Chris Norman is called the "last romantic" of world music, but he began his career as a rock artist. His trademark hoarse voice brought fame to Smokie, one of the most popular bands of the 70s. In the 80s, he again conquered the musical Olympus with the song "Midnight Lady". Despite the fact that there are enough world hits in his discography that would allow him to retire, the musician considers it his duty to continue to develop in a creative direction. “I don’t want to be a monument to myself,” says Chris Norman, still successfully performing with concerts and releasing new albums.
How it all began
Christopher Ward Norman was born on October 25, 1950 in the small town of Redcar in Great Britain, North Yorkshire. Both of his parents belonged to the world of show business: his mother danced and sang, and his father was in the comic group "The four Jokers", quite famous in his native England. Of course, little Chris got into the art world early. When Chris was 7, he was presented with his first guitar, and then he began to imitate famous singers. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, who were popular in those years, greatly influenced the development of his musical taste.
Chris's parents toured all over the country, so he spent his childhood in different cities, in total he changed 8 schools. The family eventually settled in the town of Bradford, where in 1965 Chris, along with schoolmates Alan Silson and Terry Uttley, founded his first musical group. Friends often skipped lessons, gathering at the school walls and performing an a-cappella song "The Beatles". Their desire to become as famous as their idols was so great that at the age of 16 Chris left school, and together with the new member of the group, drummer Ron Kelly, the group began to give their first concerts. Mostly they performed in clubs and pubs, where workers of local factories came to rest after a working day. In 1968 the band changed their name to Elizabethans. Their manager began sending their demos to recording studios, but without much success.
In 1970, the name was changed again - now the group became known as "Kindness". Then they signed their first contract with the recording studio RCA and released the single "Lindy Lou / Light of love", which went unnoticed. In 1972 the band recorded three new singles at once: "Let the good time roll", "Oh yeah" and "Make it better". Unfortunately, none of them have been successful.
During a tour with Peter Noon, founder of the rock group Herman's Hermits (Kindness acted as backing vocals), drummer Ron Kelly left the band. Their mutual friend Pete Spencer came to replace him. At the same time, the group signed a contract with Bill Hurley, who henceforth became their permanent manager. He introduced his protégés to Nikki Chinn and Mike Chapman, the most famous songwriters of the time. Chinn and Chapman were inspired by the potential of the group. Thus, a new contract was signed. Kidness changed their name again. The group became known as "Smokey" - because of Chris Norman's hoarse, smoky voice.
Smokie Time
In early 1975, Smokey released their first full length album, Pass it around, under the RAK label. However, the radio stations saw drug propaganda in the title of the album and refused to air the songs. The singles "Oh well oh well" and "Daydremin" did not have much success. The members of the group joked among themselves that they would be the first, whom even such giants of show business as Chinn and Chapman could not “promote”.
For the next album, "Changing all the time," "Smokey" underwent a massive image update. Chinn and Chapman decided to abandon the hard rock style that prevailed in the band's previous album, and make them a "feature" of the harmonious choral sound. The new composition "If you think you know how to love me" was recorded in the style of an acoustic ballad and was a resounding success not only in Great Britain, but also in other countries.
The first success brought the first troubles: "If you think you know how to love me" became popular in the United States, as a result of which the American singer Smokey Robinson sued them, who believed that the group was using his name for advertising purposes. As a result, I had to change my name again, this time completely. So Smokey became Smokie.
The group began to lead the UK charts and gained fame outside of their home country. Following “If you think you know how to love me” their international fame was consolidated by the single “Don’t play your rock'n roll to me”.
With the song "Living next door to Alice" "Smokie" were able to break into the top lines of the American charts. At first, the band refused to record the song. Chinn and Chapman wrote it a few years ago for the Australian hard rock band New World. In the mid-70s the authors rewrote it in country style and suggested "Smokie", who were recording a new album in the USA at that time. The members of the group felt that the song did not fit their style and agreed to record a single on the condition that it would only be sold in America. As a result, "Living next door to Alice" was not included on the Midnight Cafe album release, but was later released on the 1976 Greatest hits compilation.
From 1975 to 1982 inclusive "Smokie" made a successful tour of England and Europe, simultaneously releasing new albums. During these 8 years, the group released 23 singles, which each time entered the top ten world music charts. The group was especially popular in the CIS countries, Europe and Australia, but the group enjoyed its greatest love in Germany. In 1977, "Smokie" topped virtually all German charts by voting results, and Chris Norman was named composer of the year (overtaking Paul McCartney and John Lennon) and entered the top 5 best guitarists. Also "Smokie" became the most popular overseas group in South Korea.
