A Bride's Nightie: The Ups and Downs of Tony Thorpe

Tony Thorpe is a guitarist who, in his tea half-hour, has also managed to be bassist, drummer, singer, songwriter, arranger, actor, pop star, teacher, journalist and scriptwriter, sometimes all at once. He has worked with the likes of Wee Willie Harris, Tommy Steele, Cilla Black, Jimmy Tarbuck, Denny Laine, Jimmy Smith and Tal Farlow, and despite being too ugly to be a pop star he has sung lead vocal with two different bands on Top of the Pops. The nicest thing anyone ever said about him was 'Poor Tony Thorpe, if he was 70 years old and American he would undoubtedly be a blues great'. The worst things ever said about him were most certainly by one of Her Majesty's Government's many agencies.His observations on life, the universe and everything, some of them profound, some just plain funny, are rooted in nearly 60 years of experience in the music business and honed by a keen sense of deductive reasoning. The result is as true a picture as you're likely to get of what it's been like to be a musician during the second half of the 20th century. Tony is currently working as an Old Age Pensioner and still trying to learn to play the bloody guitar.