In February 1988 Leo signed with Fashion Records as a singer/songwriter. By September of that year he had reached No. 6 in the Reggae Chart with his highly acclaimed first single Rocking the Night Away”/”Food of Love”.
Phillip went on to establish himself as a successful songwriter/producer, with a string of reggae hits by other Fashion acts, including the No. 1 hit single “Two Timing Lover” by Janet Lee Davies, “Crazy Feeling” by Peter Spence, “Lets Show the World” by Nerious Joseph and producing the lovers duo Zuruchi's first single "Celebrate Our Love" winning Reggae Songwriter of the Year two consecutive years in row in 1989 and 1990. Phillip also did sessions on drum programming, keyboards and backing vocals on a string of artists like Barry Boom, Nerious Joseph, & Cutty Ranks and also producing 2 songs for the Sandra Cross album “Foundation Of Love” for Mad Professor at Ariwa.
As an artiste in his own right, Phillip reached No. 2 with “I Wanna be Loved by You”. He then Produced covers of the hit singles “Why do Fools Fall in Love”, “Good Thing Going” and "Young, Gifted & Black" which were duets with DJ superstar CJ Lewis. His debut album in January 1990, entitled “Lover of Music”, which included 9 of his own compositions, reached No. 3 in the Reggae Album Chart to great critical acclaim and featured top ten reggae singles "I'm Missing You", "We Belong Together" (duet with Marie Dawn) and debut single "Rocking The Night Away".
A desire to expand his talents into other areas of music, ie: soul/dance, led to a prolific writing partnership with bassist/songwriter Steve Bingham of which they wrote over 170 titles together, this led them to forming the Breakin’ Loose Record Label as an outlet for their songs. The first single entitled “Hypnotic Love”, which featured DJ CJ Lewis reached No. 1 in the UK Reggae Chart and remained in the chart for an outstanding 6 months. This was followed by “Today”, which was the title track of his second album that reached No. 5 in the UK Reggae Chart.
Having learnt about running a record company Phillip went on to form his own company of which he called “Sharma Productions” (which he later renamed Big Lion Productions).
After a string of releases Phillip was approached by EMI Records. He then signed as a recording artist. This led to 2 top 60 National Chart positions “Second Chance” and “Thinking About Your Love” which featured the DJ Top Cat on the street versions, opening up a whole new market for him. Whilst he was with EMI Records Phillip also Produced CJ Lewis’ first major album “Dollars” recorded for MCA Records of which he had a No. 3 with "Sweet's for my Sweets" and another 2 consecutive releases which reached the UK top twenty in the British Mainstream National Chart. The album went on to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide. CJ’s second album “Rough & Smooth” again produced by Phillip went platinum in Japan, had a No.1 taken off it called “ R to the A” in France. Phillip then got his own record company Sharma Productions back on the road. His next release his third album entitled “Just 4 U”. The first single from the album is called “Angel Heart”/”I Wanna be the One”, which sparked a lot of interest especially in Japan.
In 1997 a limited release of Phillip Leo's fifth album "Down 2 Earth" was circulated of which the top ten reggae single "Summer Girl" featuring Glamma Kid was taken. Phillip also embarked on music production & remixing for other artists like: Louchie Lou & Michie One, Carrol Thompson, Jack Radics, Japanese DJ Nahki, Judy Cheeks, Sean Mcguire, Musical Youth, Charlene Smith, Awesome, Rick Clarke and many more.
