Toby Jepson

Toby Jepson is a singer and songwriter, and is the lead vocalist and guitarist of British rock band Wayward Sons.

He was formerly the lead vocalist and guitarist of Little Angels between 1984 and 1994.

Eventually breaking out and achieving national success, Mr Thrud became Little Angels and went on to release three albums and tour the UK throughout the early 1990s.

The band had twelve Top 40 hit singles, including "Too Much, Too Young" and "Womankind" in 1993, and a number one album Jam in 1993.

They toured with Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and Van Halen, and performed their own headlining tours taking in venues such as Hammersmith Apollo and The Royal Albert Hall.

They were arguably one of the most successful and popular British bands of their time.

When the band split (somewhat acrimoniously) in 1994, Jepson continued to write and produce music.

His solo debut album was released in 1995 under the moniker "Toby & The Whole Truth".

Ignorance Is Bliss showed a different side to his songwriting, and he embarked on a tour to support it.

This tour was cut short due to illness that developed into pneumonia, and this affected sales of the album and his profile, which suffered as a result.

Jepson spent a long while out of the spotlight, during which time he moved to Bristol.

He earned a living working as a supporting actor on various productions (including Gladiator, Sleepy Hollow, The Visitors, Angela's Ashes, Highlander:End Game and Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers amongst others) and busying himself with various projects – including writing and recording, although he was not releasing records at the time.

He returned to the public eye in late 2001 and announced a short club tour with a new band (but using his own name).

He toured the UK through the start of 2002, and released the Refresh EP over the Internet and at gigs to showcase the new material he had been working on.

A re-issue of Ignorance Is Bliss was also made available at this time.

As a premium membership feature of his website, he launched the "MP3 Club" in which subscribers would receive exclusive recordings delivered straight to their inbox via email every month.

Jepson and his band continued writing and recording when they got off the road, and then toured again in 2002–2003.

Around this time work commenced on Twisted Rhapsodies, a double-disc collection of live material, demos and rare recordings.

Before its release, however, Jepson announced over his website that it was likely that this was to be his final output, as the venture was rapidly becoming unfeasible financially.

In November 2005, Jepson's fortunes appear to have improved considerably, and he resurfaced again to tour with Thunder.

He toured twice in the UK during 2006: The first tour supporting Thunder, and the second, headlining during September.

This new tour premiered new songs to a fan base.

In March 2007, Jepson released the first of three EPs entitled "Guitar, Bass and Drums", and immediately began touring to promote them.

In addition to headlining his own shows, he was a special guest to former Deep Purple bassist and vocalist Glenn Hughes, at a date in Shepherd's Bush, London.

"EP 2" was released in September 2007.

More tour dates followed and the new material was performed live.

In May 2007, Jepson was invited to be the lead singer of the reformed Fastway, led by former Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke.

This took Jepson on a tour of some of Europe's largest festival dates including Download and as part of the 'Hyde Park Calling' series of events.

Between 2008 and 2015, he was the lead singer with Scottish rock band Gun.

Jepson formed Mr Thrud with his school friend Mark Plunkett in Scarborough, and the band went on to become very popular in their local area.

January 2008 saw Jepson perform solo and as a guest vocalist for Gun, at a charity gig in Glasgow, promoted by Rockradio.

During the Gun set, Jepson appeared on stage wearing a kilt, and in April 2008 he was announced as their full-time singer.

In 2008 he was introduced to Macclesfield rock act The Virginmarys, and went on to produce their debut mini album Cast the First Stone.

In November 2009, Gun released an EP entitled Popkiller, which was a very different departure to Jepson's solo work.

The band reconvened in 2010 to record their first album for 15 years.

In 2010 Jepson continued to tour with Gun until 28 June, when he announced he was stepping down as Gun's singer due to other commitments.

The statement was reproduced on the official GUN website the same day with an additional statement by Jools and Dante Gizzi confirming Jepson's departure.

In addition to work as a singer-songwriter, Jepson has begun a career as a music producer.

Jepson sang lead vocals, played bass, and produced Eat Dog Eat, which was released in 2011.

This relationship has since developed and Jepson produced the band's first full album, which was set to be released in 2013.