Tony was born Anthony Esmond O'Sheridan McGinnity on 21st of May 1940 in Norwich, England, the  son of an English mother and Irish father. He learned the violin at an early and later dropped out of grammar school to attend art school where he abandoned his violin for a guitar.  He formed a skiffle group in 1956 and visited London in late 1957, finally settling in Soho in 1958 where he frequented the 2 I's Coffee Bar with a host of other budding musicians.  He soon became a sought-after session musician, accompanying many U.S. artistes such as Conway Twitty, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran on U.K. tours. In 1958/59 he played lead guitar in Vince Taylor's Playboys.

In 1960, Tony was on tour with Brian Bennett and  “Liquorice” Locking  backing Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran when Eddie was tragically killed in a road accident near Bristol. In June 1960 Tony and a make-shift group from Soho named The Jets appeared at the “Kaiserkeller” in Hamburg. Soon after he went to the Top Ten Cub in the same city. There he met a group called The Beatles who backed him on stage – they became such good friends that they all lived together for a while.  During this time Tony taught Paul, John and George many musical techniques, tips and tricks which led to them calling Sheridan the “Teacher”, a term which Paul uses to this day when speaking of Tony.

In 1961, Tony Sheridan and the Beatles recorded several titles for Polydor at the suggestion of  Bert Kaempfert.  Tony was awarded a gold LP for well over 1,000,000 sales of the Sheridan / Beatles LP.  On their return to England, Ringo Starr joined Tony`s band in Hamburg, gaining much experience for his later move to the Beatles. A reunion with the Beatles (now with Ringo) took place at the opening of the Star-Club in 1962 where Tony and the Beatles appeared on the same bill. Whilst in Hamburg, Tony recorded several albums for Polydor with diverse groups, the most popular - “Skinny Minny” being with the Big Six from Glasgow.  

In 1964 Tony was invited to tour Australia because of  the popularity of his song “Why”, which was in the charts there. After playing in Germany for 7 years, and touring Switzerland, Austria, France, United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Ireland & Norway, Tony accepted an offer to play for the U.S. troops in Vietnam. The initial gig was for two months – he stayed for nearly two years! In 1969 Tony appeared mainly in Germany and the U.K., playing folk & blues. In 1978 he went to Los Angeles where he lived for a year, recording with Elvis Presley's TCB Band, the first artiste to be so honoured after Presley`s death. In 1986 Tony went to Milan, where he recorded an LP of his own material, joined by his old friend guitarist Albert Lee.

In the following years, Tony remained active in the music business and in July 2002 Tony released a new album worldwide entitled "VAGABOND"comprising of  rock, r 'n' b, country, ballads and critical songs. Sadly, he died following heart surgery, in Hambug, Germany, on 16th February 2013.

Tommy Steele was discovered by John Kennedy in September 1956 singing at the 2I's coffee bar in Old Compton Street, Soho. Paul Lincoln who owned the 2I's had invited Kennedy along that night to listen to The Vipers skiffle group. Kennedy was looking for someone that would set London's West End 'alight'. During a break in the Vipers performance, a young lad in a blue shirt got up on the stage, and with The Vipers backing him started singing "Heartbreak Hotel", the Elvis number that had only just been released in Britain. The boy in the blue shirt was 19 year old Merchant Seaman Tommy Hicks, whose extraordinary personality captured Kennedy's attention. The crowd of youngsters in the 2I's loved it and after two more numbers, Tommy left the stage.

Tommy left the 2I's and walked to another nearby coffee bar where he again took to the stage and took charge of the proceedings. Kennedy, who had followed him, waited for him  outside. Tommy came out and Kennedy introduced himself and put forward his ideas on finding someone who could give Rock'n'Roll a decent name. Tommy was due back at sea in two weeks time and so said to Kennedy "I'll tell you what I'll do, I'm going back to sea in a fortnight - I'll do what you tell me until then. If we get anywhere I'll stay on". Kennedy rushed to his office in Fleet Street to start making phone calls.

A repeat performance in the 2I's was planned for that evening with The Vipers to back Tommy again with Hugh Mendl, the A&R man for Decca Records to be present, which he was. On that evening Tommy got up on stage with The Vipers. After only 5 numbers the Decca man got up to make his exit,  Kennedy asked Mendl what he thought. Mendl smiled and asked him to bring Tommy with him to do a Decca sound test for the following day. The next day Kennedy and Tommy arrived at the Decca studio, where Tommy sang "Rock With The Caveman" & "Rock Around The Town". The songs were cut to disc and they ended up agreeing a royalties deal. The name Hicks they changed to "Steele" after one of Tommy's grandparents.

Kennedy decided to arrange a covert publicity party - it went well and Tommy Steele who had been singing at the party almost non-stop for four hours went down a storm. At 3am he had only two strings from the original six left on his guitar. After nearly eight hours of singing the ploice arrived after complaints from neighbours about the noise. The Sunday papers had Tommy on the front cover under the headline "Rock'n' Roll has got the Debs too'. 15 million people read the article on Tommy that day. Using clippings from the papers, Kennedy secured an audition at the Stork Club, off Regent Street, London, where after just one number he was signed to play for the next two weeksat the princely sum of £20.00 a night plus supper.

After the first night's performance he was re-booked for another two weeks at £25.00 per night. Tommy did not go back to the Merchant Navy. Several weeks went by when an old friend of Kennedy's - Larry Parnes walked into the Stork Club. Whilst they chatted Kennedy realised Parnes was the man to help Tommy's career and so a proper contract was drawn up.