Chris Thompson (English musician)

Chris Thompson
Chris Thompson, 2010.
Background information
Born	(1948-03-09) 9 March 1948 (age 69) Ashford, Kent
Genres	Rock, Progressive rock
Instruments	Vocals, guitar.
Years active	1970s–present
Labels	Ultraphone, Ariola, Atlantic
Associated acts	Manfred Mann's Earth Band Night
Website	www.christhompson-central.com

Christopher Hamlet "Chris" Thompson (born 9 March 1948) is an English singer and guitarist known both for his work with Manfred Mann's Earth Band and for his solo accomplishments.

Thompson was born in Ashford, Kent, England, but raised in New Zealand. His early musical experiences were whilst still at school with the band The Paragons that played at weekly church youth club dances. Later, as his talent became clear, the band was reformed as Dynasty with other musicians and achieved much local success on the New Zealand music scene. Thompson's last band in New Zealand was Mandrake, formed with university friends who played the Friday and Saturday night dances in and around Hamilton City.

He went to Australia before returning to England in 1973 to pursue a musical career, eventually joining Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1976.

In 1978, he was featured in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, providing lead vocals for the song "Thunder Child".

After several years with Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Thompson left in 1979 and formed the Los Angeles-based outfit Night, which enjoyed two hits during its lifetime. One of them, "If You Remember Me," the unused theme song for Franco Zeffirelli's remake of The Champ [2], was initially credited solely to Thompson; later pressings of the single were credited to "Chris Thompson and Night." (But this source gives lyric credit to Carole Bayer Sager for "If You Remember Me," and the music credit to Marvin Hamlisch.) After the band broke up in 1982, he rejoined the Earth Band.

In 1980, he co-wrote and sang backing vocals on the track "No Stoppin' Us Now" with Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald, on the Doobie Brothers' album One Step Closer. In 1983 he contributed vocals to Simmons' solo album Arcade as well as co-writing several of the tracks.