Music Style Commercial R&B

Musical Influences Luther, Jonny Gill, and Levert

Artist History Tony Soul, singer, songwriter, keyboard player and producer from Hertfordshire, UK, started his life in the music arena at the age of just 12. From the good old days of carrying around an old piece of lino and a huge “beat box”, Tony has a long list of achievements to add to his musical C.V. It all started in the early Hip Hop days messing around in the school playground, listening and break dancing to all the old school rap greats. Influenced by many rap/Hip Hop artists, Tony then turned his hand to writing and performing rap music. It was then he realised that music was going to play a massive part in his life. At the age of 13, his parents, Jan and Del realised that their son had talent, a brain for music and the ability to write and perform. With Tony’s talent in mind they treated him to a keyboard, Technics SL1210 turntables, a microphone and a mixing desk. This gave Tony the drive and determination to put all his efforts into the wonderful world of music. Tony then, at 14 put his DJ equipment to good use by playing in local schools, youth clubs and weddings as a disc jockey with great thanks to his chauffeur, His Dad. Tony’s mobile discotheque, Soultronic, was a little different to others, as he would incorporate his own live rap performances into his DJ set allowing him to promote his own material. This was always a winner with the audience! Over the next couple of years, Tony’s gigging career just escalated from appearing in schools and youth clubs to playing at night clubs and bars in and around the Kent coast areas. It was then Tony was noticed by a management company who immediately signed him up. From then on life for Tony was simply a dream come true, spending 8 months in a major studio writing and recording his demo album. During Tony’s new studio experience, he discovered that he also had a very strong soul singing voice. He then decided to diversify his music ability to singing, with fat beats and huge harmonies to sit along side his existing talents. Life just couldn’t get better for Tony. That was until Steve, his manager informed him that three major labels were battling for his signature. Tony then landed himself with a showcase gig at the massive Canterbury Jailbreak ’91 event playing along side names such as; Danni Minogue, Desmond Decker, Aswad, Suzi Quatro, Boy George and many more. For the next few weeks, Tony’s name was in lights around the Kent coast area with interviews on Invicta FM and features in all the local newspapers. With this huge event in Tony’s diary, he knew this gig needed to be impressive and with only four weeks to go put together a dance troop, the Soultronic Dancemasters to assist him on stage. Tony’s hard work and choreography during the build up to the big day paid off with an outstanding performance in front of a massive crowd of 12,500 people. The audience’s reaction was amazing and the A&R guys couldn’t move fast enough. The next step for Tony was to make a video so Steve hired a camera crew and a nightclub for the shooting. The video was then later featured on BBC2’s Dance Energy with Normski along side some massive artists such as Boyz 11 Men. At this stage of his exiting life, Tony was in popular demand with Record labels, newspapers, TV and even radio stations. In 1992 Tony co-hosted a Children In Need radio show with presenters such as DLT, Simon Bates and Howard Hughes. People were calling in to the show pledging money for Tony to ad-lib raps to their chosen subject. That night, Tony raised a considerable amount of money for the Children In Need charity. Tony was under a lot of pressure to sign for the label that Steve decided was the right record company to go with. Unfortunately for Tony, the solicitor that was appointed to him took far too long analysing the contracts. By this time the record companies interest had faded. Tony was then back to playing pubs and clubs in London and the Home Counties. Tony’s philosophy is “If you have talent use it. You will have knock back’s, but don’t let that deter you from the musical gift you possess. Persevere and your love for music will prevail”. In 1997 Tony invested quite a lot of money into a home recording studio and formed Smooth Groove Productions with his best friend and co-producer Matt Clooney. After 12 months recording Tony landed an opportunity of a lifetime, supporting the lovely Danni Minogue on her ’98 UK Tour. Once again this sparked off interest with some of the major players in the music industry, newspapers and radio stations. The gig proved to be a success and Tony had a great time. Today Tony is in the process of writing and recording his new album, which should be ready for release by September 2002. “If you have talent use it. You will have knock back’s, but don’t let that deter you from the musical gift you possess. Persevere and your love for music will prevail. All in all music is a wonderful thing”. Tony Soul.

Instruments Keyboards, Bass and Jazz Guitar

Albums Rollin

Location St. Albans, Hertfordshire - United Kingdom

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).