Christopher William Holland is an English keyboard player, singer and songwriter. He is the younger brother of pianist and band-leader

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

Career

Holland left school at 16 to concentrate on his first band, B Sharp, with twin brother Richard on drums and school friend Lisa Covington on guitar. They were signed to Miles Copeland's label

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

in the early 1980s, toured the UK and released two singles with producers

Pascal Gabriel Pascal Gabriel (born 15 December 1956) is a Belgian-born musician based in London, England and Provence, France. Background Pascal Gabriel's musical career began in 1977 in the punk rock band The Razors (bass guitar). He left Belgium for Lo ...

and

Dennis Herring Dennis Herring is an American record producer, engineer, mixer, and musician. Herring has produced for The Hives, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Modest Mouse, Camper Van Beethoven, and Jars of Clay. He has owned two successful 24-track recor ...

before going their separate ways. In between working on his own music, Holland has also toured and recorded with

Green On Red Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen p ...

, Squeeze,

Paul Weller John William Weller (born 25 May 1958), better known as Paul Weller, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame in the late 1970s as the guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of the rock band the Jam, alongside ...

Stereophonics Stereophonics are a Welsh pop and rock music, Welsh rock band formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley. The band consists of Kelly Jones (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Richard Jones (Stereophonics), Richard Jones (n ...

Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the Rock music, rock band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave Davies, Dave pro ...

and performed with his elder brother Jool's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. His first solo album, ''Cosmic Harmony Companion'' (on Beautiful Records BT003CD), was released in 1999 in limited numbers to sell at shows and contains some of his earliest compositions, featuring various guest musicians including

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A session bassist, he has played bass for a number of acts such as the Who, the John Mayer Trio, Gary Numan, Paul Young, Don Henle ...

and Rico Rodriguez. A follow-up studio album ''Brother Sun Sister Moon'' (BT004CD), was issued in the summer of 2003 part produced with

Laurie Latham Laurie Latham (born 1954) is a British record producer whose career has now entered its fifth decade. Some of his most notable productions include albums ''New Boots and Panties!!, New Boots & Panties'' by Ian Dury, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, ''No ...

and featuring Sam Brown on backing vocals and

Ash Soan Ashley Soan (born 11 December 1969) is a British drummer. He is currently playing with Snow Patrol and Tori Amos. He has previously played live with Seal, Van Morrison, Bryan Adams, Sinéad O’Connor, Marianne Faithfull, Squeeze, The Wate ...

on drums. Continuing to tour throughout 2004 with his band Cosmic Harmony, as well as playing solo shows, he released a one-off project with ex-B sharp member Lisa Covington, using a range of vintage keyboards, moog

wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

entitled ''Butterfly Effect'' and was released in (2005). During 2006 and 2007, Holland was in the recording studio again, working on thirteen new songs featuring

Edwina Hayes Edwina Hayes (born 6 June 1973, in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish born English singer-songwriter. She grew up in Preston, Lancashire before moving to the East Riding of Yorkshire where she gained her first musical experiences playing at local fo ...

on vocals and Melvyn Duffy on lap–

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

and

on drums. The ensuing ''Everything You Can Imagine Is Real'' was released in 2007. Between 2008 and 2012 while continuing to perform with the ''Rhythm and Blues'' orchestra and with the help of sound engineer Ron Box, Chris worked away on a double album titled 'Corner Green' which was released in 2012 on Holland's own Cosmic Harmony Records label. During 2017 and 2018 Chris was in the studio again working on 14 new self penned/produced songs, including a co -write with

Chris Difford Christopher Henry Difford (born 4 November 1954) is an English musician. He is a founding member and songwriter of the rock group Squeeze. Early life Difford was born in Greenwich, London, on 4 November 1954, the youngest of three sons. His m ...

