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The Official website of
Chris James
The Welsh Wizard.
Chris was born in a small village in South wales in the UK a place known for its former coal fields and as the land of song, He is very proud of his homeland and its rich heritage & this is still the place he calls home.
Chris has always from a very young age had a great love of music, and at the age of 14 he bought his first guitar which he purchased from of all places a frozen food store that had just opened in the village where he lives. This store was owned by a Country music musician named Pat Derby, Chris fell in love with a red ES335 Gibson copy for the huge sum of £62.00 (still a fair amount in the early 1980's). Chris worked with his Father in the builders yard through his summer holidays to pay for the guitar, and with a huge grin bought his first guitar from Pat.
Pat offered to teach Chris how to play it being in a band himself , and from the first lesson saw something in Chris, and offered to teach him free of charge Pat always told Chris he was a natural musician and born to perform. Then one day Pats band the Coyotes were playing a local gig in the village and Pat took Chris along and put him on the stage with himself and the band, this was the point that Chris Knew what he wanted to do. Pat invited Chris to join the band which he did and spent many years under the mentoring of Pat learning how to be not just a musician, but how to be a professional entertainer. Chris has always held Pat in the highest regard for giving him the time and the chance to perform.
After the years with Pat,Chris then decided to leave the nest and start his own band playing not country but a rock band playing rock covers, from there working over the years in various bands playing all forms of contemporary music, in bands from a 3 piece, right up to 7 piece show band.
Chris spent many years enjoying the at the time thriving live music scene of Wales and the West Country, then one day was given the devastating news that he had a cancer, and that there was an 80% chance that after the operation to his throat and the following radiation treatments that he would never sing again, Chris did in fact lose his voice and spent 5 years going through treatments and trying to regain his voice.
After a long battle Chris was one of the lucky people that beat the cancer and decided to get back on the road, Chris always loved his country music and Rock & Roll roots and chose to go back on the road professionally as a Country music Artiste he has now been travelling the country and parts of Europe for the last 10 years. Recently Chris has also been putting together a 50's show covering Rock & Roll & rockabilly and looks forward to many more years as a pro musician.
Chris always says that he still gets the same buzz out of playing guitar and gigging 37 years later,every time he puts the guitar on and climbs onto the stage he is back to that excited 14 year old kid all those years ago
Chris James At 22 years old playing with Tobacco Road
Chris James At 17 years old with Pat on the right Chris on the left
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