Tong grew up in English town Skelmersdale, the subject of his most recent release, Prospect of Skelmersdale with his project The Magnetic North.[2]
Career
The Verve; 1996–1999
From 1996 to 1999, Simon was a guitarist and keyboardist for The Verve. He was brought in to replace lead guitarist Nick McCabe after the band's first short-lived split, but remained with them when McCabe returned, and Tong acted as rhythm guitarist (also keyboardist) while McCabe as lead guitarist like he did before. Their third album was 1997's highly acclaimed Urban Hymns. He played on many of their hits from that time such as "The Drugs Don't Work", "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and "Sonnet". The Verve disbanded in 1999 and later reformed in 2007, this time without Tong, as Jones stated in an interview, "When we were getting the band back together we wanted to go back to the core members, he was cool with it, he understood. He would like to have been part of it but he understood the reasons,". By 2009 they had disbanded again.
The Shining; 2002–2003
After The Verve disbanded, Tong and Simon Jones (The Verve) were members of short lived band The Shining from 2002 to 2003.
Blur/Gorillaz; 2002–2010
Following Graham Coxon's departure from Blur in 2002, Tong was recruited as the guitarist for the band's live performances in support of the album Think Tank (2003). He continued the relationship formed with frontman Damon Albarn by contributing guitar to Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days and playing guitar in the Gorillaz live band for the Demon Days Live performances. Tong also contributed guitar to Gorillaz' 2010 album Plastic Beach and substituted for lead guitarist Jeff Wootton on certain dates of the Escape to Plastic Beach Tour.
Erland and the Carnival/The Good, the Bad and the Queen; 2006–2019
Tong performing in 2007
In July 2006, it was reported that Tong would again be working with Damon Albarn. NME reported that Albarn had foregone plans to record a solo album and instead formed a new group The Good, the Bad & the Queen, which featured Tong with Albarn, former Clash bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Tony Allen. The band released the single "Herculean" in October 2006 and later released their self titled debut studio album on 23 January 2007.[3] The album enjoyed very good reviews and a second single, "Kingdom of Doom", was also released in January 2007 as part of their pan European tour.
The band was active again after a decade, releasing their second album, Merrie Land on 16 November 2018 to largely positive reviews. It was supported by a 2018 December tour in the UK and a European tour in 2019.[4] However, the band was split again shortly after finished the UK and Europe tour.
Tong also set up a record label with Youth (of Killing Joke) called Butterfly Recordings. The first acts to be released are Indigo Moss and Duke Garwood, along with a compilation entitled What the Folk.
In 2012 Simon contributed to the recording of the Dr Dee soundtrack, written by Damon Albarn, which was released on 7 May 2012.[5]
Tong was asked to play guitar on the album Apriti sesamo by Italian composer Franco Battiato. After its 2012 release Tong toured with Battiato in Italy.
In 2020 Tong was involved in a project called Mirry[7] with his brother-in-law Tom Fraser and Kirsteen McNish. It resulted in an album based around the 1950s piano recordings of Fraser's great aunt Mirry.
Personal life
Tong grew up with fellow Verve member Richard Ashcroft and went to school with other members of The Verve. He is credited with teaching him guitar.
