Tony Mills (musician)

For the HIV specialist, see Tony Mills.
Tony Mills
Background information
Born (1962-07-07) 7 July 1962
Solihull, England
Genres Hard rock, heavy metal, progressive metal, pop rock, glam rock
Instruments Vocals, bass guitar
Years active 1983–present
Labels Z Records, Avalon, Bonnier Amigo
Associated acts Shy, Siam, Andy Scott's Sweet, TNT, Douglas Docker

Tony Mills (born 7 July 1962 in Solihull, England) is an English rock singer, best known for his work with Shy[1] and TNT.

Hailing from Birmingham, when he was 14 years old, he sang in his first band, the punk band The Rip-Offs, before joining fellow Birmingham punk band Cracked Actors as bass guitarist. Turning to rock in 1980, he sang in rock bands with guitarist Nik Lloyd, such as Overdrive, Orion and Enigma, and in 1983 he joined the band Shy. He recorded four albums with AOR/hair metal band Shy, including the critically acclaimed Excess All Areas and toured with Shy, supporting Gary Moore, Meatloaf, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, Magnum, Manowar, Badlands, Enuff Z Nuff, Sleez Beez, UFO, and the Ian Hunter/Mick Ronson outfit which he performed on stage with in Brighton, just prior to Mick's death. The tours spanned the whole of Europe and North America, it was here that Tony worked with L.A. based band, Cinderella on their debut album, Night Songs. Co-writing sessions came about with Don Dokken (Dokken), Michael Bolton, Michael Des Barres (Power Station), John Parker (Chicago), Jeff Paris and Bob Kulick.

Tony left Shy in 1991, when MCA picked him up as a solo artist to record his first album in Manchester with engineer Andy Macpherson and guitarist Bob Maxim along with various members of 10CC and Sad Cafe. Later, forming another band, Siam, he wrote and sang on two albums, Prayer and The Language of Menace. After working as a session vocalist through the 1990s with Slade, Simon Harrison, Dave Saylor and Cozy Powell (unreleased) in conjunction with his recording and touring work with Siam, the band eventually folded in 1996 and Mills spent a year fronting a Rush tribute band, YYZ. In 2000 he reunited with Shy for two more albums, 'Unfinished Business' and 'Sunset and Vine'. At the turn of the millennium, he also released two solo albums, Cruiser and Freeway to the Afterlife. There followed a Danish tour with The Sweet, as bassist and lead vocalist, but this did not work out, and he returned to Shy, only to move swiftly on, when in 2006 he was asked to join TNT in Oslo, Norway. He was to replace their long-time vocalist Tony Harnell who had decided to leave the band for both personal and professional reasons. The following year Mills sang on TNT's new album, The New Territory, which despite high sales, was poorly received by several rock magazines, who it seems were somewhat taken aback by the new material. The band toured and gigged extensively throughout 2007 in Norway to support the record, including supports to Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row and Motorhead. Lasse Dale was also a progressive metal guitarist from Tromso in Norway, that enlisted Tony to write and record his debut album, Screaming For Silence. Tony worked for many Euro artist's between 2006 and 2010, namely Michael Voss and his 'Voices Of Rock' project, Liberty 'n' Justice in the U.S., Torben Enevoldsen in Denmark, Frederic Hugues and Blackstone and Tor Talle in Norway. Charity involvement for the Autistic Foundation for Children in North Trondelag, also saw the release of a single, 'Keep The Dream Alive' along with its associated video through NRK with vocalist, Siv-Anita Strickhert.

In 2007, Mills also performed backing vocals on the debut album by UK Band Crimes of Passion. He has numerous credits for, and is in regular demand for, provision of backing vocals,and other recent outputs include The Andersson-Mills Project, China Blue, and backing vocals for Dante Fox in the UK and Norwegian Rock outfit Winterstrain, appearing on their debut album Return to the Mirror as well as Shifting Sands. In 2008 Tony released a more metal oriented solo album Vital Designs, which featured bass by Morty Black, Oddvar Krogstad and Victor Borge (TNT), guitars by Neil Hibbs, keyboards by Shy's keyboard player Joe Basketts and drums by Shy's drummer Bob Richards. Also appearing on the album was TNT member Dag Stokke and Erik Ragno from China Blue. In the same year, he also began work with Ronni Le Tekrø on their second TNT collaboration, which resulted in the album Atlantis, featuring the songs Tango Girl and Hello, Hello, which became regular tracks in their setlist for the following tour.

