Toni Halliday

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.

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".

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 released a number of singles, EPs, and full-length albums; the latter include the following: 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).

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".

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.^[1]. 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.^[2]

Chatelaine

In February 2008 Toni introduced a new solo project called Chatelaine on MySpace ^[3]. A number of tracks can be previewed, and the Chatelaine MySpace blog declares that a new album is being worked on.^[4]

Personal life

Halliday is married to the British record producer Alan Moulder.

Albums

STATE OF PLAY

• Balancing The Scales

CURVE

• Pubic Fruit
• Doppelgänger
• Radio Sessions
• Cuckoo
• Come Clean
• Open Day At The Hatefest
• Gift
• The New Adventures Of Curve
• The Way Of Curve

SOLO

• Hearts And Handshakes

Collaborations

• Original (With Leftfield)
• Budded On Earth To Bloom In Heaven (With Freaky Chakra)
• Cerebral (With The Future Sound Of London)
• So To Speak (With DJ? Acucrack)
• Words (With Paul Van Dyk)
• Faults (With Acid Android)
• A Great Big Sled (With The Killers)
• What's the Use of Pretending (With The Uncles)
• Lola (With Headcase)
• The Smile and the Kiss (With Bonk)
• Things That Dreams Are Made Of (With Bias)
• Edge To Life (With Recoil)
• Bloodline (With Recoil)
• Falling Free (With Aphex Twin)
• The Future (Backing Vocals on "Night Makes You")
• Robert Plant Now And Zen (Backing Vocals)
• Robert Plant Shaken 'n' Stirred (Backing Vocals)

References

1. ^ Message by former Band member Ricky Barber
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Chatelaine MySpace page
4. ^ Chatelaine's MySpace blog

• "Curve: Frequently Asked Questions #14" at curve-online.co.uk
• "Toni on vocals" at recovery: unofficial curve website
• Myspace page for Chatelaine Toni's new band Chatelaine