| Francis Dunnery |
| Background
information |
| Born |
December 25, 1962 (1962-12-25) (age 44) |
| Origin |
 Egremont,
Cumbria,
England |
| Genre(s) |
Progressive
rock
Singer-Songwriter |
| Occupation(s) |
Musician, Record
Producer |
| Instrument(s) |
Vocals, guitar, drums, tapboard |
| Years active |
1984 – Present |
| Label(s) |
Aquarian Nation |
| Website |
francisdunnery.com |
Francis Dunnery (born 25
December 1962,
in Egremont, Cumbria, England) is an
English musician. He was a founding member of the 1980s band, It Bites.
Although he started on drums, he later became the lead
singer and guitarist
of the group, and maintained this position until he left in 1990 to
pursue a solo career.
|
Contents
- 1 It
Bites
- 2 Solo
career
- 3 Aquarian
Nation
- 4 Other
Work
- 5 Trivia
- 6 Solo
Discography
- 7 External
links
|
It Bites
Dunnery formed It Bites in 1982 with bandmates John Beck, Bob Dalton
and Dick
Nolan. The band left Egremont and moved to London in 1984 and signed a
record contract with Virgin Records. It Bites released
three studio albums, The Big Lad in the Windmill
(1986), Once Around the World (1988) and the
critically acclaimed Eat Me in St Louis (1989).
Their final album, the live swan song Thank You and Goodnight
was released in 1990. It Bites' biggest hit single
was "Calling All The Heroes" in 1986, which reached #6 in the UK
Singles Chart.
Re-form
It
Bites eventually re-formed in 2006 with the help of John
Mitchell (Frost*,
The Urbane, Kino), taking over the
guitar and vocal parts. It Bites MKII toured the UK in
November/December 2006, and are planning on releasing a new studio
album sometime in 2007.
Solo career
1990s
Dunnery moved to the Los Angeles following the breakup of It
Bites and released his first solo album, Welcome To The Wild
Country in 1991. The record enjoyed little success, being
released only in Japan. The follow up album Fearless,
released on Atlantic
performed considerably better with American Life In The
Summertime, the lead single off the album receiving
considerable airplay in the States. One Night In Sauchiehall
Street, a live set, followed in 1995 with Dunnery's third
studio album Tall Blonde Helicopter following later
in the year, during which time he had relocated to New
York City. Primarily an acoustic album, , Dunnery abandoned the
predominantly pop-oriented sound of his previous album in favour of an
eclectic mixture of soft ballads and acoustic rockers. Many fans still
consider this album to be his finest. Dunnery's next album was 1998s Let's
Go Do What Happens released on the little known Razor
and Tie label. The album was poorly promoted and commercially
unsuccessful yet is considered by many to be his most mature
performance yet, containing rockier numbers and experimentation with
more electronic sounds.
2000s
Dunnery returned to the UK in 2000 for his first tour there in
five years with his newly formed band, The Grass Virgins, and has been
regularly touring there since. Man, Dunnery's first
solo album since the formation of Aquarian Nation was released in 2001.
The album was heavily influenced by spiritual matters, in particular
Dunnery's interest in astrology. A live album Hometown 2001
was recorded on 14th June 2001 at Whitehaven Civic Hall in Dunnery's
native Cumbria and released later that year.
On the 30th August 2003 he was joined onstage, for the first
time in 13 years, by his old It Bites band-mates at the Union
Chapel in London, during one of his solo gigs. Following this, it was
announced that It
Bites would be getting back together to write and record a new album
followed by a tour. This never materialised due to Francis' hectic
schedule back in the U.S.
Dunnery released The Gulley Flats Boys, a
double album in 2005. The album is autobiographical in that it centres
on his childhood and growing up (Gulley Flats is the name of the
housing estate in Egremont, Cumbria where Dunnery was born) and the
faces on the cover of the CD are real pictures of the friends he grew
up and went to school with.
More recently, Francis has been playing a number of "house
concerts" in the United States and Europe and producing and playing on
many of the albums released on his Aquarian Nation label. Dunnery still
regularly tours the UK and the States, often being supported by other
artists on Aquarian Nation.
Aquarian Nation
Dunnery fronts his own record label called Aquarian Nation,
which is part of a multi-media company formed in 2001 to "help support
and promote artistic integrity". Artists affiliated with this label
(including Francis himself) are Chris
Difford, Dorie Jackson, John & Wayne (John Dunnery
being Francis' nephew) and Stephen Harris(AKA Haggis and Kid Chaos),
formerly of The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction.
Other Work
After Phil Collins left Genesis
in 1996, Dunnery was approached to join the band, but refused. The post
was eventually filled by Ray Wilson, formerly of Stiltskin.
He has contributed backing vocals to Anderson Bruford
Wakeman Howe's eponymous album. He also rehearsed with The Syn
for an abortive tour in 2005. He accompanied former Led
Zeppelin singer Robert Plant on his "Fate of
Nations" world tour in 1993-4.
He has recorded studio sessions for Lauryn
Hill, Elton
John, and many others. These include Carlos
Santana on his multi-platinum album Supernatural.
Also, Dunnery co-wrote several tracks and played guitar on, as well as
producing Ian
Brown's album Music of the Spheres.
Trivia
A Fender Stratocaster player,
Dunnery favours Taylor and Ovation acoustic guitars for studio and live
work. He is also the inventor of the guitar based instrument
called the tapboard
which used parts of a shower hose and an egg timer to
produce its sounds.
When he's not playing music, his other interests include; astrology,
training horses and Jungian Psychology.
He is the founder of the Charlie and Kathleen Dunnery
Children's Fund, a charity which donates money to children.
Francis's elder brother, Barry, is also an accomplished
guitarist and was part of the band Violinski who had a hit in the
UK with the song Clog Dance.
Solo Discography
- Welcome To The Wild Country (Virgin 1991)
- Fearless (Atlantic 1994)
- One Night In Sauchiehall Street (Cottage Industry 1995)
(live)
- Tall Blonde Helicopter (Atlantic 1995)
- Let's Go Do What Happens (Razor and Tie 1998)
- Man (Aquarian Nation 2001)
- Hometown 2001 (Aquarian Nation 2001)
- The Gulley Flats Boys (Aquarian Nation 2005)
External links
