Tony Fennell (born 16 November 1963) is a British musician, songwriter, composer and producer. He was the lead singer, lyricist and musician for the band

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which wa ...

from 1992 until 1994, as well as a composer and producer of music for television. Fennell has signed publishing and recording contracts with

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

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 ...

and BMG. His film and television credits include

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...

, HBO,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and Syfy as well as commercials for

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

and

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

Career

Fennell was born in Birmingham, and started playing music in the early 1980s, signing his first publishing contract with

Warner/Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

. His band, Mr. President, went on to sign with Atlantic Records. During this time, Fennell was also the bass player for

Edwin Starr Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the num ...

. In 1985, the band changed its name to 'Big Noise'. The band released the album ''Bang!'', produced by Elliot Wolfe. He toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, including with

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

. After moving to the US permanently in the late 1980s, Fennell co-wrote with David Frank the track "If You Believe" for soul singer Kenny Thomas' 1991 album ''

Voices Voices or The Voices may refer to: Film and television * ''Voices'' (1920 film), by Chester M. De Vonde, with Diana Allen * ''Voices'' (1973 film), a British horror film * ''Voices'' (1979 film), a film by Robert Markowitz * ''Voices'' (1 ...

''. In 1992, Fennell became the lead singer of UK band Ultravox and signed with EMI. He recorded the EP '' Vienna 92'' and co-wrote the album ''

Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

''. Teaming up with Rod Gammons and Bob Khozouri, he co-wrote two songs for

Jaki Graham Jacqueline Graham (born 15 September 1956) is a British singer-songwriter. Following her hit version of " Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" with David Grant in 1985, Graham scored a further five UK top 20 hits over a two-year period. In 1994, he ...

's album ''Hold On'' and another for her album ''Real Life''. In 1996/7, Fennell formed the band Luxx with fellow Englishman Ian Hatton and signed with Push/BMG. The band went on to record two albums: ''Luxx'' and ''Hyrdroponic'' and toured the US over a period of 4 years. In 2004, he signed with Zest Music as the in-house writer/producer working in conjunction with CEO Steve Weltman (Chrysalis, Hit and Run Music). With Zest, Fenelle wrote and produced with Richard Evans and co-wrote and produced the album ''Night Racing'' for Tara Chinn. Fenelle and Chinn went on to tour Australia to promote the album ''Night Racing''. In 2010, Fennell co-wrote "Crash and Burn" and "Black and White" with

Alex Smith Alexander Douglas Smith (born May 7, 1984) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football for the Utah Utes, earning first-team All-American ho ...

and Karen Louise Barrow. "Crash and Burn" achieved high rotation on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

's B-List and the

Jason Nevins Jason Nevins (born December 15, 1972) is an American songwriter, record producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop and dance productions, including his multi-platinum, multi-million selling production of " It's Like That" by Ameri ...

remix reached number 2 in the ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' Commercial Pop Club Chart. It also made the top ten of the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Breakout Club Charts in the US. In 2013/14, Fennell wrote and co-produced with Jason Silver the album ''Bring It Back'' for singer

Brenda Edwards Brenda Claudina Susan Edwards (' Artman; born 2 March 1969) is an English singer, actress, television personality and presenter. In 2005, she finished in fourth place on the second series of ''The X Factor''. Since 2019, she has been a weekly p ...

. He wrote and produced with bass player Chip Z'nuff and the band Enuff Z'nuff and has produced two songs for the band's album '' Diamond Boy''. In March 2019, following a three-and-a-half-year stint with the band, Fennell announced his departure from Enuff Z'nuff in a statement on the band's

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page. June 2019 saw Fennell join as lead singer and guitar player for the band When in Rome II. During January–March 2020, he embarked on a nationwide US tour with

the Motels The Motels are an American new wave band from Berkeley, California, that is best known for the singles " Only the Lonely" and " Suddenly Last Summer", each of which peaked at No. 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, in 1982 and 1983, respectively. ...

and recorded new material for the band.

As composer for film and television

In 1995, Fennell signed a publishing deal with Japanese company

Avex Avex Inc. ( kabushiki gaisha , commonly known as Avex and stylized as avex) is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi ...

. While with Avex, Fennell co-wrote the underscore for the film '' Within the Rock'' (Gary Tunnicliffe) for the Syfy Channel. In the early 2000s, he composed and recorded songs for ''

Bear in the Big Blue House ''Bear in the Big Blue House'' is an American children's television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and produced by Jim Henson Television for Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney preschool television block. Debuting on October 20, 1997, it a ...

'' (

), ''

Little Bill ''Little Bill'' is an American animated educational children's television series created by Bill Cosby. It is based on the ''Little Bill'' book series, written by Cosby with illustrations by Varnette P. Honeywood. Cosby also composed some of th ...

'' (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

), '' Out of the Box'' (

), ''

Gullah Gullah Island ''Gullah Gullah Island'' is an American musical children's television series aired on the Nick Jr. block from October 24, 1994, to March 7, 2000. The show was hosted by Ron Daise, the former vice president for Creative Education at Brookgreen G ...

'' (Nickelodeon),

Cyberchase ''Cyberchase'' is an animated series, animated science fantasy children's television series that airs on PBS Kids. The series centers around three children from Earth: Jackie, Matt and Inez, who are brought into Cyberspace, a digital universe, i ...

(

), ''

Scrubs Scrub(s) may refer to: * Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland * Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff * ''Scrubs'' (TV series), an American television program * Scrubs (occupation), also called "scrub tech," "scrub nurse," ...

'' (

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

) and ''

Nash Bridges ''Nash Bridges'' is an American police procedural television series created by Carlton Cuse. The show stars Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The seri ...

'' (CBS). In 2009, Fennell composed/produced songs and the underscore for the film ''King of the Avenue''.

Current work

Fennell is currently the co-founder and co-owner of the company Musations. The company released the social media/music app Musations in July 2014. The app consequently charted at #3 in the Apple AppStore's free music downloads. He formed the band The Nu Wave in 2023 and is currently touring the US as of 2025. https://nuwaveband.com/

Partial discography

*Big Noise - ''Bang'' (1989) *

- " Vienna 92" (1992) *Ultravox - ''

'' (1993) *Gerry Laffy - ''Sheer Greed'' *Luxx - ''Luxx'' *Luxx - ''Hydroponic'' *''Bear in the Big Blue House'' *Scarlette Fever - ''Medication Time'' *Brenda Edwards - ''Bring It Back'' * Enuff Znuff - '' Diamond Boy'' (2018)

References

External links

* *http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118183/fullcredits cast ''Within the Rock'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenelle, Tony 1963 births Living people Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands English rock singers English male singer-songwriters English male film score composers English record producers