Unit One Entertainment present International Recording Artist Tony Christie

Tony Christie
Tony Christie possesses a voice of such distinction which, harnessed to a keen ear for memorable material, makes for indestructible durability. To make timeless music, records which play well in any decade against a backdrop of fickle, changing fashions, is evidence of an on-going ability to be envied by most of pop’s transient stars.

There are many reasons why Tony Christie is so skilled at what he does – but the main one is experience. Unlike many of today’s young ‘Pop Idol’ pretenders he’s served a long apprenticeship. Many are surprised to learn that this singer with the powerful, strident vocal delivery is, in fact, a very shy man. And yet he controls the stage and connects to his audience like few others.

Tony Christie was born, Anthony Fitzgerald on 25th of April 1943 in Conisborough, South Yorkshire. He was already treading the boards at 17 with a school friend in a duo known as The Grant Brothers. A spell as a solo artist followed, and during the great beat boom of the early 60s he was soon fronting a successful local outfit, The Counterbeats. Other line-ups followed, such as Tony Christie and The Trackers. Throughout the north of England he became a regular on the club circuit, and by this time, having learned guitar, was composing his own material. In 1966 he recorded a Barbara Ruskin song, Life’s Too Good To Waste which was backed with his own composition Just The Two of Us. More singles followed, including the perennial favourite My Prayer, and as the sun went down on the decade of Peace & Love, in 1969 Tony landed a solo contract with the US giant, MCA records. Now the Christie sound would benefit from the best producers in the business. Mitch Murray and Peter Callander worked with Tony to produce a string of hits around the world. Among the hit singles and albums came the mighty Las Vegas. Tony Christie had arrived, big-style, as the single’s sales soared to over 6 million world wide, hogging the international charts throughout 1970. And there was much more to come.

Europe couldn’t get enough of him; he toured regularly both there and ‘down under’ in New Zealand and Australia.

After the success of Las Vegas the floodgates opened. So Deep Is The Night, Is This The Way To Amarillo, I Did What I Did for Maria, Avenues & Alleyways, Don’t Go Down To Reno and The Queen of Mardi Gras had all, by the mid 70s, come to form part of the exceptional Christie repertoire which we still enjoy so much today.

I Did What I Did for Maria was a milestone for Tony. The record leapt into the New Musical Express chart on May 29th 1971 at number 17. Within three weeks it reached number one and a whole new army of fans flocked to the Christie banner. Tony was to have a very happy Christmas that year too, with his next single.

Is This The Way To Amarillo is a story in itself. The song came from the pen of two of pop’s great legends, Neil Sedaka and the now sadly departed Howie Greenfield. In some ways it marks the sunset of a great period in American song writing. Sedaka and Carole King had worked alongside Howie Greenfield at 1650 Broadway in New York, just across the road from the Brill Building where so many of Tin Pan Alley’s greatest tunes and lyrics were laid down. After a string of hits through the late 50s and early 60s, Howie and Neil, who had been friends since their childhood days, were faced with a new phenomenon in 1963 – the arrival of The Beatles. Song writing, as they’d known it had, for a time, been de-railed.

As Sedaka recalled “The balloon had burst, the dream was over’. For Tony Christie fans, however, a new dream had opened up – this was the period when the talented duo penned Amarillo. The song was huge around the globe, selling over six million copies and making number one in Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Germany and entering the top ten in over a dozen other countries. In fact, during this period Tony was in the charts for an amazing 41 weeks of the year, an incredible feat and one which cemented his reputation as a major recording artist for all time.

If the song has remained a great, up-beat standard, it has a classic partner in Avenues & Alleyways, which is invariably described by TV historians as the best theme song any series ever had. It ran over the credits of the ABC TV series The Protectors, a TV drama which was a rare non-puppet outing by Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds fame. The Protectors starred Robert Vaughn as the leader of a security agency whose motto was ‘We sell security. Object: To prevent crime’. With viewing figures for the 11 episodes topping 6 million, it’s a fair guess that most people tuned in to hear Tony Christie belting out the theme song which was arguably the best thing about the show. The song soon became a bit hit for Tony and, as is the case with Amarillo, Avenues & Alleyways is one of those vibrant numbers which, due to its eternal charisma and freshness, is today introducing Tony to a whole new generation of eager fans.

In Europe Tony Christie became a by-word for quality pop music. For instance, sales of his Spanish version of Don’t Go Down To Reno and Is This The Way to Amarillo contributed significantly to overall sales in the 1970s of over 10 million records, including albums and singles. Tony even had his own BBC1 show in that golden decade, and in 1976 he received one of the ultimate showbiz accolades, when he was approached by none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to sing the part of Migaldi in their concept album of the musical on the life of Argentina’s legendary Eva Peron, Evita. When one considers the role of Augustin Migaldi, who was the dashing and romantic tango singer who ran away with the 15 year old Eva Peron and, like Evita herself, was a real character in South American history, then Tony Christie’s fine, powerful vocal delivery made for perfect casting. It was a task Tony enjoyed immensely, and had it not been for his heavy work schedule which stretched ahead for two years, he would have been part of the West End cast.

For the rest of the 1970s Tony Christie’s diary was full as he toured extensively. 1979 saw a new collaboration, this time with the talented writer and producer Graham Sacher. The immediate result was a massive continental his Sweet September. By this time Tony’s association with MCA records was drawing to a close, but he soon found himself with a new deal with another recording giant, RCA. Working with Graham Sacher throughout the 1980s proved yet again to be a fertile period with numerous songs recorded, some written by Tony and others by Graham Sacher. By this time Tony Christie had become one of Europe’s biggest stars, a particular favourite in Germany and forever popular in Spain. He now had a repertoire of hits which guaranteed an exciting, fulfilling stage show and wherever he played the crowds were huge. As the 80s rolled on, another change in record companies ensued, this time to Polydor.

