Philip Neil Murray (born 27 August 1950) is a Scottish musician, best known as the former bassist of Whitesnake,[14] the Brian May Band, Black Sabbath,[15] and Gary Moore.

After Cozy Powell decided to fold Hammer, Murray and Airey joined a revamped version of the British progressive jazz-rock band Colosseum II.

This line-up of Colosseum II lasted for the first 1976 album Strange New Flesh (a title suggested by Murray, being a snippet of the lyric from their cover of Joni Mitchell's Down To You).

It did not have the blackness of bands like Weather Report, but offered more accessible melodies and rock power than the more "intellectual" Canterbury fusion scene presented at the time.

In late 1977, ex-Deep Purple singer David Coverdale was auditioning drummers for his new band Whitesnake, which featured guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden.

Murray's melodic basslines, influenced by Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser and even Jaco Pastorius, stand out from the rock bass-playing of the time.

Coverdale reshuffled the band as Bernie Marsden departed, replaced by Mel Galley, but Micky Moody and Jon Lord returned to the fold after initial uncertainty.

The period 1979–1982 also saw Murray participating in a number of solo albums from Bernie Marsden, Graham Bonnet, Cozy Powell, Forcefield and Jon Lord, sometimes playing with drummer Simon Phillips, which led in 1981 to Murray playing with a trio of superstars – Jeff Beck, Sting and Eric Clapton – at two of the Secret Policeman's Other Ball series of four concerts at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

This event was filmed and recorded; Murray is to be heard on "Crossroads" with Beck, Clapton and Simon Phillips even though the album sleeve does not contain any individual credits.

After failed attempts at hiring Adrian Vandenberg and Mama's Boys' Pat McManus, Coverdale welcomed John Sykes (Tygers of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy) to the band.

1984 was occupied with touring, headlining in the UK and Europe; however, Mel Galley injured his arm, resulting in him having to leave the band and John Sykes taking care of all guitar duties on the road after a couple of months.

In April of that following year, Jon Lord left the band for the Deep Purple reunion thus making Whitesnake a four-piece outfit (Coverdale, Murray, Sykes, Powell) with off-stage keyboard player Richard Bailey (ex-Magnum).

Whilst still waiting for things to move in the Whitesnake camp, Murray teamed up with guitarists Bernie Marsden and Mel Galley in the short-lived MGM.

In 1987, Murray joined Japanese hard rock band Vow Wow, who had recently relocated to England, after having worked with its guitarist Kyoji Yamamoto on the second album by Phenomena.

Vocalist Genki Hitomi wanted to remain in Japan, so the group recorded what was supposed to be their last album titled Helter Skelter (1988), which was produced by Tony Taverner, who had previously engineered for Black Sabbath.

Live, Murray was able to showcase various bass styles that had not been able to flourish in Whitesnake, ranging from Jack Bruce-type improvising to heavy metal soloing to delicate false harmonics.

After Black Sabbath reformed their 1981 Mob Rules lineup in 1991 with Dio, Butler and Appice for Dehumanizer, Cozy Powell and Murray started a band project and recorded songs with singer John West (Artension, Royal Hunt).

The core of the Brian May Band (Murray, Powell, Spike Edney and Jamie Moses) became the basis of the SAS Band (Spike's All Stars), which continues to this day, playing sporadic live gigs with many famous guest vocalists, including Paul Rodgers, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Chaka Khan, Arthur Brown, Lionel Richie, Bob Geldof and many others.

1996 and 1997 saw Murray and Cozy Powell helping to kickstart the return of the legendary Peter Green (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac) in his Splinter Group.

1998 also saw the posthumous release of Cozy Powell's Especially for You featuring vocal phenom John West (Royal Hunt, Artension, Badlands, Lynch Mob, Ten Man Push), guitarist Michael Casswell (Brian May Band), and keyboardist Lonnie Park (John West, Wrathchild America, Ten Man Push).

The only available recording of this line-up (with Don Airey on keys and John Lingwood on drums) is on Micky Moody's solo album I Eat Them for Breakfast (2000).