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BIOGRAPHY |
Beginnings
For almost ten years I was
the lead singer/ songwriter in the British rock band, the
'Little Angels'. Between the years of 1984 - 1994 we attempted
to become a band that would be remembered for high octane
heartfelt rock that also could cross musical boundaries whilst
still keeping it's integrity. Did we achieve it? Well that's
not for me to say, but I'd like to think that all those (of
you) who came to the gigs, bought the albums and became part
of the adventure almost as much as we did, felt so and had
a ball along the way!
The most amazing thing for me throughout
it all was the commitment of YOU lot. Always there, always
willing. From the beginnings of our "Rock 'n' Roll
Education Tour"; through to the final show at the
Royal Albert Hall, we walked a path of true commitment
to our music and fans. This is what I am most proud of.
When I look back across the band's existence there are
many moments that stick in my mind.
Singing on stage at Hammersmith Apollo with Roger Daltrey (above), touring
with Van Halen and Bon Jovi (above). The stadium
shows we did with ZZ Top and Bryan Adams, especially
Wembley. Going in at number one with the
"Jam" album. Singing Beatles songs in the green room
at TOTP's with Paul McCartney...the list goes on. I'm
sure a lot of you reading this have similar memories.
There is so much to mention and not enough space here
to do so. Those of you who wish to find out more can
visit various sites; you will find links at the bottom
of this page.
It
is with all this in mind that I invite you all to join me in my new
adventure. It has long been an intention of mine to get back on the
road and re-kindle the feelings of playing live and also record and
release new material. It's no exaggeration when I say that I have,
over the last five years, written and demo'd over seventy songs.
So I haven't been idle.
But what about the lost years between the
demise of the Angels and now? Where have I been? What have I been
doing...?
Post Angels
After the Albert
Hall I decided to take some time off to consider my options and
talk to various people about my future. I was determined to continue
as a singer/songwriter in one form or another, but felt I needed
some time out. So I packed my bags and travelled for a while,
taking time to let the end of what had been my life for over
ten years sink in.Eventually I started to work on new material
with a variety of people including one time Angel's collaborator,
Cliff Wade (Jam album) and Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the
Attractions). I demo'd material and finally put in place all
the necessary parts for making my first solo album that would
emerge on an independent label called Cottage Industry. The project
was to go under the moniker of: Toby and The Whole Truth, the
album: IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
Toby
and the Whole Truth
It was during
the planning of this album that I
met my now long time writing and
musical partner Roger Davis.
Roger had been the bass player in 80's metal-ers 'Marshall Law' who
had in fact spent one tour with the Angels opening. He has remained
a loyal and generous friend throughout the years and is playing bass
in my band today. I have nothing but respect for Roger, he is simply
one of the greatest musicians I have had the pleasure of working
with, and relish the thought of playing on stage with him. The other
musicians were; Russell Godwin on guitar, Pete Thomas on drums and
a variety of guests that are too long to list here.
The
“Ignorance Is Bliss” album was recorded largely in my cottage
deep in the Surrey countryside. We recorded guitars in my bathroom
and I cut vocal tracks in a booth constructed out of two old doors!
After completing most of the drum tracks at Pete Thomas's studio
(The Bonaparte rooms in Richmond) we then de-camped to a barn across
the road from my place. It had once been a granary and still contained
most of the machinery. We literally set up the desk and all the other
studio gear amidst it all and finally completed the overdubs in the
spring of 94.
From there I set off for Bryan Adams' studio in West
Vancouver to mix, employing Steve Harris to do the job. Steve had
been a young engineer who worked on the early Angels' recording sessions
and had grown with us through the years, so it was a natural progressive
step to have him use his (by now) considerable expertise and instincts
to mix what was my most personal statement to date. (You may be interested
to know that Steve is now an extremely successful producer in his
own right, working with U2, Dave Matthews Band and Counting Crows
among others.) I was not disappointed with the results and returned
to England very happy. It was then a case of releasing the album
and touring as much as I could. Simple eh? Not so.
