Tony Christie explains how hard work and new drug is helping keep dementia at bay
It’s just 12 months since Tony Christie announced on daytime television that he had dementia.
A debilitating disease for anyone, but for someone as active as he was at 79 it was shocking news. But the singer is now 80 and remains as busy as ever. Taking life easy? Not a bit of it.
He continues to enjoy life at home in Lichfield, but retirement is not on his mind.
His diary is packed with concerts across the UK and Germany and he is more than happy to carry on singing.
“I’m not giving up,” he said. “They’ll have to shoot me first.”
He admits his diagnosis was a shock but he is on strong tablets.
“The drugs are keeping it at bay,” he said. “It won’t cure it but I’m able to carry on living my life. I drive, I do concerts, I do everything I ever did and I’m happy with that.”
He’s building up to a show, close to his Lichfield home, at Stafford's Gatehouse Theatre next month to celebrate his 80 years in music
And his tour dates start in Scunthorpe later this month, just a few miles from where he grew up in Conisbrough, near Doncaster, and he is happy to be back in Yorkshire.
He has few family in the area these days – “just my brother who still lives in Conisbrough” – but he still loves to pop back from his home in Lichfield.
As a young man he worked in Rotherham in the wages department of a steel works before he found stardom. He lived in a flat in Hillsborough not far from Sheffield Wednesday’s ground.
His wife Susan was a secretary at the Baileys nightclub group and was sent along by her boss on a scouting mission to see Christie perform.
“I was on stage and I looked down and saw her sat in the front row,” Tony said. “I said that is the girl I’m going to marry and I did.
