2006 Britannia album

Wirt, Crowder and Coffman joined Philp to become the Automatics for the 2006 Britannia album, which is a collection of songs about England and Englishness from an expatriate’s point of view released on Dork Records UK/U.S. Veteran DJ Mike Read in London invited Philp to tour England playing some of the songs in the summer of 2006 and the single “Old River Thames” went to number one on the Big L/Capital Radio charts in London in January 2007. After the release of Britannia in the U.S. in the spring of 2007, other songs found airplay among independent DJs such as Jonathan_L at KUPD-Phoenix, leading Philp to perform at the South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas. By September 2007, other singles had found airplay including “England Expects”, “Who Died and Made You Brian Jones” and “British Beat”, which features guitar work by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols . Though Philp’s style has changed and is more oriented to song-writing and less toward pure punk, Britannia still features many of his friends from the punk rock days including Ian McCallum ( Stiff Little Fingers ), Mick Rossi (Slaughter and The Dogs), and Michael Des Barres ( Power Station ).