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Anne Whitaker

Instruments played:

• Voice
• Bass
• Keyboards
• Flute
• Sax
• Tin whistle
• Baroque flute
• Egg Shaker
• FX

By day: castrates cats, inspects meat, rescues dying poodles, aids pregnant sheep.

By night: well, more of the same really.

I don't really know what I am doing in this band, except that I seem to have been here forever, and never have found a permanent position, except perhaps the band bully. Every year, I seem to move instruments - maybe it's because I am the band spare part - anything that the rest of the band have run out of hands or mouths to do gets dumped on my plate.

Claim to fame number 1: Swimbledon '85 (see UK Trivial Pursuit Genus II Edition)

Claim to fame number 2:. 7 1/2 weeks!

Claim to fame number 3: 3 1/2 weeks!!!!!

What the rest of Phoenix thinks:

• Mike: just don't mention the mains lead for the Juno, ok. Not even a little bit? Please? Anne doesn't do herself justice up there - the proper term is multitalented. Very. Call me biased if you like (she is my wife), but anyone who can learn bass guitar from scratch to sufficient standard to be recorded in 7 1/2 weeks and sax to live performance standard in 3 1/2 is hardly a spare part. She has one heck of a lot of stage presence, and it's infectious. She also has one heck of a pair of legs. Annie wishes they were infectious.
• Annie: She sings, plays flute and keyboards and castrates cats. Now that's what I call musically versatile.
• Tim: Anne has been know to drag various members of Filkdom along to veterinary emergencies , as bovine midwives and/or feline anaesthetists...although I have yet to experience this first-hand. Anne is a fearsome lady at times until you get to know her at which point you realise that she only castrates things that really annoy her... By the way Mike... can I mention Black &Decker strimmer leads safely?
• Lissa: I would hardly call Anne the band spare part, given the range of things she does in our songs. She may be more migratory than the rest of us, but we all shift about at least a little. Phoenix wouldn't be the same without her. Nor would my cats.
• Phil: Anne has truly enriched my life. Without her I doubt I would have ever spent a Saturday evening pulling on a rope in a cowshed, or a Sunday morning examining a Great Dane's entrails (she read the future and announced it involved me peeling potatoes for lunch...)