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.
