcel of who you are. Music's in you — you just have to let it out."
