THE TONY BOURGE PAGE

Welcome to the Tony Bourge home page...

Tony Bourge joined Budgie in early 1968 and is responsible for some of the bands most memorable riffs. Ray Phillips once told me that in the early 70's he was known as "The King of Riffs". Tony played on all albums upto and including 1978's "IMPECKABLE". He left the band in mid 1978 and returned to Cardiff, Wales. Later that year he formed the short lived FREEZ, later STORM before retiring from music. In mid 1982 Ray Phillips and former Budgie Manager Graham Moloney managed to persuade Tony to form TREDEGAR. In mid 1983 TREDEGAR made it's live debut in Caerphilly, Wales. Early TREDEGAR in many ways were reminiscent of early Budgie, crunching lead guitar, heavy drumming and some brilliantly crafted songs. Their only album, released in 1986 is considered by many to be a classic. Tony left TREDEGAR in early 1988 and unfortunately retired from the music scene for good. I first met Tony in early 1991 and since then have stayed in contact with him. He is a really nice, modest down to earth guy and my one big regret is that I never got to see him play live. In September 1993 while I was at his house in Cardiff, Wales he played me some demo's that he had been working on. I liked what I heard, especially his manic reworking of 'Sabre Dance'. Sadly though nothing has become of these demo's. The last time I saw Tony was at the SABRE DANCE BUDGIE Convention in Cardiff, Wales in May 1995. I spoke with him on the phone in May 1998 and he was doing fine. He had contributed some photo's to the new "Heavier Than Air" CD. He mentioned some demo's that he had been working on and that he might do something with them. So you never know what might happen, maybe the next Sabre Dance Fan Club release!? I look forward to catching up with Tony for a beer if I make it to Wales in 1999.

Simon Wilson, Sabre Dance July 1998