Tony Etoria

Area of Achievement

Music
Tony Etoria img4

Share this resource

Tony Etoria

Tony Etoria is a Welsh singer, songwriter, music producer and actor. He is best known for his 1977 hit I Can Prove It which was a top 40 UK hit. He recorded for other labels like EMI and was also a member of the 1980s bands Decoupage and Osibisa. Etoria also opened up a recording studio in Cardiff called Famous Studios, located in Trade Street, and recorded and produced notable acts. He made appearances and wrote for some Welsh theatre companies and starred frequently in the TV soap Coleg.

1954

Ely, Cardiff, Wales

Jamaican descent

1977- He released the star track I Can Prove It
Late 1970s- Founded the alternative nightclub Mel’s in Cardiff.

He was born in Ely in Cardiff. Etoria said he enjoyed his school years and “fit in well with the Tiger Bay lot.” 

At the age of 23, Tony Etoria found pop stardom with his disco hit I Can Prove It. The song reached 21 in the charts in June 1977 and later when Phil Fearon covered it, reached the top 10. At its peak the song was selling around 10,000 copies a day for the top disco label GTO.  

Etoria went on to sign major deals with EMI, WEA and R’n’B and joined the Eighties band Decoupage. He later also sang with African disco band Osibisa. 

Etoria founded and ran the first alternative nightclub Mel’s in Butetown, Cardiff in the late 1970s. Mel’s has been called the legendary nightclub in Cardiff that catered to the musical needs of South Wales’ ‘reaks and wierdos- all the cool people.’

Etoria was also talented in the acting field, spending several years acting and playing Vic Williams, a barman in the Welsh soap Coleg. He also toured with the Welsh theatre companies Fosters in Gloucester and Cardiff’s Made in Wales and wrote material for companies like Welsh Fargo and On the Edge. 

However, Etoria has said that his interest in song writing was always far greater than his interest in the pop game. He launched Famous Studios on Trade Street in Cardiff which produced some successful artists like Screaming Lord Sutch, Super Furry Animals, Yr Anhrefn and the Boo Radleys. Super Furry Animals for example recorded nine UK Albums Chart Top 25 studio albums and have been described as ‘one of the most imaginative bands of our time’ by Billboard.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Ali Stokes, ‘’I worked with Michael Jackson – when he had a face’ Whatever happened to. . . ? TONY ETORIA.’, South Wales Echo (The Free Library by Farlex, revised 2001) <https://www.thefreelibrary.com/%27I+worked+with+Michael+Jackson+-+when+he+had+a+face%27+Whatever…-a080735923> [accessed 17 February 2022]

John Abbey, ‘Tony Etoria And The ‘X’ Factor’, Blues & Soul (rock’sbackpages, revised 1977) <https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/tony-etoria-and-the-x-factor > [accessed 17 February 2022]

Was this resources helpful?

Photo Gallery

Tony Etoria img3
Tony Etoria img1
Tony Etoria img4
Tony Etoria img2

You might also like

Disclaimer

Information on the Race Council Cymru (RCC), Black History Wales Resource site, has been collated from reliable existing public domain material and conforms to Fair Use.

While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, RCC cannot be held responsible for errors originating from the original material. Links to all sources are credited at the foot of each profile. Efforts have been made to source all copyright-free images via Creative Commons however if it is believed any image contravenes copyright please let us know.

keyboard_arrow_up
Skip to content