Chichester/Worthing singer to support Sir Tom Jones in Brighton this week

Chris will be opening for Sir Tom when the 83-year-old plays Stamner Park in Brighton on Wednesday, July 5.

After stepping in at the last minute to cover a drop-out in 2021, Chris went down so well that they made room for him to play more shows with the Welsh maestro that summer. He has now been invited back to open the local show for this year’s tour.

Chris said: "Opening for Sir Tom was a dream come true and to be asked back really is something else. I really feel at home on the bigger stages and playing to his audiences of up to 12,000 people felt immense. I can't wait to do it all again with a Sussex crowd."

As Chris says, it’s the closest he’s likely to get to a home town show in Sir Tom’s shadow: “The first time was in Norwich. I stepped in at the last minute on the day or the day before when someone dropped out and it just went really well so they made room for me to do the rest of the run with Tom and it's great to be doing it again. I have not met him. When you get to Tom Jones's level of experience and fame you just go on and do your show and then go off. He's suddenly there and then he suddenly goes. I mean he has played with Elvis! He has had enough support bands and everything over the years without having to put up with ‘Hey Tom, can I have a picture?’ But I feel pretty sure that he had to OK me as his support. I don't know. Maybe he did. I would've thought he would and if he did that's a pretty nice feeling that Sir Tom would have had a listen and thought ‘That's OK, boyo!”

Chris is no stranger to the big stages, opening for Simply Red and Paloma Faith in Plymouth’s Central Park last year.

“Being a support artist you are playing to a crowd where no one knows you. Nobody knows who I am anyway! But when you are playing a crowd of that size, you're supporting people that tend to have really passionate fans, like the fans of Simply Red who are absolutely there to see Simply Red. So you've got to try to win them over as quickly as possible. You've got to really put yourself across so that they do know you by the end of it.

“I do think you can feel the way that the crowd are going. And I just take the view that you have to try to take them on a journey. You want to make them laugh and you want to make them sad and you want to chat and you want to play them some really great songs and you want to get everybody singing and dancing. When you are doing the big stadia shows I think you have to realise that people just want to be entertained and it was great.”

Looking back to those Simply Red and Paloma Faith dates last year, Chris said: “I think I would give myself a good seven and a half points out of ten! You would never give yourself ten but actually I would say I was getting on for an eight. It felt really good.