This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(January 2017) |
Chrissy Steele | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Christina Southern |
Genres | Rock |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 1980s-1990s, 2021–present |
Labels | Chrysalis Records |
Chrissy Steele is the stage name of Christina Southern, [1] a Canadian vocalist currently living on Vancouver Island. [2] She is most noted for garnering a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Female Vocalist and Hard Rock Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 1992. [3]
Steele's early years were spent singing classical and folk music. She participated in several choirs and performed in operas in her hometown of Comox and later in Victoria (both on Vancouver Island). [4] At the age of 19, she moved to Vancouver to become a professional singer, but found she was lacking the confidence to front a band. After returning to Victoria, she answered an ad in the local newspaper and joined her first band, Room Service, in 1984. She performed in various rock clubs and appeared on the nationally televised CBC competition Rock Wars. A year later, she accepted a gig playing with the hard rock band Reform School. [5] The band gave her a foundation as a front person playing clubs in B.C and Alberta with several bands including Blu, and the first incarnation of the Chrissy Steele Band with several members including Burk Ehmig, Rick Smook, Matteo Caratozzolo, Lance Abramyk and Brian McConkey, amongst others. [6]
In 1989, Brian MacLeod, after hearing about her talents, invited her to join his band Headpins, which had been looking for a new singer since Darby Mills left the band in 1986. However, with the rest of the original Headpins having moved on to other projects, MacLeod instead decided to record a new album with Steele. The majority of songs were written by Brian MacLeod and Tim Feehan. MacLeod and Steele, with the help of their manager Sam Feldman and Bruce Allen, would be shopped to labels, finally hooking to Chrysalis Records, newly acquired by Thorn EMI. With an introduction to New York Chrysalis executives John Sykes (President) and Joe Keiner (CEO), and flying out to see the band live, Macleod and Steele were signed to a multi-million multi-album record deal. Sadly, during the production of the album and a warm-up tour, MacLeod became ill, and after the release of the album, he succumbed to cancer on April 25, 1992. During his illness and incapacitation, it was thought best by the label for Steele to continue on as a solo artist after signing with the American branch of the label Chrysalis. [7]
The album, Magnet to Steele, was released in 1991 and spawned the hit singles "Love You 'Til It Hurts" and "Love Don't Last Forever". [8]
With a touring band consisting of Joe Wowk (replacing Brian MacLeod) on guitars, Tim Webster on keyboards, Anton Vogt on bass, and Rick Fedyk on drums, Steele supported the album first playing with Bryan Adams in Revelstoke in 1991, then with a cross-Canada tour as an opening act for Bryan Adams, and in the United States as an opener for Jethro Tull's entire Catfish Rising American Tour. Steele also played as part of the lineup at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver for Molson's Great Canadian Party on July 1, 1992, featuring (in order of appearance) Eugene Ripper, The Grapes of Wrath, SkyDiggers, Rita Chiarelli, Crash Test Dummies, Chrissy Steele, Colin James, The Tragically Hip, and Spinal Tap. In addition to her Juno nomination for Most Promising Female Vocalist, Magnet to Steele was a nominee for Rock Album of the Year. [9] [10]
The record company flew her to Los Angeles to record demos for her follow-up album after the album's commercial viability had passed. But, Steele thought the material wasn't the right match. She wanted to adopt a more mature and reflective style because she was no longer at ease with the "sexpot biker-chick" persona she was being advertised as. With grunge dominating the airwaves, her label waning, and it being bought out by the Chrysalis Group, Steele took her cue and decided to put the music business on the back burner for a while. As an avid environmentalist, she worked a term for Greenpeace in Vancouver – eventually returning to University in Victoria. She performed a few isolated concert dates with a new all-female backing band in Quebec City and Montreal in 1994 and sang guest vocals on Feehan's 1996 album Pray for Rain. By 1997 onwards, she was working as a graphic designer and communications professional in Victoria, B.C. [3] [1]
As of 2022, Steele is currently working on new songs with Harlequin's original writer and guitarist Glen Willows, and her brother Bryan Southern. [11]
Her first single "Insidious" was released on all the major streaming platforms on October 15, 2021. [12]
Love you 'Til it Hurts (1991)
Love Don't Last Forever (1991)
Insidious (2021)
Unrequited (Remember Me) (2023)
Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.
Chilliwack is a Canadian rock band centered on the singer and guitarist Bill Henderson. They were active from 1970 to 1988; Henderson re-formed the band in 1997. The band started off with a progressive rock sound that incorporated elements of folk, indigenous, jazz and blues, before moving towards a more straight-ahead hard rock/pop rock sound by the mid-1970s. Their six best-selling songs were "My Girl ", "I Believe", "Whatcha Gonna Do", "Fly at Night", "Crazy Talk" and "Lonesome Mary". The band's line-up has changed many times.
