Chris Dean - Oi For England

[Bazza]

The following is from an old email which was posted on the last messageboard.

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Strangely enough Chris Dean appeared in a play I directed at college. This was after the band had split up. We used to walk past Chris' house in Willesden Green on the way to the shops and being huge fans thought it was great. In my last year at college I was directing a half hour piece from Trevor Griffith's 'Oi for England'.

On a dare I knocked on Chris' door one night and asked him if he wanted to be in it. After some thought he said yes. Many rehearsals later he put in a storming performance (along with others including Mark Hosking of the Flaming Stars).

We shared a few more cups of tea after this and the last time I saw him, at Willesden Green tube station, he told me he was off to Paris (I think he had a French girlfriend) to write a book. We said our goodbyes and that was the last I ever saw of him. This was 1988.

Great bloke, great band and one of my better stories.......

best wishes,
Richard Whitehead.

[BovineJuice]

Anyone know what Chris is up to now?

[Bazza]

bovinejuice said:

Anyone know what Chris is up to now?

Chris Dean's cousin Adrian recently passed on a copy of the Redskins tribute album 'Reds Strike The Blues' onto Chris. So, you never know he might be in touch one day now that he knows about the Redskins website.

[strike]

I wrote to Chris's mum after getting her address from Adrian but so far have had no reply.

[leftxwingxscum]

Anyone know if Chris ever finished that book or had it published? Even the subject matter of it?

[Bazza]

leftxwingxscum said:

Anyone know if Chris ever finished that book or had it published? Even the subject matter of it?

I don't think the book ever came out. Or if it did I've never seen it. I did once hear that Chris was thinking about getting into film making after the Redskins and I also heard off one or two people that Chris ended up working for Vogue magazine. But I think this was just someone who shared the same name.

[leftxwingxscum]

Chris Dean working for Vogue...wow that would be weird.

[Bazza]

leftxwingxscum said:

Chris Dean working for Vogue...wow that would be weird.

I've just done a search on google and it's a different person altogether as this Chris Moore (Chris Dean's real name) is now in his 80s. He did work in Paris so that's why some people might have thought it was him. There's some info on the other Chris Moore at the following site -

www.somerset.ac.uk/quickstart/index.php?id=343

[pixie30f]

I always thought his real name was Chris Dean and he got called Chris Moore by a confusion with his NME pseudonym of X Moore. Am I wrong about that?

[Bazza]

pixie30f said:

I always thought his real name was Chris Dean and he got called Chris Moore by a confusion with his NME pseudonym of X Moore. Am I wrong about that?

Yes, Chris Dean's real name is Chris Moore. All 3 of the original line up of the Redskins went under pseudonyms. Martin Hewes (or Martin Leon as he is called on the Redskins debut single) real name is Martin Bottomley. I only recently found when applying for the MCPS licence for the Redskins tribute CD Reds Strike The Blues that Nick King's real surname is Cheel.

[pixie30f]

It makes sense, I suppose, that he'd use a psuedonym like X Moore if his real name was Moore. Any idea why they all used different names in the band?