Tony McKenzie & Big Dan  was formed around eight years ago originally as a recording project, Tony McKenzie being the founder member of Big Dan. Shortly after Tony acquired Dan to play rhythm guitar, Ian on Bass followed by Neil on vocals. The backing band experienced a number of different drummers (mainly because good ones are hard to find!) but one of the most recent (at that time) was Pete. All members of the backing band did have previous experience with other bands ranging from covers bands to bands playing their own material. This experience is evident in the music and it showed clearly in the quality of the finished product... a catchy modern sound and a high standard of musicianship.

Most songs were written and produced by Tony at that time and all music remains completely original. It is hard to categorize Tony's sound  because of the variance of styles produced within the individual tracks and Tony's changes in playing technique over time. All work is copyrighted in 1997/98/99/00/01/02/03/04/05/06/7 and 2008 by McKenzie.

Today Tony continues to develop his own style of  music which can be found on this website in many different places.

  
Tony McKenzie in Concert with Big Dan

Tony has actually been playing guitar since the late 60's. When he first left school he used to think that the Beatles were god....  (they still are if you check out the song writing)  that is until one day when he was listening to the radio a certain drone called voodoo chile caught his attention and changed his way of thinking about music forever.

From that point on Tony had decided what he wanted to do - play rock guitar, so over the coming years he listened to people like Santana, Hendrix, Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore  and many other guitarists at the forefront of the art of electric guitar over these times.

Tony has played with other musicians collectively called  Big Dan (as well as many previous bands) and now continues to write and play his own style of rock guitar as a solo recording artist. Historically in the mid 80's Tony was the founding member of a band called Hammerhead. This band was successful for around four years but split following a motorcycle accident that left the singer in a coma for many months - when the singer recovered he was unfortunately without the talent that was originally there. Wear the gear when you're on a bike and always remember that concrete street lamps don't move - ever.

Tony reflects that this was a very productive time for him with his music, but the work while recording utilizing the Big Dan sessions was also really cool.

Tony uses mainly an Ibanez Jem today as well as a Gibson Les Paul Jimmy Page Model guitar but also uses a PRS Custom 24 that was made for him by PRS at the end of the 80's, an Eggle, a 62 Strat, a Fender American Deluxe and a Les Paul Classic Premium Plus. Other interesting guitars which he uses are an Ibanez S540 Custom Shop model and an Ibanez S550 as well as a Gibson Tie Dye Les Paul. For amplification Tony's main choice of product is a Mesa Boogie TriAxis and 2:90 power amp with a TC Electronics G Major for live effects and a Rocktron Intellifex  to help further enhance the sound palette available to him for live gigs. 

For Power amps Tony used a Marshall EL34 equipped 100/100 (but loaded with 5881's) Power Amp in stereo as well as a stereo feed to the desk direct from the TriAxis rack system to the desk. Tony has upgraded to a 2:90 power amp and the occasional use of a Marshall TSL100 watt and 4x12 with a recent Boss GT-8 also for live gigs.

Checkout Tony's gear on other pages on this site.

The new album 'Berner Street' from Mckenzie - Bruce is an album where you can win $10,000 (or £5000.00) by solving the puzzle from the music. The music is also some of the best work Mckenzie has written for some time and with the help of Alan Bruce these tracks are awesome...