Tony Thorpe (musician)

Anthony John "Tony" Thorpe is a former guitarist for The Rubettes (1974–1979), and a former vocalist for the novelty group The Firm (1982–1987).
== Early life ==
Anthony John Thorpe was born in St Bartholomew's Hospital in Smithfield, London. He was gifted a ukulele when he was eight, and his first guitar at ten. Thorpe was learning how to play drums and guitar by age eleven. In 1963, Thorpe met Wee Willie Harris in a car park ran by his cousin, who was asked by Harris if he knew a guitar player. After a one hour audition, Thorpe eventually joined Harris on the road, touring with him for four years.
Thorpe played in a few small bands, including The Vibratones, who he cut his first single with in 1961.
== Career ==
Tony was a session guitarist in the late 1960s onwards. In 1973, Thorpe was hired to play guitar in the Tony Waddington project The Rubettes.The Rubettes Story by Alan Rowett first published 1994 Their first song, "Sugar Baby Love", stayed at number one in the UK for five weeks, sold over 500,000 copies in the UK, and over 3 million worldwide. Thorpe did not actually play on the recording for Sugar Baby Love.The Rubettes Story by Alan Rowett first published 1994 Their follow up singles in 1974/75, "Juke Box Jive" and "I Can Do It" were also top 10 in the UK. Their country rock ballad, "Baby I Know", released in 1977, had Thorpe on lead vocals, and went to number 10 in the UK.
Thorpe and the rest of the band were multi-instrumentalists, and Thorpe additionally played bass, piano, and drums on Rubettes records. He played piano on "Ladies of Laredo" and the piano solo on "Foe Dee Oh Dee".
By 1979, Thorpe was having creative differences with the band, he wanted to get rid of the "doo-wop" and "glam" image, and asked for the bands notable vocal harmonies to be taken off of his composition "You're The Reason Why", something the rest of the band and producer Gerry Shury disagreed on. He had left the band the same year after an argument over the band not wanting to add his country rock songs on their setlist for their upcoming tour, but his guitar and vocals are still on a few songs recorded with him but released after his departure. Thorpe was replaced by Bob Benham, and the group dissolved the following year.
Soon after leaving the Rubettes, Thorpe released a Country music album "Tone Control", produced by Alan Blakley of The Tremeloes. In 1982, he sang lead vocals on "Arthur Daley E's Alright", a novelty record by The Firm, and also appeared on Top of the Pops. He later worked with them on their 1987 song "Star Trekkin'", which went to number one in the UK, staying for two weeks.
In 1997, Tony put out his second solo album, Illusions & Dangerous Prayer.
In March 2012, Thorpe digitally released the No Hits, No Jazz Collection and performed at Darwen Library Theatre with a live eight-piece band for his '50th Anniversary 1-Gig-Tour'. It featured session musicians Iain Reddy, Liam Barber, Justin Randall and Greg Harper. In 2014, Thorpe released the autobiography "A Bride's Nightie".
== Personal life ==
Thorpe is now a semi-retired musician, and works in North East England. He has had a few jobs including as a journalist, and until 2011 was a tutor at Burnley College. He met his first wife, Sylvia, at a pub in Cardiff in 1966, where she was performing as a singer under the name Shirley Dee. They got married in 1968 and had one son. Sylvia died of cancer in 2013, aged 60, and was cremated at Burnley Crematorium. 
Thorpe is a Christian. He lives in Burnley, Lancashire. He suffered from drinking problems for a while but is now sober. Tony has released a few poems and story books.
== Instruments ==
Both in studio and on stage, Thorpe used Burns Nu-Sonic, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Coral Sitar, Epiphone, Hayman, and Alhambra, and used Fender Twin Reverbs, Fender Vibrolux and Vox AC30 amplifiers.
Category:1945 births
Category:Guitarists
Category:People from London