Tony O'Hora

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Tony O'Hora at Lieder am See 2017

Tony O'Hora (born September 8, 1967 in Clapham , London ) is an English hard rock singer, guitarist, bassist and keyboard player, who was best known for his membership in the melodic metal band Praying Mantis .

Life

Born in London, O'Hora spent a few early years in his native city, but also in the Irish capital Dublin and in the Canadian province of Ontario . During this time he practiced singing and developed sufficient skills to take part in bands after his return to England and to try out various rock instruments. From 1988 to 1989 he sang in a Liverpool band, the name of which appears in the annals spelled differently, which is due to the fact that the slang term "Larrikin" is spelled "Larrakin" and there is no album that could prove one of the spellings . In 1989 he moved to the local hard rock competition from Torino. With Torino, who already had two LPs , he went on a well-attended tour in the UK and worked out new song material. With the onset of the wave of grungy interest in the band decreased, so that their survival was no longer assured. After their breakup in 1990, he joined the thrash metal band Onslaught , which now sounded less raw due to its singing style. In the course of the planning for the CD release When Reason Sleeps , two record companies dropped out again. This led to the dissolution in 1991. With the guitarist Rob Trotman, who worked there from 1987 until the dissolution, he would work again later. After Onslaught, Highwire was the next stop, where he met another later musician, guitarist Jamie O'Kane. In addition to hard rock, this group was also fond of sleaze rock . His affiliation fell from 1992 to 1995. In the second half of the 1990s, an offer came from the NWoBH band Praying Mantis, which was plagued by frequent singer changes but was blessed with a loyal fan following . The details about the exact dwell time differ, so it is sometimes mentioned 1996 to 2001, sometimes 1998 to 2002. During this phase he made several tours with the band from London, which is now more towards the AOR , and recorded the two albums Forever in Time (1998) as well Nowhere to Hide (2000) with her. He also found time to launch his own project. For this he won, among others, drummer Brian Dixon, a former Torino colleague, the guitarist Rob Trotman from the last Onslaught line-up and Jamie O'Kane, the guitarist of Highwire. Praying Mantis guitarist Tino Troy made a guest appearance. O'Hora sang and played bass. The band name was formed from the two prefix surnames occurring in the line-up : Horakane. The album Eternal Infinity was released on March 17, 1999 on the Japanese label Pony Canyon International and the Italian label Frontiers Records .

Tony O'Hora (center), 2006

In 2003, O'Hora took on the dual role of singer and bassist with Andy Scott's Sweet , which went on extensive tours. At The Sweet he met drummer Bruce Bisland again, who had worked for Praying Mantis and Sweet for a long time and brought O'Hora into conversation with Scott. As a bassist he joined the NWoBHM band Statetrooper in September 2004. In 2005 he took over a lectureship at the University of Music in Birmingham . From then on it was difficult for him to reconcile band activities, teaching and private life, which is why he gave up his Sweet membership in 2006. Shortly before, namely in January 2006, he had his first solo CD released, entitled Escape into the Sun bears. He was only supported during the recordings by Magnus Karlsson ( Primal Fear ), who contributed all the instruments to O'Hora's vocals, which could also be said the other way round, given Karlsson's additional contributions as a songwriter and producer . Since 2011 he has been playing for The Sweet again, this time in three roles as singer, guitarist and keyboardist.

O'Hora appeared in various productions as a guest or background singer . For example, on the first two power metal albums by the band Balance of Power (1997 and 1998) from Brighton . Or as the main artist on the tribute album for the American AOR legend Boston , simply titled Tribute to Boston (2002).

Tony O'Hora runs his own commercial website on the subject of singing, on which, among other things, singing lessons via Skype and care / prevention products for the nasopharynx are offered.

style

The Horakane style lies in the field of hard rock and melodic metal and is a praying mantis copy, wrote the internet magazine powermetal.de . The solo CD is melodic hard rock, this time more influenced by Karlsson's side, who last worked with the Allen / Lande project, which is why the CD sounds like the sequel to The Battle . The reviewer of the Canadian online magazine metal-rules.com found O'Hora's Escape into the Sun to be more intense than The Battle von Allen / Lande . He called the style Melodic Metal with a good mix of Melodic Hard Rock.

The term "hard rock" was used by the Discogs internet platform and the rock magazine Eclipsed . The Internet lexicon Rockdetector / Musicmight calls the style Melodic Rock, similar to the metal magazine Metal Hammer , which speaks of Melodic Metal. The Australian website melodicrock.com uses the terms hard rock and melodic metal, while the Hungarian website zajlik.hu has chosen hard rock and heavy metal.

Discography

With Praying Mantis

  • 1998: Forever in Time (Pony Canyon International)
  • 2000: Nowhere to Hide (Frontiers Records)

With Horakane

  • 1999: Eternal Infinity (Pony Canyon International / Frontiers Records)

As Tony O'Hora

  • 2006: Escape into the Sun (Frontiers Records)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tony O'Hora. In: discogs.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Anders Sandvall: Tony O'Hara (sic). Escape into the Sun. In: metal-rules.com. March 2006, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b R [enald] M [ienert]: Tony O'Hara (sic). "Escape into the Sun" . In: Eclipsed . Rock magazine. No. 79 , February 2006, CD reviews, p. 51 .
  4. ↑ a b Tony O'Hora. In: thesweet.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Tony O'Hora. In: zajlik.hu. Retrieved October 11, 2016 (Hungarian).
  6. ↑ a b Larrikin. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  7. ↑ larrikin n. (Also larakin, larikin, larrakin, larry). In: oxfordreference.com. Jonathon Green, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b Torino. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  9. ↑ a b The Lionsheart: Album Review: Torino Albums Get a Refreshing Treatment. Biography. In: decibelgeek.com. November 30, 2015, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Onslaught. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  11. ↑ Onslaught. Line up. In: free.fr. August 23, 2016, accessed October 11, 2016 (French).
  12. ↑ a b Highwire. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  13. ↑ a b Tony O'Hora. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: musicmight.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicmight.com
  14. ↑ Tony O'Hora. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  15. ↑ Dimitris: Horakane - Eternal Infinity (1999). In: the-metal-progress.blogspot.de. December 20, 2009, Retrieved October 11, 2016 (Greek).
  16. ↑ a b c Sweet Sounds in Newcastle. In: newcastlelive.com. March 18, 2014, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  17. ↑ State Trooper's NWOBHM Roots Run Deep. In: blabbermouth.net. September 21, 2004, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  18. ^ A b c Martin Stark: O'Hora, Tony - Escape into the Sun. In: powermetal.de. February 11, 2006, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  19. ^ A b Tony O'Hora - Escape into the Sun. In: melodicrock.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016 .
  20. ↑ a b Manuel Liebler: Tony O'Hora. Escape into the Sun . In: Metal Hammer . February 2006, Reviews, p. 108 .
  21. ^ Dean Pedley: Slade + Sweet @ Alexandra Theater, Birmingham - November 14, 2012. In: themidlandsrocks.com. November 16, 2012, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  22. ^ Balance of Power. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: rockdetector.com. Garry Sharpe-Young, archived from the original on March 3, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  23. ^ Tribute to Boston - Tribute to Boston. In: discogs.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Vocal power. In: vocalpower.co.uk. Tony O'Hora, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Peter Kubaschk: Horakane - Eternal Infinity. In: powermetal.de. September 20, 2001, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  26. ^ Tony O'Hora - Escape into the Sun. In: discogs.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Tony O'Hora  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME O'Hora, Tony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English hard rock singer, guitarist, bassist and keyboardist
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Clapham , London