Tony Kay's entry into the world of music began at around 7 years old when he was encouraged to learn piano by his parents, both of whom were very musical, his Dad was a prolific and well known professional composer of music, writing operas and modern classical music along with TV themes and incidental music. Although Tony did enjoy the piano he really wanted to play guitar after hearing The Beatles and Hank Marvin on the radio! However, ‘pop’ music was heavily frowned on at home, and even his attempts at Boogie Woogie piano were dismissed as heavy handed nonsense. So he didn’t manage to buy a guitar and do the music he loved until he left school and started work. In his early twenties he started writing songs.

Playing in bands was something he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do so he saw an opportunity to join a country band on bass, which he thought might be a good start… it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be, especially when you actually know very little country music. However he ended up playing with the band for two years. This proved to be an excellent training ground and it sparked an unexpected love for the genre.
Tony then started playing guitar and bass in various bands and studios, even joining a great band as lead guitarist that was to be signed by the Pink Floyd management, sadly that didn’t happen but he did receive a compliment for his guitar playing from David Gilmour, a guitarist that Tony had admired for his playing and sound for years.

Tony left the "big smoke" for the West Country in 1980. Initially, life after London was a struggle. Eventually though, he managed to ditch the day jobs and spent the next 25 years as a professional musician. Now, before you picture a rockstar lifestyle, think less limousines and champagne and more sweaty clubs, smoky pubs, and the occasional festival. He played solo and in bands, and ended up doing thousands of gigs, all the while the songwriting continued.
Over the years, Tony had brief encounters playing with some interesting folks, from Edgar Broughton and Gary Numan in the early days to Mark Knopfler and Jethro later on, (Jethro was an excellent singer as it turned out, as well as a fabulously funny man).

The last 5 years of his professional career was spent putting himself through University in order to use his recording and gigging experience to get a degree in music technology and a PGCE in teaching. These together enabled him to get off the gigging roundabout and start teaching music technology at Weston Technical College. All the while still writing songs.

Tony answered an ad in a local paper and found Bill, and an enjoyable partnership started. Ray joined shortly after and we began exploring the songs we’d like to add to our repertoire. Tony introduced one of his songs and was surprised and encouraged when they requested more of the same. Tony was pleased to be able to dust off some of the many songs that he's penned, recorded and produced at home over the years, and do something he never believed he’d do; start playing his original songs with a band. We felt it was time to bring in a fourth member of the band, Denver joined us and Southern Gold was born. He's now found some excellent like-minded musicians who are happy to share his vision. The band is presently preparing to launch itself onto the West Country scene.