Christopher Cross plays London in November

Posted on Aug 3, 2011

Grammy and Oscar Award winning singer/songwriter, Christopher Cross, will perform his first and only UK concert in two years at London’s prestigious Bloomsbury Theatre on Monday 7th November 2011. Tickets go on sale Wednesday August 3rd at 10.00am. The special one-off UK show follows the recent release of Christopher’s new solo album, Doctor Faith.

Known to millions of music fans around the world, his classic hits include Sailing, Ride Like The Wind (covered by Saxon and East Side Beat) and the Oscar winning Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) from the hit movie ‘Arthur’ starring Dudley Moore.

Christopher Cross was by far the biggest new star of 1980, virtually defining adult contemporary radio with a series of smoothly sophisticated ballads including the #1 hit, “Sailing.”

Christopher Cross’ 1980 self-titled debut album with the lead single Ride Like the Wind rocketed to the #2 spot; the massive success of the second single Sailing made Cross a superstar, and in the wake of two more Top 20 hits, Never Be the Same and Say You’ll Be Mine, he walked off with an unprecedented and record-setting five Grammys in 1981, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for Sailing.

He soon scored a second #1, as well as an Academy Award, with Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen for the smash Dudley Moore film comedy Arthur.

Christopher’s much-anticipated second album Another Page (1983), produced the hits All Right, No Time for Talk, and a Top Ten entry for Think of Laura, a song that featured prominently in the daytime drama, General Hospital. Amazingly, he charted 8 singles into the Billboard Top-40 charts between 1980 and 1983.

Four years, two albums, eight hit singles, several world tours, five Grammy’s, and one Oscar marked Christopher’s meteoric rise to the top.

To date, Christopher has released eight albums (not counting hits packages), a body of work revealing a steady, focused dedication to that oh-so-rare commodity of the latter-day popster – artistic growth. Those who have followed Cross have reaped the rewards of set after set of intelligently written and performed melodic pop.

Over the years, Cross has remained a unique artist, replete with that confounding blend of sensitivity, determination and conviction of his own artistry.

Beyond the Cross-mania years, Christopher co-wrote and sang the song that helped define the 1984 Summer Olympics, A Chance for Heaven; he co-wrote and sang the delightful Loving Strangers for the hit 1986 Tom Hanks movie, Nothing in Common; and the following year he presented I Will (Take You Forever), a lovely duet with international Les Miserables star Frances Ruffelle, which tune has graced many a wedding (and is still on radio worldwide).

Singles from most all of his albums charted in Japan and elsewhere in East; and the rollicking In the Blink of an Eye enjoyed a smashing top-ten success in Germany and surrounding territories in 1992.

Christopher Cross’ string of post-megahit albums from the mid-1980s to the present represents, in a consistent manner, a hard-travelled road of integrity, a refusal to compromise: Every Turn of the World, Christopher’s foray into a harder rocking style which delighted fans; Back of My Mind, a collection of breezy pop perfection with a foreshadowing of the deeper range to come; Rendezvous, the insightful, landmark Cross set that found him tackling thoughtful subjects; Window, a heartfelt, acoustic-pop of the era; and Walking In Avalon / Red Room, arguably the very pinnacle of sophisticated, mature, and, lest we forget, fun.

Christopher continues to record and perform, averaging about 100 live shows per year. Every few years, the world has been gifted with a new set of songs, each of the albums growing innately from the last while resolutely advancing the state of his art. And he has continued to seek out his fans worldwide by regularly hitting the concert road, never depriving those fans of the early hits (played note-perfect), as well as a broad range of his latest work – the songs where his heart (and his art) truly lies. The audience response is never less than rapturous.

That later work, much of it in collaboration with longtime cohort Rob Meurer, stands up to the best of better-known contemporary pop; some would say it stands a bit taller. It also stands as a testament to an artist who strives to deepen. Christopher Cross has many a laurel, none of which has ever been rested on.

UK musicians denied entry to USA

Posted on Jun 10, 2011

John Robb, music journalist and frontman of Goldblade and punk rock legends the Membranes, has teamed up with Labour MP Kerry McCarthy to lobby the Government for fair access to the USA for British musicians.

The pair are meeting with Culture Minister Ed Vaizey  next week to enlist the support of the Government in calling for a change to the US visa system, which has constrained the ability of UK musicians to travel and work in the USA.

John Robb said, “The special relationship between the UK and the USA has been the backbone of international post-war pop culture. The shared influences, pool of creativity and flow of ideas have been crucial to what is one of the biggest industries in the world.

“That flow is currently being hampered by the expensive and unworkable US visa situation for British bands. It’s a situation that is getting worse.”

The campaign is backed by organisations such as the Musicians’ Union, the Association of Independent Music and the Association of British Orchestras.  It has also had extensive input from UK Music, UKTI and the Traffic Control Group, as well as individual record labels, management companies and musicians.

Kerry McCarthy said, “Since I first raised this issue in Parliament in March, I was surprised by the responses from right across the UK music industry. They confirmed that this is a real difficulty for musicians and that it is becoming more and more critical.

“We hope the Government will speak  up on behalf of British musicians to  encourage USCIS (the US Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the US Embassy to address this issue.”

John Robb added: “In the past few years the American visa situation has tightened up and become far more expensive till we have a situation where getting a British group into America can cost up to £2700, and that’s not counting travel and accommodation expenses for bands outside London who have to travel for the 8 o’clock in the morning London American embassy interview."

"The forms that have to be filled in are very difficult to understand and lots of the money has to be spent on an American agency processing the forms. There have been endless examples of British bands, some very high profile, having to reschedule or cancel tours in the last year. And if a visa application fails, they don’t get any of the money back."

“American bands find it far cheaper and easier to travel and work in UK. What we need is a fairer and friendlier system that will break down the barriers, and let us do what we want to do, which is play music”.