It was in 1990 that Tony’s then manager, Jerry Toger, brought Tony together with producer Jack White. White had worked extremely successfully with artists such as Engelbert Humperdinck and Paul Anka and the star of the popular US TV series Baywatch, David Hasselhof. It wasn’t long before the Christie magic was at work again. The single Kiss In The Night was a massive hit, and an album went platinum in a few weeks. Other hits scored all over Europe, such as September Love, Come With Me To Paradise and Moonlight and Roses, and 1995 saw Tony duetting with great success with Vicki Leandros on We’re Gonna Stay Together, for which Tony wrote the lyrics.

Throughout the 1990s he continued to tour successfully and made many TV appearances. As ever, pop music continued to change. From punk to new romantics, to funk and rap, styles came and went, and Tony weathered them all.

However, in 1999 an unlikely Christie fan in the shape of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker decided to write a number for him. Walk Like A Panther saw the unusual coupling of Tony Christie in the studio with the British pop band All Seeing I. The result was a resounding hit, and after three decades in the business, Tony Christie found himself back on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops. The All Seeing I were from a different generation to Tony, a Sheffield dance band with a penchant for unusual material with odd titles and off-the-wall lyrics. Anyone who thought that this foray into modern pop might be eventually seen as a ‘novelty record’ was soon proved wrong. It was a mark of respect from Cocker, a Sheffield lad and, like Tony himself, a native of South Yorkshire. When it came to Tony filming the video, despite lyrics which went ‘You’ve got to fly like an eagle, Prowl like a lion in Africa’, the location for the shoot was a meat and fish market in Sheffield. So perhaps the distance between Reno, Amarillo and South Yorkshire isn’t as great as we think. Without doubt, ‘Panther’ was perfect material for Tony, and demonstrated an astute understanding of a great singer’s style and delivery by Jarvis Cocker.

The mark of respect Tony Christie has in the music business always comes to the fore each time one of his records gets an airing on the radio. Top presenters such as Jonathan Ross make no bones about what a great artist Tony is.

Today, there is talk about Tony Christie having achieved something called ‘cult status’. This is one of those oddities of attitude usually expressed by pop pundits when they can’t explain a resurgence of popularity for a long-established artist among a new, younger generation of pop fans. The truth is much easier to reveal – Tony Christie has been increasingly popular since he first took to the stage in the 1960s, and his fans have maintained constant loyalty throughout the years. The hallmarks of his career are versatility and stamina. In 1999 he made a stunning CD of great movie songs with a big band backing, and when we consider the almost cinematic drama of many of his most popular songs, as usual he made a perfect choice in his material. In 2001 he made something his fans had always dreamed of - a Christmas album, and as the 21st century got under way, he has been as busy in the studio as ever. In 2002 he took on a hefty tour of 12 German cities, and the accumulated adulation of European fans, built up over three decades of hard work, was evident as they flocked in their thousands to enjoy a three hour demonstration of the skills of a consummate showman.

In 2005, Tony’s son Sean, who had previously persuaded Tony to collaborate with Jarvis Cocker in 1999, once again encouraged Tony out of semi-retirement in Spain to promote a new album – the Definitive collection (including Amarillo), which has now reached Triple Platinum status.

Which brings us back to where Tony is today. The world of popular music is full of unusual connections and coincidences. It is a sobering thought that the likes of Jarvis Cocker and Peter Kay were mere babes-in-arms when Tony was riding high with Is This The Way To Amarillo. The northern club circuit back then was probably personified by gigs such as the huge Batley Variety Cub. There were other such venues, all of which proved that the British could enjoy a taste of that big-time, Las Vegas style sit-down cabaret atmosphere. Tony Christie was no stranger to this glittering world – a big night out needs a big, competent performer and this man fits that bill to perfection. Yet it was essentially the flavour of the smaller working men’s clubs which brought Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights to our TV screens. Clubland is a grown-up world populated by people who know and love a good song. It has nothing to do with trends and fashion – this is a world of entertainment, where music takes us to a romantic place well away from our mundane workday lives. And this is exactly what the music of Tony Christie achieves; it’s the reason why he has so many new fans, and the reason why he was asked to record the theme to Peter Kay’s spin-off from Phoenix Nights, Max & Paddy’s Road To Nowhere. If this is ‘cult status’, then let’s enjoy it.

Two of Tony Christie’s many qualities have to be his musical sense of adventure and his versatility. Although his voice could be said to be incomparable, when we look at his material over the years his profile as an artist sits in the centre of a solid gold seam of legendary talents. The lyrics to songs such as Don’t Go Down To Reno, Is This The Way to Amarillo and I Did What I Did For Maria all have that strident, epic feel of the great outdoors as exemplified by singers of an earlier generation such as Frankie Laine or Guy Mitchell. These are songs about people and their emotional turning points. Each composition is a musical drama framed in a memorable production style. His ability to swing with ease and rock with the beat puts him on a level with Tom Jones, and yet another sparkling facet to his character, his sheer romanticism, brings to mind other great vocal stylists such as Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Jack Jones and others. When a Tony Christie song comes on the radio, we feel that big, brash Las Vegas sparkle, a sense of real occasion. Tony Christie is, therefore, a singer for all generations, and as he has proved over and over again, he’ll always have a few pleasant surprises to pull out of the hat.