Tony Faehse’s professional music life began in the 60s in Adelaide with the bands Village Eyes & Music Express. Enjoying playing music in bands but seeking brighter musical pastures, Tony and his wife headed to the UK in the 70s, where soon after he joined British pop star Alvin Stardust’s band and toured the UK and Europe. Alvin had a couple of huge hits including My Coo Ca Choo and Jealous Guy at the time. As Alvin’s star began to fade, Tony returned to Australia and later joined Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons, which at their peak were one of the best live bands on the planet. The next five years produced two gold albums with the writing team of Camilleri, Burstin & Faehse, delivering Screaming Targets, Hats Off Step Lively and the evergreen tracks Shape I’m In, Hit & Run and So Young. Regularly appearing on Countdown and other television shows the band toured all over Australia with a world promotional trip in 1980. Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons rightly hold their place in Australian rock history, and were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007.
Post-Falcons Tony has worked as guitar for hire in Melbourne and for some years, Home & Away used numerous excerpts from Tony’s tracks, licensing being a useful commercial application of his music. In 2019 Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons reformed for a one-off tribute gig to honour the band’s recently passed bass player John Power. Of course, there had been other reunions and even another album but no gig as poignant as the Power tribute at the Memo Music Hall. Faehse has produced six original albums of his own. A new album, FLOW the first in 8 years was released on the 28th of August 2020.
Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips recently sat down with guitarist, composer Tony Faehse over Zoom to talk Stardust, Falcons, guitars and Flow.
All of Tony’s music is available on streaming (SPOTIFY) and download (iTunes) sites and CDs available from this website, $10 for previous releases $25 for the new album postage included. https://tonyfaehse.com
