Alan Connelly (born October 2, 1960) is a

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

. He is a founding member of

Glass Tiger Glass Tiger is a Grammy Award-nominated Canadian rock band from Newmarket, Ontario that formed in 1983. The band has released five studio albums. Its 1986 debut album, '' The Thin Red Line'', went quadruple platinum in Canada and gold in the Un ...

, the Canadian

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...

. He and his band received five Canadian music industry

JUNO Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

s and multiple Canadian songwriter

SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collect ...

Awards, as well as being nominated Best New Artist at the 1986

GRAMMY Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

. Connelly has been part of all GT's major album releases as well as numerous solo recordings.

Early life

Alan Connelly was born in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, Canada to Edward Connelly and Dorothy Dempsey. He attended Huron Heights Secondary School in

Newmarket, Ontario Newmarket ( 2021 population: 87,942) is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The name stems from ...

. He later earned Studio engineering diplomas both through

Seneca College Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a multiple-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area, and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada regions. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate an ...

and

Humber College The Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, commonly known as Humber College, is a public College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1967, Humber has two main campuses: the Humber North c ...

in Toronto.

Career

At the age of 18, Connelly was asked to play with (future Glass Tiger bandmates) singer Alan Frew and bassist Wayne Parker in their late seventies rock band Onyx. The group disbanded after two years and Connelly formed a punk band called The Untouchable Lowlifes. They recorded some of Connelly's and singer Roland Merkle's songs. In

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, Alan Frew and Wayne Parker joined forces with keyboardist Sam Reid and drummer Michael Hanson, to form the band Tokyo, which later developed into Glass Tiger. Connelly was asked to join the new band in 1983, and he performed with the band at first mainly in the Toronto area. The band signed a recording contract in 1985 with

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

, resulting in Glass Tiger's debut and

multi-platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

album, '' The Thin Red Line'' in 1986. While on a writing trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Connelly joined bandmates Sam Reid and Alan Frew to contribute to the songs " Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" and "

Someday Someday or Some Day may refer to: Film and television * ''Someday'' (1935 film), a British film directed by Michael Powell * ''Someday'' (2011 film), a Japanese film directed by Junji Sakamoto * ''Someday'' (2021 film), an Indian Hindi-langu ...

". The two singles topped the American ''Billboard'' charts in 1986. Glass Tiger received three

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

that year:

Album of the Year Album of the Year, often abbreviated to AOTY, may refer to: Awards * ARIA Award for Album of the Year, Australia * Brit Award for British Album of the Year, UK * Grammy Award for Album of the Year, US * Juno Award for Album of the Year, CA * Lati ...

, ''The Thin Red Line'', Single of the Year, "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)", and Most Promising Group of the Year. The band was also nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

in 1987. Connelly toured with Glass Tiger in the United States as part of the Raised on Radio Tour and on

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

's European Break Every Rule Tour. Connelly recorded in Los Angeles for Glass Tiger's third album,

Simple Mission ''Simple Mission'' is the third album by the Canadian band Glass Tiger, released in 1991. The single " My Town" features Rod Stewart on lead vocals alongside Alan Frew, and reached No. 33 on the UK, marking the band's second highest position in t ...

, which was released by Capitol Records in 1991. The album received radio play in Europe and Canada, and the single " My Town" reached No. 1 in Germany and #33 in the UK. The album went platinum in Canada, and the single "Animal Heart" reached No. 2 on Canadian rock charts. That year Connelly toured with Glass Tiger, first in Canada and later in Europe with the Swedish band

Roxette Roxette was a Swedish pop rock duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson (vocals and keyboards) and Per Gessle (vocals and guitar). Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act in the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough second ...

. In 2009 Glass Tiger, including Connelly, played to the

Canadian Armed Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

stationed in

Kandahar, Afghanistan Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the ca ...

, and at Camp Mirage. They went into dangerous areas at Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) to bring acoustic versions of their songs to front line soldiers. Connelly toured across Canada in 2012 as part of Glass Tiger, along with

, with whom they had toured Europe in 1992. This brought out a few new songs on the then released Greatest Hits album ''

Then Now Next Then may refer to: * Then language, spoken in Guizhou province of China * "Then", a song on the 1970 album '' Time and a Word'' by English rock band Yes * ''Then'' (Canadian series), a 1999 compilation album released in Canada * ''Then'' (Misak ...

'', with one new song introduced by Connelly, entitled "Stand Up (Give Yourself A Hand)". Connelly continues to write and produce with various musicians and performers, in world music, reggae, R&B, blues, rock and pop. He submitted and performed the song "

I Am That Strong I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

" to live audiences during the

2015 Pan Am Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak albu ...

in Toronto.

York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional M ...

Arts & Culture picked it up and had Connelly perform it for their 2015 gala theme song. Also in 2015 Connelly recorded with the Lipstick Junkies on their album ''Motown Prince''.'The Lipstick Junkies "Motown Prince"'
''Exclaim!'', By Sarah Murphy, Dec 16, 2015 In addition to songwriting, Connelly has spent many years being involved with behaviorally and developmentally challenged as well as autistic youth.

Awards, nominations and chart success

*Juno Awards, to Glass Tiger: **1989 Canadian Entertainer of the Year **1987 Single of the Year - "Someday" (co-writer) **1986 Album of the Year - ''The Thin Red Line'' **1986 Single of the Year - "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" **1986 Most Promising Group of the Year *Grammy Nomination, for Glass Tiger: **1987 Nomination: Best New Artist. *SOCAN awards to Glass Tiger songs: **"My Town" (co-writer) ***1992 - Pop/Rock Music ***2009 - SOCAN Classic **"Someday" (co-writer) ***1996 - SOCAN Classic **"Animal Heart" (co-writer) ***1991 - 2nd runner-up, SOCAN Rock Song of the Year *Other success for "Someday": **1986 - Gold Single Award for 50,000 sales of the 45 RPM single in Canada **1988 - ASCAP Pop Award - Among the Most Performed Songs of the 1987 Survey Year **No 7 - Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart / January 1987 (21 weeks on the chart) **No 11 - The Record (Canada) / November 24, 1986 (20 weeks on the chart)

Discography

Studio albums

* ''In Another Life'' (2004)

with Glass Tiger

* '' The Thin Red Line'' (1986) * '' Diamond Sun'' (1988) * ''

'' (1991) * ''31'' (2018)

References

External links

Al Connelly Official Site
Glass Tiger Homepage
CanConRox entry

''Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia''.
"Glass Tiger"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Connelly, Al 1960 births Anglophone Quebec people Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian songwriters Glass Tiger members Living people Musicians from Montreal Songwriters from Quebec Writers from Montreal