Christopher Ward | |
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| Birth name | Christopher William Ward |
| Born | 28 July 1949 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Pop |
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| Website | www.christopherward.ca |
Christopher William Ward (born 28 July 1949) is a Canadian songwriter and broadcaster, known as a former long-standing on-air personality at MuchMusic, Canada's music video network, where he and J. D. Roberts were among the first video jockeys in 1984. Ward was a judge on The Next Star which was a Canadian reality television show on YTV.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Ward began his music career in the early 1970s while attending Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario where he was a member of the school's campus radio station. [1]
Some of Ward's early television appearances began in 1978 on the CBC children's series Catch Up , as leader of the show's band. [2] He also played a minor role as a musician in an episode of The Kids of Degrassi Street alongside Alannah Myles in 1984. [2]
Before MuchMusic launched, Ward hosted a weekend, all-night video program called City Limits on CITY-TV in Toronto. [2] On Friday and Saturdays, from midnight to 6 a.m., Ward broke ground as Canada's first "veejay". [3] The show was broadcast from CITY-TV's old Queen Street East studios and apart from playing the latest music videos, hosted guests. Bands such as Bon Jovi and actors like Mike Myers—playing his Wayne's World character [4] long before Saturday Night Live made it famous—added to the prototype of what MuchMusic would become. [3] The show also had "video clip" contest segments which gave winners prizes to special events like movie debuts.[ citation needed ] Broadcast only in the Toronto region, it was a major way music videos were introduced to the Southern Ontario public.[ citation needed ] (MTV, the American television network, was not broadcast in Canada due to regulatory laws protecting Canadian content until 2006.) When the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted a broadcast licence for an all-music channel to begin in 1984, CHUM-CITY won the lucrative rights. The application process to the Commission included Ward's current show as evidence of experience in broadcasting music video entertainment.[ citation needed ]
During five years on MuchMusic, Ward interviewed artists like Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Peter Gabriel, Leonard Cohen, and Kate Bush.[ citation needed ] While with the network, he hosted another show titled City Limits that spotlighted alternative music.[ citation needed ] Even after his departure from MuchMusic in the late 1980s, he was still involved in the channel off-and-on, most notably as Charles de Camembert, host of the annual Fromage specials.[ citation needed ]
In 2008, Ward became a judge on YTV's The Next Star for its first four seasons until 2011. [5]
Ward has written many songs for artists such as Hilary Duff, Diana Ross, Backstreet Boys, Wynonna Judd, Amanda Marshall, Tina Arena, Peter Cetera, Anne Murray and Meredith Brooks. [6] His best-known song is the Billboard number one single "Black Velvet", [7] [8] recorded by Alannah Myles. "Black Velvet" was named the No. 49 song in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Singles. [5] Ward has released several of his own recordings, including the singles "Once in a Longtime" (1977) and "Maybe Your Heart" (1978) (both co-written with his longtime friend Stephen Stohn, executive producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation and Instant Star ) and "Boys and Girls" (1987).[ citation needed ] The music video for "Boys and Girls" featured Alannah Myles, and Mike Myers in an early version of his "Wayne Campbell" character.[ citation needed ]
The promotional tour for Time Stands Still (released on House of Lords Records/distributed by WEA) included David Wipper on guitar and Billy Idol bassist Steven Webster, and featured pianist Antonio Salci on keyboards. [9] [ better source needed ]
Starting in 1997, Ward became a member of Ming Tea, the tongue-in-cheek celebrity rock band assembled by fellow Canadian Mike Myers for the first and third Austin Powers films. Group members included Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet and performed the faux-sixties songs "BBC" and "Daddy Wasn't There".[ citation needed ]
Recent work (much of it in collaboration with Rob Wells Luke McMaster, Greg Johnston and Fred St-Gelais)[ citation needed ] includes songs for Alexz Johnson in the TV series Instant Star , with soundtrack albums for the four seasons of the show.[ citation needed ] Along with Rob Wells and Fred St-Gelais, he has worked with Lindsay Robins.[ citation needed ] Ward songs were featured on two Degrassi - The Next Generation projects, Degrassi Takes Manhattan and Degrassi Goes Hollywood.[ citation needed ] His songs were featured in Cirque du Soleil's tribute to Vaudeville, 'Banana Shpeel'. [5]
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1975 | CBC Broadcast Recording - 4 Songs |
| 1978 | Spark of Desire |
| 1981 | Time Stands Still |
| 1987 | Christopher Ward(EP) [10] |
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN AC | CAN | CAN Country | |||
| 1976 | "Lost in a Love Song" [11] | 9 [12] | 69 | 10 | Spark of Desire |
| 1977 | "Once in a Long Time" | 19 | 38 | — | |
| 1978 | "Maybe Your Heart" | 17 | 47 | — | |
| "Imagine a Song" | 16 | 96 | — | ||
| "No Time to Cry" | 26 | 74 | — | ||
| 1981 | "So Long Baby Jane" | 17 | — | — | Time Stands Still |
Alannah Myles is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has won both a Grammy and a Juno Award for the song "Black Velvet". The song was a top-ten hit in Canada; it was also a number one hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1990.
