Felix NEill

Produced by lifelong Tony Christie fans, Richard Hawley and Colin Elliot, “Made In Sheffield” is a beautiful dedication to the city that Tony Christie grew up around, featuring new recordings of songs by the city’s most revered contemporary artists and songs by unknown city songwriters deserving of acclaim.

It is a record dreamed up on the roads of late night Sheffield, and one that’s fruition stretches far beyond the simplest of dreams,

Tony Christie, “I was in the middle of an album project, when on the drive back home after a late session, I heard ‘Coles Corner’ by Richard Hawley on the radio. I said to my son, “that’s the sort of production I should be getting.””

Unbeknownst to him, Richard Hawley had already sent him over ‘Coles Corner’ four years ago, but due to prior commitments they were unable to record the track together. Weeks later, Tony went to see Richard in concert to request his production duties and guitar on a new version of ‘Coles Corner’. The pair bonded immediately, and Hawley immediately requested that he and co-producer Colin Elliot record and produce the whole album together at their Sheffield base, Yellow Arch Studios.

Tony’s original recording project developed into a new concept that the album should only feature songs written by Sheffield’s own songwriters, and new songs by Tony himself.

Tony Christie, “When we started listening to material, we were amazed at not only many songs there were, but the quality just blew us away. Some of the songs on the album are by completely unknown writers and might possibly have never seen the light of day.”

Some of Sheffield’s most acclaimed contemporary artists feature on the record, including album opener ‘The Only Ones Who Know’ by The Arctic Monkeys, ‘Born To Cry’ by Jarvis Cocker, ‘Louise’ by The Human League, and that long awaited recording of ‘Coles Corner’ by Richard Hawley.

It is the sound of the lesser-known city songwriters that Tony holds close in the aftermath of the album sessions, including Martin Bragger, who contributes two songs (‘Danger Is A Woman In Love’/’Paradise Square’).

Ultimately, ‘Made In Sheffield’ takes the glittering career of the 65-year-old Tony Christie into a bold new direction. It contains all the grittiness and beauty of a city that often loses its prominence as a cultural birthplace, shunned for the proud history of Manchester and London, and moulds it into a romantic journey that could have been created at any point over the past four decades.

Tony Christie, “We are a proud community and the artists that have hailed from Sheffield are some of the most exciting and successful UK artists in pop history. I wanted to celebrate our culture.”