Billy Newton-Davis

Billy Newton-Davis may be a 58-year-old man — an incipient geezer — but he has a boy’s smooth skin, a boy’s unpredictable energies and jumpy conversational style and a boy’s simple heart. When first you meet him, you half expect him to suggest a game of tag because… well, just because there’s so much exuberance in him looking for an outlet and there you are and there he is and there’s his dog and, gee, wouldn’t it be fun?! So maybe you think: Here’s one more ditzy entertainer. And maybe you might be tempted not to take him seriously. But maybe you’d better think again. There’s a grown man’s courage in him, and a grown man’s sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, hard won, and he’s the tougher for it.

I watch him perform at the Church Street Fetish Fair in Toronto on August 16. Slim, slight and tightly built, skin the colour of cappuccino foam, he’s not exactly a fetish poster boy (the shaved head and the swirling tattoo on his right shoulder and bicep help, but sartorially he’s standard issue gaybourhood: white tank top, black boots, blue jeans unbuttoned at the top). A four-time Juno award winner who’s performed over a long career with the likes of Gloria Gaynor, Sammy Davis Jr., The Nylons and Celine Dion, he seems at home on a small stage before a small audience, dancing, belting out his most recent Juno winner, “All You Ever Want,” regularly imploring his listeners not to ignore the many community groups asking for donations. “Give from your heart,” he tells us (an injunction he takes seriously — he supports humanitarian causes ranging from awareness of HIV/AIDS to housing for the mentally challenged). - The Positive Side

Toronto’s premier party label, Play Records, deliver yet another slice of big room electro house that looks set to invade the neon lit dance floors around the UK this summer. Already a firm favourite among the electro elite with support from Pete Tong, The Ed Banger crew, Tiga and Erol Alkan, Play has once again come up with the goods and ‘All You Ever Want’ featuring Billy Newton-Davis vs. Deadmau5 is a sure fire winner.

Released on Play Record’s housier imprint YALP, ‘All You Ever Want’ drops on UK shores this summer. Having already received massive accolades in Canada, ‘All You Ever Want’ won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 2008 Juno Awards - the Canadian equivalent of the Brit Awards, minus the drunken antics.

Play Records’ big cheese Melleefresh, aka Melleny Melody, roped in long time cohort Billy Newton Davis and teamed him up with the ubiquitous Deadmau5 for a thumping set piece in electro house artistry. ‘All You Ever Want’ comes with a hefty slab of eight choice remixes designed for the sunset beach parties to the early morning after shows.

The original edit is a warm slice of disco house sweetness just waiting for the Ibiza season to kick in. Deadmau5 lends his mighty electro magic wand to 3 tougher, edgier remixes with eyes fully on the grittier dance floors. Pete Tong’s favourite J Tease drops a peak time remix, destined for the club charts this summer. With additional remixes by Jackson Q, Nino Anthony and Amsterdam’s Arjuna Schiks, this remix package pushes it to the limit.

Melleny, who herself was nominated in the same Juno category with her track ‘After Hours’, discovered the star-bound Deadmau5 in 2004 and began collaborating with the talented Producer/DJ on a number of chart topping releases, among them the hugely successful ‘Beautiful & Rich & Horny’. Her other hits ‘Hey Baby’ and ‘Cocktail Queen’ helped to establish Play Records as one of the more progressive and popular labels around.

Billy Newton-Davis, one of Canada's hottest entertainers and has worked with a veritable mix of legendary acts like Eartha Kitt, Jocelyn Brown and dance queen Gloria Gaynor and is currently putting the finishing touches to his hotly tipped new album on Play/Yalp Records later this year. - Altsounds

Billy Newton-Davis. Singer, songwriter, b Cleveland 26 Apr 1951. He moved in 1980 to Toronto from New York, where he had worked as a singer and dancer on Broadway. After appearing in Toronto cabaret (eg, productions of Toronto, Toronto, Ain't Misbehavin', and Shimmytime) he turned to a nightclub and recording career at mid-decade. His first LP, Love Is a Contact Sport (Col PCC-80112), included the songs 'Deeper,' 'Right Beside You,' and 'Find My Way Back,' and brought Newton-Davis the 1986 Juno Awards for best R&B/Soul recording and as most promising male vocalist. A follow-up in 1989, Spellbound (Col FC-44499), included his most successful single to that point, 'I Can't Take It,' as well as 'Can't Live with You' (a duet with Céline Dion), and won the 1989 Juno as best R&B/Soul recording. His performing career was largely limited to the Toronto area - eg, local clubs (Nettwork, Cameron Public House, etc) and Ontario Place - until he joined the Nylons in 1991. - Canadian Music Encyclopedia