About Me
Originally from Bristol, Tony moved to London in the nineties to work with The Humble souls on the Acid Jazz lable featuring rap artist Simon (Wildski) Anniky (famed for spearheading the English rap movement). He recorded ‘Sleazeball’ with The Night Trains (also with Acid Jazz), while touring extensively with the group. It was his association with producer Spider Johnson that Tony was introduced to the London Reggae scene which lead to him working with such groups as Lions Den, Dubwiser, and eventually Freetown. It was with Freetown that he went on to work with such greats as Alton Ellis, Laurel Aitken, Derrick Morgan, Owen Gray, Winston Francis, Dave Barker (Dave and Ansell Collins), A.J Franklin, Joy Mack, to name but a few.
Together with founder members Steve Harris (guitar, vocals) and Jamaican drum legend Jah Bunny, Freetown have produced two albums of ska/rocksteady tracks, featuring Rico Rodriguez (trombone), Eddie (Tan-Tan) Thornton (trumpet), both of Jules Holland’s big band fame and international acclaim, the first album ‘Painless’ being mixed by The Mad Professor. Freetown also performed and produced ‘Live at Club Ska’ with Laurel Aitken for Trojan records and a ska version of ‘Take 5’ with Rico Rodrigez for Island records.
With his eclectic tastes and extensive musical abilities, Tony has collaborated with different artists and song-writers including Ute Lemper (‘Whenever we get close’ is the title track from her film ‘Appetite’ and appears on her greatest hits album ‘All that Jazz’).He also wrote and recorded album ‘Love in a bubble’ with Fiona Renshaw (‘Is there anything you need?’ appears in the film ‘Perfect Strangers’ starring Anna Friel and Rob Lowe). Other collaborations include the album ‘mayfair’ for electro-pop group Taxi val mentek and Catherine Feeny’s ‘Hurricane glass’
As well as live television performances in Britain (Channel four, ITV and the B.B.C.) France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, he has worked on T.V. adverts (‘Scottish widows’), T.V. adaptions (‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ for Channel four, ‘best fan award’ for MTV) and music for film (‘Life-line’, ‘Near the centre’ and Italian film ‘In Principio Erano Le Mutande’ with composer Dominik Scherrer).
Along with his continued association with Freetown, Tony is currently recording and performing with American singer/songwriter Catherine Feeny (EMI)
