Tony Christie dubbed Yorkshire’s Tom Jones (Image: John Owen Dawson)
He knew something was wrong when he couldn’t finish the cryptic crosswords he enjoyed, and his once razor-sharp memory started to get blunter. Tony Christie’s wife Sue – the love of his life – insisted he got himself checked out. The amiable down-to-earth star was diagnosed with dementia just over two years ago.
Now 80, Tony makes one concession onstage to his condition – he has his song 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, adding with a grin. “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 sell a million copies. It was a foot-stomping smash again in 2005 as a Comic Relief charity single fronted by Peter Kay, which topped the charts for seven weeks.
Easy-going Christie – once dubbed “Yorkshire’s answer to Tom Jones” – is currently spearheading another 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.”
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Tony Christie with his wife Sue (Image: Getty)
His memory loss is under control though. “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 bill at Greasbrough Working Men’s Club, Rotherham, in 1967, when he first saw 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 sent her to see if he was good enough to book.
“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 55th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.”
Born Anthony Fitzgerald in Conisbrough, Doncaster, Christie grew up in a “well-stocked” council house – a polite way of saying it was awash with maternal relatives. His uncles worked nightshifts at 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.”
Tony Christie and Sue in 1973 (Image: Getty)
He recalls 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, both were musicians in ceilidh bands – his grandad played the squeezy box, his gran played fiddle. Paddy played a piano and his English grandfather played 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 mother’s side were all miners, but grandad Percy was also a renowned 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 parents met when both worked at a munitions factory. Paddy was later stationed with the RAF in India and Egypt and came back with a collection 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 formed a double act with his best 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 school at 16 to train in the wages’ office at the local steelworks. Paddy, then a coal-board bookkeeper, wanted him to be an accountant, but musical ambition won out.
He started a group, Tony Christie & the Trackers, who recorded a 1966 single with keyboardist Billy Preston (aka “the fifth Beatle”) and a cold-infested teenage session guitarist called Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin fame.
“We became quite big names on the club circuit – we sang at Blackpool Winter Gardens.”
One night backstage he met Harvey Lisberg, the manager of Herman’s Hermits, who told him: “Lose the band, and within a year you’ll get a record deal”. Tony did so reluctantly.
It worked. 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 but did better across Europe.
Tony was signed by MCA (Image: Getty)
“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 still hoping for his big break when he married Sue in 1968. Life was tough living hand-to-mouth in a small two-bedroom flat in Hillsborough with newborn son Sean.
Sue was pregnant with their daughter Antonia when Las Vegas charted. Pre-school they took the children on the road, even abroad, but when they adopted six weeks old Sarah in 1975 that happened less. Christie’s follow-up to Amarillo, Don’t Go Down To Reno flopped here but 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 last UK hit until he guested on All Seeing I’s Walk Like A Panther in 1999. Amarillo with Kay was the cherry on top. But his star never faded in Europe where he had further hits with songs like Sweet September and played arena tours throughout the Nineties.
America proved more evasive. In the 70s Christie turned down offers of Vegas shows, because “the aircon killed the voice”. He will finally perform there, and in Amarillo, next June for a TV show.
The Christies settled in Mojacar, on Spain’s Costa Almeria, in 1990, but son/manager Sean persuaded them to move back to build 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, nine years ago 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 is also a staunch Doncaster Rovers fan.
Tony Christie releases new charity single (Image: Getty)
In 2008, Tony released his most critically acclaimed album Made In Sheffield, which the aid of Jarvis Cocker, Arctic Monkeys and Richard Hawley – son Sean’s smart idea.
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 support of today’s Thank You Day celebrating Britain’s unseen army of carers.
It was recorded at Mark Knopfler’s studio – “he let us use it for free”. Superstars Sting and Nile Rodgers also guested for free, Nile because he’d lost his mother Beverly to Alzheimer’s in 2020.
Tony recorded two albums in Tennessee this year – one, old hits re-recorded with Nashville musicians; the other, brand-new songs with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman. He’d still love to crack America but 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 released for Music For Dementia to celebrate Thank You Day.
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