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Chris Stainton | |
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![]() Stainton in 2009 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Christopher Robert Stainton |
Born | Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | 22 March 1944
Genres | Rock |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1959–present |
Formerly of |
Christopher Robert Stainton (born 22 March 1944) is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, Stainton is best known for his work with Eric Clapton, The Who, Andy Fairweather Low and Bryan Ferry.
Stainton was born in Woodseats, Sheffield. After passing his eleven-plus examination, Stainton attended Rowlinson Technical School, Norton, Sheffield. Stainton's musical career began in 1960, when he played bass guitar with a local Sheffield band, 'Johnny Tempest and the Mariners'. The Mariners became 'The Cadillacs', before Stainton joined Joe Cocker in The Grease Band during 1966. [1] Stainton co-wrote "Marjorine", Cocker's first UK Singles Chart hit in 1968. [2] Chris played bass guitar on Joe Cocker's subsequent number 1 hit With a Little Help from My Friends.
His time as a Cocker backing musician came to a zenith on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, in the United States and Canada in 1970. [1] His initial involvement with Cocker lasted until the end of 1972. [3] Throughout that decade Chris Stainton appeared with musicians such as Spooky Tooth (1970), The Chris Stainton Band (1972–73), Tundra (1974), Bryn Haworth Band (1976–77), Boxer (1977), Maddy Prior Band (1978), Rocks (1978) and Elkie Brooks (1978).[ citation needed ]
By 1979, he teamed up with Eric Clapton for the first time, beginning an intermittent working relationship that has lasted to the present time. He joined Clapton on Roger Waters's The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking tour during 1984, and also toured again with Joe Cocker on and off from 1988 until 2000.[ citation needed ]
In 1985, Stainton and Clapton both appeared in the George Harrison-produced film Water in a mock 'charity concert' – the Concert for Cascara. [4]
In November 2002, Chris appeared at the Concert for George, and has more recently appeared as one of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. [5]
Stainton has been a member of the Eric Clapton band virtually full-time since 2002, touring worldwide almost every year until the present time. He toured with Clapton on his 2008 North American and European tour, which included a three-night collaboration with Steve Winwood at Madison Square Garden in February 2008, and toured with Winwood and Clapton in 2009 and 2010.
In July 2012, Stainton was announced as a keyboardist for The Who's 2012–2013 Quadrophenia & More Tour (he played piano on three songs on the original Quadrophenia album, "The Dirty Jobs", "5:15", and "Drowned"). He performed with the band at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. However, he subsequently withdrew prior to the start of the tour, to join Clapton on his tour of the US and Europe, that ultimately ended at O2 Arena Prague on 19 June 2013.
Stainton toured with Clapton in Japan, the Middle East and Europe in 2014. On 11 September 2015, he was honoured and performed with the Tedeschi Trucks Band in a tribute/reunion concert for Joe Cocker, at the Lockn' Festival in Arrington, Virginia. [6] The concert honoured Joe and the Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour. Alumni included from the 1970 Tour included Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear, Bobby Jones, Pamela Polland, Matthew Moore, Daniel Moore, Chuck Blackwell and Bobby Torres and original Tour photographer Linda Wolf. Wolf's iconic photographs from the 1970 Tour introduced the concert to the audience. [7] [8] A documentary movie of the reunion and concert was released in 2016, directed by Jojo Pennebaker, son of D. A. Pennebaker and Jesse Lauter.
Chris Stainton played on Eric Clapton's 2016 album I Still Do and subsequently joined Clapton for a brief tour of Japan in April 2016.[ citation needed ] As of June 2022, he is currently on tour with Eric Clapton. [9]
John Robert "Joe" Cocker was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles, such as "Feelin' Alright?" and "Unchain My Heart", were recordings of songs written by other song writers, though he composed a number of songs for most of his albums as well, often in conjunction with songwriting partner Chris Stainton.
Rita Coolidge is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on Billboard magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and then-husband Kris Kristofferson. Her recordings include "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," "We're All Alone", "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love", and the theme song for the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy: "All Time High".
Leon Russell was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and roll, country, gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, southern rock, blues rock, folk, surf and the Tulsa sound. His recordings earned six gold records and he received two Grammy Awards from seven nominations. In 2011, he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Henry Campbell Liken McCullough was a musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland. He was best known for his work as a member of Spooky Tooth, The Grease Band and Paul McCartney and Wings. He also performed and recorded as a solo artist and session musician.
The Grease Band was a British rock band that originally formed as Joe Cocker's backing group. They appeared with Cocker during the 1960s, including his performance at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. The band's name derived from an interview Cocker had read with the American jazz organist Jimmy Smith, who had approvingly described another performer as having "a lot of grease", with "grease" referring to soul. After Cocker formed the Mad Dogs & Englishmen album band line-up, the group released two albums without him in the 1970s.
Linda Ann Wolf is an American photographer and writer. She is one of the first female rock and roll photographers. Wolf also makes fine art photography with an emphasis on women and global photojournalism.
Andrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist and singer. He was a founding member and lead singer of 1960s pop band Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
Doyle Bramhall II is an American guitarist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He is the son of the songwriter and drummer Doyle Bramhall.
Carl Dean Radle was an American bassist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen is a live album by Joe Cocker, released in 1970. The album's title is drawn from the 1931 Noël Coward song of the same name and Leon Russell's "Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen". Only four songs of the 16 on the original album were drawn from his first two studio albums. Besides the contributions of bandmate and musical director Leon Russell, it draws equally from rock and soul. Accompanying Cocker is a choir, a three-piece horn section and several drummers.
Robert Henry Keys was an American saxophonist who performed as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and other prominent musicians. Keys played on hundreds of recordings, and was a touring musician from 1956 until his death in 2014.
James William Price is an American session musician. He toured extensively with The Rolling Stones from 1970 until 1973, including their 1972 American Tour, and appears on the albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. and Goats Head Soup. From September 1968 to February 1969, Price played with New Buffalo Springfield. He also toured and recorded with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen and Eric Clapton. Price played on several songs on Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson. Price produced Cocker's album I Can Stand a Little Rain, which includes the song "You Are So Beautiful".
Joe Cocker! is the second studio album by English singer Joe Cocker, released in November 1969. Following the template of his first LP, the album features numerous covers of songs originally performed by Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Leonard Cohen, and future touring partner Leon Russell. Cocker also co-wrote one song, "That's Your Business Now", with Chris Stainton, who was a frequent songwriting partner.
The ARMS Charity Concerts were a series of charitable rock concerts in support of Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis in 1983. The first event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on September 20, 1983, with subsequent dates occurring in the United States, with slightly different lineups of musicians.
Claudia Lennear is an American soul singer and educator. Lennear began her performing with the Superbs before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She was also a background vocalist for various acts, including Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Freddie King. She released her only solo album in 1973. Lennear was featured in the 2013 Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. She was inducted in the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
"Drowned" is a song written by Pete Townshend, the guitarist for the Who, for their sixth album, Quadrophenia.
Don Preston is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose performing career began in the 1950s. He notably recorded in the 1970s with Leon Russell on Leon Russell and the Shelter People and other albums, and with Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen. He backed Russell at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971 and appeared in the documentary film and on the live album The Concert for Bangladesh.
The Last Puff is an album by British rock band Spooky Tooth, released in 1970.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen: The Complete Fillmore East Concerts is a live album by Joe Cocker, recorded in New York City in 1970.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen is a 1971 American documentary film of Joe Cocker's 1970 U.S. tour, directed by Pierre Adidge, starring Cocker and Leon Russell. The film was released on March 29, 1971, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.