43 Facts About Francis Dunnery

Francis Dunnery was born on 25 December 1962 and is an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and record label owner.

Francis Dunnery was one of the candidates invited to audition as a lead singer and frontman for Genesis following Phil Collins' departure in 1996.

Francis Dunnery grew up as part of a working-class musical family in the small Cumberland town of Egremont.

Francis Dunnery is the younger son of Charlie Dunnery and his wife, Kathleen.

Francis Dunnery's childhood was blighted by his parents' mutual alcoholism.

In 1982, when he was nineteen, Francis Dunnery formed the rock band It Bites.

The band reformed when Francis Dunnery convinced the other members to leave Egremont entirely and relocate to London in 1984.

Francis Dunnery regained the rights in 2001, re-issuing it on Aquarian Nation Records.

Francis Dunnery has since described Welcome to the Wild Country as "having been recorded at a time when I didn't know who I was".

Towards the end of his time in Los Angeles, Francis Dunnery addressed his drugs and alcohol problems and cleaned up his lifestyle.

Francis Dunnery has subsequently been open about his problems with alcohol addiction and drug abuse during this period.

In 1993, Francis Dunnery returned to the UK and joined Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant's live band, performing on several tracks on Plant's 1993 album Fate of Nations and on the accompanying world tour.

Francis Dunnery then released Fearless on Atlantic Records in 1994, promoting the album with his first solo tour of the UK.

In 1996, Francis Dunnery was approached to audition as lead singer for Genesis.

Francis Dunnery went into semi-retirement as a musician later in 1998 and set up a new home in the Vermont mountains where he devoted the next few years to breeding and training horses as well as carpentry, astrology, and Jungian psychology.

The first of these releases was Chris Difford's I Didn't Get Where I Am, with whom Francis Dunnery toured to promote the album.

In 2005, Francis Dunnery released The Gulley Flats Boys, a more sedate and acoustic album than its predecessor, featuring next to no drum or percussion parts and sparse use of electric guitar.

In 2005, Francis Dunnery embarked on a "house concert" world tour, suggesting to fans that they book him to perform in their own homes for a paying audience, in a drug and alcohol-free environment.

Francis Dunnery left the band after the cancellation of the tour, and was replaced by Shane Theriot.

In October 2007 Francis Dunnery released a free download of Feels Like Summertime, a song which initially been written for It Bites shortly before the band's original split in 1990 and was reworked as part of the unsuccessful 2003 reunion.

In 2008, Francis Dunnery performed numerous solo performances and house concerts, this time centred on material from Tall Blonde Helicopter.

In 2010, Francis Dunnery released an "official video bootleg" DVD from the 2001 Man tour, titled In The Garden of Mystic Lovers, and produced and played on Snowman Melting, the first solo album by James Sonefeld of Hootie and the Blowfish.

In 2008, Francis Dunnery rejoined The Syn as part of a new line-up featuring Nardelli and keyboard player Tom Brislin.

In 2009, Jem Godfrey announced on the Frost* Forum that he and Francis Dunnery had both contributed solos to the title track of Big Big Train's upcoming album, The Underfall Yard.

On 12 August 2011 Francis Dunnery released the contemporary R'n'B-influenced Made in Space.

Francis Dunnery supported the album with a tour of the UK, which featured himself and Dorie Jackson.

Francis Dunnery announced that he would be recording a cover version of Peter Gabriel's The Rhythm of the Heat as part of Sonic Elements, a new "fantasy rock" band put together by Dave Kerzner.

Francis Dunnery made a guest appearance on Hackett's subsequent Genesis Revisited tour, singing at the Arcada Theater show in St Charles, Illinois on 20 September 2013, and at the Scottish Rites Auditorium in Collingswood, New Jersey.

From late 2012 to autumn 2013 Francis Dunnery recorded Frankenstein Monster, a covers album featuring songs from his brother's former band Necromandus.

In January 2016, Dunnery began broadcasting "The Francis Dunnery Radio Show" on British progressive rock radio station Progzilla Radio.

In February 2016 Francis Dunnery released Vampires, the follow-up to There's a Whole New World Out There.

In July 2016 Francis Dunnery continued his tendency to rework, remix and re-release with Return to the Wild Country, a re-recording of 1990's Welcome to the Wild Country solo debut.

In November 2021, Francis Dunnery released his first album of fully original material for eleven years.

The Tombstone Francis Dunnery band featured Paul Brown on bass guitar, Quint Starkie on rhythm guitar, Phil Beaumont on drums, Nigel Hopkins on keyboards, Neil Yates on brass and woodwind, and Deanne Blazey on backing vocals.

Francis Dunnery carried out a British tour with a band he referred to as "Francis Dunnery's It Bites", performing the original band's material.

In December 2023, Francis Dunnery announced a new line-up of It Bites FD.

Francis Dunnery has incorporated elements of jazz, classical and country fingerpicking into his style.

Francis Dunnery has a daughter from a relationship with Jackie O'Sullivan.

Francis Dunnery married American singer Julie Daniels on 8 December 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Francis Dunnery was later in a relationship with Helena Faccenda, with whom he had a daughter in 1999.

Francis Dunnery is a lifelong supporter of Celtic Football Club and often wears Celtic kits during his live performances.

In 2002, Francis Dunnery founded the Charlie and Kathleen Francis Dunnery Children's Fund a volunteer-run fundraising charity based in his hometown of Egremont, and named in honour of his late parents.

Francis Dunnery continues to support the charity via regular concerts in Egremont as well as participation in and publicity for various sponsored events.