Here is a text version of an interview with Chris Norman in Bucharest on November 5, 2023, where he came with a concert. The Youtube version is here.
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Hello, Chris, welcome to Bucharest and Romania!
Thank you very much! Hi!
Congratulations for "Junction 55"!
Ah, yes! But it's not out yet but it's coming soon.
Please, tell me a few words about the new album and the two songs released.
Well, it's an album which I recorded over the last year gradually in my own studio. I just recorded when I had some time, and because there was nobody else there but me I played all the different instruments too. So it's a kind of a self-made album, you know.
I just had new songs, I wrote 12 new songs, which I am very happy with. I wrote more songs than that but they're the ones that are my favorite songs, and then I just recorded them. They're all different kinds of songs, some are a bit rocky, some are more slow. I've already put out two sort of previews to the album - two singles, one was called "Tell Her She Can", which was written with me and Pete Spencer who was the original drummer with Smokie and we used to write a lot together in the' 70s. We haven't written so much together these last few years but we wrote three songs for this album, "Tell Her She Can" was one of them. There's another couple of songs on the album which we wrote together as well. So that was the first one and it was just like almost folky kind of song.
It sounds like old Smokey songs.
Yeah. I didn't intend it to sound like an old Smokie song. I suppose because me and Pete wrote it, it has that sound to it. We wrote a lot of those songs that were on albums over the years with Smokie, so it has that kind of sound because of that, I think, but it's a kind of a folky song. The next one or the one that's out now, the single called "Crazy", came out just now and the video will be out in a few days' time, video will be on YouTube. That's just about the craziness of the world we live in and it's just all kinds of different things about how things are, the world's gone mad and sort of lists of things that are crazy. That's a bit more rocky song. I started to write that during Covid actually and then I put it to one side. And then I came back to it and changed some of the lyrics that I'd written about Covid, about queueing up for your vaccination, all that was in it but I took that out and made it sort of more about current things that are happening now, so that's "Crazy".
I've got another one, another leader, another song that's a preview to the album. It will come out after that and is called "In A Heartbeat". That's about my life, looking back over my life from how quickly it went and how quickly it's gone since we were kids, you know, running around, doing stuff and then it was gone in a heartbeat. And then there's another one coming out in the beginning of the year, another single before the album called "Picture Of You", which is a love song. And then there's a bunch of more songs. So the idea is to give people an appetite for the album, you know, so that they hear these different songs and hopefully like them and then they want to hear more and then the album comes out and there'll be another 8 that they haven't heard yet. There's 12 songs on the album. One song on the album I wrote with Mike Chapman when I was working with him a couple of years back but didn't finish it, and then I just finished it off. That's called "Devil In Your Heart". So, there's some great, great songs on there, I think.
You talked about your family. How do you manage the balance between your personal life and music career?
Well, it's what I've always done and it's easier now than it was when I was in my 20s. Because during the headlong rush of Smokie what happened with us I was away, we were always doing something. Every day we had loads of different things to do - we'd be doing a press conference, then we'd be doing a photograph session, then we'd do a TV show, then we'd do a gig and then the next day we'd do another bunch of things. So we were always doing stuff and I'd get home for like two or three days and then I'd be away again and then we'd go on tour for four or five weeks, six weeks, seven weeks sometimes, so then I'd get a week off to go home. It's not as bad as that now, you know, I don't have that much work, I don't take that much work on anyway. So, the good thing is that when I'm not actually gigging and doing concerts and live shows I have more time to write and record. And because I do it at my own studio I don't have to go anywhere for that. I have time now, more time and all the kids are grown up, so...
Together with music?
Yeah, they know what it's all about and they don't care where I am anyway most of the time (laughs).
Please, tell me how you adapted to musical changes and how do you see the evolution of pop rock music since you’ve started then?
You adapt as you go along because different styles of music come along. Like in the 80s I was doing stuff like "Midnight Lady" which was kind of appropriate for the time. But eventually I stopped taking much notice about what was going on and just recorded songs and wrote songs that I felt came from me, so I don't take too much notice of... I'm too old to be thinking about what's the thing that's the fashion now, you know, what's the thing that young people want to hear, it doesn't really apply to me anymore. It's more like what the people who want to see me want to hear, the fans and they're a lot older so their musical tastes have matured as well.
Obviously, the technology of recording is different [now] because I could never have made an album on my own home back in the old days. I couldn't have done it because you had to have a big studio, massive rooms and big desks, and big recording machines, and stuff. So, you needed lots of different people to work all that. And now you can do it on a computer with a program. I've got Pro Tools, it's one of the programs you can use, which is what I use. And so you can sit like at a desk, as long as you've got your keyboards and your guitars there and everything else and you can just work the desk yourself and record different things. So, the technology is so much more advanced and you can do things like... if you do something wrong you can... or you do an arrangement, you think - that bit should have been earlier - you can grab all of it and move it, stuff like that. So it's very convenient, you know. I kind of miss those old days a little bit 'cause there was an atmosphere that you don't get now from recording, not if you do it the way I've just done it. But you can still record like we used to. When I did the album "Just A Man" we did that like the old way - all the bunch of musicians and engineers and everything in a big studio with a big desk and we did it that way and that was fun! But you can do it without that now - that's the difference.
What do you think is your best song?
I always like the ones I'm doing, the ones that are coming out now. I think "In A Heartbeat" which is coming out in December. I'm proud of that, I'm proud of writing that. And quite a lot of the stuff on this album I'm very happy about. If you're asking me what's my favorite song of all the songs I've ever recorded...
