Chris Leslie
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- For the British Labour politician, see Christopher Leslie
Chris Leslie (b. 1956) is an English electric folk musician.
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[edit] Early years
Leslie grew up in Banbury, Oxfordshire. As a child he won talent contests, playing on his natural cuteness at that age. His brother John steered him toward The Watersons' Frost and Fire, Dave Swarbrick, and The Corries. He started playing guitar. In 1969 he began to teach himself fiddle and modelled himself on the fiddle-playing of Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention, Peter Knight of Steeleye Span, and Barry Dransfield.
Leslie made his first recording at the age of 16, with a Banbury based electric folk band and then went on to forge a successful career around the folk clubs with his brother John - cutting their first album, "The Ship Of Time" in 1976. During this period he was also the fiddle player for The Hookey Band and a member of the morris dancers at Adderbury. It was around this time that he first came to the attention of Fairport's Dave Pegg.
[edit] Session work
Since then he has worked with Whippersnapper, the Albion Band, All About Eve, Simon Mayor and Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull). In 1981 he contributed to a casette tape produced by CND. It was called "Demo Tape" and had limited distribution. Also on the tape were songs by Fairport Convention. At the Cropredy festival 1981, Steve Ashley and Chris Leslie performed as a duo. In 1983 he contributed to "More Demo Tapes", again a cassette for CND. He accompanied Steve Ashley on the song "Down By the Embankment" on the album "All Through The Year" (1991). This was a compilation of original tracks. He appeared on "People on the Highway" (Bert Jansch tribute album, 2000). There were other appearances on Steve Ashley albums (see discography). In 2003, Chris played violin on several tracks from Mostly Autumn's album Passengers.
[edit] With Fairport and solo albums
In 1997 he joined Fairport Convention as singer and multi instumentalist. He has recorded three solo albums - The Flow, The Gift and Dancing Days (2004). At first sight Dancing Days appears to be a Fairport Convention album, as it features Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ashley Hutchings and Ric Sanders. However, each of these artists appears only in a sequence of duos with Leslie. He has also recorded a collaboration with Ashley Hutchings - Grandson of Morris On (2004).
In 2002 Chris took part in "A Feast of Fiddles" - a collaboration with Peter Knight, Tom Leary (The Hookey Band), Ian Cutler, Phil Beer (Show of Hands) and Brian McNeill (The Battlefield Band).
[edit] discography
- The Flow (1997)
- The Gift (1999)
- Dancing Days (2004)
Appearances with Steve Ashley
- The Test of Time (1999),
- Everyday Lives (2001)
- Live In Concert (2006).
[edit] External links
- The Hookey Band
- Adderbury Morris tunes, including two written and performed by Chris Leslie
- Chris Leslie on CND tapes
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