Right ok, I’m gonna refer to myself in the third person in an attempt to make it look as though someone else has written this, because it seems to be the thing to do... And it makes me look important.
Tony Reid began playing guitar at the age of 16 and started writing songs almost immediately. Living in a small seaside town on the Wirral, he drew inspiration from watching old people drool and pass wind, and working behind the various bars strewn about the town. It was a time of discovery for Tony Reid, as he experienced the pleasure and pain of love through the turnover of new waitresses in the bars. Well, the beer cellars to be more accurate. And the waitresses weren’t ALWAYS turned over, depending on how ugly they were.
Tony Reid started working with Atomic Kitten’s writing and production team after mistakenly auditioning for the famous girl-band itself after a heavy night of drinking. The Atomic Kitten team (ex OMD members Andy McCluskey and Stu Kershaw) took pity on the shambolic individual that stood before them and took him under their wing for two years. During this time, the would-be kitten learnt how to program, produce, perform and talk shite like everyone else in the music business. Unfortunately, his engineering skills never amounted to very much - as you can hear from the Neon and Blood demo on this page, he clearly still has shit in his ears.
The recordings Tony would make at the Pink Museum led to interest from a management company based in Toronto, who organised a recording session in Nashville, Tennesse. This turned out to be a bag of underpants due not to the inexperience of the engineer, but probably his sheer lunacy clearly indicated by his worrying obsession with firearms. The lack of focus in the recordings could also be attributed to the programmer, who insisted on talking constantly about his numerous visitations by angels while stroking his very "christian rock" goatee. The whole affair was most upsetting for Tony as Bob Babbitt was playing bass on the demo. As some of you will know, Babbitt was second only to James Jamerson as house bassist at Motown, providing basslines for tracks such as Edwin Starr’s "War" and The Temptations’ "Ball of Confusion" and Smokey Robinson’s "Tears of a Clown". Apart from being a tremendous musician (as one would expect), he was a great guy and became the only person Tony could go for a beer with after recording in the studio/asylum.
Anyway, despite the crapness of the demo, it caught the attention of Jeff Wayne (of War of the Worlds fame) and he insisted on offering Tony a deal to produce the first album. After many meetings and phone conversations and a preliminary recording session at Jeff’s home studio, everything was in place for a deal to be signed; THEN it turns out that Jeff has been commissioned to remix and remaster War of the Worlds for surround sound. This led to a collapse of the intended collaboration, despite Jeff being a brilliant composer/producer/all-round good chap.
The demo also caught the attention of a music lawyer/manager in LA by the name of Brian Rohan, who was once the lawyer for the Grateful Dead and Aerosmith. Brian Rohan shopped the demo to several major record labels including Sony, Epic, Columbia and J Records. It was a matter of days before the record companies contacted Brian and requested showcases to see the material performed live. This led to the formation of Pachanga. Tony had six weeks to put a band together and rehearse them before he was due to go out to LA and NY and showcase. To cut a long story short, James Diener from J records was to enter negotiations with the lawyer, only to withdraw a few weeks after Pachanga returned to England. Maroon 5 were signed soon after Pachanga’s deal evaporated. It was at this Point that Tony started thinking about ways to die. Well, not strictly true. It was upon hearing Maroon 5’s first single.
The failure of the American excursion led to Tony’s girlfriend of three years to offer her opinion on his career: "If you were going to make it, you would have by now."
It was during this all-time low that Tony caught the attention of Brian Reza, who considered Tony to have "classic" potential, whatever that means. Brian acted as Rob Davies’ manager of top pop songwriter for Kylie, Atomic Kitten, Blue fame. Tony only hoped this wasn’t Brian’s definition of "classic". Reza suggested a more acoustic slant on the music and so Tony took his set back to the streets. Well... Bar Ca Va, more accurately - to the open mic night Mixomacoustic, run by Collen, Monkey and Tribal, to get his acoustic set running smoothly. Much merriment ensued, along with a sharp learning curve. It was in April 2004 that Tony met Mark Wainwright (of Aliensound studios), a brilliant up and coming producer from the bustling metropolis of Bickerstaffe, Lancs and they began to work on new, finished tracks, rather than demos. The finished result is the album "In an Unknown Hemisphere, essentially recorded in the format of a rock trio, featuring the awesome talents of Terry Shaughnessy on drums and Mark Wainwright on bass.The new tracks featured above called "Neon and Blood" and "The Jolly Hostage" are brand new demos recorded in my home studio for the follow up album to "In an Unknown Hemisphere".
THE FOLLOWING IS A BRAND NEW REVIEW OF THE ALBUM BY OVERPLAY.COM
According to his bio, Liverpool’s Tony Reid once auditioned for Atomic Kitten. There may have been drink involved, but as the twelve songs on ‘In An Unknown Hemisphere’ demonstrate, it would have been hard for him to pull off shimmying around in a boob tube singing “Whole Againâ€. Instead, it’s clear that his true forte is in assembling sleek, sophisticated rock music. Through stories of love, loss, redemption and woodland creatures, his is a voice that rumbles with conviction like Chris Cornell or Free’s Paul Rodgers. With all the power and grace of a prize fighter, this is a confident, grown-up sound that leaves you in no doubt that he means every word.Broadly, the lp is divided between muscular, schmaltz-free ballads and a variety of edgy mid-paced poppers. In the latter camp, “Blood In The Water†crackles with twanging Dick Dale energy like Chris Isaak’s “Blue Hotel†on steroids and “Ounce Of Faith†is an energetic New Wave hustle in the shape of early Elvis Costello. “Black Beaches†also packs a punch, while “These Four Walls†throws in a subtle jazz inflection and a lighter touch to accommodate some nimble poetry (“I feel like a lion without any preyâ€, sings Tony).From the electrified folk of â€Heavy Metalâ€, the Led Zep-lite of “Fairytale†and the Soundgarden muscle of “Dog Dayâ€, it’s clear that Tony approaches ballads in their broadest sense. “Take Your Number†adds bloopy effects and beats for a moment of urbanity; but the skyscraping trio of “Tell Meâ€, “You’d better Run†and “How Many Times†could offer out Embrace for the chance to go in the dictionary as the definition of â€â€˜sweepingâ€. Unlike the Bradford contingent, however, Tony is careful, by and large, to tone down the sentimentality. The latter tune, uplifting as it is, still asks the question, “How many times can a good man wake before he takes to cutting throats?†Still, isn’t it time we had a few more singer/songwriters with this much attitude?
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