Tony Mills

Who is Tony Mills?

Tony Mills is an English rock singer, best known for his work with Shy and TNT.

Hailing from Birmingham, when he was 14 years old, he sang in his first band, the punk band The Rip-Offs, before joining fellow Birmingham punk band Cracked Actors as bass guitarist. Turning to rock in 1980, he sang in rock bands with guitarist Nik Lloyd, such as Overdrive, Orion and Enigma, and in 1983 he joined the band Shy. He recorded four albums with AOR/hair metal band Shy, including the critically acclaimed Excess All Areas and toured with Shy, supporting Gary Moore, Meatloaf, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, Magnum, Manowar, Badlands, Enuff Z Nuff, Sleez Beez, UFO, and the Ian Hunter/Mick Ronson outfit which he performed on stage with in Brighton, just prior to Mick's death. The tours spanned the whole of Europe and North America, it was here that Tony worked with L.A. based band, Cinderella on their debut album, Night Songs. Co-writing sessions came about with Don Dokken, Michael Bolton, Michael Des Barres, John Parker, Jeff Paris and Bob Kulick.

Tony left Shy in 1991, when MCA picked him up as a solo artist to record his first album in Manchester with engineer Andy Macpherson and guitarist Bob Maxim along with various members of 10CC and Sad Cafe. Later, forming another band, Siam, he wrote and sang on two albums, Prayer and The Language of Menace. After working as a session vocalist through the 1990s with Slade, Simon Harrison, Dave Saylor and Cozy Powell in conjunction with his recording and touring work with Siam, the band eventually folded in 1996 and Mills spent a year fronting a Rush tribute band, YYZ. In 2000 he reunited with Shy for two more albums, 'Unfinished Business' and 'Sunset and Vine'. At the turn of the millennium, he also released two solo albums, Cruiser and Freeway to the Afterlife. There followed a Danish tour with The Sweet, as bassist and lead vocalist, but this did not work out, and he returned to Shy, only to move swiftly on, when in 2006 he was asked to join TNT in Oslo, Norway. He was to replace their long-time vocalist Tony Harnell who had decided to leave the band for both personal and professional reasons. The following year Mills sang on TNT's new album, The New Territory, which despite high sales, was poorly received by several rock magazines, who it seems were somewhat taken aback by the new material. The band toured and gigged extensively throughout 2007 in Norway to support the record, including supports to Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row and Motorhead. Lasse Dale was also a progressive metal guitarist from Tromso in Norway, that enlisted Tony to write and record his debut album, Screaming For Silence. Tony worked for many Euro artist's between 2006 and 2010, namely Michael Voss and his 'Voices Of Rock' project, Liberty 'n' Justice in the U.S., Torben Enevoldsen in Denmark, Frederic Hugues and Blackstone and Tor Talle in Norway. Charity involvement for the Autistic Foundation for Children in North Trondelag, also saw the release of a single, 'Keep The Dream Alive' along with its associated video through NRK with vocalist, Siv-Anita Strickhert.