Toby Slater

Toby Slater

Slater in 2002
Background information
Birth name Tobias Slater
Born (1979-08-14) 14 August 1979
Origin England
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, musician
Instruments Keyboards, guitar
Labels White Mischief
Associated acts Catch, Kunta Kinte, Tough Love

Tobias 'Toby' Slater (born 14 August 1979)[1] is an English singer, songwriter and musician best known as lead singer in the 1990s pop band, Catch, who released two singles in the UK and an album in Indonesia. Slater has also recorded and released music as a solo artist and with a band, Kunta Kinte, who were renamed Tough Love.

He is the son of British singers Stephanie de Sykes and Stuart Slater, who was lead singer of beat group, The Mojos.[2] He has one brother, Barnaby Slater, who is a comedian, writer and producer.[3]

Career

1995-1999: Catch

Reputedly formed when Slater, Murray and Etchells kissed the same girl at a party, Catch (band) were in fact formed from the ashes of Brattish, Slater's first band, formed in 1994/95, which also included Etchells. Brattish rehearsed the Catch material extensively, paid for by interested A&R men, but never gigged. This period is briefly mentioned in John Niven's satirical book "Kill Your Friends". Slater also was a driving-force behind the short-lived "Romo" movement in the autumn/winter of 1995, DJ-ing at London's Arcadia.

"Bingo" was Catch's biggest hit, and resulted in the band appearing on Top of the Pops,[4] Light Lunch, The Paul Ross Show (performing three songs live), The Jack Docherty Show and various Saturday morning UK TV shows. Bingo was also being shown on The ITV Chart Show when ITN interrupted programming to report on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.[5] Slater also presented some shows on MTV around this time. An album was quickly released in Thailand and Indonesia due to the band's popularity there, with the band securing a number one radio single in Thailand. But the album was never released in the UK due to Slater being unhappy with it at the time. The band visited Jakarta for a promotional tour and performed acoustically for fans.

Despite finding success in the Far East, the band achieved one Top 30 and one Top 50 hit in the UK,[6] and disbanded after completing their only album. A UK album was due for release, with different track listing to the Indonesian issue, but this was never released. It is not known whether the UK album was fully completed or not, a working title was believed have been Victim Support, however a gold recordable CD-R, dated 4th Oct '97, features a proposed running order for an unnamed and unreleased UK album.[7][8]

2000-2003: solo material

Slater moved to Los Angeles, California and began pursuing a solo career. Returning to London, he formed a group featuring former members of the UK band Salamanda, and began recording and gigging, under his own name. A number of songs were made available online via Slater's own website and via the fledgling Napster file sharing service, on which Slater was a featured artist during August 2000.[9]

These early solo songs included "The Next Life", "Begging Rebecca" and "For You". Videos for the latter two tracks were released on Slater's 2002 single, "Consumption" as enhanced content.[10][11] The single also featured the tracks "Uprising (Things Are Going to Change...)", "For You" and "Smoking Isn't Natural". The single itself was mixed by English producer/mixing engineer Mark 'Spike' Stent.

2004-2013: Kunta Kinte, Tough Love, White Mischief, Kinky Salon London, ITV show

Following the release of "Consumption" and a series of live gigs, mainly in London, Slater started to record demos of songs that would later be released under the band name Kunta Kinte, subsequently renamed Tough Love. Songs included "Stress", "The Perfect Couple" and a cover of "Is That All There Is?".

The band released the five-track "Tough Love" EP that included "Stress", which was also released as a standalone digital single and as a promotional CDR.[12] The EP tracks had been available to stream and download via various official sources including the band's Facebook and MySpace pages since 2007 and the single was officially released on CD and via worldwide digital music vendors on 1 June 2009. [13] Tough Love band members were Slater (Vocals) along with Selina Andrews (Vocals), Craig Davies (Guitar & Vocals), Matt White (Drums & Vocals), Mark Davies (Bass & Vocals) and Ben Hawkins (Percussion).[14] British Newspaper The Guardian described the band as "the Afrobeat Scissor Sisters".[15] Slater had previously worked with Craig Davies, Matt White and Mark Davies on his solo material - the three are listed as musicians alongside Slater and guitarist Nick Fowler on the "Consumption" single.

Following the release of the "Tough Love" EP, the band released a free download of a reworked version of "The Perfect Couple" in 2009. The song tells the story of a bi-curious couple who arrange a full-on same-room swap with another couple. The reworked version featured completely new vocals by Slater (with new backing vocals by Andrews) and re-recorded music, following the same arrangement and structure with slightly alternative lyrics to one of the verses. In the original version, Slater sings "I had to measure myself against a VHS and send it off as a JPEG" which was changed in the 2009 version to "I had to measure myself against a DVD and send it as a PNG". A video [16] was filmed for the song and was made available via the band's Facebook page in January 2010.[17]

Slater and the band are also curators of London’s "new vaudeville" Steampunk club night, White Mischief. Hosted in venues including a 1920s theatre, a palatial Georgian mansion and London’s 1,100 capacity Scala, the often sold-out White Mischief shows were founded by Tough Love as a reaction against the dour, bland environments that typify many live intimate club gigs.[18][19]

The band performed at various gigs and White Mischief nights until 2010 and released a further track, Alpha Male, via their Facebook page in June that year.