and featuring guest vocalists Sumudu Jayatilaka Siobhan Parr and Katy Shotter with

and Jim Kimberley on drums Dave Swift and

Ron Box Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

guitars and mixing duties ''Golden Hour'' was released in 2019 with photography by Christie Goodwin. In 2020 Chris wrote and recorded a new charity single for

Songs of Isolation A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usually ...

album raising money for NHS Heroes, titled Great Awakening raising thousands of pounds for NHS frontline workers. 2021 saw the release of a second 'lockdown' song and single dedicated to the passing of his mother titled 'Thankyou For The Love' with proceeds being donated to

Alzheimer's Research UK Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) is a dementia research charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Alzheimer’s Research UK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, diagnose and prevent all forms of ...

Discography

This is a list of the albums Holland has appeared on: * Squeeze – ''

Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti ''Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti'' is the sixth studio album by the British New wave music, new wave group Squeeze (band), Squeeze, and the first recorded since their breakup in 1982. It reunited songwriters Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford with drummer G ...

'' (1985) *

– ''Live at the T and C'' (1989) *Green On Red – ''Too Much Fun'' (1992) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Live Performance'' (1994) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Sex & Jazz & Rock & Roll'' (1996) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Lift The Lid'' (1997) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Best Of'' (1998) *Squeeze – ''

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

'' (1998) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Sunset Over London'' (1999) *'Christopher Holland' – 'Cosmic Harmony Companion' (1999) * Sam Brown – ''

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

'' (2000) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Hop The Wag'' (2000) *

(DVD) ''Live at Albert Hall'' (2000) *

Glenn Tilbrook Glenn Martin Tilbrook (born 31 August 1957, in Woolwich, London) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead singer and guitarist of the English new wave band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid-1970s who broke through in th ...

– ''The Incomplete'' (2001) *Jools Holland – ''The Swing Album'' (2001) *Christopher Holland – ''Hoopatasso'' (2001) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Small World Big Band'' (2001) *

– "

Handbags and Gladrags "Handbags and Gladrags" is a song written in 1967 by Mike d'Abo, who was then the lead singer of Manfred Mann. D'Abo describes the song as "saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values." ...

" (2002) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''SWBB Volume Two: More Friends'' (2002) *Squeeze – ''Big Squeeze: The Very Best Of Squeeze'' (2002) *Christopher Holland – ''Brother Sun Sister Moon'' (2003) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra – ''Jack O The Green (SWBB Friends 3)'' (2003) *Christopher Holland's Cosmic Harmony – ''Butterfly Effect'' (2004) *Jools Holland – ''Tom Jones and Jools Holland'' (2003) *

Jimmy Scott James Victor Scott (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014), known professionally as Little Jimmy Scott or Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs. After ...

– ''Someone To Watch Over Me'' (2004) * The Fields – ''Down The Wire'' (2004) *Jools Holland R & B Orchestra' – ''Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska'' (2005) *'Sam Brown' – ''Best Of'' (2005) *

– "Thanksgiving Day" (2005) *'Chris Difford' – ''Songs from the Weald'' (2006) *'Jools Holland R & B Orchestra' – '' Moving Out to the Country'' (2006) *'Christopher Holland' – ''Everything You Can Imagine Is Real'' (2007) *'Jools Holland' – 'Best of Friends' (2007) *'Jools Holland' – 'The informer' – (2008) *'Ruby Turner' – 'I'm travelling on' – (2009) *'Tom Jones' – 'Praise and Blame' – (2010) *'Jools Holland' – 'Rocking Horse' – (2011) *'Christopher Holland' – 'Corner Green' – (Aug 2012) *'Jools Holland' – 'Golden Age Of Song' Dec (2012) *'Ethan Johns' – 'If Not Now When' (Feb 2013) *'Christopher Holland'- 'Golden Hour'(Nov 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Christopher Living people English rock keyboardists English male songwriters Musicians from the Royal Borough of Greenwich People from Greenwich Musicians from Kent 1966 births Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra members