Chris Stainton

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Chris Stainton

Background information
Born March 22, 1944 (1944-03-22) (age 64)
Sheffield, West Yorkshire, England
Genre(s) Rock, blues
Occupation(s) Session musician, songwriter
Instrument(s) Piano, keyboards
Years active 1959—present
Associated acts Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, The Grease Band, Spooky Tooth, Eric Clapton

Christopher 'Chris' Stainton (born 22 March 1944, in Woodseats, Sheffield, West Yorkshire, England) is a keyboard player and songwriter, who first gained fame with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Career

Stainton's lifelong career in music commenced in 1959, when started to play bass guitar with a local Sheffield band, Johnny Tempest and the Mariners. The Mariners became The Cadillacs, before Stainton joined Joe Cocker in The Grease Band in 1966. Stainton co-wrote "Marjorine", Cocker's first minor hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1968. His time as a Cocker backing musician came to a zenith on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, in the United States and Canada in 1970. Throughout that decade Stainton appeared in various guises in outfits such as Spooky Tooth (1970), The Chris Stainton Band (1972-6), Tundra (1976), Bryn Haworth Band (1976-77), Boxer (1977), Maddy Prior Band (1978) and Rocks (1978).

By 1979 he teamed up with Eric Clapton for the first time, to start an intermittent working relationship that has lasted to the present time, which included playing along with Clapton on Roger Waters 1984 solo tour of "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking". He also backed Joe Cocker again, touring with him in 1989. Clapton, who lives near Stainton and plays cricket with him, rates Stainton as one of the greatest keyboard players alive.

In November 2002, Stainton appeared as one of the musicians performing at the Concert for George, and has more recently appeared as one of Bill Wyman's "Rhythm Kings". [1]

As of 2007, Stainton was on tour with the Eric Clapton band.

[edit] Recording work

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Stainton's work has appeared on a number of albums. The following is an incomplete list:

[2] [3]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links