Tony Grey Project Live In London
Tony Grey - Bass
Gregoire Maret - Harmonica
Romain Collin - Piano - Keys
John Shannon - Guitar
Obed Calvaire - Drums
Saturday 10 December 2011
Thursday 8 December 2011
Don't Look For Love LIVE UNRELEASED
Don't Look For Love LIVE UNRELEASED
This was recorded Live at the Pizza Express in London with my fantastic band featuring.
Tony Grey - Bass
Gregoire Maret - Harmonica
Romain Collin - Piano-Keys
John Shannon - Guitar
Obed Calvaire - Drums
This was recorded Live at the Pizza Express in London with my fantastic band featuring.
Tony Grey - Bass
Gregoire Maret - Harmonica
Romain Collin - Piano-Keys
John Shannon - Guitar
Obed Calvaire - Drums
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Introduction to me. Part 3
Hi readers hope you are well.
It's been a very busy week for me here in the UK. I'm over here now for a month putting some really amazing educational stuff together. More news on that later. I was invited to spend the weekend down in London with another good friend and spiritual guru Sanjib Mukherjee he did a 2 day meditation seminar which was really life changing for me. I met some great people and I know going deeper into myself will help my creativity so much.
Ahhh back to my Bliss adventures, we last left off with me and Alan being dropped off in Singapore which was not the brightest idea by the label I have to say haha. When the rest of the guy's joined us we moved on to Bangkok Thailand where the label had set us up with a Hotel gig for 15 weeks or so. The idea behind this was to prepare us more for the upcoming CD release and tour. It gave us an opportunity play under the radar, work on our stage presence and get paid from another source. One thing I learned quick was that record labels will spend as little as they have to no matter what. The management had decided it would be also a good idea to bring a female artist along for the hotel gig. I remember before I left the USA going to New Jersey to see amazing artist perform, her name was Toby Lightman she was an incredible vocalist as well as violinist and guitarist. She got offered the gig real fast and I can't believe she managed to persuade her parents to let her travel to Thailand for this gig with us 5 guys as she was only 18 years old, it was definitely an amazing experience and opportunity for her and respect for her parents being so supportive of her dream and for her to be brave enough at that young age. Being on the road can be real tough sometimes it's a real test of your mental strength and generally your passion for music. Anyway she passed with flying colors as when years later I turned on the TV to see her performing her own music video she was signed by Atlantic Records and released a really great record.
The hotel gig was a lot of fun and we all learned so much about each other and it was the ultimate school for me. I had barely been playing for 3 years and here and was playing 6 nights a week and up to 4 sets a night of different material. We couldn't use music charts on stage so there was an intense amount of memorizing to do. Every time I made a mistake the band leader would flick a guitar pick in my face and man he was a good aim. It was like clockwork bad note followed by pick to the face and it hurt and pissed me off. I learned to keep the mistakes down... About a week before the hotel gig was up the label released our first single on MTV to start building a buzz we also started appearing on TV shows and magazines all over Asia which was really surreal and exciting. we would get back to our rooms turn on the TV and there we would be. As soon as the hotel gig was up we did our first performance without Toby as Bliss the crowd was nuts and this it where it all kicked off.
It's amazing that as a band we had never really done anything before and just because of marketing and media we were being treated like superstars by the fans. Literally anyone can be famous with the right backing. We would get mobbed at the airport, fans following us in cars from the airport, we were getting spotted just walking around the streets it was crazy. I had a really bad experience in all of this where a man had got a hold of my parents home phone number in England and called them up in the middle of the night saying if I went back to Bangkok he would shoot me. I remember getting a panicked phone call from my dad freaking out saying my mother was devastated and worried about me. They begged me to quit the band and come back home to England or go back to Berklee and finish my studies. This guy managed to find out where we were staying and would call me up in hotels leaving messages and telling me in person that he would kill me if I ever came back. Talk about crazy.
I went to the manager who was on the road with us and told him the situation and his response was "oh man don't worry about it he's just crazy and will stop" The lead singer in the band would joke and say "stay away from me on stage" I just blew it off as they did but when we got to Bali for a gig I had this horrible phone call with the guy saying the usual dark stuff like I'll kill you etc. I remember calling Alan in his room and man he came strait over bat in hand ready to fight. This guy is a legend and had my back big time, I love him for it. I called the embassy and the police and all they could do was advise me to leave and return to my country. I really couldn't stop as it was a critical time for the band and we were stating to do really well plus it was so much fun apart from the death threats. To keep a long story short the guy ended up being a very jealous boyfriend of a girl and couldn't control his behavior. I'll get into that another day, but hey the show must go on...
