Francis Dunnery

Infobox musical artist 2
Name = Francis Dunnery


Img_capt =
Background =
Born = birth date and age|1962|12|25
Died =
Origin = Egremont, Cumbria, England
Instrument = vocals, guitar, drums, tapboard
Genre = Progressive rock
Singer-Songwriter
Occupation = Musician, Record Producer
Years_active = 1984 – present
Label = Aquarian Nation
URL = [http://www.francisdunnery.com 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.

Waving at Trains

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.

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, with a new studio album, "The Tall Ships", in September, 2008.

olo career

1990s

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 favor of an eclectic mixture of soft ballads and acoustic rockers. Dunnery's next album was 1998s "Let's Go Do What Happens" released on the Razor and Tie label. The album featured rockier numbers and experimentation with more electronic sounds.

2000s

Dunnery returned to the UK in 2000 for his first tour there in five years with his newly formed band, The Grass Virgins (dave colquhoun, matt pegg, erin moran), 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. 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 favorites.

In 2008, Francis continues to perform numerous solo performances and house concerts, this time centerd around material from "Tall Blonde Helicopter." His Summer and Fall schedule include a full-band tour, culminating in a performance in Seattle to be captured for DVD release in early 2009.

Aquarian Nation

Dunnery manages his own record label called Aquarian Nation, which is part of a multi-media company formed in 2001 with the stated mission to "help support and promote artistic integrity." Artists affiliated with this label (including Francis himself) are Chris Difford, Dorie Jackson, John & Wayne and Stephen Harris(AKA Haggis and Kid Chaos), formerly of The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Release in June 2008, the label has released "Snowman Melting" for James Sonefeld Hootie and the Blowfish. Currently in production is a live CD from the "Man" tour as well as an official video bootleg from the same tour. Aquarian Nation has also announced a partnership with Flying Spot Entertainment to create a special edition DVD of the "Tall Blonde Helicopter 2008" tour.

Other Work/Collaborations

After Phil Collins left Genesis in 1996, Dunnery was approached to join the band, but declined. The post was eventually filled by Ray Wilson, formerly of Stiltskin.

He has contributed backing vocals to Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe's eponymous album. His guitar and vocal skills were recruited by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant for his "Fate of Nations" world tour. More recently, Dunnery has written and recorded with The Syn.

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".

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. This fund was set up in memory of his late parents.
*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". He died in June 2008
*In 2008 Francis moved from New York City to Pennsylvania USA.

olo 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)

External links

* [http://www.francisdunnery.com Official Site]
* [http://www.francisdunnery.co.uk The Francis Dunnery Appreciation Society]
* [http://www.aquariannation.com Aquarian Nation Official Site]
* [http://www.ckdcf.org Charlie and Kathleen Dunnery Children's Fund Official Site]