Live
blues and illness
Unfortunately for me the course of the music biz
then began to run awry. I found myself deserted by my manager with
little explanation and at the helm of a project that had only begun
to form itself. I decided to push on despite the seemingly impossible
problems that were beginning to emerge. Also I had a tour booked
and we were invited by 'Thunder' to open for them on their current
tour. There was no going back.
To cut a long story short, the tour
was a disaster! I had underestimated the workload involved due to
my manager's departure, and quickly became ill with a serious virus
that eventually developed into pneumonia.
I WAS A MESS! The tour
was cancelled and it inevitably led to me splitting the band and
being forced to re-consider my future once again. Not a good time.
From that point on I began the task of regrouping my ideas and intentions.
Was I to become simply a singer/songwriter and try again? Or was
it better to work with other writers to try and establish myself
as a writer for others?
Licking
my wounds
I decided that I needed to relax a little and let the process
take its own time. A very wise man once told me that there is no
boat to miss in the music biz, you are as good as your next success.Time
waits for quality. I believe this and always knew that when the time
was right, and if the songs were right and I believed in the integrity
of my music, people would see it and respond. Music fans are not
stupid. They like what they like and don't need to be told what
is good and bad.
So I moved back to Yorkshire, built a studio
and sat in it composing for around a year. Within that year I
worked with Roger quite intensively as well as Mark 'Kipper'
Eldridge (Sting's collaborator and co-producer of his last album),
and Elliott Kennedy (well known “pop” writer).
New
Band!
It was at this point I met Matt Eldridge (Mark “Kipper's” brother)
who is now my drummer. I had been invited to attend a Bryan
Adams gig in Huddersfield and was inspired by Bryan to get a fully
fledged band back together, so Matt made up the numbers as I once
again got back in the rehearsal room to write and arrange more
material for a potential second studio solo album.
It's worth mentioning at this
point that I re-established my relationship with Phil Hopwood who
had worked with the band in the original “Too
Posh Too Mosh” era and who has been tireless in his
attempts to get doors opened for me and remains one of my
closest friends. (As a side step to all this I was approached
by Van Halen's camp, albeit quite casually, and suddenly
was being considered for the singing job due to the vacancy
left by Sammy Hagar! How about that for a curve ball?!) It
obviously didn't work out, but it was flattering to be considered
all the same.
During this period
we worked as a three piece and demo'd for various companies including
Sony and Island Records. I also had the absolute pleasure of working
with the producer 'Head' that had previously worked with PJ Harvey
and U2 as well as Feeder and Tricky. That experience re-taught me
the art of good recording. He put us in a studio in Yeovil and recorded
us as a band! No overdubs, so we had to work hard at the performance.
The result of this two year period was lots of demo sessions and
plenty of songs available for a potential second album - most of
which have still made the final 'A' list for this new set of recordings
I am (will be) making.
After all of this time of pushing to get back
in the frame, we were still no closer to a deal so I reluctantly
decided to call a halt to the recording and try and use what we had
to further the project.
Hollywood,
Surrey
By this point I was living in Bristol and my wife and I had
a baby on the way, so I decided to look into other areas of the entertainment
game to try something new and to get out and meet other people that
didn't have anything to do with the music biz. A chance look in a
Surrey paper whilst staying with friends suddenly introduced me to
the possibility of entering the film world.
The ad read 'Wanted: Local
men for Ridley Scott's new Movie GLADIATOR ( below) shooting
in the Bourne Woods....' I subsequently attended the casting call
and got the job much to my amazement. It meant travelling up the
M4 every week, but hell it was Ridley Scott!!! This was hog heaven
for me, film has been a passion of mine since child hood and so to
work on film sets and eventually with some of the greatest directors
of our time really was a dream made reality. This was the distraction
I had been looking for, and for nearly three years it helped keep
my passion for creativity alive as well as affording me the luxury
of having plenty of time to concentrate on getting my music right.
Also
it gave me a distinctly distant view of my career and strangely aided
me to face a lot of my demons.
I went on to work on many features
including “Sleepy
Hollow”, “End Of The Affair”, “Angela's Ashes”, “The
Visitors”
(I actually spent two days 'arresting' Jean Reno in a scene in a
medieval castle which may not sound like much, but to me that's akin
to meeting Jesus) as well as many TV productions such as “Casualty”(!), “Warriors”
and “Playing The Field” among others.
