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Chris Thompson was born in the United Kingdom, and raised in New Zealand. He became a professional musician in 1971, and moved back to England in 1973. He joined Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1974. Since becoming a member of the band, Chris has sung on international hits such as Blinded By The Light, which reached No.1 in the U.S. and all around the world. The Earth Band spent from 1975-77 extensively touring America and Europe. In 1978 they released Watch, which featured Chris Thompson. The song Davy's On The Road Again reached the Top 5 in England and Germany. Watch has sold over 700,000 copies in Germany alone.
In 1979, Chris left The Earth Band to form "Night" a Los Angeles-based band, who enjoyed two Top 20 hits, "Hot Summer Nights" and "If You Remember Me", which was the title theme from the movie "The Champ". The group broke up in 1982 and Chris (who had still been doing session work with the Earth Band on a semi-regular basis), rejoined Manfred to finish the album Somewhere in Africa. After a successful European tour with The Earth Band to promote this album, Chris and drummer John Lingwood, produced a live album and video from Budapest, Hungary called Live in Budapest. Manfred Mann's Earth Band was the first western rock band to work in Budapest.
In 1983 Chris released his first solo album, Out Of The Night. He also worked extensively with ex Doobie Brother Patrick Simmons, both writing and singing on Patrick's solo album Arcade, which produced the Top 20 hit So Wrong.
In 1984 Manfred Mann's Earth Band had a Top 20 hit with The Runner on Arista Records.
Chris's second solo album, Radio Voices, featured Brian May and was released in 1985. Later he worked with Manfred Mann on Criminal Tango, and began working on another solo album The High Cost Of Living, which was released in 1986. It's Not Over, a song from this album featured in the film Playing For Keeps.
In 1989, the Wimbledon Tennis Championship brought about another success for Chris when he wrote and performed the official championship song The Challenge which became No.1 hit in Germany. Another solo album, Beat of Love, was released in 1991. That same year, he had a Top Ten hit in Germany with The Joker, theme song from the television series Jolly Joker.
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In 1992 Chris was extensively involved in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert held at Wembley Stadium. He was responsible for rehearsing the band and all the artists that appeared : Annie Lennox, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Paul Young, David Bowie, Lisa Stanfield, Seal, Elton John, Liza Minelli and George Michael. He was also in charge of additional vocals on the day. The following year Chris worked with Brian May on his first solo tour in South America.
Chris rejoined the Earth Band, working together with singer Noel McCalla, in 1992 and began touring in Europe extensively again as well as beginning work on a new studio album. During this time they recorded the Mann Alive CD which is a great representation of this chapter of the band’s history. Chris has fond memories of this time especially working again with Manfred Noel and Mic Rogers.
In 1993 he made his debut with Alan Parsons on the album Try Anything Once. This was followed a few months later with an extensive tour in the U.S. This same year, Chris also performed at the charity concert for Children Under Siege in Los Angeles. In 1984 Chris sang the theme from the successful German TV series Florida Lady. This series also gave birth to a brand new recording of Blinded By The Light.
The 1995 Alan Parsons album The Very Best Live, features Chris Thompson, and the U.S. release includes a studio version of Chris performing You're The Voice (which he also performed “You’re the Voice” as the finale of the World Liberty Concert in Holland in front of 120,000 people). This concert also featured Joe Cocker and UB 40.
In 1996 Chris completed the new Manfred Mann's Earth Band album entitled Soft Vengeance. The summer of that year saw a five-month European tour to promote the album.
In 1997, Chris worked with Spike Edney on the first SAS Band album. The SAS Band in it's first two years of existence, has featured many great artists including Chaka Khan, Paul Rogers, Brian May, Mica Paris, Fish, Roger Chapman, Roger Taylor, Graham Gouldman, Curtis Stigers, Paul Young, Tony Hadley, Kiki Dee, Steve Lukather & John Deacon.
The SAS band has continued to grow as a concept and Chris has been involved with SAS band concerts all over the world. The annual Christmas concerts in England have become legendary and this year is no exception.
Chris’s final gig with the Earth Band was in January 1999, this brought to an end a huge chapter of his life, that took him from Hamilton, New Zealand to the top of the charts around the world.
In 2001 Chris became involved with Mads Eriksen, an extremely talented and original guitarist from Bergen in Norway, writing and singing 4 songs on his Redhanded CD. Thus began a new chapter in Chris’s live work. With an invitation to play at the Ole Blues festival in 2002 Mads put together a Band of musicians from Bergen, that have since become Chris’s live band. Chris and The Mads Eriksen band continue to perform all over Europe.
In 2003 Chris and Mads began work on writing some new material for a CD that eventually became “Rediscovery”, a huge musical work (based on a modern day fairy tale written by Chris), that saw the Chris, Mads and the Band travel to New Zealand (2004) and record 27 pieces of music in York Street Studios in Auckland inspired by Chris’s story and New Zealand itself. Although some of the music was released for a short time in Norway, it remains an unfinished work. Chris is at present working on a script and production of Rediscovery, which is scheduled to be performed and filmed in Auckland in March 2011.
2005 saw Chris and Manfred reunited, doing a 21 date concert Tour with “Night of the Proms” in Germany. It was hugely successful and very enjoyable for Chris and Manfred. Since then Chris has continued to Tour extensively in Europe with the Mads Eriksen Band, SAS Band, Mandoki Soulmates and some solo projects in Holland.
Chris has also reprised his role (from the original recordings in 1976), as the “Voice of Humanity” singing ThunderChild in the Live Musical Version of Jeff Wayne’s “The War of the Worlds”. Touring England in 2006, England, Australia & NZ in 2007, then England and Europe in 2009.
Chris is living in Belgium with his wife and two young daughters |