Yeah!
Probably, of the Smokie songs, I think "If You Think You Know How To Love Me" is still my favorite song because it was the first big hit we had and it's still got a very nice sound to it and an atmosphere. So, yeah, that one probably.
What is the story of this song?
Well, I didn't write that one, that was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, so... It's just a love song - some guy's saying to his girlfriend, you know, you've got to show me how to... if you think you know how to love me you'd better show me how! It's that basically what it's about but I didn't write that one.
I saw today a lot of fans in front of the hotel waiting for you. Could you tell us what is the best memory related to a fan?
Best memory... I don't know what the best memory is! I've been sort of well-known now - some places more than other and some times more than other times. But since 1975 there's lots of things that have happened and things with fans. One time we were staying in a hotel, and a fan was going to jump out the window if she didn't get to meet me. We got a call from the hotel management: "Can you come and talk her down 'cause we don't know what to do". And I had to go up into this room and she actually stood in the window. I thought: "Shit! This isn't gonna look good in the papers", you know (laughs). So I just said: "I'm here, I'm here, come on, come down, everything's fine!" And she was crying and everything. She came down and as soon as she got off the window I said: "Bye-bye!" (laughs) No, I didn't, I said: "You know, you don't need to do that, it's just not a good idea, it's not worth it, in a few years time…" - she was only like 15 or something - "…in a few years' time I'll be history, you wouldn’t even think about it". So you get these different things... We had that situation where we were with Smokie. We were playing in Carlisle which is a big town in the north of England. We finished the show and fans were screaming and stuff, and [when] we came out they rushed us out of this back door into a limousine - we had this limousine. I don't go for limousines these days but in those days we did. So we all piled into this limousine and there was crowded around, it was like in a really small street and people were crowding and banging on the... boom-boom-boom-boom, "Chris!!!", " Alan!!!", you know, and all that. And the driver said: "Come on, we've got to go" and we started to drive. They were screaming, I mean like a Beatles concert, you know, it was screaming like that, and all of a sudden we heard the scream that seemed to be louder than everybody else's scream. The police were there, the police came out and said: "Stop!" And what we'd done was when we'd got in the car we'd shut the door and one of the girls had got her coat trapped in the door, and when we set off we were pulling her along the ground, so, of course, we stopped. An ambulance took her to hospital. The next day we had to leave 'cause we were going to another gig but we went to the hospital first and she was fine! She was just happy that she was on the TV, you know, 'cause it was filmed, how I was going to bring her some flowers and she was big smiles and she was fine. But those are the kind of things… You've got to remember, in those days when we were at our peak with Smokie, it was a teenage thing. Now the audience are like in their 50s or whatever but in those days they were teenagers, so they got very excited to see their pop idols. It was great fun! You know, when you start out being in a group or trying to be in a group… We were only kids ourselves. When we first started the group we were like 15 years old. By the time we went professional we were like 17-18 years old and by the time we were having hits we were still in... I was 24 when our first hit was in the charts. So I was only 24, we were all kids ourselves really. And it was exciting, it was very exciting because it was what we dreamed of. When we were at school, you know, watching people like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Elvis or whoever it was, watching them getting screamed and all that, and suddenly it was happening to us. So it was a very exciting time.
It's not about you but you said "Beatles". What do you think about the new single?
Oh, I love it. I'm a massive Beatles fan, huge! So anything that comes out that's new… In England they had a thing where they announced it on TV and they showed a little film of them making it and everything else. And then they said: "The first play of it anywhere in the UK will be tomorrow afternoon on BBC Radio 2 at 2:00". So I made sure, I set an alarm so I didn't miss it, I wanted to hear it, you know. And I love it. I mean, if you would have taken that out of context and put it into any other situation, the song isn't the best song in the world that the Beatles have ever done but it's amazing that they could do it at all! And separate John Lennon's voice the way that they did and then do what they've done to it. It sounds like a Beatles record. So I had tears in my eyes when I was hearing it.
The story is bigger than the song.
Yeah, yeah. It's a huge story and imagine - after all this time… John Lennon's been dead since 1980 and George died very early, he was only 57 or 58, I think. And to think that all that time later now in 2023 we can have a brand new Beatles record with all four of them on it! Who would have thought? It's amazing!
Chris, are you a football fan?
Yeah.
Who is your favorite?
England!
No, actually...
I know what you mean! (laughs) No, but I love watching England play, especially these days because they've got some really good new players over the last few years. But I don't really have a team that I support only, like my two sons are massive "Liverpool" fans, so they just want "Liverpool" to win and that's it. But I like a few teams. I like "Liverpool" because they do and I do as well. And I also made a record with "Liverpool" many years ago. In 1984 I made a single, I went to "Anfield" with a mobile recording studio and recorded the Liverpool team singing this song that I had written with Pete Spencer called "Liverpool". So I've got a connection to them for that reason. And I also really like watching "Newcastle", I'm a big fan of "Newcastle".
Good! Thank you very much! Do you have a message for Romanian fans?
Hi, everybody, Chris Norman here! It's great that you are coming to see me at concerts and everything. Please, keep on doing that, I love it and when I come on stage I will play all the songs that you love or as many as I can get in and I hope to keep on doing it many, many, many more times! Bye-bye!
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Transcribed and processed by Tina Lady-Gruoh & www.chris-norman.ru
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