In 2010, Slater co-founded Kinky Salon London, the UK chapter of a sex-positive "arty sexy party" originally created in San Francisco in 2003.[20][21]

Together with his brother Barnaby, Slater is signed to Troika Talent,[22] an agency whose celebrities include David Walliams, Michael Fassbender and Matt Smith among others. In 2012 the two Slater brothers created Trending Topics,[23] a comedy panel show based around the internet and starring Jonathan Ross, David Walliams and Rhod Gilbert for the ITV channel.[24]

Discography

Catch

Toby Slater

Tough Love

List of known songs

Catch

Singles

Album tracks

B-sides

Known demos

Solo

Singles

B-sides

Other songs

Songs made available online between 2000 and 2003

Tough Love (formerly Kunta Kinte)

Singles/EP tracks

Other songs

Songs made available online between 2004 and 2009

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ DiscoMusic.com. "Stephanie De Sykes | Profile & Photos". DiscoMusic.com. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  3. ↑ "Barnaby Slater | TROIKA". Clients.troikatalent.com. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  4. ↑ "Catch - "Bingo" - on T.O.T.P. - stereo '97". YouTube. 2010-12-23. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  5. ↑ "ITN Breaking News Report of Princess Diana's death". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  6. ↑ "CATCH | Artist". Official Charts. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  7. ↑ "Catch (5) - Album Mixes (CDr, Album) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  8. ↑ "Nunuworld | Interviews | tObY SlaTer". Nunuworldmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "Toby Slater - Consumption". YouTube. 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  11. ↑ "tobyslater - For You". YouTube. 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  12. ↑ "Tough Love Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  13. ↑ "Toby Slater". Europe and Me. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  14. ↑ "Tough Love | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos". Myspace.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  15. ↑ "Clubs preview | Music". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  16. ↑ "YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  17. ↑ "Tough Love". Facebook. 2009-09-27. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  18. ↑ "Steaming in London at White Mischief's Ghost in the Machine". Steampunkchronicle.com. 2011-11-29. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  19. ↑ "Tough Love: Amazon.co.uk: Music". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "Creative Sex Parties". Europe and Me. Retrieved 2011.
  22. ↑ "Tobias Slater | TROIKA". Clients.troikatalent.com. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  23. ↑ Tarley, Rachel (2012-01-28). "Jonathan Ross confirms new panel show Trending Topics with ITV | Metro News". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  24. ↑ "Frankie Cocozza to appear on Jonathan Ross's new show Trending Topics |The Sun | The Sun |Showbiz|TV|X Factor". The Sun. 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
  25. ↑ "Bingo". YouTube.
  26. ↑ "Dive In". YouTube.
  27. ↑ "Half The World Away". YouTube.
  28. ↑ "A New Soul". YouTube.
  29. ↑ "YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  30. ↑ "Pity The Man". Soundcloud.
  31. ↑ "Catch - My Burst Balloon". YouTube. 2011-08-17. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  32. ↑ "Expensive Kiss". Soundcloud.
  33. ↑ "Goodbye". Soundcloud.
  34. ↑ "Start of Something". Soundcloud.
  35. ↑ "Over Again". Soundcloud.
  36. ↑ "Maybe Tonight". Soundcloud.
  37. ↑ "Boys Will Be Boys". YouTube.
  38. ↑ "Bitten By You". Soundcloud.
  39. ↑ "Simon Says". Soundcloud.
  40. ↑ "Pullover Boy". YouTube.
  41. ↑ "No-One Knows". Soundcloud.
  42. ↑ "The Possibilities". YouTube.
  43. ↑ "Morning Sun". Soundcloud.
  44. ↑ "Blueroom". Soundcloud.
  45. ↑ "Under The Bed". Soundcloud.
  46. ↑ "Victorian Names". Soundcloud.
  47. ↑ "Paper Aeroplanes". Soundcloud.
  48. ↑ "Consumption". YouTube.
  49. ↑ "For You". YouTube.
  50. ↑ "The Next Life". Last.fm.
  51. ↑ "Begging Rebecca". Last.fm.
  52. ↑ "Disconnected". Last.fm.
  53. ↑ "Sunbather". Last.fm.
  54. ↑ "Lachryomsa". Last.fm.
  55. ↑ "Uprising (Things Are Going To Change)". Last.fm.
  56. ↑ "Coming Back To You". Last.fm.
  57. ↑ "Sand". Last.fm.
  58. ↑ "Stress". Last.fm.
  59. ↑ "Bastard". Last.fm.
  60. ↑ "Dissenter's Song". Last.fm.
  61. ↑ "Film Of My Life". Last.fm.
  62. ↑ "Sticks and Stones". MySpace.
  63. ↑ "Getting Over It". Last.fm.
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