In the '90s, Wright launched the Heart commercial radio brand in Birmingham and London, and the Midsomer Murders detective drama series broadcast on ITV in the UK and over 225 TV channels around the world.[citation needed]
Between 1996 and 2001, Wright was the owner of Queens Park Rangers F.C. and the majority shareholder and chairman of Wasps Rugby Club. He continued as major shareholder and non-executive chairman of Wasps until 2008.[2]
Wright was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, the only son of the last in a long line of farmers, and grew up in Grimoldby. While attending King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth, he began submitting small articles to the Louth And District Standard newspaper and had ambitions to become a sports or political journalist.[4] In his teens, he played table tennis.[5]
Career
In 1962, Wright went to Manchester University, where he gained a BA in Politics and Modern History. While at Manchester University, he became social secretary of the Students Union and began booking groups at the university as well as at the J&J Club. He enlisted for a further year at the Manchester Business School but attended so few classes he was not awarded a diploma.[5] He began working for the Ian Hamilton Agency, representing Anna Ford, then a folk singer in the Joan Baez mould, and later a television presenter and newsreader.[6]
In 1966, he discovered The Jaybirds, a band from Nottingham fronted by the virtuoso guitarist Alvin Lee. They had been backing three-hit wonders The Ivy League but Wright was more interested in the blues repertoire they had developed on their own. He became their manager and moved to London, where he teamed up with Terry Ellis, another social secretary turned booking agent, to form the Ellis-Wright agency. Wright masterminded the Jaybirds' transformation into Ten Years After and guided their career as one of the biggest British groups of the late 1960s and early '70s. He got them a record deal with Deram Records, the Decca label's hip subsidiary, and in 1967 they became the first British band to release an album before a single.[1]
While Chairman of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) in 1982, Wright relaunched the British Record Industry Awards, previously held in 1977, as an annual event, the forerunner of the BRITs. Inspired by the Grammys in the US, Wright's intention was to "celebrate great music and great artists in the previous year." With British music ruling the airwaves around the world, this proved a timely idea, recognised when Wright was presented with a Special Award at the event the following year.[citation needed]
On 13 October 2015, in recognition of Wright's career and contribution to music, he was awarded with a BASCA Gold Badge award.[7]
Chrysalis
Ten Years After's early success gave Ellis the funds to put Jethro Tull in the studio to record their This Was debut album, the first Chrysalis Production, issued via a licensing deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1968. "It was the foundation of the Chrysalis organisation,” said Wright.[1] The partners put Wright's first name and Terry's surname together, the address they had been using for telegrams, to come up with the name Chrysalis.[5]
Blackwell agreed he would give them their own label if they notched up 10 Top Ten albums or singles within three years. With guitarist Mick Abrahams leaving Jethro Tull to form Blodwyn Pig, and charting alongside his former bandmates, that target was reached within a year and Chrysalis, with its distinctive red butterfly logo over a green background, was born.
In 1971, Chrysalis Music signed David Bowie to a publishing deal but Wright was on tour in the US with Ten Years After when Ellis, his business partner, listened to a white-label copy of "Hunky Dory", and turned down the chance to sign the singer to a recording contract. "You get some right and you get some wrong," Wright reflected.[8]
In the 1970s, Wright was particularly instrumental in the renewed success of Procol Harum, the emergence of their former guitarist Robin Trower as a solo artist, and the worldwide popularity of another Chrysalis signing, Leo Sayer. While attending a series of concerts by Sayer at the Roxy in Los Angeles in November 1976, Wright suggested that the soaring saxophone solo featured in the live version of "When I Need You" should be added to the album cut for its release a single. The new recording of "When I Need You" went on to top the UK and US charts the following year.[citation needed]
With Ellis concentrating on running Chrysalis in the US, Wright backed his hunches and made a raft of UK signings that paid huge dividends and proved culturally significant. In 1979, he offered The Specials a label deal for their 2-Tone imprint, and helped spearhead the ska revival which put them, Madness, The Beat and The Selecter in the charts and on Top of the Pops. The Specials' run of major hits included "Too Much Too Young", "Ghost Town" and "Free Nelson Mandela", three epochal records reflecting the turmoil and political changes and challenges of the late '70s and early '80s.[citation needed]
"We were cutting edge. We were able to pick up on everything – we kept our ears close to the ground," Wright told Classic Pop magazine in December 2013.[9]
