Tony was born in 1945 in Malawi and attended boarding school in Southern Rhodesia, as it was at the time. In pursuit of the completion of his education, Tony moved to England where he dropped out of forestry school before making his way to London. He then started to sing his songs in the pubs of 
London before joining the crew of a geophysical vessel working off the shores of Africa. After four years of this, whilst writing – in the main – Country & Western songs, he left the ship in Madagascar and returned to South Africa for the first time in ten years. Returning to South Africa, the socio-political state of the country struck him sharply as evidenced in his song entitled “Athlone Incident”, inspired by a night-time experience he had in Cape Town. In due course Tony migrated to the United States where he lives in New York. His poetry and songwriting skills have earned him respect and his “Bird Of Paradise” album was applauded as “one of the 10 best pop albums of the decade” by the Chicago Music critic, Lynn Van Matre. He best known songs include “Zambesi Zimbabwe” which was covered by Clem Tholet and is included in his most recent release, Archives.
With acknowledgements to:
www.3rdearmusic.com (The Hidden Years)
www.mangotime.net (The Unofficial Tony Bird Website)