Rob Tognoni
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Robert "Rob" John Tognoni (* October 30, 1960 in Ulverstone, Tasmania) is an Australian musician and composer.
His father, Giovanni, was an Italian immigrant. Rob has three siblings, a brother and two sisters.
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[edit] Biography
In his youth, Rob didn't have much contact with contemporary music, as at that time mostly country and gospel were played in Tasmania.
Tognoni started playing guitar when he was about 10 years old. His mother had an Ibanez semi-acoustic guitar, but she wasn't playing it, so Rob did. It only had three or four strings on it and he didn't know you could buy replacement strings! [1]
At the age of 12, he started listening to his older sisters' records and familiarized himself with blues, rock and pop music.
Early in 1974, Tognoni's father died in a car accident. This tragedy caused him to fall into depression, and only Rob's obsession with the guitar helped him to overcome it.
[edit] Musical career
At the age of 14 Rob saw a concert of a new Australian band named AC/DC. He was fascinated by their sound and began to add their powerful sound to his guitarplay. And he discovered his love for the Blues.
After leaving school in 1976 Rob did several jobs to make a living.
In 1977 Tognoni wrote his first song "Jim Beam Blues" which is still on his set list today.
Rob's first band, the "Skidrow Boys" were founded in 1983. The band toured around Tasmania for two years, but soon Rob felt the need for a change and in 1985 he moved to Melbourne to play with a Top-40 covers band.
In 1986 Rob and some local musicians put together the "Outlaws". For the first time in his career, Rob was forced to sing as they didn't find a suitable person for this job.
The same year the "Outlaws" collected three categories at the "20. Annual Queensland Rock Awards":
- best guitarist
- best drummer
- best band
The band earned themselves a reputation of not tolerating bullshit and refusing to bow to trends within the industry. This built up a huge fan base for the band.
In 1990 the "Outlaws" are invited by the Australian cult band "The Angels" to place Rob's song "I Got You – You Got Me" on their new sampler "The Dogs Are Talking". Rob was also asked by the then Angels management to be guitarist for Suze DeMarchi & the Baby Animals. He turned the offer down, opting to do his own thing.
The "Outlaws" changed their name to "The Desert Cats" in 1990 and did a very successful four weeks Australian tour.
Due to poor management the "Desert Cats" disbanded. Rob tried to re-assemble the "Outlaws" with a new line up but the band failed to gain music industry attention so it disbanded finally in 1992. He returned to Queensland and for the next years played acoustic guitar in restaurants for a living.
Australian slide-guitarist Dave Hole heard Tognoni's music in 1994 and helped him to get a record contract with the Dutch label Provogue/Mascot Records. This was Rob's international breakthrough.
Hole produced Rob's first CD "Stones And Colours", which was released through Europe in 1995. It was an immediate success and received critical acclaim. The positive reaction caused the first European tour in February 1996. In July of that year Tognoni and the band were invited to play at the prestigious Midtfyns Festival in Denmark.
The follow up CD "Headstrong", released in 1997, again achieved excellent reviews. A European tour and another invitation to play at Mydtfyns followed, where Rob and the band opened for Sting.
During the tour of 1998, Tognoni performed at the Leverkusener Jazztage Festival in Germany, which have been televised throughout Germany and Austria several times.
A highlight in Rob's career was the invitation to the Rock 'n' Royal Festival in Copenhagen in 2004. In honour of the Royal Wedding between Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson, Rob performed the Australian National Anthem in a guitar "duel" with D-A-D (Disneyland After Dark) lead guitarist Jacob Binzer, who played the Danish National Anthem, to a stadium audience of 45,000.
In 2006, Rob presented his CD "The Ironyard" during a very successful European tour. He became part of the greatest football party of all time in Germany as he was invited to play the official FIFA World Cup Fan Fest on June 12th after the World Cup Australia vs. Japan game. The band performed on the main stage in the Public Viewing Area in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
On Monday 15th October 2007, three of Rob's BBC Session recordings made especially for the Paul Jones Show were aired. Three tracks were played on the radio including 'Drink Jack Boogie' and 'Mr. John Lee (The Boogie Man)' plus two exclusive session tracks were playable on the website: 'Coming Home At Last' and 'Crossword Blues'. Paul Jones consoled UK listeners with news that a UK tour was planned in May 2008.
[edit] Discography
- CROCODILE COUNTRY - 7" Single, '86 Australia (Sundown)
- I GOT YOU - YOU GOT ME - 7" Single, '89 Australia (Sundown)
- I GOT YOU - YOU GOT ME - CD, 12", 7" EP - The Angels "Dogs Are Talking", '90 Australia (Mushroom/Festival)
- UGLIER THAN SIN - Cassette "EP", '91 Australia (Independent)
- STONES & COLOURS - CD, '95 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- WHERE BLUES MEETS ROCK 2 - CD, Various, '96 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- HEADSTRONG - CD, '97 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- WHERE BLUES MEETS ROCK 3 - CD, Various, '97 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- THE FINEST OF HARD ROCK VOL. 4 - CD, Various, '98 World (EMI)
- LIVE AT THE TWILIGHT - CD, '99 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- MONKEYGRINDER - CD, '01 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- WHERE BLUES MEETS ROCK 4 - CD, Various, '01 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- WHERE BLUES MEETS ROCK 5 - CD, Various, '03 UK, Europe (Provogue)
- RETRO SHAKIN' - CD, '03 UK, Europe (Independent)
- SHAKIN' THE DEVIL'S HAND - LIVE IN EUROPE – CD, '05 UK, Europe, US, Canada (Dixiefrog)
- THE IRONYARD - CD, '06 UK, Europe (Independent)
- CAPITAL WAH - CD, '07 UK, Europe (Independent)
- CAPITAL WAH - CD, '08 World (Music Avenue)
[edit] References
The Rob Tognoni biography on the official website.
[1] From an interview with Kevin J. Julie / Dave White from UniversalWheels in September 2000 (Not yet available online, got it from Rob's German management)
[edit] External links
