Tony Ashton Update by Walid Itayim
Tony Ashton today, although still writing, recording and performing music, is an established artist with four very successful art exhibitions to be very proud of!!! He has just released a new maxi-single on Repertoire in Germany called "Mr. Ashton Sings Big Red & Other Love songs".
After the break up of Paice Ashton Lord in 1977, he concentrated mainly on session work with artists like Chicken Shack and Wings in addition to writing music and jingles for TV and Radio. He continued to gig in the London area on a local club level. In the early 80's, he co-hosted a TV show with Rick Wakeman called GasTank. Every week, there would be guests ranging from Phil Lynott to Ian Paice who would sit in with the show's in-house band led by Ashton and Wakeman. In between performances, the guests would be interviewed by one of the two. It was a very interesting TV show in that some of Britain's greatest musicians guested on it. The episodes were never reshown and would now make a great series if they were to be officially released on video.
In 1984, Ashton was given a very small budget to record an album for EMI in Switzerland where he has quite a following. The result was the album "Live In The Studio", not to be released in Britain until Repertoire reissued it on CD in 1994(REP 4509-WY). Recorded in less than three days, the album is nothing more than Ashton and a few friends having a ball in the studio. It is easy to find fault in this album if one was to criticize it the way the average studio album is. Today, Ashton looks back fondly on the album but hopes that the idea of it being merely a jam session comes across to the listener. After that, Ashton went through some very hard times due to ill health and lack of work. Although he continued to gig here and there, he did not release anything until 1988 when a single called "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" was put out by Trax Records. It didn't do very well and only resurfaced recently as a bonus track on the 1994 reissue of Live In The Studio.
By the early 90's, Tony Ashton had gotten back on his feet and began his career as an artist. He had always dabbled in art as a minor hobby but now he became very serious about it. Last month, I asked him how it came about that he got involved in art. He said: "About five years ago, my mother in-law, who owns an art gallery, said to me 'if you develop a bit more, I'll give you an exhibition at my gallery'. So I did that and I sold a few pieces. And then I went on to develop a bit more and now I'm selling a lot of paintings! It's a good income for me. When the music thing is a bit dried up, it's a good sideline. And I enjoy it too!" Apart from selling a lot of paintings(ink drawings and oil/acrylic), his work can be seen on the covers of various CDs. These include Ashton-Lord "BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert" (1993 Windsong WINCD 033), "Merry XMas and a Happy New Ear"(Dec.94 Repertoire REP 8014), "Wind in the Willows" by Eddie Hardin&Friends (INAK 9010 CD) and most recently his own maxi-single "Mr. Ashton Sings Big Red & Other Love Songs" which features on the cover the illustration you can see on this page.
While all this was happening, Tony continued to gig locally and has done several tours of Germany the most recent of which was in April/May 1995 with Spencer Davis, Pete York, Colin Hodgkinson and Miller Anderson. More recently, Ashton toured Italy in mid-March of this year playing solo piano and singing and had a lot of success. As for local London gigs, he can be seen regularly at the Market Bar in Portobello Road playing Hammond Organ and singing and only accompanied by a drummer. On the 1st. of March, Tony celebrated his 50th. birthday there and old friends like Paul Martinez(from PAL), Howie Casey(from Wings and PAL) and Albie Donnelly(from Supercharge) came and played with him for a packed audience.
On the recording front, apart from the recent release of his Big Red CD, Tony has been writing a song with Mel Galley(Trapeze and Whitesnake) and another one with Jon Lord comissioned for the Bergamo Blues and Gospel Festival in Italy. He is currently discussing with Repertoire the release of two CDs. One would be part of a series called Musician's Musician which if they manage to get the permission will be a compilation of different session work he has done over the years with artists ranging from Jerry Lee Lewis to Paul McCartney. The other CD in the works is a brand new CD featuring Tony with many of his old friends and these will include Jon Lord, Ian Paice, John Entwhistle and Mel Galley to name a few. The songs he has already written with Galley and Lord will probably end up on this CD. Things are looking up for Tony Ashton once again.
One piece of information that will be interesting to Ashton Gardner&Dyke
fans is the following:
Today, Roy Dyke is semi-professional. He lives in Germany and has a day
job and only does the ocaissional gig. Kim Gardner on the other hand,
owns and runs a very successfull pub/bar in Hollywood called The Cat &
The Fiddle.
The new maxi-single "Mr Ashton Sings Big Red & Other Love Songs"
On first hearing it, I was taken aback. Gone was Tony's trademark Hammond sound and the songs sounded very MIDI. After repeated listenings, the songs grew on me in a big way!! First of all, the lyrics are full of that old Ashton sense of humour!! Hilarious stuff!! The first one Big Red is a slow to medium funk number. The lyrics refer to a real-life situation where a very well known British TV and Radio personality(sorry but no names)has an affair with a young girl about half his age. That's Big Red and the song features some girl singers chanting "he's a naughty boy..." in the chorus. The second track Travellin Javelin is Ashton actually rapping!! He comes off being very funny and not obnoxious the way most Rap music sounds. Very funky and a very melodic sung chorus. It features Mel Galley doing a very cool blusy lick in between each of the verses. The third track is typical old style Ashton called Strange Day where he talks about how strange his day has been and again it fearures some very funny interaction between him and the female vocalists. On this one, there is the old acoustic piano sound played in typical Ashton style and includes a riff very reminiscent of the riff from Resurrection Shuffle.
I asked Tony a few questions about the maxi-single:
Q: How come no trademark Hammond sound?
A: It was purely a matter of economics. The cost of bringing in a real
Hammond organ into that studio was not feasible. I tried to use a sampled
Hammond sound but it just does not sound the same. I thought either have
the real thing or none at all.
Q: Mel Galley on Travellin Javelin is the only musician besides yourself.
Why not use a real rhythm section?
A: Limitations in time and budget. That was the only way I could have
finished those songs!
Q: I think Travellin Javelin has great potential to be a hit if only you could
make a video clip for it. Has it been getting any air-play?
A: None that I know of. It's difficult to market it. I wouldn't know how. I
just hope somebody hears it and plays it.
Q: How are Repertoire promoting the single?
A: Only through the new Repertoire catalog. It's selling slowly to people
who see it in the catalog.
I find that quite outrageous!!! Repertoire have on their hands a song with great commercial potential and instead of making a video clip and pushing it on the air, the only advertising it is getting is when people see it in the label's catalog!!! To make matters worse, it has only been released in Germany so far!!! Life is damn unfair!!! Good luck, Tony Ashton! If anybody outside Germany is interested in buying the CD, just do what I did. Call CeeDee in the UK. They will order it for you from Germany at a very reasonable price!!
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