Tony Christie, who this year celebrates fifty years in the music business and whose illustrious career gave us big hits such as 'I Did What I Did For Maria', 'Is This The Way To Amarillo', 'Avenues And Alleyways, 'Don't Go Down To Reno' and 'Las Vegas', and who has to date sold over 10 million records, commences a tour of the UK in April.

Born and raised in the town of Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, Christie enjoyed great success in the 1970's, both in this country and on an international platform. In 1971, Christie was in the British charts with a succession of records for no less than 41 weeks out of 52 and his most biggest record 'Amarillo' was a hit in almost every country with sales in excess of four million.

Speaking about his success during the 70's Christie says that, "I didn't always have time to enjoy it. I was working fifty-two weeks a year, seven days a week. I was forever on the road, forever away from my family."

Then, as things do, the hits petered out towards the end of the 70's(despite a splendid turn as Magaldi in the recorded version of Evita) but Christie continued to play to full houses on the clubs and cabaret circuit but even that work all but ground to a holt for the singer in his home country by the early 90's and Christie ended up packing his bags and going off to live in Spain and earning his living touring the continent where he was still much in demand, predominantly in Germany.

Very little was heard of Tony Christie in this country for a good number of years and one radio station, Piccadilly in Manchester, reported he had died! "A friend rang the station and said they'd just had dinner with me and my wife in Spain and I looked quite well."

However, just around the time Christie probably thought he was destined for the quiet life in Spain playing plenty of golf, his UK career received an unexpected shot-in-the arm, courtesy of a fellow Yorkshire man and long-time fan, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, who sent him a new song with the same title as an old Christie album track, 'Walk Like A Panther'. "My son Sean said 'do it dad, it's quirky, it's got something about it'. Next thing, blow me, we're getting Radio 1 plays, it's a Top Ten hit and I'm doing Top Of The Pops after twenty-five years,. Amazing, absolutely amazing.", says the singer.

But this was only the start of what was the be the most amazing career resurgence for Christie. Fast forward a few years and comedian Peter Kay was using the singer's signature tune 'Amarillo' in his hit TV series 'Phoenix Nights' and the song had also become an integral part of Kay's stand-up shows, being used as a means of warming audiences up on his sell-out tours and in doing so, bringing the singer's music once again to peoples' attention and introducing his music to a new, younger audience. What really put Christie back on the music map in a way he could never have foreseen in his wildest dreams was the adoption of 'Amarillo' as the Comic Relief anthem in 2005. The song was re-released as a single accompanied by a hilarious Peter Kay video and the song subsequently spent seven weeks at No.1 on the charts and 'Amarillo' was the biggest-selling single of that year.

Christie never looked back and his comeback just went from strength to strength. His album 'The Definitive Tony Christie' also climbed to the No.1 spot on the UK album chart and then broke records the following week when it also came in at No.1 on the downloads charts. Sell-out tours followed and it seemed like everyone was talking about Tony Christie. He even went on to secure the prestigious Sunday afternoon slot at the Glastonbury festival confirming his new status as being hip and cool in the eyes of fans who weren't even born when he first enjoyed success in the 1970's.

Christie then brought out an excellent new album a few years ago entitled 'Made In Sheffield' which, as the title suggests, was recorded in the Steel City and featured Christie covering songs made famous by Sheffield artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Jarvis Cocker and the Human League as well as recording some brand new songs written by Sheffield songwriters. Another album , 'Now's The Time' came out last year that saw Christie embracing the sound of Northern Soul, British beat, filmic sound-tracks('Get Christie' was a modern-day rework of the iconic theme from the British gangster classic 'Get Carter') as well as dishing up some wonderful poignant ballads and some mod-stompers.

Fast forward to the here and now and Tony Christie is still very much in demand and big news. His new tour includes a performance in Liverpool at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall on Friday 27th April.