Chris Stockley

About

Chris Stockley is a British-born Australian guitarist. He moved to Australia from Gerat Britain in February 1964. In Melbourne, first in a group called The Roadrunners, and then the Delta Set, styles from delta blues through to chicago blues, from the rock style of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley into the Motown and general R&B styles of music. According to Chris: "My career in music has been a long one. My role has mostly been that of the guitar player in a band, preferably with another guitar player as I love the sound of two guitars, whether delta or Chicago blues, rock, or country music. Throughout the years I have played behind many of Australia’s best voices and song-writers in bands including Axiom, Australia’s first pop super group, The Dingoes, Stockley See & Mason, the Rock Doctors and Jimmy Barnes." Chris' first real commercial break came when he played with Cam-pact in its formation period of 1967, along with Keith Glass, Mark Barnes, Robert Lloyd and John Pugh. Cam-pact was also the first of Chris' groups that played original material and while Chris was not responsible for writing the lyrics, he made significant contributions to the composing of the music for such memorable tracks as "Something Easy", Michael", Drawing Room" and "I'm Your Puppet", just to name a few. It came as no surprise to those of us who had either known him since his early days in Melbourne or played with him, that he would be invited to join Brian Cadd and Glenn Shorrock in the Australian group - Axiom, in 1969. In 1973 he then became a part of The Dingoes. Playing alongside Brod Smith, Kerryn Tolhurst, John Bois and John Lee, the experience both domestically and in the USA with this group. Chris said:"I didn’t start writing songs with any serious intent until I joined the Dingoes circa 1974. Kerryn Tolhurst, lately of Country Radio, came with an impressive portfolio and was adept at building songs out of riffs, feels or even some good sounding words. It was then that I realised that you could “grow” songs; you didn’t have to wait for that bolt from the sky and suddenly have a song in front of you. Many writers have told me that their best songs are those that come to them that way, but unfortunately it’s never happened for me. Subsequently, I have taken the building blocks approach to writing. I was heartened to learn that Leonard Cohen often writes in this way and sometimes takes months or even years to get exactly what he wants." Later his association with two other iconic Australian musicians, Sam See and Glyn Mason, saw him as as a member of Stockley, See and Mason (1978), which further allowed him to hone his vocal abilities and to consider and reflect upon the writing skills of both Mason and See. More recently he joined Brian Cadd and Glenn Shorrock on their "Sharkey and The Caddman national tour, which again gave audiences an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with Chris and his playing styles.

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