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Our First CD |
Meet Tony
Tony was born in Brentwood, Essex on January 30th 1969 (a year so good, Brian Adams wrote a song about it). His parents moved to a small suburb of Chicago when he was three, and his early experiences all came from over the pond. He returned to England in 1983 full time, finished school and wasted the next six years until music became (slightly) more that a hobby…
Having grown up in the USA, Tony’s musical influences were quite different from other people his age, after all, the punk revolution had never made it over there. Rock bands like Kiss, Kansas, Boston, Journey, these were the meat in his musical sandwich. From bands like these came a love of harmony, driving guitar solos and dramatic arrangements. Compare the Sex Pistols to Queen and you’ll see what I mean!
Tony was content to be a bedroom guitarist until an Terry, an old friend who also happened to play guitar and sing in a duo invited him along to a gig. During the half time break, Tony found himself with a guitar shoved in his hands so Terry could play the bass…
Finding himself in front of an audience for the first time...
Holding a guitar he’d never played before…
Looking at music he’d never played before…
In a key he never played in…
Standing in with people he’d never played with before…
So the thought kind of went like this… If you can get through THAT, you can get through anything! With hindsight, it wasn’t brilliant, but it wasn’t bad. It could have gone either way, but Tony came away with two solid ideas. One, he would do that again, because standing there with a guitar and an audience cheering is kinda like sex, the exhilaration of speed and being drunk (without the hangover) all rolled into one, and two, next time he’d be better prepared!
After a while playing guitar and singing the odd backing for Terry and Elsa, Tony found himself working in a small music shop in Peterborough (sadly no longer there) when one of the regular customers approached him looking for a lead guitarist in a new band he was putting together. Over the next six months, Step Off was born. In the course of the next two years, Step Off gained a member, lost another member, and finally collapsed under the weight of external pressure… Wives and girlfriends have a lot to say when you are in a band!In the quiet time after Step Off, Tony found himself being steered towards a mic at a karaoke evening, something he’d never done. After a few years of playing guitar, keyboards and singing backing vocals, he’d still not sang lead in front of an audience before. That old feeling was back (sex, speed, drunk, etc) only this time with a vengeance. Having sang his song and received his applause, the same feeling occurred… He’d do this again.
Within the next six months, Tony was running a karaoke at The Cavendish on Eastfield Road in Peterborough two nights a week and loving every minute of it. Del was a regular at The Cavendish, and the two soon became friends, when it became apparent that Del shared Tony’s attitude to music (“make it up as you go” and “as long as the audience are happy, what the hell”). After a lot of beer and a few jam sessions, AD HOCK was born.
Tony still gets the same buzz whenever he plays.
He never forgot the lessons he learned along the way.
1. Always have enough material ready to deal with anything they throw at you.
2. Always give them what they want, not what you want to give them.
3. Drunk and entertaining go together for all the wrong reasons.
4. If all else fails, keep a car running…
During the day Tony is an Estate agent, but don’t let that put you off him, he’s really an ok guy!
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