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Tony Christie - Made In Sheffield
| Nme |
| People forget that before Rick Rubin captured the sound of Johnny Cash embracing his own mortality, the Man In Black was a fading figure of fun who fought ostriches and made cameo appearances on Columbo, rather than the monolith of cool he’s become today. Icons of an older generation turning to icons of the new when the credibility crunch hits is hardly an innovative idea, but it’s one that more often than not works; recent memory alone throws up records such as Loretta Lynn’s collaboration with Jack White on ‘Van Lear Rose’ or Neil Diamond’s Rubin-produced ‘12 Songs’. The problem with Tony Christie pulling the same trick, of course, is that the man has never had any credibility to speak of, let alone reclaim....full text |
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| Scotsman |
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MUCH like a British Paul Anka, Tony Christie has discovered that there is an enduring appetite for his easy-listening pop swing. But this graceful Richard Hawley-produced ADVERTISEMENT albumADVERTISEMENT is leagues away from his cheesy Comic Relief revival of Amarillo. Made In Sheffield is a paean to his home city in the gorgeous, string-soaked style that has been pastiched by Hawley on his own albums. In addition to a number of melodramatic originals, Christie covers songs by fellow Sheffield heroes Arctic Monkeys, Jarvis and The Human League and finally records a lovely version of Coles Corner, which Hawley originally wrote for Christie to sing four years ago. TRAGEDY: WE ROCK SWEET BALLS AND CAN DO NO WRONG ** ROUND RECORDS, £13.99 IN THE late 1970s, meathead metal fans burned disco records in an effort to rid the world of such camp theatricality. Did no-one spot the irony? Maybe not then, but in these novelty-culture-clash-friendly times of reggae tributes to Radiohead, Tragedy – "the No 1 heavy metal tribute to the Bee Gees in the Tri-State area" – appreciate metal and disco's shared heritage of jumpsuits, chest hair and singing in a very high voice. This charmingly titled album imbues Stayin' Alive with an Aerosmith riff and a stratospheric falsetto rock wail and kicks off Too Much Heaven with a burst of Led Zeppelin's legendary Kashmir riff....full text |
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| Scotlandonsunday |
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Published Date: 02 November 2008 He knows the way to Amarillo, now Tony Christie is going back to his Sheffield roots and monkeying about with Alex Turner, he tells Aidan Smith TONY Christie, the old-style crooner, is talking about his night out with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys and, bless him, he makes a gaffe which illustrates exactly how long he's ADVERTISEMENT been in showbiz, and the kind of acts he had to battle to gain the reADVERTISEMENT spect of the most demanding audiences of all. "So there we were at the Q Awards, Alex and me, and he goes up to collect his prize for his other band, the Last Glove Puppets, and… " It's the Last Shadow Puppets, Tony....full text |
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| Guardian |
| Their first album might have been a meandering disappointment – proving that vaulting musical ambition often infuriates as much as inspires – but the group formed from the ashes of the Beta Band have finally come up trumps. Managing to coalesce their disparate influences (Glen Campbell, hip hop, T.Rex and seafaring shanties all pop up on 'Bobby's Song') , Luna is a psychedelic delight....full text |
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| Independent |
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Though undoubtedly a more focused affair than 2007's Astronomy For Dogs, which was the audio equivalent of a Damien Hirst spin-painting, with gaudy sounds flying off in all directions, Luna does little to change The Aliens' reputation as kitchen-sink psychedelicists unable to control their musical impulses. Tracks like "Everyone" and "Bobby's Song" are overloaded with far too many disparate elements. It's the curse of digital recording, where there's no limit to the number of tracks that can be layered into a piece. Over the course of 10 minutes, "Bobby's Song" opens the album with a harmonica intro that leads into miasmic, fluttery psychedelic folk-pop, before shifting through electronic and prog-rock sections, and even a bout of accordion, before drifting out on a phased climax featuring some garbled stuff about smoking dope. Which came as no surprise. Elsewhere, "Theremin" blends sunny West Coast harmonies with the sound of a car driving off; the acid-rock stomp "Magic Man" doesn't try too hard to disguise its Syd Barrett influence; "Boats" offers a creditable Neil Young pastiche; and "Smoggy Bog" sounds like an outtake from Piper at the Gates of Dawn. All entertainingly cosmic, but rather backward-looking, as if "progressive" were a matter of style rather than attitude. Perhaps it is....full text |
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