Tony Hazzard

TONY HAZZARD began his music career as a solo singer, featuring in classic sixties television shows such as Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars, but it soon became clear that his forte was songwriting and, during a three year period, from 1966 to 1969, he wrote six top twenty hits in the UK and Europe for the likes of Manfred Mann (Fox On The Run & Ha Ha Said The Clown), The Hollies (Listen To Me), The Tremeloes (Hello World), Lulu (Me The Peaceful Heart), and Herman's Hermits (You Won't Be Leaving). He also had songs recorded by Gene Pitney (Maria Elena), Dave Berry (Love Has Gone Out Of Your Life), Simon Dupree and The Big Sound (The Eagle Flies Tonight), Nana Mouskouri (Mamma), Cliff Richard (The Sound Of The Candyman's Trumpet), Hall & Oates (The Princess And The Soldier), and The Yardbirds (Fade Away Maureen & Ha Ha Said The Clown), culminating in 1974 with another Top Twenty hit for Andy Williams (I Think I'm Over Getting Over You). During this time he also wrote and produced television jingles, two film scores, and wrote theme tunes for BBC and ITV series respectively. One jingle won an award at the Cannes Film Festival. He also sidelined as a session singer and guitarist working with the likes of James Last, Long John Baldry, and Elton John, featuring on three of the latter's albums (Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection & Honky Chateau) and appearing on stage with him at his first Royal Festival Hall concert. In 1969 he recorded his first album, mainly a collection of the demos of the hits, entitled “Tony Hazzard sings Tony Hazzard”. A version on CD was released in 2007 by Cherry Red Records. 1971 saw the release of his second album “Loudwater House” followed in 1973 by “Was That Alright, Then?” A double CD of these albums was released on the Sanctuary label in 2005, under the title “Go North – The Bronze Anthology”. During the early seventies he also toured extensively with his band, featuring musicians who had played on the albums. In 1976 he recorded an album. “Hazzard & Barnes” with an old friend, Richard Barnes, who had previously sung harmonies on all the demos of the hits. A visit to Nashville and Los Angeles in the late seventies sparked another creative period and in 1977 he won a Citation Of Achievement from BMI, one of the American equivalents of The Performing Right Society in the UK, for one of his sixties hits, Fox On The Run, which, in the intervening years, had traversed the Atlantic and become a bluegrass standard. It has since been recorded by the majority of bluegrass and country artistes, including Tom T. Hall, Bill Monroe, The Country Gentlemen, George Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Flat & Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Bare Naked Ladies. Songs From The Lynher is his fifth album, and first for thirty-five years. Songwriter who sings. Wrote hits for Manfred Mann, The Hollies, Lulu, The Tremeloes, Andy Williams, Gene Pitney, like Ha Ha Said The Clown, Fox On The Run.