Toni Halliday
| Toni Halliday | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Antoinette Halliday |
| Also known as | Toni Halliday |
| Born | July 1964 (age 47) |
| Origin | Parsons Green, Fulham, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock Electronica Electronic rock Shoegazing Dream pop |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, Electric guitar |
| Years active | 1978—present |
| Labels | Charisma Anxious FatLip Universal |
| Associated acts | Curve, Photofitz, State of Play, The Uncles, Scylla, Chatelaine, Recoil |
| Website | myspace.com/chatelainemusic www.curve.co.uk |
Antoinette "Toni" Halliday (born 5 July 1964) is an English musician best known as the lead vocalist, lyricist, and occasional guitarist of the band Curve.
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[edit] Early life and career
Halliday was born on 5 July 1964 in Parsons Green, Fulham, and brought up in various locations across Europe, before eventually settling in Washington New Town, Tyne and Wear.
From 1978 to 1980, Halliday was the lead vocalist in a punk rock band named Photofitz (initially called The Incest), after which Toni left to start a solo career.
The first commercially-released recording to feature Halliday was the single "The Smile and the Kiss" (1983) by the group Bonk, on which she performed uncredited backing vocals. The following year, Halliday's new band The Uncles released the single "What's the Use of Pretending", whereupon the singer returned to performing backing vocals for other artists, including the Robert Plant albums Shaken 'n' Stirred (1985), and Now and Zen (1988).
In 1985, Halliday and multi-instrumentalist Dean Garcia formed the band State of Play together with Garcia's wife Julie Fletcher and Eurythmics drummer Olle Romö. The following year, State of Play released an LP on Virgin Records titled Balancing the Scales - a non-hit album that spawned two non-hit singles: "Natural Colour" and "Rock-a-bye Baby".
After the subsequent demise of State of Play, Halliday made another attempt at a solo career. Her album Hearts And Handshakes (produced by Halliday with Alan Moulder) was released in 1989, a year after it was finished, and four singles were taken from it, "Weekday", "Love Attaction", "Time Turns Around", and "Woman In Mind".
[edit] Curve
Dean Garcia had played on Hearts and Handshakes, and the pair now collaborated to form Curve, with Halliday serving as lead singer; their partnership would last from 1990 to 2005. The group's main releases are the studio albums Doppelgänger (1992), Cuckoo (1993), Come Clean (1998), Open Day at the Hate Fest (2001), Gift (2001), The New Adventures of Curve (2002), and the compilation The Way of Curve (2004).
[edit] Scylla
In 1995, a year after the first, temporary dissolution of Curve, Halliday formed the band Scylla with Ricky Barber, Lindy Pocock, Fiona Lynsky and Julian Bown. The group toured small clubs in the summer of 1995. Scylla's only recording to have been officially released is the song "Helen's Face", which can be found on the soundtrack album for the film Showgirls. Another Scylla song, "Get A Helmet", can be heard in the Gregg Araki film Nowhere. Scylla recorded a 12-track demo with both Alan Moulder and Flood producing, but no album was released. A poor-quality bootleg of these demo tracks can be found on the internet.[1]
[edit] Other work
Following the emergence of Curve in 1991, Halliday co-wrote and performed vocals on two songs for the 1992 Recoil album Bloodline, and also put in guest appearances on The Future Sound of London's Lifeforms (1994) and Leftfield's Leftism (1995). Other artists with whom Halliday has collaborated include Paul van Dyk, DJ? Acucrack, Acid Android, Freaky Chakra and, more recently, The Killers on their 2006 Christmas track "A Great Big Sled".
[edit] Chatelaine
In February 2008 Toni introduced a new solo project called Chatelaine on MySpace.[2] Chatelaine's debut album "Take a Line For a Walk" was released in June 2010. It featured nine new tracks: "Broken Bones", "Oh Daddy", "Life Remains", "Stripped Out", "Shifting Sands", "Killing Feeling", "Take a Line For a Walk", "Head To Head" and "Seen and Lost".
Rumours of Curve reuniting and recording in 2011 proved false. Toni continues to work on the next Chatelaine album and other upcoming collaborations.
[edit] Personal life
Halliday is married to the British record producer Alan Moulder.[3]
[edit] Discography
[edit] State of Play
- Balancing the Scales (1986)
[edit] Toni Halliday
- Hearts and Handshakes (1989)
- For Tomorrow's Sorrows (2005 - not released)
[edit] Curve
- Pubic Fruit (collection of EPs from 1991, released 1992)
- Doppelgänger (1992)
- Radio Sessions (1993)
- Cuckoo (1994)
- Pink Girl With the Blues EP (1997)
- Come Clean (1998)
- Open Day at the Hate Fest (2001)
- Gift (2001)
- The New Adventures of Curve (2002)
- The Way of Curve (2004)
[edit] Scylla
- Demos (recorded 1996, released 2007)
[edit] Chatelaine
- Take a Line For a Walk (2010)
- TBA (2012)
[edit] Collaborations
Toni Halliday provided vocals on the following songs:
- Recoil — "Edge To Life"
- Recoil — "Bloodline"
- Leftfield — "Original"
- The Future Sound of London — "Cerebral"
- Freaky Chakra — "Budded On Earth To Bloom in Heaven"
- DJ? Acucrack — "So To Speak"
- Paul Van Dyk — "Words"
- Acid Android — "Faults"
- The Killers — "A Great Big Sled"
- Headcase — "Lola"
- Bonk — "The Smile and the Kiss"
- Bias — "Things That Dreams Are Made Of"
- The Future — "Night Makes You" (backing vocals)
- Robert Plant — Shaken 'n' Stirred (backing vocals)
- Robert Plant — Now and Zen (backing vocals)
