Limahl

Actor

Born: December 19, 1958 (age 67) · Wigan, Lancashire, England, UK

Christopher Hamill (born 19 December 1958), known professionally as Limahl (an anagram of Hamill), is an English pop singer. He was the lead singer of the pop group Kajagoogoo beginning in 1981, before embarking on a brief solo career, garnering the 1984 hit "The NeverEnding Story", the theme song for the film of the same name.

Christopher Hamill was born on 19 December 1958 at Pemberton, Wigan, Lancashire, in North West England, to Eric and Cynthia Hamill. He has one sister and two brothers. The four children were all born by the time their mother was 22. Hamill attended Mesnes High School, Wigan, Greater Manchester before eventually enrolling at the Westcliff-on-Sea Palace Theatre Repertory Company.

With aspirations to be an actor, Chris Hamill toured with the company in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 1980, he was given a small role in an episode of the ITV police series The Gentle Touch. In 1981, he also appeared as an extra in the promotional video for Adam and the Ants' number one UK single "Stand and Deliver".

He had a keen interest in music, forming a short-lived punk band called Vox Deus. Next he joined and left a band called Crossword. Later he answered an advert in the music press to join a band to be called Brooks with Mike Nolan. Chris Hamill adopted his stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.

The four members of Art Nouveau, the band who were yet to become Kajagoogoo, had placed an advertisement in the music magazine Melody Maker, asking for a 'front man who could sing and look good'. Hamill attended the audition and subsequently joined the band which was then, after some deliberation, renamed Kajagoogoo. Soon after he had joined, Limahl met Nick Rhodes, keyboardist of the group Duran Duran, while Limahl was working as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. Rhodes agreed to co-produce the band's first single, "Too Shy".

Limahl later said: "I met Nick Rhodes and it changed my life." Kajagoogoo signed a deal with EMI, due in part to Rhodes' involvement with the band, and the single "Too Shy" was released in January 1983. It went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and made the top 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The group had further hits with "Ooh to Be Ah" (UK No. 7) and "Hang on Now" (UK No. 13), with their debut album White Feathers reaching UK No. 5. Their first major UK tour was attended by 60,000 people, and the final show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London was recorded and released on home video/Laserdisc (the 16-track White Feathers Tour).

In mid-1983, soon after the end of the White Feathers concert tour, the four other members of the band agreed that Limahl should be fired. As recounted years later by Nick Beggs and other Kajagoogoo members on the VH-1 program Bands Reunited, the actual firing of Limahl was done by their manager, and the band learned that it had been done over the telephone. Limahl was quoted in the press as saying: "I've been betrayed!", and "I was sacked for making them a success". ...

Source: Article "Limahl" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.