He's probably best known now for that hit charity video with Peter Kay miming to his music, but that’s only part of the story for Tony Christie.
Its seven weeks at number one serves as a reminder of Tony’s longevity.
Celebrating 50 years in the business, he’s done the lot.
He’s also woven his career in and out of the public eye, and only last year achieved a long-standing ambition to appear in a West End musical.
Lincoln audiences will get a chance to appreciate his full range when he steps on stage at the Theatre Royal.
His current wave of popularity started as far back as 12 years ago, when Jarvis Cocker sent him a new song with the same title as an old Christie album track, Walk Like A Panther.
Tony told What’s On: “Walk Like A Panther reached the top ten.
“I did all that and went back to Spain where I was living and the radio started to play it and it became a hit so I had to come back to do Top of the Pops.
“Then Peter Kay came completely out of the blue and that got me to move back to the UK.”
Tony saw Max and Paddy singing (Is This The Way To) Amarillo to some bemused Asian elders.
He said: “I nearly fell of my chair laughing. Then the phone started ringing…”
Three years after the Comic Relief hit, the critically-acclaimed Made In Sheffield was released, putting Tony well and truly in the public eye.
He said: I’d collaborated with Richard Hawley. I wanted to do Coles Corner, the song. I never realised that six years before he had written a song specially for me to record.
“He’d put it on his album. I heard it again while I was driving home one night and thought I’d quite fancy doing that song. He pointed out he’d already done that six years before.
“I contacted him to ask if he’d like to produce that track on the album but he said he wanted to record an album with myself doing purely music from Sheffield. Sheffield songs, Sheffield artists, Sheffield writers.
“It was obviously a fantastic idea because the result was a hit and also critically acclaimed.”
And Tony hasn’t looked back!
“I did a musical last year, and I’m trying to find time to write my autobiography this year.
“One of the boxes I hadn’t ticked was the West End musical. I did a run in Dreamboats and Petticoats and really enjoyed it.
“The year it was set was 1961, the year I started out in showbusiness!”
A new album of all new songs, Northern Soul, Philadelphia blues, is in the making, “quite an eclectic mix and a brilliant album” he says.
“It’s my 50th year in the business and that’s why I’m doing this tour.”
It’s a 50-date tour. So how does he keep young-looking and young-feeling?
Tony reveals: “By just constantly working. People say if you retire, you die. I always embark on a strict fitness regime. I stopped drinking alcohol – I did that two months ago and it’s not easy to start with, particularly as I go to so many functions. I do a lot of walking and I’m ready for ten weeks of hard work. I’m a workaholic because that kind of living keeps you young.
“I perhaps see myself differently in a mirror. I’m only 67, going on 68, although I feel 20 years younger than my body!”
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