In 1981, the single "Take good care of my baby" from their new album "Solid Ground" once again secured the band a spot in the UK charts. However, the popularity of "Smokie" began to decline. Other sounds and rhythms began to come into vogue, and the band members were tired of numerous tours and partings from their relatives. According to Chris Norman, the group has ceased to develop creatively. The next album, Strangers in paradise, went unnoticed. The album "Midnight delight" (1982) was also not successful. Following this, the group broke up.
Solo career
Back in 1978, Chris Norman first tried himself as a solo artist, recording the single "Stumblin In" with the popular rock singer Suzy Quatro. The duet was formed almost by accident. According to the recollections of Quatro, who was also the "ward" of the Chinn / Chapman duo, at one of the "skits" she asked Chris Norman why they never sang together. The request was performed immediately to the accompaniment of the piano, and Quatro's and Norman's voices sounded so harmoniously together that Chapman instantly conceived a duet for them. As a result, "Stumblin In" gave both performers the greatest success of their careers, reaching number four on the US Billboard 100. Chris Norman and Suzy Quatro were offered large-scale American tours and recordings on American television. However, Norman, who was experiencing depression at that time, refused this opportunity, which he later regretted more than once.
In the early 80s, Chris Norman released his first solo album, Rock away your teardrops. The songs were recorded with the help of fellow Smokie, which gave the feeling that this is another album of the group. At the same time, the video for the single "Hey Baby" was filmed. The album did not have much success. In 1984, after the breakup of the group, Chris once again tried his hand at a solo career, releasing the singles "My girl and me" and "Love is a battlefield".
In 1985, in Bradford, the hometown of Smokie, a fire broke out during a football match, which not only destroyed the stadium, but also caused many deaths. Smokie decided to team up for a charity concert. Their performance was greeted with such enthusiasm that it was the reason for the band to reunite with their former line-up and tour the world.
In 1986, during concerts in Germany, Norman's manager introduced Chris to one of his fans. It turned out to be a young composer and singer Dieter Bohlen, founder of the famous German group "Modern Talking". After a while, he received an offer to record the soundtrack for the popular German TV series "Der Tausch". At first, Norman wanted to refuse, since the composition was not in his style. However, then he decided to take on this job. This is how the song "Midnight lady" was created, which brought Norman the biggest international success since the duet with Quattro.
"Midnight lady" took the first lines in many European countries. Following her, the creative union Norman - Bohlen released hits "Some hearts are diamonds", "No arms can ever hold you" and "Hunters of the night". Chris Norman began to be invited on tour and on television separately from the group. At first, the singer thought that he could balance between a solo career and participation in a group, but later realized that this was impossible. To save the group from imminent disintegration, he personally began looking for his replacement. This is how the new vocalist Alan Barton appeared in the group, whose voice resembled the hoarse timbre of Norman. Chris introduced him to the audience as his successor during his farewell concert.
Norman's third solo album was "Some hearts are diamonds". It was significant in that the singer moved away from his usual rock and rock and roll style, having recorded a disc in a fashionable disco style. Of course, this decision was made as a result of cooperation with Dieter Bohlen. However, Bohlen and Norman had too different views on music. During the recording of the album, Norman refused many of Dieter's proposals due to the mismatch of their musical tastes: Bohlen gravitated towards disco and pop music, Norman preferred other genres. As a result, according to Norman, they entered into an agreement and wrote an equal number of songs for the album: 5 songs belonged to Bohlen, five others were written by Norman. In 1988, Chris Norman recorded another composition by Dieter Bohlen "Broken heroes", after which their collaboration ended.
In 1987 Chris Norman released a new album “Different Shades”, the single from which “Sarah” became very popular in Germany. This was followed by the album "Break the ice". During these years, the singer's main popularity fell on the countries of Europe, in which his songs were invariably successful.
In the early 90s Chris Norman decided to return to the British music market. The new album "The Interchange" was recorded at the musician's personal recording studio, which was located in his home on the Isle of Man. With this album, Norman moved away from the disco and synth fashion trends that were the focus of his 80s albums, developing his own personal musical style. In the same years, his first concert took place in Russia, in the Kremlin Palace - an event so significant that it was broadcast live by the ORT TV channel. According to Norman, he was unaware of the popularity of Smokie in Russia and was worried that tickets would not be sold out. However, the attendance at the concert was so huge that there were not enough seats in the hall for invited journalists.
Chris Norman's next albums were "The growing years" (1992), "The Album" (1994), "Reflection" (1995) and "Into the night" (1997), the single from which "Baby I miss you" became a hit in European countries. In 1995, Chris Norman received the International Video Star of the Year award from European TV channel CMT for his video clips for the songs "Jealous heart", "Red hot screaming love" and "The growing years". In 1997, Chris released a special Christmas album "Christmas together" with the children's choir "Riga Dome boys". In 1999 he rerecorded the hits "Smokie" for the album "Full Circle". According to Norman himself, this is one of his least favorite albums (along with "Into the night"), and he agreed to record due to a creative crisis.