Arthur Frank Bergmann is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who was one of the key figures in Canadian punk rock in the late 1970s. Bergmann was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2021.
Loverboy is a Canadian rock band formed in 1979 in Calgary, Alberta. Loverboy's hit singles, particularly "Turn Me Loose" and "Working for the Weekend", have become arena rock staples and are still heard on many classic rock and classic hits radio stations across Canada and the United States.
Jakalope is a Canadian Indie pop/rock group, formed in 2003 and named for the mythical creature of the jackalope, and started by noted Canadian industrial musician and producer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, most famous for his studio work with such acts as Skinny Puppy, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. The band gained much popularity after playing the opening theme song to seasons 4–7 of the TV series Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Nicholas George Gilder is a British-Canadian musician who first came to prominence as the frontman for the glam rock band Sweeney Todd. He later had a successful solo career as a singer/songwriter.
Paul Reginald Nelson, known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter.
Headpins are a Canadian rock group, founded as a side project in the late 1970s by then Chilliwack members Ab Bryant and Brian MacLeod. Macleod was impressed by the vocal talents of Vancouver rock singer Denise McCann, and asked her to join his new venture. Originally, Matt Frenette played drums for the Headpins while Bernie Aubin played drums for a fellow Vancouver band, the soon to be renamed Loverboy. But within months, Aubin and Frenette swapped bands, where each continues to play to the present. The Headpins began gigging around the Vancouver area throughout 1981, quickly building a fan base. McCann left at the end of that first year, and MacLeod brought in Darby Mills to provide lead vocals.
West End Girls were a Canadian pop band and girl group formed in 1990 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Brian Oliver MacLeod, nicknamed "Too Loud" MacLeod, was a Canadian musician, songwriter and music producer, best known as a member of the bands Chilliwack and Headpins.
Darby Phyllis Mills is a Canadian rock vocalist, former figure skater, and the past lead singer of the Headpins. She has embarked on a solo career, having signed a worldwide record contract and released both a remastered solo album and a live CD.
The Juno Awards of 1983, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 5 April 1983 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Burton Cummings and Alan Thicke at the Harbour Castle Hilton in the Metropolitan Ballroom.
Divinyls is the fourth studio album by Australian band Divinyls, released on 29 January 1991 by Virgin Records. The album was the band's most successful, peaking at number 5 in Australia and number 15 on the US Billboard 200. It also contains the band's biggest-selling single, "I Touch Myself", which reached number one in Australia, number four in the US and number 10 in the UK.
The Juno Awards from 1992, were awarded on 29th of March in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Rick Moranis was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast on CBC Television from 9 pm Eastern.
Opus X is the tenth album by the Canadian rock band Chilliwack, released in October 1982. Producers Bill Henderson and Brian MacLeod received the Juno Award for "Producer of the Year" for their work on the songs "Whatcha Gonna Do" and "Secret Information" from this album. The precedent Chilliwack album Wanna Be a Star had provided the group with its first two U.S. Top 40 hits: Opus X almost continued that success with its lead single: "Whatcha Gonna Do ", rising as high as #41 on the Billboard Hot 100, #32 on Cash Box and #9 in Canada. In January 1983, "Opus X" was certified Platinum in Canada.
Rymes with Orange is a Canadian alternative rock band which formed in 1991 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This independent band have released four albums: Peel (1992), Trapped in the Machine (1994), Crash (1999) and One More Mile (2003). They have had three Top 10 singles on Canadian Rock Radio, with sales of over 70,000 units worldwide, and have toured Canada, New Zealand, the U.S. and the U.K., all while maintaining independent status.
Pat Steward is a Canadian drummer and singer who is a member of the band Odds, and has recorded and toured with Bryan Adams and Matthew Good, among many others.
"My Girl " is a song that was performed by the Canadian group Chilliwack. Co-written by bandmembers Brian MacLeod and Bill Henderson, it was released on the band's 1981 album Wanna Be a Star.
Young Saints were a Canadian hard rock band of the early 1990s. Although they recorded only one album before breaking up, they are most noted for garnering a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Group at the Juno Awards of 1992 and for being only the second band from Newfoundland — and the first in a mainstream popular music genre, as their only predecessor was the traditional Newfoundland folk music band Figgy Duff — ever to sign a deal with a major record label.
Turn It Loud is the debut studio album by Canadian hard rock band Headpins, released in 1982. By 1983, the album had been certified double platinum in Canada.