Doing it the Mancunian Way !

Marie Iddon talks to Chris Turner

Local British professional tennis coach, Chris Turner, was delighted that his song 'The Mancunian Way' was accepted as the signature tune and song played throughout the XVII Commonwealth Games this summer.

He originally wrote the song in 1986 as part of his final year of music study whilst at University College, Salford, but decided to change the lyrics for the Games. His catchy song, which includes the lyrics, "Do it, Do it -The Mancunian Way" was played during the welcoming ceremonies for the athletes taking part in the Games from 15-24 July in the Athletes Village, in Fallowfield, Manchester. The song has since been used by the Canadian sports team for their own promotion. There were 72 nations competing in the Games, so Chris composed 3 different versions on CD, including a dance/reggae version and jazz/R & B mix, which was played three times a day in front of 500 million TV viewers throughout the Games!

There was also a special version for the local children to join in with, as schoolchildren for the 22 local authorities in and around Greater Manchester took part in the ceremonies. More information about the CD can be obtained from the website: www.mancunian way.com. The XVII Commonwealth Games was broadcast by the BBC, and was sponsored by Manchester City Council; Manchester Airport; Cadbury and Asda amongst many others.
Chris, who now lives in Torremolinos, also works as a songwriter and a musician along the Costa del Sol. He has worked as an entertainer since his school-days, as a performer on both the stage and television.

He has also played in many bands, including some of his own, and has worked as the resident entertainer on cruise liners, such as the OE2, mainly as a piano vocal artiste. He is currently writing an album of his own songs, and is hoping to form a seven piece band, including a brass section, in the near future. He hopes to tour around the Costa del Sol, and then a tour of the UK starting with his beloved North Wales. He says that he is now playing a mixture of "classical jazz with a good pop hook -not the overproduced music that is currently dominating the British Pop charts".

He said that his inspiration in forming a band came from watching one of the BBC's 'Old Grey Whistle Test' programmes where Billy Joel was performing a lot of his famous songs with his band, such as' Just The Way You Are'; 'Uptown Girl' and 'My Life'. He hopes to imitate their special appeal, which he described as "bloody good musicians playing bloody good music!"
Besides working as a fully licensed professional tennis coach for adults and local schoolchildren from Cartama to Sotogrande, he is currently putting the final touches to a musical he's written about Tennis, called 'Tie-break'. He felt that this was a natural progression because of his love of music and tennis, and his work has already been short-listed from about 200 musicals for the 'Vivian Ellis Awards For New Musicals, 2000'. More recently, he was again short-listed out of 180 musicals from 16 different countries in the 'Global Search For New Musicals'. See the website www.tennismusical.com for more information.

Although he has written the book, the music and the lyrics, he is also hoping to collaborate with a professional scriptwriter with 'a knowledge of tennis' to develop the characters in the script and provide more sub-plots to ensure that he wins the competition next time! He has applied for an Arts Council grant to produce the musical, and hopes to record a professional CD with long standing friends and fellow musicians, Alan Shields, a local entertainer well- known in the Puerto Banus area of Marbella, and Jim 'Switch' Hopper, who produces all of Chris's music. They all to use play with 'The Big Jim Farley Band'.

Chris also likes to play pool and plays in the local team at Brannigan's in Torremolinos, as well as travelling allover the world and acting. His TV appearances include Channel 4's 'The Big Breakfast'; 'Brookside' and the Anglia TV series 'Framed'.