By the mid-1980s, Wright's partnership with Ellis had run out of steam. A mooted but costly move into films favoured by Ellis became a bone of contention and the eventual catalyst for their split. Wright bought his partner's 50% stake in Chrysalis and set about reinvigorating a company that was now listed on the London stockmarket. The subsequent signings of Go West, Paul Hardcastle and Living in a Box and the development of the Cooltempo subsidiary for dance and rap proved Wright still had his finger on the pulse of popular culture. The distribution deals Wright offered Go! Discs and China Records coincided with both imprints scoring major hits with The Housemartins as well as Art of Noise and Labi Siffre.[citation needed]
By then, the huge overheads involved in running a world-size independent company and the under-performance of several releases, notably Billy Idol's much-delayed Charmed Life album, had forced Wright to sell 50% of Chrysalis Records to EMI. The next year, EMI exercised its option to buy the other half, just after Wright's company topped the singles chart for the last time with a one-hit-wonder "The One And Only" by Chesney Hawkes.[citation needed]
Wright's first foray into sports was with the Philadelphia Fury soccer franchise in the late 1970s.[13] In 1994, the Chrysalis Group bought a stake in the Sheffield Forgers basketball team. Renamed the Sheffield Sharks, Wright relinquished his majority stake in 2001.[citation needed]
In 1996, Wright bought Queens Park Rangers (QPR) Football Club, which had just been relegated from the Premier League, and a 51% stake in Wasps rugby club.[14] He brought both under the Loftus Road PLC umbrella with the intention that both teams would share the stadium. He did not succeed in taking QPR back into the top tier and sold the club in 2001.[15] On the other hand, as rugby union turned professional, Wasps enjoyed a golden spell, winning 10 trophies between 1996 and 2008, when Wright sold his controlling interest. Wright is Honorary Life President of Wasps.
Racehorses
Wright has been involved in the thoroughbred racing industry since 1981, both as an owner in the UK, France, the United States and Australia, and also as a breeder through his Stratford Place Stud based in the Cotswolds in England. He has participated in the ownership of a number of champion horses and the Stratford Place Stud has bred horses at the highest level. His notable successes as an owner include Culture Vulture, the first English trained filly to win the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, the French equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas, in 1992, Nicer, who won the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 1993, and Dark Angel, winner of the Middle Park Stakes in 2007, and now a successful stallion. With Willie Carson and Emily Asprey, Wright was the co-owner of Chriselliam, the winner of the 2013 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, who was crowned champion two-year-old filly in Europe and Champion two-year-old horse in Great Britain. In June 2021, Wright's horse Wonderful Tonight won the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.[16]
One Way or Another
His autobiography, One Way or Another – My Life in Music, Sport And Entertainment, was published by Omnibus Press in the UK in October 2013. In a four-star review in the Daily Express, Gerard Henderson said: "Chris Wright pulls no punches in telling his gripping, fascinating life story. The reviewer further commented: "This is a real who's who of the music business. It's also a playlist of the defining soundtracks of the past half century. From the hippie counter revolution, through to punk, the new romantics, ska and on to the music of the new millennium, Wright was at the heart of it all, forging careers for stars on both sides of the Atlantic."[17]
Jethro Tull are a British progressive rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band soon incorporated elements of English folk music, hard rock and classical music, forging a signature progressive rock sound. The group's lead vocalist, bandleader, founder, principal composer and only constant member is Ian Anderson, who also plays flute and acoustic guitar. The group has featured a succession of musicians throughout the decades, including significant contributors such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre ; bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, Dave Pegg and Jonathan Noyce; drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry; and keyboardists John Evan, Dee Palmer, Peter-John Vettese and Andrew Giddings.
EMI was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its acquisition by Universal Music in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate in the music industry, and was one of the "Big Five" record companies. Its labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records, which are now referenced under Universal Music due to their acquisition with the exception of Parlophone, as it is now owned by Warner Music.
Thick as a Brick is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 3 March 1972. The album contains one continuous piece of music, split over two sides of an LP record, and is intended as a parody of the concept album genre. The original packaging, designed as a 12-page newspaper, claims the album to be a musical adaptation of an epic poem by fictional eight-year-old genius Gerald Bostock, though the lyrics were actually written by the band's frontman, Ian Anderson.
