Tony Christie was born, Anthony Fitzgerald on the 25th of April 1943 in Conisborough, South Yorkshire.
His musical career started by fronting various bands around the club circuits. The most notable being Tony Christie and the Trackers, which gained a huge following. The success of the group led to him being talent spotted performing in a club in Wales.
In 1966 he recorded his first single " Life's too good to waste " and in 1968 "Turn around" a Les Reed composition, followed by " My Prayer " Which had been a show stopping part of his show.
In 1969 Tony Christie signed an exclusive deal with MCA records but it wasn't until he was teamed with the hit song writing team of Mitch Murray and Peter Callander that he managed to break into the World recording market.
1971 brought him his first international hits with the songs " Las Vegas ", " I did what I did for Maria ", "Don't go down to Reno" and " Is this the way to Amarillo ". These songs kept Tony in the British charts for no less than 41 weeks out of 52; this fact alone established him as one of the World's major recording stars.
"Is this the way to Amarillo", written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield was a hit in almost every country in the world, achieving sales in excess of 4 million records and topping the Spanish charts for almost 6 months.
Further hits followed with "Avenues and Alleyways" from the T.V. series " The Protectors" and more recently the film "Love Honour and Obey". Collaboration with songwriter Geoff Stevens brought another chart hit with the song " Drive Safely Darling ".
In 1976 Tony was approached by the now legendary writing team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, to sing the part of Migaldi in their original concept album of " Evita".
This was a project that he greatly enjoyed doing, but was unable to be part of the west end production owing to the very heavy work schedule to which he was committed for the next two years.
In 1979 he started collaboration with writer/producer Graham Sacher, which produced a massive continental, hit called " Sweet September ", triggering a resurgence of T.V. and Concert appearances keeping him busy through the 80's doing what he does best, bringing his live show to his many fans around the world.
1990 brought him together with producer Jack White who had been responsible for the huge success of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, and Engelbert Humperdink. The result was a hit single " Kiss in the night " and an Album which went Platinum in a matter of weeks.
Successful tours and T.V appearances continued throughout the 90s and in 1999 he was once again in the top ten of the British charts with the song " Walk Like a Panther " written for him by Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker. (Tony was back on Top Of The Pops after 25 years).
It was the use of "Is this the way to Amarillo" in Peter Kay's "Phoenix Nights", which brought Tony to a new audience of young fans and bringing him "Cult status". Tony has been asked to record the theme tune to Peter's new spin off series "Max & Paddy", due to be aired in November.
A huge 30-date tour of the UK starts on the 2nd March 2005, following the release of a TV advertised " Best Of " album. This will include 6 brand new never released songs as well as 18 of Tony's hits and favourite album recordings.
