Harding started in the music industry aged sixteen at the Marquee Studios in 1973. As an engineer Harding worked with The Clash, Killing Joke, Toyah and Matt Bianco. At the start of the 1980s, he began working with Stock Aitken Waterman. Harding engineered and mixed their first chart successes then their first No 1 single, "You Spin Me Round " by Dead or Alive. Further hits came from artists such as Mel and Kim, Bananarama, Rick Astley, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue. Harding's also worked in the alternative music scene. He worked with Nitzer Ebb, producing and mixing their debut album That Total Age in 1987, which also saw the band enter into a deal with the Mute label alongside Depeche Mode. Further hits followed but this time with Harding and Curnow as producers for the bands East 17, Deuce, Boyzone, 911, Caught in the Act and Let Loose. Harding and Curnow currently operate their own production company, established in the 1990s, at the Strongroom Studio complex in Shoreditch, London, focusing on artist development projects. Harding mixed the earliest Matt Bianco releases in a style which would become his signature before moving on to PWL. He worked with temporary Matt Bianco vocalist Basia both in the group and throughout her solo career in the United States, mixing her 1987 debut album Time and Tide and London Warsaw New York album in 1990. More recently he has ventured into performing with Caro on their The 4th Way album and then as a solo artist with The Story of Beginners. Both albums drew on strong songs co-written by Phil Harding with Mila Bogen. Harding worked with Lamont Dozier in Los Angeles and mixed 11 tracks on the Cliff Richard album Soulicious.
Other work
In 2009, Harding published a limited-edition run book, PWL from the Factory Floor. The 600 page PWL from the Factory Floor - Expanded Edition was released by Cherry Red Books in 2010. The book provides a behind-the-scenes look at life at the PWL studios — "The inside story of PWL Studios, the 'British Motown' of the 1980s and home to legendary producers, Stock Aitken Waterman. PWL remixer and producer Phil Harding reveals behind the scenes and the state-of-the-art techniques used at one of the most successful and fast-paced studios of all time." A companion 2CD compilation, Phil Harding Club Mixes of the 80s was released in November 2011. The double album features 25 remastered Phil Harding PWL-era remixes and rarities, by artists such as Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Eighth Wonder, ABC, Diana Ross, Holly Johnson, the Four Tops, Dead or Alive, Jimmy Ruffin, the Blow Monkeys, Imagination, Godley & Creme, Blue Mercedes, Pepsi & Shirlie, Five Star and Rick Astley. There were six previously unreleased tracks/remixes; 2 unreleased songs by Rick Astley and unreleased remixes of "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "She Wants to Dance with Me"; a Madonna "Vogue"-style restyling of Sinitta; and a previously unreleased track by Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin, "Truly Yours", produced by Harding at sessions at PWL Studios with Ruffin in 1987. A promotional-only megamix of the first 7 tracks of the 2CD was also issued.
