Singer/Songwriter | Ton-Up Records https://tonuprecords.com A Record Label & Music Publishing Company Founded In 2009. Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:12:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://tonuprecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-Ton-Up-Records-Site-Icon-32x32.png Singer/Songwriter | Ton-Up Records https://tonuprecords.com 32 32 Dean Ford https://tonuprecords.com/artist/dean-ford/ Wed, 01 May 2024 14:28:39 +0000 https://tonuprecords.com/?post_type=artist&p=2332 Throughout the groovy sixties and early seventies, singer, songwriter, and musician Dean Ford led the band Marmalade and made music history. In January of 1969, Marmalade became the first Scottish band to score a number-one hit in the UK, with a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,’ in 1969. The band appeared in Kilts on...

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The post Dean Ford first appeared on Ton-Up Records.]]> Throughout the groovy sixties and early seventies, singer, songwriter, and musician Dean Ford led the band Marmalade and made music history. In January of 1969, Marmalade became the first Scottish band to score a number-one hit in the UK, with a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,’ in 1969. The band appeared in Kilts on ‘Top of the Pops’ to celebrate and drew praise from Paul McCartney for their version of the song. By the end of the year, the band would achieve a worldwide hit with ‘Reflections of My Life,’ written by Ford and lead guitarist Junior Campbell.  

Born in Airdrie, Scotland, Ford joined The Gaylords in 1963 after members of the group saw him perform with The Monarchs at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow. Subsequently, the band became Dean Ford & The Gaylords and relocated to London in 1965. The band changed its name to “The Marmalade” in 1966, and Jimi Hendrix called their song ‘I See The Rain’ “the best cut of 1967.” Marmalade went on to achieve six top-ten hits before breaking up in 1975.

Ford released his self-titled solo album produced by Alan Parsons in 1975 featuring the single ‘Hey My Love.’ He made a guest appearance on Parsons’ album ‘Pyramid’ released in 1978 and did some recording with his former bandmate Hugh Nicholson.

BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) honored Ford and Junior Campbell with a Special Citation of Achievement in 1998 for reaching over one million radio broadcast performances in the United States. In 2003, he appeared with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band for an album tribute to Glaswegian Frankie Miller. In 2012, he collaborated with former Badfinger Guitarist Joe Tansin on an album, ‘Paradise Cove.’

Music industry veteran/record producer/engineer Dan Matovina began working with Ford in 2015 and assisted him with moving his solo career forward.  Matovina restored and re-issued his debut album and helped Ford put together his 2017 release ‘Feel My Heartbeat,’ with Producer Fernando Perdomo. Ford recorded one last album, ‘This Scottish Heart,’ Produced by Matovina, and released two months before he passed away in 2018.

Post-humously, Matovina gathered a group of musicians including Grant Maloy Smith, Kirk ‘Jelly Roll’ Johnson, and David Williams, to create backing tracks for the unfinished recording of ‘Darlin’ Oh Darlin.” Ford had only recorded a scratch track. ‘Darlin’ Oh Darlin” was released on February 22, 2022.   

Dean Ford was a true original who left an enduring music legacy that continues to engage fans worldwide.

The post Dean Ford first appeared on Ton-Up Records.]]> Greg Davis https://tonuprecords.com/artist/greg-davis/ Tue, 17 Oct 2023 22:45:39 +0000 https://tonuprecords.com/?post_type=artist&p=2303 Greg Davis, often called “The Preacher of Punk,” is in a league of his own. Singer, songwriter, producer, guitar virtuoso, and founder of the seminal Country Punk band Blood on the Saddle, in which he successfully merged two musical genres (Bluegrass and Punk Rock) and has gone on to a career that spans over forty...

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The post Greg Davis first appeared on Ton-Up Records.]]> Greg Davis, often called “The Preacher of Punk,” is in a league of his own. Singer, songwriter, producer, guitar virtuoso, and founder of the seminal Country Punk band Blood on the Saddle, in which he successfully merged two musical genres (Bluegrass and Punk Rock) and has gone on to a career that spans over forty years.
 
Davis began his professional musical career in 1978 playing in southern rock bar bands as a Duane Allman imitator, specifically playing slide guitar with a Corocidin bottle in Atlanta, Georgia. During the 1980s, he played in a Hollywood Punk band, Dead Hippie, before heading to New Orleans, where he learned to play Bluegrass from a Memphis banjo player named “Jeep” on Bourbon St, in the French Quarter.
 
Back in Los Angeles, he formed Blood on the Saddle in 1983. The band released their successful debut album in 1984, followed by Poison Love (1986) and Fresh Blood (1987), and Cold Blooded (1988).  On a break from the band, he played guitar for The Vandals during their first European tour in the summer of 1989 and played several shows with The Drivers, a side project, along with playing guitar in Candye Kane’s band in the fall of that year.
 
The band released More Blood (1993) and New Blood (1995) and continued to tour Europe extensively. Blood on the Saddle moved into the 21st century with the release of Flesh & Blood (2001) and another tour of Europe. During a tour break in 2004, in the basement of a Hollywood apartment building with Billy Hines producing, Davis recorded a set of songs performed acoustically. It’s all live single takes with no overdubs. Those sessions became his solo album Pure Blood, released for the first time in 2019.
 
Blood on the Saddle released Blood Alcohol (2005), The Blood, the Mud, & the Beer (2008), followed by True Blood (2013). Greg Davis continues to tour and record with Blood on the Saddle, bringing to audiences the sound of the Wild, Wild West of Punk Rock.
The post Greg Davis first appeared on Ton-Up Records.]]>