Tony Ashton
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Edward Anthony Ashton (1 March 1946 – 28 May 2001) was an English rock pianist, keyboardist, singer, record composer, producer and artist.


Early life

Born in
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
, Lancashire, Ashton spent his formative years in the seaside town of
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
where his parents had an upright piano. When he was a child, his mother sent him to piano lessons. At the age of 13 in 1959, while Ashton was a student at
St George's School, Blackpool St. George's School is a Church of England secondary school with academy status in Marton, Blackpool, Lancashire, England with an intake of both boys and girls aged 11–16. It is located on Cherry Tree Road and has an Ofsted rating of 5 out ...
, he joined a local group, the College Boys, on rhythm guitar and piano. When Ashton left school at the age of 15 he was already an accomplished pianist.


Career

Ashton played in a
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
trio, the Tony Ashton Trio, with drummer John Laidlaw and bassist Pete Shelton in 1961 and 1962 at the Picador Club in Blackpool. Although his work began during
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
era, his roots lay firmly in
soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
, jazz and the
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
. After playing with various Blackpool bands, Ashton was invited to join the
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
band
the Remo Four The Remo Four were a 1950s–1960s rock band from Liverpool, England. They were contemporaries of The Beatles, and later had the same manager, Brian Epstein. Its members were Colin Manley (born Colin William Manley, 16 April 1942, in Old Swan ...
as organist and vocalist. The band spent some time being the resident band at the Star Club in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
; they followed this with a US tour accompanying the Beatles. They recorded some singles but their best work came in 1966 when they released their studio album ''Smile''. Before they broke up in 1968 they backed
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
on his solo studio album ''
Wonderwall Music ''Wonderwall Music'' is the debut solo album by the English musician George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film ''Wonderwall (film), Wonderwall'', directed by Joe Massot. Released in November 1968, it was the first solo album by a membe ...
'' (1968). At the end of the 1960s Ashton formed a new group with Remo drummer Roy Dyke and bassist Kim Gardner. They called themselves Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. Their music, which was all composed by Ashton, was a fusion of R&B and jazz. The trio recorded three albums, but gained recognition in the United Kingdom in 1971, when the single " The Resurrection Shuffle" reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. Following this sudden success they failed to get any more hit singles and broke up in 1973. Ashton said: "The hit backfired on us and we ended up playing cabaret again. The best thing we did was playing with
Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...
at
Ronnie Scott's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club that has operated in Soho, London, since 1959. History The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was set up and managed by musicians Ronnie Sco ...
. We wanted to be an album band, but once you've got a big hit, you're in the pop league." Ashton also played with the Executives, the Mastersounds and on sessions with
Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis m ...
, George Harrison,
Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
and
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
. When Ashton, Gardner and Dyke broke up in 1973 Ashton briefly joined
Family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
, and played a prominent role on the last Family studio album '' It's Only a Movie'', sharing lead vocal duties with
Roger Chapman Roger Maxwell Chapman (born 8 April 1942 in Leicester), also known as Chappo, is an English Rock music, rock vocalist. He is best known as a member of the progressive rock band Family (band), Family, which he joined along with Charlie Whitney ...
on the title track and also on "Sweet Desiree". Ashton met
Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
in the early 1970s, when the last recording of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke was a collaboration with keyboardist
Jon Lord John Douglas "Jon" Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English keyboardist and composer. In 1968, Lord co-founded the hard rock band Deep Purple. Lord performed on most of the band's most popular songs; he and drummer Ian Paice were the only ...
on the soundtrack for a
B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...
called '' The Last Rebel'' (1971). In the meantime, Ashton had appeared on Jon Lord's first solo studio album ''
Gemini Suite After the 1969 classical / rock fusion '' Concerto for Group and Orchestra'', Jon Lord was commissioned to write a follow-up. This was ''Gemini Suite'', five long movements inspired by the members of Deep Purple, and performed live in September ...
'' in 1971. In 1973, Ashton joined the group Family for their last album and tour. That same year, he and
David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. Coverdale was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976; he has had a solo car ...
and Glenn Hughes were guest vocalists on Jon Lord's live album ''
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
''. Ashton and Lord became close friends. In the summer of 1974, during a break in Deep Purple's busy touring schedule, Ashton and Lord recorded their studio album '' First of the Big Bands'' (1975). This project was launched with a gig at the
London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many wit ...
the same year and the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
taped a special live appearance at
Golders Green Hippodrome The Golders Green Hippodrome was built in 1913 by Bertie Crewe as a 3,000-seat music hall, to serve North London and the new London Underground Northern line expansion into Golders Green in the London Borough of Barnet, London, England. Tak ...
in London. The album of this show combines rhythm and blues,
boogie Boogie is a repetition (music), repetitive, swung note, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . groove (music), "groove" or pattern used in blues which was origina ...
piano and
Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
with a big band. Ashton also contributed to
Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Roll ...
's ''Butterfly Ball'' project. In these years, Ashton and Lord found a second home in
Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...
, an alpine resort in Switzerland, sometimes to ski, but more often to provide non-profit gigs in a unique complex (one hotel-two night-clubs-two restaurants and four pubs) called "Hotel Post" which was run by American-born Karl Ivarsson. Ashton managed to come to the place almost until his death, and Jon Lord was a regular visitor until his death even though the hotel did not exist anymore. In August 1976, when Deep Purple broke up, Jon Lord and
Ian Paice Ian Anderson Paice (born 29 June 1948) is an English musician who is the drummer and last remaining original member of the rock band Deep Purple. He remains the only member of Deep Purple who has served in every line-up since the band's incep ...
combined with Tony Ashton. The result was the formation of
Paice Ashton Lord Paice Ashton Lord was a short-lived British rock band featuring Deep Purple band members Ian Paice and Jon Lord with singer Tony Ashton. The band was formed in 1976, released its only album in 1977 and broke up in 1978. History After Deep Pur ...
, a band rooted in
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
, jazz and rock. The line-up was completed by future
Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...
guitarist
Bernie Marsden Bernard John Marsden (7 May 1951 – 24 August 2023) was an English rock and blues guitarist. He is primarily known for his work with Whitesnake, having written or co-written with David Coverdale many of the group's hit songs, such as " Fool f ...
and bassist Paul Martinez. They recorded '' Malice in Wonderland'' in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
and a nationwide tour of the UK was set in motion. The tour was cancelled while still in progress because of large financial losses. The band broke up leaving Ashton without a
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
and poor prospects.Tony Ashton Obituary. During the eighties Ashton co-hosted a TV show with
Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist and composer best known as a member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his prolific solo career. AllMusic describes Wakema ...
called ''GasTank''. The show was aired every two weeks and, on each episode, there were guests ranging from
Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, bassist, and primary songwriter for the hard rock band Thin Lizzy. He was known for his distinctive ...
of
Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...
to Ian Paice who sat in with the show's in-house band led by Ashton and Wakeman (others were Tony Fernandez and
Chas Cronk Chas Cronk is an English musician, best known as the bass player and acoustic guitarist for the Strawbs from 1973 to 1980 and again from 2004 to 2023. Chas also toured and recorded with Steve Hackett and Rick Wakeman in the 1980s and Cry No Mo ...
). In between performances, the guests were interviewed by Wakeman. In 1984, Ashton was given a budget to record an album for
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
in Switzerland. The result was the album ''Live in the Studio'', recorded in less than three days. After that, Ashton went through some hard times due to ill health and lack of work. Although he continued to perform sporadically, he did not release anything until 1988 with a single called "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". In 1986, he married Sandra Naidoo and adopted her daughter Indira.


