Spotlight on ....
Tony Christie
Born Anthony Fitzgerald, Tony
was a self-taught guitarist who became a professional
singer in 1964 and attracted the interests of
songwriters Mitch Murray and Peter Callander.
They provided the singer with his first UK Top
30 entry in 1970 with Las Vegas.
Next came the title track I Did
What I Did For Maria, a No 2 UK hit that cleared
the way for the million selling Is This The Way
To Amarillo and broke into the UK Top 20.
Touring Australasia and South
Africa for much of 1972,Chrsitie’s chart
placing tailed off until Avenues and Alleyways
sparked off robust sales in 1973.
He sang the role of Migaldi on
the Evita Studio Cast Album in 1976 but had to
turn down the opportunity of appearing in the
London Stage Production because of heavy work
commitments.
Successful tours continued throughout
the world. Work schedules were gruelling and in
1990 he brought out the single Kiss In The Night
and a new album, which went Platinum immediately.
In January 1999 Christie was back
in the UK Top 10 fronting “All Seeing I”
on Walk Like A Panther, which was especially written
for him by Jarvis Cocker.
It
was Peter Kay’s “Phoenix Nights”
which brought Tony a new generation of fans and
earned him a cult status with the re-release of
Is This The Way To Amarillo for Comic Relief.
Written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield it
has topped the charts in England for over seven
weeks, and has been a hit in almost every country
in the world. Tony has also been asked to record
the theme tune to Peter’s new series “Max
and Paddy”.
He
is one of the busiest men in the business with
a huge winter UK date tour kicking off on 16th
November and a new album Definitive Collection.
This includes 4 brand new previously unreleased
songs as well as 17 of his best-loved hits and
favourite album recordings. He is unable to keep
up with deluge of requests for appearances and
has hardly a minute for himself. Yet he still
found the time to appear on dad’s new upcoming
documentary
A Portrait of Matt Monro, A Man And His Music,
due out in September.
His
son Sean, who looks after all of his business
affairs, which has not been an easy task of late,
arranged for Tony and his wonderful wife Sue to
travel down to London especially, to shoot the
DVD footage and we spent a lovely evening laughing
and reminiscing over the past. It was a wonderful
and emotional day and brought back lots of warm
memories.
Sue
and Tony are truly two of the nicest people you
could ever hope to meet and I feel very lucky
to count them both as my friends. I am loving
the fact that he is hogging the charts and am
so looking forward to his new re-release on 25th
July of Avenues and Alleyways. It was the anthem
of the Gerry Anderson cult TV series “The
Protectors” and I am sure it is going to
be a huge hit. Accompanied by a brand new video,
which was shot in West London, it opens with a
James Bond style sequence and includes a fantastic
cast. This is one item that definitely should
top your shopping list.
For
up to the minute information on Tony’s appearances
visit his website at www.tonychristie.com
I
have one very special copy of the new Tony Christie
– Definitive Collection- signed by Tony
to give away to the first person to correctly
tell me –
What
record label was Tony signed to in 1969?
E-Mail entries to michele@mmonro.freeserve.co.uk
PREVIOUS
SPOTLIGHT GUESTS
Steve
Woof
Matt
Monro Jnr.
Roy
Leslie
Ken
Dodd
Julie
London
Sid
Feller
