‘Yorkshire’s reply to Tom Jones’ – Tony Christie information new charity single

He knew one thing was flawed when he couldn’t end the cryptic crosswords he loved, and his as soon as razor-sharp reminiscence began to get blunter. Tony Christie’s spouse Sue – the love of his life – insisted he received himself checked out. The amiable down-to-earth star was identified with dementia simply over two years in the past. 

Now 80, Tony makes one concession onstage to his situation – he has his track lyrics on an autocue.  “I rarely need to look it at them but I’m more relaxed knowing they’re there,” says the twinkly-eyed singer, including with a smile. “I don’t have to sing Amarillo, the crowd sing it anyway.”

(Is This The Way To) Amarillo was Christie’s third hit in 1971, and his first to promote one million copies. It was a foot-stomping smash once more in 2005 as a Comic Relief charity single fronted by Peter Kay, which topped the charts for seven weeks.

Easy-going Christie – as soon as dubbed “Yorkshire’s answer to Tom Jones” – is at present spearheading one other all-star charity single with Music For Dementia.

“I’m a bit knackered,” he tells me. “I’ve had a really busy couple of weeks; it’s taking its toll for an eighty-year-old.”

His reminiscence loss is underneath management although. “I do forget things but I’m not that bad,” says Tony who doesn’t like making a fuss. “I’m on very strong tablets, they’ve slowed it down; it’s not affected my voice.”

He was topping the invoice at Greasbrough Working Men’s Club, Rotherham, in 1967, when he first noticed Sue. “I did the first song, Stranger In Paradise, and told my bass player, ‘I’ve just seen the girl I’m going to marry’. He fell about laughing.”

Tony didn’t know that Sue’s agent father had despatched her to see if he was ok to guide.

“She came with a showband from Northern Ireland and sat at the front table. Afterwards she came backstage, but it took two weeks before she agreed to go out with me. I was smitten.

“I took her home to meet my parents and told my dad she was the girl for me. He said I shouldn’t choose someone just because they had great legs! I thought, why are you looking at my girlfriend’s legs?! We had our 55^th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.”

Born Anthony Fitzgerald in Conisbrough, Doncaster, Christie grew up in a “well-stocked” council home – a well mannered approach of claiming it was awash with maternal kinfolk. His uncles labored nightshifts on the pit. “When they got out of bed for work, I climbed in. I never knew what it was like to get into a cold bed.”

He remembers his father Paddy standing him on a stool to sing for his paternal grandparents. “I’d sing whatever the hits were in the early 50s and they gave me 6d.”

Hailing from Claremorris, County Mayo, each had been musicians in ceilidh bands – his grandad performed the squeezy field, his gran performed fiddle. Paddy performed a piano and his English grandfather performed the melodeon.

“Every family event was musical. I’d get up and sing and people would give me money. I was six when I thought, this is a good way to make a living.”

His mom’s facet had been all miners, however grandad Percy was additionally a famend bareknuckle fighter.

“I remember men knocking on the door while he was having his tea and challenging him to a fight. He’d say to my mum, ‘Iris, put that in the oven, I won’t be long’. Then he went out, knocked them all over the street and came back to finish eating.”

His dad and mom met when each labored at a munitions manufacturing unit. Paddy was later stationed with the RAF in India and Egypt and got here again with a set of 78s. “When he came home rock’n’roll started. I was told ‘Don’t listen to that, listen to this – Ella Fitzgerald, Count Bassey, Sinatra…’ and I was hooked, I was about 15.”

Tony fashioned a double act along with his finest pal Dave. “Dave’s mum played piano at an old people’s home. We’d sing as part of a glee club who’d go to the pub after a show – that was our excuse to join them.”

He left faculty at 16 to coach within the wages’ workplace on the native steelworks. Paddy, then a coal-board bookkeeper, needed him to be an accountant, however musical ambition gained out.

He began a bunch, Tony Christie & the Trackers, who recorded a 1966 single with keyboardist Billy Preston (aka “the fifth Beatle”) and a cold-infested teenage session guitarist referred to as Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin fame.

“We became quite big names on the club circuit – we sang at Blackpool Winter Gardens.”

One evening backstage he met Harvey Lisberg, the supervisor of Herman’s Hermits, who informed him: “Lose the band, and within a year you’ll get a record deal”. Tony did so reluctantly.

It labored. MCA signed him and Lisberg paired him with songwriting duo Murray & Callander who penned Las Vegas, a Top 30 hit in January 1971. Their I Did What I Did For Maria went Top 2 and Amarillo (written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield) made the Top 20 however did higher throughout Europe.

“Fame hits you hard,” he says. “I’d be on the road to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany…I was completely drained. I didn’t have time to think. Suddenly I had screaming at shows. I wasn’t used to that.”

Tony was nonetheless hoping for his large break when he married Sue in 1968. Life was robust dwelling hand-to-mouth in a small two-bedroom flat in Hillsborough with new child son Sean. 

Sue was pregnant with their daughter Antonia when Las Vegas charted. Pre-school they took the kids on the highway, even overseas, however once they adopted six weeks previous Sarah in 1975 that occurred much less. Christie’s follow-up to Amarillo, Don’t Go Down To Reno flopped right here however went Top 5 in Germany.

1972’s Avenues & Alleyways was the theme tune to TV’s The Protectors starring Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter. “I’m the only one living from that show…”

It was his final UK hit till he guested on All Seeing I’s Walk Like A Panther in 1999. Amarillo with Kay was the cherry on high. But his star by no means pale in Europe the place he had additional hits with songs like Sweet September and performed area excursions all through the Nineties.

America proved extra evasive. In the 70s Christie turned down presents of Vegas reveals, as a result of “the aircon killed the voice”. He will lastly carry out there, and in Amarillo, subsequent June for a TV present.  

The Christies settled in Mojacar, on Spain’s Costa Almeria, in 1990, however son/supervisor Sean persuaded them to maneuver again to construct on Amarillo’s second wind.

They settled in Lichfield, Staffs. “It has a cathedral so it’s officially a city but it’s really a big village; it’s easy to walk round with an excellent local pub.”

A nasty stage fall in Essen, Germany, 9 years in the past left Christie with three herniated discs which ended his beloved golf. “I couldn’t work properly for two years,” he says. “I miss golf, I had my own charity golf tournament for years, but now I just bird-watch. I’ve been a twitcher since I was a lad.”

A karate brown belt he’s additionally a staunch Doncaster Rovers fan.

In 2008, Tony launched his most critically acclaimed album Made In Sheffield, which the help of Jarvis Cocker, Arctic Monkeys and Richard Hawley – son Sean’s sensible thought.

The follow-up, 2011 Now’s The Time, was Northern Soul influenced, produced by All Seeing I’s Richard Barrett on the hip Acid Jazz label.

The new charity single Thank You For Being A Friend is in assist of at the moment’s Thank You Day celebrating Britain’s unseen military of carers.

It was recorded at Mark Knopfler’s studio – “he let us use it for free”. Superstars Sting and Nile Rodgers additionally guested without spending a dime, Nile as a result of he’d misplaced his mom Beverly to Alzheimer’s in 2020.

Tony recorded two albums in Tennessee this yr – one, previous hits re-recorded with Nashville musicians; the opposite, brand-new songs with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman. He’d nonetheless like to crack America however says, “As long as I can keep singing and Sue is around then I’m happy.”

Tony Christie’s new charity single, Thank You For Being A Friend, is out now. It was launched for Music For Dementia to have fun Thank You Day.