Cassandra Rae Steele is a Canadian actress and singer known for portraying Manny Santos on Degrassi: The Next Generation and Abby Vargas on The L.A. Complex. In 2014, she played Sarah in the MTV horror television movie The Dorm. She also voices Tammy Gueterman and Tricia Lange in Adult Swim's Rick and Morty.
Degrassi is a Canadian teen drama television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, that follows the lives of youths attending the eponymous secondary school in Toronto. Each entry since 1987 has taken place in the same continuity. Outside of television, the franchise comprises a variety of other media, such as companion novels, graphic novels, documentaries, soundtracks, and non-fiction works.
Degrassi High is a Canadian teen drama television series created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood. It is the third entry in the Degrassi franchise and the direct continuation of Degrassi Junior High, and was broadcast on the CBC from 6 November 1989 to 18 February 1991.
Degrassi Talks is a Canadian non-fiction documentary television miniseries and part of the Degrassi franchise created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood. Running six episodes from February 29 to March 30, 1992, it featured actors from Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High taking the role of journalists and conducting interviews with other teenagers and young adults across Canada on various topics addressed by the series such as abuse, substance addiction, homophobia, and teenage pregnancy. It combined candid and man-on-the-street interviews as well as relevant archive footage from the television series and on-screen statistics. Each episode was hosted by an actor whose character had some relation to the focused subject.
CFFF-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 92.7 FM in Peterborough, Ontario. The broadcast facility, which uses the on-air name Trent Radio, was previously licensed as the campus radio station of the city's Trent University, but now operates under an independent community radio license. Trent Radio is producer-oriented, and features over 100 long-running and new programs from students and community members, operating over three seasons per year. All students and community members are welcome to submit applications for programming and membership.
Lindsay Robins is a singer-songwriter who wrote and performed the theme song "What Would You Do" for the VJ Search reality series on MuchMusic, which went on to be the 2007 recipient of The North American Promax Award for Best Music Package/Theme Song. She wrote and performed music for the television series Instant Star and, in 2006, released a solo rock album, Dirty Chemistry, on Aquarius Records.
"Black Velvet" is a song written by Canadian songwriters Christopher Ward and David Tyson, and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Alannah Myles. It was released as one of four singles from Myles' 1989 eponymous album from Atlantic Records. It became a number-one hit for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1990 and reached number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart, as well as number ten in her native Canada and number two on the UK Singles Chart. The power ballad also reached number one in Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland and was a major success in several other countries. It contains blues verses with a rock chorus.
Alannah Myles is the debut album by Canadian singer Alannah Myles, released on March 28, 1989. It includes the worldwide hit single "Black Velvet". The album was a big seller worldwide, and reached number one for two weeks in her native Canada, number 5 on the Billboard 200 in the US and number 3 in the UK Albums Chart. The album cover comes from a photoshoot by Canadian photographer Deborah Samuel.
The Juno Awards of 1990, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 18 March 1990 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Rick Moranis was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast on CBC Television.
John Stephen Stohn, is an American-born Canadian entertainment lawyer and television producer. He is best known for his involvement with the Degrassi teen drama franchise, particularly as an executive producer on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Until 2018 he was the president of Epitome Pictures Inc., which he and his wife Linda Schuyler founded in 1992 and was sold to DHX Media in 2014. On June 7, 2019, he was installed as Chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
Rob Wells is a Canadian producer and songwriter, and is one half of music production team "The Fourth Floor" with award winning singer/songwriter/recording artist Shobha.
David Michael Tyson is a Canadian rock music producer and songwriter. He is best known for co-writing Alannah Myles' 1990 number one hit single "Black Velvet" and producing her debut album. He also co-wrote three hit songs from Amanda Marshall's self-titled 1995 debut album.
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Melinda Leanna Shankar is a Canadian actress. She is best known for starring as Alli Bhandari in the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2008–2015) and as Indira "Indie" Mehta in the YTV series How To Be Indie (2009–2011), for which she won several awards, including a Canadian Screen Award in 2013.
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