Final years

By the early 1990s, Ashton began to develop his second career as an artist. Many of Ashton's paintings were bought by the television presenter and DJ Chris Evans for exhibition at his art gallery, Well Hung, in
Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...
. Apart from selling a lot of paintings (ink drawings and oil/acrylic), his work can be seen on the covers of various CDs, including his maxi-single ''Mr Ashton Sings Big Red and Other Love Songs''. In 1996, Ashton played in some gigs in (Germany) and reunited with Bernie Marsden. Together they played at various Festivals (in Norway and in the UK). In 2000, when he became seriously ill, a special benefit concert was recorded and filmed at
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
's
Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...
, featuring the many diverse talents of a number of Ashton's friends and colleagues over the years, including Jon Lord, Ian Paice,
Micky Moody Michael Joseph Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden he founde ...
, Bernie Marsden,
Howie Casey Howard William Casey (born 12 July 1937) is a British rhythm and blues and rock saxophonist. He came to prominence in the early 1960s as a member of Derry and the Seniors, the first rock and roll band from Liverpool to play clubs in Germany, a ...
,
Chris Barber Donald Christopher Barber (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and Trombone, trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with "Petite Fleur ...
,
John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band the Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band ...
,
Zak Starkey Zak Richard Starkey (born 13 September 1965) is an English rock drummer who toured and recorded with the Who from 1996 to 2025. He is also the third drummer to have appeared with Oasis. Other musicians and bands he has worked with include Johnny ...
,
Pete York Peter York (born 15 August 1942 in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England) is an English rock drummer who has been performing since the 1960s. Biography Born in Middlesbrough but growing up in Redcar, York attended the Nottingham High School an ...
,
Zoot Money George Bruno "Zoot" Money (17 July 1942 – 8 September 2024) was an English vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader. He was best known for playing the Hammond organ and for his leadership of the Big Roll Band. Inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis and Ra ...
, Joe Brown,
Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums ''Revolver'' (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and ''Abbey Road' ...
,
Mike Figgis Michael Figgis (born 28 February 1948) is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work on '' Leaving Las Vegas'' (1995). Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers' ...
and
Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...
. In the early nineties, Ashton also wrote the first of a planned trilogy of books, which has tales of various aspects of his career including Paice Ashton Lord, the GasTank TV series, and his love of Zermatt in Switzerland, which he first visited with Ashton, Gardner and Dyke in 1970, and which gave him the title for the book: ''Zermattitis: a Musicians' Guide to Going Downhill Fast''. It has been recently published by Wymer Publishing, as a limited edition with a DVD of rare and previously unreleased film of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, including a live performance from
Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...
1970. Ashton died from cancer on 28 May 2001 at his home in London at the age of 55.


Discography


Albums


Live albums


Videos


Singles/EPs


Session work/appearances


References


External links

* * *
Tony Ashton art gallery




* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton, Tony Family (band) members 1946 births 2001 deaths Musicians from Blackburn English rock pianists English rock keyboardists English rock singers 20th-century English singers 20th-century English pianists Deaths from cancer in England Chicken Shack members Paice Ashton Lord members Ashton, Gardner and Dyke members