At a time when my
film career was picking up (I had got a job as Christopher Lambert's
stand-in/double in Highlander 4 can you believe) I started to get
serious inquiries about the demos I had been circulating with the
help of Phil Hopwood. I told Phil to keep plugging away and got on
with the job of playing with swords on the roof of a multi-storey
car park in east London. I then was invited to join the team for
a year-long shoot of an American war series 'Band of Brothers' The
rumour was Spielberg (his company DreamWorks was part funding with
HBO and the BBC) was going to direct! So I signed up quickly and
spent the whole of 1999 in Hatfield running around with a rubber
gun, jumping into trenches and getting blown up. Great fun. Spielberg
didn't end up directing but I did get to meet him in the fuselage
of an American WW2 troop plane! (This series aired on BBC 2 in October/November
2001), you may have seen it?
New
Start
Towards the end of the shoot, I had a verbal offer from a publishing
company called 'Strictly Confidential' a new company allied to 'Play
It Again Sam' Records and the EDEL group of companies. Mike Chadwick
(part of the team that made Vital distribution so successful - they
distributed Oasis among others) was keen on my songs. I was thrilled
that someone would put their hands in their pockets and give me a
platform to re-establish my self. No big talk and hollow promises,
actual cash and a place to call home for my songs. For this, I will
never be able to thank Mike. It went beyond mere money; this was
support, trust, acknowledgement, encouragement and tangible evidence
of his commitment.
I then set about writing again, and this period
led to me meeting Nick Dunne, my guitar player. He had been a guitar
player in many bands the Angels bumped into in the early days, most
notably 'Creed' no, not that one, but a more modest outfit with the
same name. That band also featured another guitar player - Grant
Kirkhope the trumpet player in the big bad horns! Small world. We
did some recording, and although it was fun it didn't come anywhere
near doing what I wanted it to do, it cemented our friendship and
I saw in Nick a real hunger to get out there and play. In fact his
constant playing around the country helped me think again about touring.
So
we are now at the beginning of 2001, and I was to endure yet another
period of waiting whilst the new demo's made the rounds. Once again
waiting for phone calls and feedback from the Industry. It had begun
to feel like the same old treadmill. Me, the artist waiting for some
faceless pundit to either seal my doom or give me a break! I had
had enough of the politics, the posturing for position, the endless
shallow discussions about what is and is not 'cred' and 'cool'.
It
took yet another Bryan Adams show in August of this year, to make
me finally see sense.
I
was invited, along with a bunch of friends, to an open air gig in
Nottingham, CITY IN THE PARK to be precise, organised by one
of this countries most successful and respected promotion experts
and club land guru, Andy Copping, the genius behind ROCK CITY
and one of my oldest music biz mates. Since the end of the Angels
Andy had developed his promoter arm to spectacular effect and
was increasing his notoriety throughout the industry as a dynamic
no-nonsense operator. I met him at the show and spent the day reminiscing
with quite a few old friends who happened to be there. I walked the
crowd and apart from spotting Angels shirts among the throng
and the occasional person recognising me, started to get back
that feeling of what it felt like to play live. My blood was
up and I couldn't help the feeling of desperation to be back
on the stage doing what I always felt was my best skill, ENTERTAINING!
I
left the gig with mixed emotions; I had a family and starting again
was a huge task, but at the same time knowing to the marrow of
my bones that it was my destiny!
I give most credit to my wife,
who has stuck by me the whole way, encouraging me and trying
to help me understand my self. Never has she discouraged, infact
when times were at their toughest I was the one refusing to see
the right course of action to take, even though it often stared
me in the face! Stubborn you see.
Taking back control has taught
me one thing; don't give up! Keep going forward and never let anyone
convince you that they know better when it comes to understanding
your own instinctive feelings and urges. The corporate managers
and, usually, non-musical money men who control the music business
don't have all the answers, indeed their genius, if they actually
have any, is in waiting for others to 'create' and acting upon
it. The creative among us are the most delicate and paradoxically
the most powerful beings on the planet. Without the thinkers, the
doers are nowhere.
