Interview: Former Smokie singer Chris Norman

Back then Chris was a pupil at St Bede’s School in Heaton. He and school pal Alan Silson both got guitars and decided to form a band, recruiting fellow classmate Terry Utley. They called themselves The Elizabethans - later to become 1970s chart-toppers Smokie.

Chris, 73, was the frontman of Smokie when they were clocking up hit singles and millions of album sales. But for nearly 40 years he’s enjoyed a solo career, touring the world and working with the likes of Abba’s Agnetha Faltskog, Suzi Quatro and Donovan.

Next month he’s back at St George’s Hall, performing tracks from his new album, Junction 55, as well as songs from his solo career and Smokie hits. It’s the first time he’s performed in Bradford since 2019.

“I called the album Junction 55 to reflect the fact that I’m at a new junction in my career, and it’s been 55 years since I turned professional,” says Chris, who’s had 21 hit singles and released 22 albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide. Junction 55 features 12 new songs written by Chris and in collaboration with others, including three with original Smokie band drummer Pete Spencer.

Chris has had a successful solo career (Image: Bradford Theatres)

Although still known for Smokie, Chris tours the world as a solo singer - he’s talking to me from Ireland and is off to South Africa next year. “I generally sing a mix of old and new songs, it depends where I am. In a lot of places I’m known as Chris Norman, solo artist. In the UK and Ireland they know all the Smokie hits,” says Chris. “I’ve got a six-piece band, I’ve been with them a long time.”

It was, he says, a golden era for young musicians when he was at St Bede’s: “There were so many bands springing up - kids were just picking up a guitar and having a go. That didn’t happen again until punk came along. There were dancehalls everywhere, it was all geared up for bands to perform.

“I grew up watching live music. I saw the Rolling Stones at the Gaumont. It was an exciting time in Bradford, with all the package shows. I wanted to see the Beatles but my parents wouldn’t let me go. I remember me and Alan Silson looking through the window of Moore’s music shop in Bradford and seeing the Beatles’ Rubber Soul LP. We borrowed the money from our parents to buy it together then listened to it all night.

“I’m glad I came up through that time, in the 1960s and 70s,” he adds. “We played five or six nights a week when we started out. I don’t know how new bands do it now, there just aren’t those affordable venues anymore.”

Chris grew up in a family of entertainers. His grandparents toured a concert party during the First World War and their daughter Pat (Chris’s mother) was in a dance troupe. Chris’s dad, Pip Norman, was in a dance/comedy act called The Four Jokers, performing around Europe in the 1930s and 40s. “Dad tried to teach me to tap dance in the kitchen,” smiles Chris, who was born in Redcar and moved to Bradford when he was three. “I never saw myself on stage - being from a family of performers, it didn’t seem so special.”

But music got under his skin, with influences such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Lonnie Donegan then the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The band Chris formed at school with Alan Silson, Terry Uttley and later Pete Spencer played clubs in Bradford before turning professional in 1968. By 1974 they’d developed their own sound; close three part harmonies wrapped in guitar rock, likened to Crosby, Stills & Nash and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

“Me, Alan and Terry had a distinctive harmony sound,” says Chris. “Mickie Most said there was only us and the Bee Gees who could sing like that.”

After changing their name to Smokie, the band’s first album, Pass it Around, was released in 1975 on RAK records. They did a stint as Peter Noone’s backing group. “We travelled up and down the country in a van, sleeping on rolled-up mattresses. We were like brothers, it was an adventure,” says Chris. “We weren’t so interested in pop singles at first. The back cover of Pass It Around was designed in a way that made us look kind of folk/rocky instead of a glam rock band.”

By the summer of 1975 they had their first hit with If You Think You Know How To Love Me, followed by hits including Living Next Door To Alice, I’ll Meet You At Midnight, Oh Carol and Lay Back In The Arms of Someone. Their albums included Changing All The Time, Midnight Cafe and Bright Lights and Back Alleys.

Smokie had a string of hits in the 1970s (Image: Newsquest)

Chris was the charismatic frontman, singing on Top of the Pops and jetting to America. Back home in Bradford, his family took it in their stride. “Neither of my parents made a big deal when we finally got a hit and were on Top of the Pops,” smiles Chris. “Mum didn’t see me play live until 2007. It was in York, she got the bus over. She came backstage and said she was proud of me.”

I tell Chris I once met his mum and she seemed very proud to say: “My son, Chris Norman, was in Smokie”.

With hit albums and sell-out concerts, Smokie had international success but in 1986, after performing at the Bradford City Fire fundraising concert, Chris left the band. He’d already released solo material and his hit duet with Suzi Quatro, Stumblin’ In, was a turning point. “I met Suzi at a party, we sang together then recorded a duet. It gave me an idea for what it would be like to do something outside the band,” says Chris.

Chris’s first solo single, Midnight Lady, was a huge hit in Europe, holding the No.1 spot in Germany for six weeks. “Germany is a massive market for me, it’s where my solo career took off,” he says.

Other singles and albums followed and he worked with stars such as Agnetha Faltskog. “She asked me to be in her video. She was lovely,” says Chris. I tell him I’ve seen Abba Voyage, the virtual concert residency, and he reveals he’s been approached to be a hologram. “It’s scary - if AI takes over we’ll all be out of a job!”

In 2020 Chris released Just a Man, produced by his old mentor Mike Chapman, who has worked with acts such as Blondie and Tina Turner. One of the songs on Junction 55, recorded at Chris’s studio at home on the Isle of Man, was written with Mike. Still known to many as ‘The Voice of Smokie’, Chris stands at this junction of life with an album of tracks that are hallmarks of an accomplished singer-songwriter, with timeless melodies and soaring harmonies.

* Chris Norman is at St George’s Hall on September 10. Call (01274) 432000. Visit bradford-theatres.co.uk