Bubba Sparxxx

In late 2003, he returned with his commercially unsuccessful sophomore album, Deliverance. The song was re-released in March 2005 to raise money for the Comic Relief charity, with an accompanying video where Peter Kay mimed the song accompanied by various celebrities including Bez, Michael Parkinson, Heather Mills McCartney and Tony himself. The major-label version of Dark Days, Bright Nights, which now included five collaborations with Timbaland and two with Organized Noise, debuted at #3 on the Billboard Music Charts. In 2002 "Is This Way The Way To Amarillo?" was used in the comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, leading to a resurgence in his popularity. He signed to Interscope after a bidding war and began working with record producers Timbaland and Organized Noize. In 1999 he was the vocalist on the Jarvis Cocker-penned UK top ten hit "Walk Like A Panther" by the Sheffield band All Seeing I. A subsequent release saw some success in Georgia, and the album Dark Days, Bright Nights caught the attention of Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records. He played the role of Magaldi in the original 1975 album recording of the musical Evita and sought to represent the UK in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest but came third in the national contest to select an entrant behind eventual contest winners Brotherhood of Man.

He began recording with Lil Devil in a group called One Card Shi in 1996, but the partnership did not last. He also had a minor hit with "Avenues and Alleyways", the theme to the television series The Protectors. A native of LaGrange, Georgia, a young Andy Mathis was introduced to hip hop by a neighbor (his closest at a half mile away) who received mixed tapes mailed from New York City. Born with the real name Anthony Fitzgerald in 1943, he had two top twenty hits in the UK charts in 1971 with "I Did What I Did For Maria" and "Is This The Way To Amarillo?". Sparxxx is most notable for his 2001 hit single "Ugly", and for being, like Eminem, one of the few Caucasian rappers to find commercial success. Tony Christie is a British singer from Conisborough, South Yorkshire. Bubba Sparxxx (born Warren Anderson Mathis March 6, 1977) is an American rapper. Interview on BBC Radio Sheffield (http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/toby/tony_christie/index.shtml).

Official website (http://www.tonychristie.com).