In the winter of 2008, Tony joined the band Serpentine, replacing former singer Greg Flores. In March 2010, Serpentine released their CD A Touch of Heaven on AOR/Metal Heaven in Europe and Marquee Avalon in Japan, gaining a glowing 92% review in rock magazine Burrn! as well as hitting number 72 in the HMV Japan chart. Around the same period, Tony was commissioned to write and record an album for AOR Metal Heaven records in Germany, entitiled, 'State Of Rock', with Robby Boebel from Nuremberg act, 'Frontline'. Work was also completed on a more rock oriented TNT release for the end of the year, A Farewell To Arms, which returned to the classic sound of the band and was well received by fans and critics alike. Just after the summer, it was reported that Mills had suffered a heart attack at an airport in Norway, which prompted the singer to announce his departure from Serpentine before the completion of his second album with the band. The album has since been completed. Serpentine moved quickly to recruit 24-year-old British vocalist Matt Black as his replacement to allow the band to commence touring to support the A Touch Of Heaven album. The band's follow up, 'Living and Dying in High Definition' also received great support from the media during its late 2010 release.

After a full recovery from his heart condition, at the opening of 2011, Tony had relocated to Norway to embrace the release of the latest TNT album and began touring to promote A Farewell To Arms, which in Scandinavia, was titled Engine. The change of album title for different territories was inextricably linked to his heart failure and consequent recovery. Tony's own engine was running smoothly again. He consequently set to writing tracks toward a rock opera with Trondheim writer Andreas Nergard whilst touring Europe with TNT. Tony was also be part of the Norwegian artist force supporting relief aid in Japan for their recent tragedies.

In 2012, Mills was featured on Douglas R. Docker's massive progressive rock space opera Docker's Guild. He sang on three songs for the debut album "The Mystic Technocracy - Season 1: The Age of Ignorance": Legion of Aliens, The Gem of Love and The Secret of DNA. The album featured many other special guests including Gregg Bissonette, Tony Franklin, Guthrie Govan, Jeff Watson, Goran Edman, John Payne and Amanda Somerville.

After increasing unrest in the Norway camp,Tony quit TNT in August 2013, after over seven years, to satisfy his own artistic integrity and produce more solo material.

The onset of 2013 saw Mills writing new solo material including a single, 'Girls In Norway' and two new albums; an AOR album for existing fans in Europe and Japan and a final album for the SIAM project involving members from the band's history and his new connections in Norway. Attempts to fire up Siam again were futile, so Mills reverted to the solo plan intent on recreating the same atmospheres that existed in the Siam days. As the writing had clearly split into two different projects, he focussed on the heavier album and finally completed it at the beginning of 2015, over two years later. The album, 'Over My Dead Body' was released through Battlegod Productions on 23 February 2015, and drew heavily from his decline in health, his eventual death in Oslo and his return to life in an intensive care unit. It was co-written by Robert Sall, Henning Ramseth, Paul Sabu and Douglas R. Docker. It was produced by Mills and mixed by his old colleague from the Shy era, Neil Kernon.


Tony is still very much an active session artist for many European and American artist's within the rock and metal markets.

Discography

Shy

Siam

Solo

Lasse Dale

The Andersson Mills Project

TNT

Tony Mills / Siv Anita Strickhert

China Blue

Serpentine

State Of Rock

Babis Kaisas

Nergard

Trine Rein

Tommy Heart

Docker's Guild

References

  1. ↑ Bell, Tony (2007). Life in the Bus Lane. Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie. p. 102. ISBN 9781843862666. Retrieved 24 December 2015.

External links

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