A is the 13th studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull. It was released on 29 August 1980 in the UK and 1 September of the same year in the United States.
Ian Scott Anderson is a British musician best known for his work as the singer, flautist, acoustic guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member of the rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with Walk into Light in 1983; since then he has released another five albums, including the sequel to the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick, titled TaaB 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (2012).
Chrysalis Records is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Agency.
Roots to Branches is the 19th studio album by the British band Jethro Tull released in September 1995. It carries characteristics of Tull's classic 1970s progressive rock and folk rock roots alongside jazz and Arabic and Indian influences. All songs were written by Ian Anderson and recorded at his home studio. This is the last Tull album to feature Dave Pegg on the bass, and the first to feature keyboardist Andrew Giddings as an official band member, although he had contributed to Catfish Rising (1991) on a sessional basis. As a result, the album notably features the five longest serving members to date in Jethro Tull’s history. It was also the final Tull album to be released through long-time label Chrysalis Records.
Stand Up is the second studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull, released in 1969. It was the first Jethro Tull album to feature guitarist Martin Barre, who would go on to become the band's longtime guitarist until its initial dissolution in 2012. Before recording sessions for the album began, the band's original guitarist Mick Abrahams departed from the band as a result of musical differences with frontman and primary songwriter Ian Anderson; Abrahams wanted to stay with the blues rock sound of their 1968 debut, This Was, while Anderson wished to add other musical influences such as folk rock.
Chrysalis Group was a UK media company that was founded by Chris Wright, chairman, and Terry Ellis. Wright was named in Sunday Times Rich List 2009 of the 1,000 richest persons in the UK. Previously having interests in television, books and radio, Chrysalis now focuses on the areas of music publishing, music recording, artist management and entertainment product distribution. The music branch includes The Hit Label, Echo and Papillon Records.
Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, primarily a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of folk and rock groups including the Ian Campbell Folk Group and Jethro Tull.
The Broadsword and the Beast is the 14th studio album by rock band Jethro Tull, released in April 1982 by Chrysalis Records. The album's musical style features a cross between the dominant synthesizer sound of the 1980s and the folk-influenced style that Jethro Tull used in the previous decade. As such, the band's characteristic acoustic instrumentation is augmented by electronic soundscapes. The electronic aspects of this album would be explored further by the band on their next album, Under Wraps (1984), as well as on Ian Anderson's solo album Walk into Light (1983).
Michael Timothy Abrahams is an English guitarist and band leader, best known for being the original guitarist for Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1968 and the frontman for Blodwyn Pig.
20 Years of Jethro Tull (1988) is a video by Jethro Tull, also known as Jethro Tull: This Is the First 20 Years. It consists of interviews with fans, frontman Ian Anderson, Terry Ellis and Chris Wright of Chrysalis Records, and John Gee of the Marquee Club, giving a rough chronology of the band, interspersed with clips from music videos and live performances. Many of the live performances are culled from the Madison Square Garden performance during the 1978 Heavy Horses tour.
Terry Ellis, is an English record producer and manager who worked with the early Jethro Tull band, and as co-founder of music company Chrysalis Records in 1969.
Michael George "Chick" Churchill is an English keyboard player of the blues rock band Ten Years After.
Chrysalis Music is a British independent music publisher.
"Living in the Past" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is one of the band's best-known songs, and it is notable for being written in the unusual 5 4 time signature. The use of quintuple meter is quickly noted from the beginning rhythmic bass pattern, though it can also be explained as a distinct 6 8 + 2 4 syncopated rhythm.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
"The Witch's Promise" is a single by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released in January 1970, on the Chrysalis label. It reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart, and was promoted by an appearance on the British chart show Top of the Pops. The B-side was "Teacher", an alternate version of which later appeared on the US release of the album Benefit. In the U.S., the single was released on the Reprise label.
"Teacher" is a song by the British rock band Jethro Tull, first released as the B-side to the January 1970 single "The Witch's Promise", on the Chrysalis label. Written by the band's frontman Ian Anderson, the song is a comment on the corruption of self-styled gurus who used their followers for their own gain.
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