At that time. If this not really exact time concept is used, then one thing is clear in any case: It was a long time ago.
Back then, Chris Norman and I were kind of good friends, although of course he didn’t know anything about it. How then? The singer and front man of the band Smokie stood by my side with his music in the late 1970s, in which he made it clear to me with “It’s Your Life” that my life belongs only to me.
When he sang “Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone”, he hit the nerve of the pubescent who would have loved to fall into the arms of a girl, if only there had been one who would have liked it too. In the absence of an instrument, the tennis racket had to be used as a guitar substitute in order to intone playback in front of the mirror “Don ?? t Play Your Rock ?? n Roll To Me”. How gladly one would have loved to live next door to Alice in those days.
And then there was the awarding of the golden record to Smokie on the ice rink in the Parkbad in Linz. Yes, back in the day you had to suffer a bit for fame, and so Chris Norman and his bandmates stood in the cold with freezing smiles to be recognized. I was standing nearby with a friend and we almost felt like we were part of it. We were still too young for the concert that evening in Linz. The experience was made up for later.
All these memories germinated in me because Chris Norman, my friend from back then, has just released a new album called “Just A Man” (Telamo). If you look into the man’s face you can see the 71 years of life, even if he obviously wants to hurry away from the ravages of time. But in the end it should only be about the music.
As a solo artist, Chris Norman didn’t convince me as much as he did as the singer for Smokie. That was due to his penchant for the heart-pain ballad (“Midnight Lady” for example), which apparently stayed with him. But on “Just A Man” Norman also lets the rock n roller free in him, which still sounds passable to the typical sound of the 70s and early 80s. But that sounds like retro style, something that songwriter Mike Chapman also played a part in. The producer of “Just A Man” was responsible for some of the biggest smokie hits along with Nicky Chinn. At that time.
Source: Nachrichten
