BY CAESAR O. KAGHO
“THE CURFEW TELLS THE KNELL OF THE PARTING DAY,
THE LOWING HERD WIND SLOWLY OVER THE LEA,
THE PLOUGHMAN HOMEWARDS PLODS HIS WEARY WAY,
AND LEAVES THE WORLD TO DARKNESS AND TO ME…..”
(ELERGY WRITEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD BY THIOMAS GRAY: 1716 – 1771)
Once upon a short time ago, there lived a gentleman from Warri with Cameroonian and Nigerian descents who blazed a trail like never before and may likely never be repeated by another.
The name is Tony Grey Leonge, aka Ozimba, who was once a skillful goalkeeper and footballer and he was then known as Abumalaya and who also was a very talented artist and a designer of fanciful visuals.
But the gifts the Almighty Architect of the Universe equipped him to live a happy and fruitful life were those of music, singing, song writing and dancing and a multi-instrumentalist. After his brief stint with soccer he delved into music head long having his tutelage with the famous King Kenny Tone before breaking into the pop scene– a far cry from the popular highlife genre of King Kenny Tone.
Tony Grey did a couple of local recordings with the GES Studio of Warri as well as reading numerous bands like the Lidonians, Black Kings and played in a several spots including the erstwhile Ziena Night Club and the Lido Nite Club. Along the line from the 1960s to the 1980s he released several successful hits the most prominent being She is my Love, Ijudo, Come Back Love, Congratulations and Tribute to Marvin Gaye, a flamboyant project which took Tony for the first time across the Atlantic to the United State of America.
A predominantly self-made and very approachable and friendly man, Tony Grey on the very long run had had a very long stream of musicians, apprentices and roadies who not only struggled to make him a big success but also benefited from his very wide local and national exposure on which some are still basking in today, Tony was also an exponent in the likes Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, James Brown and the Rolling Stone, often dishing out their popular numbers like Direct Me, Engine Number 9, I Feel Good and Satisfaction respectively during his live shows.
The first and only musician from Warri who broke successfully into the National music scene, through persistence, had work and shrewd showbiz manship, Tony Grey finally succeeded in acquiring ample parcel of land in Warri where he not only built his family residence but an avant guard night club adjoining it. He only enjoyed this expensive edifice briefly with a few gigs, receptions, meetings and small parties before health took a down turn on this very handsome and ebullient character.
His connections cut across major stratum of society including government, religion academics, culture, sports and of cause entertainment from which he piled up a substantial fortune to successfully raise up his family and maintain headship of his larger loving family who stood by him. Tony Grey participated in the management and administration of PMAN in Delta State having been its chairman for several years despite the vicissitudes of the organization on which he spent his hard earned money to support at various stages.
This writer has been associated with Tony Grey since the late 1960s as a school boy going to Government College Ughelli (GCU), through the swinging 1970s in Warri afternoon and night club circuits and onto the 1980s as a journalist/showbiz writer from Fleet Street, London and the Nigerian Observer, Benin City, until his final weeks in Warri and planet earth.
Throughout these days, Tony Grey had been a lover of cars, good clothes, good food, travels and family man who had once embarked on driving around Warri every Sunday for many years, sometimes accompanied by myself, giving alms to the poor beggars at their various locations. When the call for financial support was launched to save his life, there was a spontaneous response from all works of life particularly from those of his long-standing fans but alas, before something tangible could come in, he was called up by his maker.
We the Warri Boys will not forget the impact Tony Grey had on our lives and as such we pray the Almighty God to give his younger brother, Emma Grey, another talented musician, his children and wife and sisters the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Ceaser Kagho, a journalist and former Head Corporate Affairs of the National Film and Video Censors Board, Abuja, wrote from Warri Delta State.
