Tony Fox Sales | |
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 Tony Sales | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1951-09-26)September 26, 1951 (age 74) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1965–present |
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Tony Fox Sales (born September 26, 1951) is an Americanrock musician and composer. Primarily a bass player, Sales has worked withTodd Rundgren,Iggy Pop, and inTin Machine withDavid Bowie, often alongside his brotherHunt Sales, a drummer.
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Sales was born inCleveland,Ohio. His father was 1950s/60s TV comedianSoupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), and his mother was Barbara Fox (June 23, 1931 – May 28, 2017). They raised Tony and his younger brotherHunt (born 1954) inDetroit,Michigan.
Tony and Hunt have frequently worked together. Among the prominent musicians they have performed and/or recorded with are:Chequered Past, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Todd Rundgren,Bob Welch,Andy Fraser ofFree,Harry Dean Stanton and The Cheap Dates, The Hunt Sales Memorial, Tin Machine (with Bowie), and others from 1989 to 1994.
Tony's firstmusical group was Tony and the Tigers; Hunt was itsdrummer. The band also included Jon Pousette-Dart, son of artistRichard Pousette-Dart and later the leader of thePousette-Dart Band. In 1966, the band appeared on theTV showI've Got a Secret hosted bySteve Allen, and performed two songs, "I'll Be on My Way" and "When the Party's Over".[1] Tony and The Tigersreleased the song "Turn It on Girl" which was a minor localhit in Detroit. The band appeared twice on the showHullabaloo: December 20, 1965, hosted byJerry Lewis; and April 4, 1966, hosted by their father, Soupy Sales. The band also opened forThe Animals atSteel Pier inAtlantic City in 1967.
In 1970, the Sales brothers joinedTodd Rundgren in the newly formed group, Runt, andrecorded twoalbums.[2] They recorded two tracks for theIggy Pop/James Williamson albumKill City in 1975 and provided therhythm section for Pop's albumLust for Life (1977), which wasproduced by David Bowie, who also playedkeyboards. The brothers joined Pop on his subsequenttour, recorded asTV Eye Live 1977 and released in 1978.
Some of Tony and Hunt's recordings were placed in storage after Tony was injured in a car accident in 1979 so severely that he was near death for several minutes before being revived. He was consequently in acoma for over eight months but eventually recovered from his injuries and returned to working as a musician.
In 1982, Sales joined a band,Chequered Past, which included singer/actorMichael Des Barres (later ofPower Station), ex-Sex Pistols guitaristSteve Jones, andBlondie’s bass playerNigel Harrison and drummerClem Burke. According to Des Barres, the choice of name was not an idle one. "All the members have been through a lot," he told theLos Angeles Times at his house inHollywood, including the fact that Sales had fully recovered from a debilitating auto accident.[3] After an album released by Chequered Past in 1984 flopped, the band broke up shortly afterward.
The Sales brothers joinedDavid Bowie andReeves Gabrels to form the bandTin Machine in 1988.The New York Times said of the band's first album, "Tin Machine sounds as if it was made by people working together, not by a producer with a computer."[4] On November 23, 1991, the band performed onSaturday Night Live, which was hosted that episode by then child actorMacaulay Culkin. Tin Machine recorded three albums and toured twice before dissolving in 1992. Bowie later stated that his memories of Tony and Hunt Sales' contribution toLust for Life led him to invite them to join Tin Machine.[5]
Throughout the 1990s, Sales recorded and produced and was a member of the short-lived all-star band The Cheap Dates, which included actorHarry Dean Stanton,Jeff "Skunk" Baxter andSlim Jim Phantom.
Sales and Hunt's recordings from the late 1970s were released in2008 byPerseverance Records as asolo album,Hired Guns. Ane-book about them,Quintessentially Soul Brothers: The Sales Brothers In Their Own Words by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn, was published in 2009.[6]
Since the middle of the eighties Sales has used aVigier Passion Bass.
Tony Sales married English actress/modelAnulka Dziubinska on August 20, 1978, inLos Angeles,California.[7] They were divorced in March 1984.[8]
Sales began living with actressTaryn Power, daughter of the movie starTyrone Power and actressLinda Christian, before his divorce was finalized. They had two children together: Anthony Tyrone "Tony" Sales (born September 4, 1982)[9] and Valentina Fox Sales (born September 10, 1983).[10]
Groom: Tony F. Sales, Age: 26, Bride: Anulka M. Dziubinska, Age: 27, County: Los Angeles, Date: Aug. 20, 1978, Registrar No.: 27014, State File No.: 86878
Husband: Tony F. Sales, Wife: Anulka M., Type: 1, County: Los Angeles, Date: 6 March 1984, Case No.: D 099576, State File No.: 057510
Name: Anthony Tyrone Sales, Date: Sep. 4, 1982, Sex: Male, Mother's Maiden Name: Power, Birth Place: Los Angeles
Name: Valentina Fox Sales, Date: Sep. 10, 1983, Sex: Female, Mother's Maiden Name: Power, Birth Place: Los Angeles
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