I really gained a strong bond with Thailand and Thai culture in general, to me it is fascinating and beautiful, for the first time in my life I really felt at home. During my time with Bliss we did it all, TV shows, Promos in big Malls which during one of them in Singapore we were lip-syncing too the music and all of a sudden the tape stopped dead, we just looked at each other, froze then started laughing, all of a sudden the music kicked back in and off we went again dancing and pretending to play like idiots haha. It was packed too, very embarrassing. I spent the next 18 months touring with Bliss throughout Asia. We recorded three hit singles along with videos that were heavily played on MTV and achieved a top ten Album. After the band broke up the band returned home and I decided to say on in Thailand to focus and start practicing in a deep way...
It's been a very busy week for me here in the UK. I'm over here now for a month putting some really amazing educational stuff together. More news on that later. I was invited to spend the weekend down in London with another good friend and spiritual guru Sanjib Mukherjee he did a 2 day meditation seminar which was really life changing for me. I met some great people and I know going deeper into myself will help my creativity so much.
Ahhh back to my Bliss adventures, we last left off with me and Alan being dropped off in Singapore which was not the brightest idea by the label I have to say haha. When the rest of the guy's joined us we moved on to Bangkok Thailand where the label had set us up with a Hotel gig for 15 weeks or so. The idea behind this was to prepare us more for the upcoming CD release and tour. It gave us an opportunity play under the radar, work on our stage presence and get paid from another source. One thing I learned quick was that record labels will spend as little as they have to no matter what. The management had decided it would be also a good idea to bring a female artist along for the hotel gig. I remember before I left the USA going to New Jersey to see amazing artist perform, her name was Toby Lightman she was an incredible vocalist as well as violinist and guitarist. She got offered the gig real fast and I can't believe she managed to persuade her parents to let her travel to Thailand for this gig with us 5 guys as she was only 18 years old, it was definitely an amazing experience and opportunity for her and respect for her parents being so supportive of her dream and for her to be brave enough at that young age. Being on the road can be real tough sometimes it's a real test of your mental strength and generally your passion for music. Anyway she passed with flying colors as when years later I turned on the TV to see her performing her own music video she was signed by Atlantic Records and released a really great record.
The hotel gig was a lot of fun and we all learned so much about each other and it was the ultimate school for me. I had barely been playing for 3 years and here and was playing 6 nights a week and up to 4 sets a night of different material. We couldn't use music charts on stage so there was an intense amount of memorizing to do. Every time I made a mistake the band leader would flick a guitar pick in my face and man he was a good aim. It was like clockwork bad note followed by pick to the face and it hurt and pissed me off. I learned to keep the mistakes down... About a week before the hotel gig was up the label released our first single on MTV to start building a buzz we also started appearing on TV shows and magazines all over Asia which was really surreal and exciting. we would get back to our rooms turn on the TV and there we would be. As soon as the hotel gig was up we did our first performance without Toby as Bliss the crowd was nuts and this it where it all kicked off.
It's amazing that as a band we had never really done anything before and just because of marketing and media we were being treated like superstars by the fans. Literally anyone can be famous with the right backing. We would get mobbed at the airport, fans following us in cars from the airport, we were getting spotted just walking around the streets it was crazy. I had a really bad experience in all of this where a man had got a hold of my parents home phone number in England and called them up in the middle of the night saying if I went back to Bangkok he would shoot me. I remember getting a panicked phone call from my dad freaking out saying my mother was devastated and worried about me. They begged me to quit the band and come back home to England or go back to Berklee and finish my studies. This guy managed to find out where we were staying and would call me up in hotels leaving messages and telling me in person that he would kill me if I ever came back. Talk about crazy.
I went to the manager who was on the road with us and told him the situation and his response was "oh man don't worry about it he's just crazy and will stop" The lead singer in the band would joke and say "stay away from me on stage" I just blew it off as they did but when we got to Bali for a gig I had this horrible phone call with the guy saying the usual dark stuff like I'll kill you etc. I remember calling Alan in his room and man he came strait over bat in hand ready to fight. This guy is a legend and had my back big time, I love him for it. I called the embassy and the police and all they could do was advise me to leave and return to my country. I really couldn't stop as it was a critical time for the band and we were stating to do really well plus it was so much fun apart from the death threats. To keep a long story short the guy ended up being a very jealous boyfriend of a girl and couldn't control his behavior. I'll get into that another day, but hey the show must go on...
I really gained a strong bond with Thailand and Thai culture in general, to me it is fascinating and beautiful, for the first time in my life I really felt at home. During my time with Bliss we did it all, TV shows, Promos in big Malls which during one of them in Singapore we were lip-syncing too the music and all of a sudden the tape stopped dead, we just looked at each other, froze then started laughing, all of a sudden the music kicked back in and off we went again dancing and pretending to play like idiots haha. It was packed too, very embarrassing. I spent the next 18 months touring with Bliss throughout Asia. We recorded three hit singles along with videos that were heavily played on MTV and achieved a top ten Album. After the band broke up the band returned home and I decided to say on in Thailand to focus and start practicing in a deep way...
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