Francis Dunnery
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| Francis Dunnery | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 25, 1962 |
| 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Solo career
[edit] 1990s
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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.
[edit] 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, which is actually spelled Gulley Flatts, 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.
In October 2007 he released a free download of a re-worked version of the un-released It Bites song: "Feels Like Summertime" from his official website, to promote his forthcoming "electric" tour. Featuring a full band, "Welcome To The Wild Country" is to played in its entirety, along with old It Bites favourites.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
- He played Squier Stratocaster with Dimazio X2N pickups and Fernandes FST-65 model at IT BITES’s Eat Me in St. Louis tour.
- 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.
[edit] 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)
