Bio

Chris Knox is something of a legend in New Zealand music. Since the Invercargill born misfit started Dunedin's first punk band The Enemy in 1977, Chris has always been centre stage and always been his own man.

His CV is full of wonderful artistic endeavours - all of them bar his time leading Toy Love, one of NZ's most popular bands of the early '80s, created in the front room of a rambling Grey Lynn villa where Chris lives with his partner Barbara and kids John and Leisha. So what has the musician-writer-TV-film critic-cartoonist-Tall Dwarf been up to lately?

Chris spent 1995 working on his international profile, touring Europe, America twice and Australia, attracting widespread interest and acclaim for his latest album Songs of You & Me. The album reached the top of US college radio charts and received unprecedented attention in mainstream American music media.

Chris was mentioned on the cover of New York's Village Voice, the nation's premier arts weekly magazine. The byline "The 10th Beatle" referred to a two page story on the Auckland musician which says that "Paul, George and Ringo would be hard-pressed to find a better John stand-in than Chris Knox" and goes on to call him "indie rock's premier oddball singer-songwriter who still has all his faculties intact". A review in American music industry bible Billboard wrote that Songs of You & Me "again proves his stature as a songwriter on a solo album filled with sharp, shapely songs that are both a little off and right on target."

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone ran a live review of a Chris Knox performance from New York praising everything from his crooning pop melodies and sincere convictions about politics and love to his "shorts and flip-flop sandals". Chris also scored a major music publishing deal in the USA with Warner-Chappell which recognises his increasing stature as songwriter. The publishing deal offers marketing and other support to the American release of Songs of You & Me on Caroline Records as well as future recordings. It should also see Chris's songs promoted to more major artists for cover version recordings. Chris has already had two songs covered by major artists in the past. Australian pop group Frente released a version of his most well-known single, Not Given Lightly and American singer Marshall Crenshaw recorded Knox's Face of Fashion on an album.

The life and musical times of Chris Knox keep on producing amazing albums. In 1997 Chris released Yes to the world and 2000 saw Beat grace our lives.

Chris is a member of the Tall Dwarfs and was a member of Toy Love.

Links

• Facebook Page