Matt Monro Forum

Hi Everyone,

Tony Christie is a big fan of Matt's music.
Has anyone heard Tony sing "born free?" It's just brilliant and Tony's arrangement is very much the same as the original version.

He has a nice selection of songs on "The Movies" CD.
As well as "Born Free" there is a lovely version of "Three coins in the Fountain" and "Evergreen" plus many other movie songs which are excellent too.

I do think that Tony is very under rated as a singer and some folk think that he can only sing "Amarillo" and nothing else!

My dad has a single called "Love and rainy weather" which apparently was included in a TV film called "The Lovers" which starred Richard Beckingsale and Paula Wilcox. (I think the year was 1973!)

This is a lovely song and it is a shame that we don't hear this one on the radio at all. It is one of Tony's "lost" recordings and I'm sure that a lot of the newer TC fans may not have heard this one at all

Best Wishes,

Hilary

Hi Hilary, Tony Christie was way always up top of our favourite male vocalists, we have two great albums of Tony.s both from 1974. " Its good To Be Me" has Twelve tracks, our two favourite on this one are " Sittiin On The Dock Of The Bay" and the Jimmy Van Heuson/ Johnny Burke classic " Here's That Rainy Day"
On " From America With Love" "The Most Beautiful Girl" and "Happy Birthday Baby" are superb.

Hi Lena and Harry,

I too like the songs you mentioned in your post.
Tony's earlier recordings are his best ones.
"Frankie" and "A year, a wife and a kid ago" are great songs too.

Sadly most of Tony's earlier recordings have been deleted now so what we all have now are certainly a rarity and a collectors item!
Maybe the recordings will be remastered one day and released on CD

Best Wishes,

Hilary

Hi Hilary, we also have just found another album of Tony Christie's we somehow knew that we had and got out of sequence in our cataloguing it's the album With Loving Feeling 1973, which has "Is This The Way To Amarillo" "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast " and one that we particularly like. "So Deep Is The Night"

Hi Lena and Harry,

"So deep is the night" and "Daddy's don't you walk so fast" are great songs.

We had the great pleasure of seeing Tony in concert last year when he came to Oxford.

He is a brilliant entertainer as well as a great singer.
Like Matt, he can chat to an audience as well as sing to them!

The jokes came thick and fast on that night.
Tony joked with us all and said that earlier in the day he had visited the hairdressers because he wanted the hairdresser to put some grey in his hair because he thought that he was looking far too young for his age!

It's good to see a good singer making a well deserved comeback.
Let's hope he will still be performing for a while yet.

Best Wishes

Hilary

Hi Hilary, yes you are quite right it is good to see them make a come back specially when they can still perform and sing well and entertain us.
Tony was very popular in the Seventies and is proving to be as popular now. It's our kind of music, so Good for him.!!!

I love Tony too! I think its great he's had this revival over the past few years, and he's one of Yorkshires most enduring singers! Back in the 1970s we lived in Saudi Arabia, and spent most of the days indoors in the cool! Hearing 'I did what I did for Maria', 'Las Vegas', and 'Frankie' take me straight back there as my Mum played them a lot! I also liked 'Walk, like a Panther Ruby', but my favourite song by him has still got to be 'The Avenues & Alleyways'! Such a powerful beginning, with the trumpets building up and then the backing singers kick in. Its also slighlty cheesy, which I like! It was written for the Gerry Anderson TV programme 'The Protectors', and Gerry seems to be very proud of that tune, according to his biography (not that he wrote the tune obviuosly!).

In fact, I think that 'Avenues & Alleyways' kick started the Tony Christe revival when it was used in the Ray WInston film 'Love, Honour and Obey'. This film also featured another Gerry Anderson show theme, namely 'Fireball XL5', the end theme ('I wish I was A Spaceman, from Jupiter & Mars') was sung several times in the film. Hows that for trivia!

Michael

Hi to everyone!. Yes, I like Tony Christie very much also.
You all mention some great songs there although I think the track you mention Michael, Avenues and Alleyways would definitely have to go down as my No 1 Chrisite track of them all although Las Vegas pushes it pretty close.
Hilary: Yes, Tony is very much a fan of Matt isn't he. I've heard him praising Matt so many times over the years on the radio/tv. A quality singer and a lovely guy.
I agree with you when you say you think Tony is underated - he never used to be though. I suppose maybe this is in part due to the amount of time he's spent working in Spain and other countries outside the UK. It's good to see him have a kind of re-birth to his career though as there's always room for quality singers. I haven't bought the 'Movies' cd but yes, it does look a good cd.
Lena and Harry: The songs you mention are the kind of thing I was brought up on along with Gene Pitney, The Carpenters and of course Matt. - great stuff! You have a wide ranging taste don't you, it must be wonderful to sit and flick through your music collection!

Best wishes to you all as always.

Lee H.

Hi all-after all this talk of Tony Christie, I decided it was time for me to listen to a few more of his tracks apart from the 1 or 2 that I know.

So I took a trip on ebay , found one "Greatest Hits" cd at 30p--or 50p BuyNow--so I did--I was lucky as there were loads on there, all differing prices--it arrived yesaterday, but no time yet to play it.

I heard that Tony Christie made a guest appearance during Neil Sedakas recent tour--I was unable to get along, but I also hear that a dvd is on it's way.

Marian

Hi Everyone,

Lee: You're right, it is good to see Tony back again working in the UK.
From what I have read about Tony's career revival, he worked abroad because that was where the work was from 1990 until he made his BIG comeback last year.
He also went on to say that he would have liked to continue working in the UK but he wasn't getting any work here because crooners weren't popular at the time so he went to live in Spain. He was very popular in Germany throughout the 1990's but maybe a lot of people didn't know that he had moved abroad.........some folk even thought that he had died!!!

Marian: Neil Sedaka's DVD should be out sometime in the Autumn.
Tony joined Neil on stage that night and they sang "Amarillo"together.

Hello Everyone,
My name is Phil Fletcher i am Tony Christie`s biggest fan to find out more & keep up to date with all that is going on with Tony Christie you may like to visit our new website www.tonychristie.com.
You will be made most welcome !!!!!!!!
With Very Best Wishes.
Phil Fletcher [Tony Christie Superfan ]

Hi Phil! Welcome to the forum!! Good to see you here.
Yes I've visited the Tony Christie site since the new look and yes, I like it - a nice site. I used to look in a fair bit on the old one too. Great singer Tony, always been a fan, good to see him doing so well again here in the Uk.

Once again, welcome!

Lee H

Hi Leeroy,
Thank you for your kind email.I have been a fan of Tony`s for over 35 years .A good song,sung by a good singer........lasts forever.
Best Wishes
Phil

Hi Phil,

Nice to see you in Matt's forum.
Please look in again soon!

Hi Hilary Well, at long last I actually got round to getting out there in my lunchtime today and buying 'Movies,Love and Hit songs'. Yes, I like Tony's version of Born Free. Being the old romantic, I like the 2nd cd best. 'Baby come back', 'Our love is forever','The eyes of a woman in love' and the new recordings of the old Christie classics like Avenues and Alleyways' and 'Las Vegas' are superb. A very good, very enjoyable cd. It's a cd that doesn't seem to be all that widely available (at least not in my city anyway) so thank you for highlighting the cd and recommending it Hilary, I'm glad you did!!! I know Tony has a new cd due for release too so I hope to get that one too.
good wishes to you!

Lee H