My pal Chris York, who has died aged 55 of most cancers, was an brisk promoter of reside music. He placed on a number of the largest concert events the UK has seen – together with Oasis at Maine Highway and Knebworth – and was the chief booker of acts for Teenage Most cancers Belief gigs over the past 20 years, serving to to boost hundreds of thousands for the charity.
The son of Anne (nee Taylor), a instructor, and John, who labored in insurance coverage, Chris was born in Nottingham, however grew up in Ottley, Leeds, the place his household settled when he was three. After Prince Henry’s grammar faculty, Otley, he studied chemistry and enterprise research at Warwick College; he arrived there as a eager runner and left absolutely dedicated to a life within the music trade.
After a brief stint as a guitarist in an indie band referred to as Love Fist, Chris grew to become entertainments officer at Warwick, and was sensible sufficient to grasp that his skills had been extra suited to the organisational aspect of the music enterprise. Shifting to London in 1991, he labored on the Venue in New Cross, the place he promoted early gigs by Suede. Two years later, he moved to Manchester to hitch Simon Moran and Rob Ballantine at SJM Live shows, which they set about constructing into one of many main promoters in Britain.
Chris was good at figuring out the following huge factor, and promoted a younger Manchester band referred to as Oasis from their very early gigs, together with their first London reveals on the 100 Membership and Water Rats. He went on to advertise many different large bands all through the 90s, from Radiohead to the Chemical Brothers.
He started working with the Teenage Most cancers Belief 20 years in the past. Over time, their unbelievable annual occasion on the Royal Albert Corridor has featured Take That, Ed Sheeran, New Order and Paul McCartney, in addition to Liam and Noel Gallagher, and has raised greater than £30m.
Chris’s favorite writer was Hunter S Thompson, and at occasions in his 20s and early 30s he appeared to deal with Worry and Loathing as a how-to-live guidebook. Nights out with him had been all the time energetic, and may take an sudden flip that might depart you waking in one other metropolis or perhaps a totally different nation.
In his later years there was much less hell-raising. He married Kate Lewis in 2006, and later purchased a home within the Cotswolds, in addition to a pub, the Royal Oak in Tetbury, which went on to win a number of awards. After he and Kate separated (they divorced in 2019), Chris met Alice Harter, an artist, who did a beautiful job of supporting him after he was recognized with most cancers. Chris accepted his destiny, even when he felt robbed of time, and was comforted by the truth that he had achieved a lot and had actually lived. He was a person with an enormous coronary heart, and with him there was by no means a uninteresting second.
He’s survived by Alice, and by his dad and mom, sister, Natalie, and brother, Andrew.