In 2001, the album "Breath me in" was released, and at the same time a tragedy occurred in the Norman family: their first son, Brian, died in a car accident. Chris Norman dropped out of the music world for two years, giving up concerts and recordings on television. When in 2003 he released the album "Handmade", dedicated to the memory of his son, it turned out that the music world had forgotten about him.
To remind himself, Chris Norman agreed to take part in the filming of the reality show Comeback show on German television. It was attended by stars of past years, such as Limahl, Coolio, Haddaway, C. C. Catch and others. Throughout the show, Norman enjoyed a lot of public support, which consistently made him the winner of the music rounds. In the final, the organizers prepared a surprise not only for Norman's fans, but also for himself, inviting the members of the group “Smokie” to the stage, who performed their joint hit “Lay back in the arms of someone” with Norman.
After winning the Comeback Show, Chris Norman's song "Amazing" from the new album "Break away" topped German music charts. He was named Best Male Voice of the Year by Radio Rainbow. The musician again began to successfully tour the world. At that time, a DVD of his performance "One acoustic evening" was recorded. The Chris Norman star appeared on the Avenue of Stars in Vienna, and his solo concert in this city attracted more than 50 thousand spectators.
From 2005 to 2010, he toured the world successfully, releasing the albums Million Miles (2005), Close Up (2007) and The Hits (2009). While promoting the album "Million Miles", he made a major tour of Russia, visiting cities remote from the center of the country, such as Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and others. In 2007, he successfully returned to the UK charts again with the album "Coming home", which included the main hits of his career.
In 2011, Chris Norman presented his versions of world famous hits to the public on the album "Time Traveler". In 2013, the album "There and back" followed, recorded mainly in the style of hard rock. At the same time, for the first time since his career with "Smokie", he gave a major concert in the United States. In 2016, Norman visited South Korea for the first time with his new album "Crossover".
In 2017, the release of the album "Don't knock the rock" took place, all the songs on which belong to the authorship of Norman. As part of promoting the album, Norman made a major tour of Germany, and also visited Russia, Australia, France and Norway with concerts.
In 2018, it was announced that the American film studio Millennia Pictures would be filming a biopic, In a heartbeat, about Chris Norman's musical career. The news was officially confirmed on his Facebook page. In mid-July 2018, it was officially announced that a DVD of Chris Norman's concert in Hamburg was released as part of the Don’t Knock the Rock World Tour.
Other projects
In 1978, Norman co-wrote the song "Head over heels in love" with Pete Spencer, drummer for the band Smokie, for football player Kevin Keegan's musical debut. In 1982 he became the producer of the English football team's album This Time. With the group Smokie, he participated in the recording of Agneta Feltskog (ABBA) 's solo debut "Wrap your arms around me" and the album "Donovan" as backing vocalist.
In 1988 Chris Norman recorded and produced the duet "I want to be needed" with Shari Belafonte, daughter of the legendary Harry Belafonte. In 1995, he became the producer of Cynthia Lennon's (first wife of John Lennon) single "Those Were the Days".
In 1998 for the musical "Lion King" he recorded the song "Endless night".
He has written lyrics for many artists, including Bad Boys Blue (Heaven Or Hell) and E-rotic (Sexual healing).
Chris Norman is the official international representative of the children's hospice in Germany.
Personal life
Chris Norman has been a faithful husband for nearly 50 years. In 1968, while touring with the group in Scotland, he met Linda - the only love of his life. He still calls this day the happiest day of his life. In 1970, they got married and remain together to this day, which is very rare in the world of show business. In one of the interviews, Chris recalled that at first the financial situation in their family was so difficult that they planned the time of their visit to relatives so as to come to dinner. Nevertheless, Linda did not require her husband to leave the group and invariably supported his dreams of a musical career.
Their first child, Brian, was born in 1968. In 1972, her son Paul was born, and in 1984, Linda again gave her husband a boy, Michael. Another son, Stephen, was born in 1986. The only girl in the family, Susan, was born in April 1991.
Unfortunately, their first son, Brian, died in a car accident in 2001.
Chris Norman also has an illegitimate daughter, Sharon, from a girl he dated before Linda. Sharon's mother did not allow them to see each other until her daughter's wedding in the early 90s.
Since 1986, the family has lived on the Isle of Man, located between England and Ireland. There is also Chris's personal studio, where he records his albums. Chris considers family to be the main achievement of his life and loves to spend time with his wife and children, devoting his free time to reading, fishing and writing new songs.
