I was born in the UK 28/10/62.
My parents came over to the UK in 1961 from Sri Lanka. I'm the youngest of six; three brothers two sisters.
Being bought up in a multicultural part of London, I grew up with the philosophy "treat people the way you expect to be treated". Having a very religious Roman Catholic mother has taught me to love my neighbour, regardless of colour or creed, hence I have many friends of many nationalities. "Culture is a beautiful thing" I have learned.
Music has played a massive part in my life. From a very early age I remember sneaking in to my brothers room and borrowing his Motown; Kool and the Gang, James Brown tunes, and playing them. I got the funk from a early age - the first album I bought was "BT EXPRESS" (their first album).
My regular hangout on weekends when I left school was the 100 CLUB and CRACKERS; two clubs in the late 70's that had the best dancers in London all gathering for challengers, against one another, to hard jazz funk. So I spent countless hours in front of the mirror practicing my moves. I used to be a regular at the UK's premier club at the time for soul, funk and jazz, the ROYALTY NIGHTCLUB. The first time I went there I met ROY AYRES, and I've been hooked on his music ever since.
In 1982 I was working with a guy who had just started up a band called SECOND IMAGE. They went on to become one of Britain's finest soul bands at the time. He gave me a bass guitar, and I got into music with some old schoolfriends, forming a bedroom band. We had Sunday jams with anyone and everyone welcolm and we used to get people just knocking on the door wanting to join in. Man, we made some serious noise! It was during this time that I learned to write, compose, arrange and produce music.
In the late 80's I formed a band called "N8" and also started my own record label. It was short lived (due to financial misfortunes) but I had three of the best, most exciting years of my life ever! I had under my wings a singer who was a 18 year old blue eyed blonde called Sarah. She has a voice most would die for. Just like Teena, everyone who heard her swore she was black. I truly believed she was destined for greatness, but she fell in love and settled down. Without being biased I'm still waiting to hear a white female artist from our shores who can come close to her vocally. She was amazing and she inspired me along with Teena to write and produce some wonderfull songs. I have over 12 hours of music on tape from that wonderful time of my life. The biggest buzz of my life was hearing my record on KISS FM for the first time. I will never forget that moment. I also came close to doing a remix for Lisa Stansfield, who was also one of my inspirations in those days. Here are a few pics of my group, and one of me a Lisa Stansfield.
My favourite movies are :
HEAVEN AND EARTH-- CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-- OUT OF AFRICA--
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA-- ITS A MAD MAD MAD WORLD--THE FISHER KING-- FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL-- WALKABOUT--IMMORTAL BELOVED.
MERYL STREEP-- JULIA ROBERTS-- STEVE MCQUEEN-- PAUL NEWMAN-- ROBIN WILLIAMS-- NICOLAS CAGE-- MARYLYN MONROE-- SHIRLEY MaCLAIN--DENSEL WASHINGTON-- WHOOPIE GOLDBERG-- CLINT EASTWOOD-- DEMI MOORE-- LARRY FISHBONE- BRUCE WILLIS
Poetry such as Mia Angelo, Art (looking at it), Reading thought provoking books, Sci-Fi, going to Concerts, Collectibles (Film, Music and Sport), Soccer, Cooking, Travelling and meeting new people.
GOD, because without him I would have nothing ...
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about me.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this and I hope you found it interesting.
MUCH RESPECT TO ALL
SMOOTHY"C"
{CHRIS}
>home