Tony Vincent was actually born in London but moved to Dundee aged 11 in 1952.
He started singing aged 17, doing turns in local dancehalls.
Then he turned professional aged 18 when forming local band, The Men Of Mystery (aka The Mystery Men).
He followed that up by touring UK in the Basil Kirchin Band.
When in Ayr, Tony won a UK singing contest, with a recording contract as top prize which lead to him releasing his solo single "I'm Never Going To Fall In Love Again" in 1961.
Tony was performing solo and sang with a variety of bands throughout 1961 & 1962 such as The Giants, The Monarchs and The Men Of Mystery (who reformed in Oct 1961).
The Men Of Mystery later became resident band on Scottish TV series "Teenbeat" in 1963 with Tony also having a solo spot on the show.
Tony & The Men Of Mystery had a successful tour of South Africa in 1963 and when they came back, they became Rolf Harris's backing band when Rolf toured Scotland for 2 weeks.
Tony also appeared in the band The Teenbeats, who were one of the support acts during The Beatles tour of Scotland in '63.
The Men Of Mystery & Tony then split and Tony went to Hamburg in 1963 where he teamed up with The Giants again.
As a result, The Giants, with Tony, released a single and a live album in 1964, recorded at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg.
After that busy start to his career, he seemed to then just settle for entertaining around the local pubs.
This live album track here, called "Matchbox", captures the gig atmosphere pretty well...
No comments:
Post a Comment