Chris Norman Live In Beirut

Name: Chris Norman Live In Beirut

Details: Loft Investments Presents:  Chris Norman

(former lead singer of Smokie) at the Warehouse & Loft (April 2nd)

www.loft-investments.com

sponsored by :

POLIAKOV Vodka

Gitanes

in collaboration with:

Nostalgie

Kristie’s Agency

Al Balad

Taxi Bleu

Sawt El Ghad

Saint James

Fida Zalloum

Le Bristol Hotel

Covered by: Libano Suisse Insurrance

TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT ALL VIRGIN TICKETING BOX OFFICE BRANCHES

Seated Lounges available for 70$ & 100$ to reserve the Lounges call: 71 -900450.

CHRIS NORMAN – THE HITS!

From his Smoky and solo years – live with Band 2009

Place: Warehouse And Loft,  Achrafiyeh, Naher Area.

Tel: 71-900 450

Date: 2 April 2011

Time: 8:30 P.M

Biography:

Chris was born in Redcar, Yorkshire, on 25th October 1950, his parents didn’t intend that he should pursue a stage career, but when he was just 3 years old, he decided to walk on stage and join the finale line up for the show in which his parents were appearing.

Approaching his twelfth birthday, Chris started at St. Bede’s Grammar School , Bradford where he met Alan Silson and Terry Uttley the future members of Smokie.

As teenagers, Chris and Alan began meeting up and spending nearly all their spare time learning new songs on their guitars. They managed to persuade Terry to join them and along with a drummer friend called Ron Kelly, they formed their first band. The Yen, Long side down were just some of a variety of names they called themselves before settling on ‘The Elizabethans’.

When Ron Kelly left the group in 1973, Pete Spencer was asked to take over on drums and the group which was to become ‘Smokie’, was complete.

By 1974 the boys had developed their own sound reflecting their close three part harmonies and Chris’s distinctive vocal sound wrapped up in a guitar rock sound, a sort of mixture between Crosby, Stills & Nash and Creedance Clearwater Revival.

The band changed their name to ‘Smokie’ and their first album ‘Pass it Around’ was released in 1975 on Micky Most’s RAK records.

Smokie had started as an album orientated rock act and their many live experiences had given Chris and Smokie a good grounding in all the tricks of the Rock’n Roll trade. Chris remembers: “We weren’t so much interested in pop singles at first. That’s why the back cover of our first LP PASS IT AROUND was designed in a way that made us look kind of folk/rocky instead of a Glamrock band.”

Neverthe less, by the summer of that year they had their first hit single with ‘If you think you know how to love me’. This was followed by a string of 14 hit singles including ‘Living next door to Alice’, ‘I’ll meet you at Midnight’, ‘Lay back in the arms of Someone’, etc. Plus the very successful duet with Suzi Quatro, ‘Stumblin’ In’ which gave Chris his first taste of success outside the group.

Their album sales grew accordingly and they had many hit albums such as, ‘Changing All The Time’, ‘Midnight Cafe’, ‘Bright Lights and Back Alleys’ and ‘the Montreux Album’ among others.

By now Chris and the group were enjoying huge success touring all over the world and selling out Arena gigs but by 1982, Chris decided to spend more time writing and working in the studio.

Chris together with Pete Spencer, now concentrated on songs for other artists including hits for Kevin Keegan and the England football team’s hit ‘This Time’. He also worked with such names as ‘Agnetha’ from Abba, on her solo album, ‘Donovan’ and the Heavy Metal Kids, singing back vocals along with Alan & Terry and also playing guitar on the Agnetha album.

In 1985 ‘Smokie’ got back together to play a charity show in aid of the Bradford F.C. fire disaster and decided to go back on the road. Tours of Germany and Australia followed but in the latter part of 1985, Chris recorded a project for a German TV movie ‘Tatort,’ and decided to once again concentrate on his solo career.

Chris’s solo career took off in 1986 with the song, ‘Midnight Lady’, which was a massive hit throughout Europe holding the number one spot in Germany for six weeks. Other single and albums hits followed.

Chris was surprised in 1994 when he was awarded ‘International video Star of the Year’ by CMT Europe for the videos ‘Jealous Heart’, ‘The Growing Years’ and ‘Red Hot Screaming Love’. That same year Chris formed a new band and went on tour for the first time in six years. He still found time though to produce some tracks for Cynthia Lennon. Over the next 10 years Chris and his band continued to tour extensively all over the world, and he produced many solo albums.

2004 was a particularly busy year for Chris. With both a top ten single in Germany with ‘Amazing’ and top 30 album ‘Breakaway’. That same year he was given the Radio award for ‘best voice male’ in Germany which Chris was thrilled about.

2005 saw Chris at number 5 in the DVD chart in Germany with a live double DVD called ‘An Acoustic Evening with Chris Norman’. One DVD featuring Chris and band performing a 1½ hour unplugged set for an invited audience and the other a live electric concert in front of 50,000 people in Vienna.

Although Chris and his six piece band were busy touring throughout Europe as well as gigs in Russia and the US he still managed to find time to write and record a new studio album for which he wrote 14 new songs. The album released in Germany under the title ‘Million Miles’ re-titled ‘Coming Home’ for the UK was released to great reviews in 2006.

In 2007 Chris decided to try something different so set about making an acoustic album with just Chris’s acoustic guitar, a piano and a string quartet. He called the album ‘Close Up’ and wasted no time in taking it on the road. Using the same line up Chris did the ‘Close Up’ acoustic tour in the autumn/winter of 2007, playing for over 2 hours Chris thrilled the audience with new acoustic arrangements of his music from the past 30 years.

This gave Chris the idea to release an album showing his music throughout his career, so now back with his regular electric band he started work on a history album set released in Feb 2009. The Double album incl. one CD with 16 Smoky hits and one CD with 19 solo tracks, 5 of which are brand new songs and recordings. Plus a bonus DVD from the 2007 acoustic tour live in Berlin.

The title of the package is “Chris Norman, The Hits! – from his Smokie and Solo Years”. He has already successfully toured Germany with the new album and tours are being planned to coincide with it’s release throughout 2009.