Stainton was born in
Woodseats,
Sheffield. After passing his
eleven-plus examination, Stainton attended Rowlinson Technical School, Norton, Sheffield. Stainton's musical career began in 1960, when he played bass guitar with a local Sheffield band, 'Johnny Tempest and the Mariners'. The Mariners became 'The Cadillacs', before Stainton joined Joe Cocker in
The Grease Band during 1966. In November 2002, Chris appeared at the
Concert for George, and has more recently appeared as one of
Bill Wyman's
Rhythm Kings. Stainton has been a member of the Eric Clapton band virtually full-time since 2002, touring worldwide almost every year until the present time. He toured with Clapton on his 2008 North American and European tour, which included a three-night collaboration with
Steve Winwood at
Madison Square Garden in February 2008, and toured with Winwood and Clapton in 2009 and 2010. In July 2012, Stainton was announced as a keyboardist for The Who's
2012–2013 Quadrophenia & More Tour (he played piano on three songs on the original
Quadrophenia album, "The Dirty Jobs", "
5:15", and "Drowned"). He performed with the band at the closing ceremony of the
London Olympics. However, he subsequently withdrew prior to the start of the tour, to join Clapton on his tour of the US and Europe, that ultimately ended at
O2 Arena Prague on 19 June 2013. Stainton toured with Clapton in Japan, the Middle East and Europe in 2014. On 11 September 2015, he was honoured and performed with the
Tedeschi Trucks Band in a tribute/reunion concert for
Joe Cocker, at the Lockn' Festival in Arrington, Virginia. The concert honoured Joe and the Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour. Alumni included from the 1970 Tour included
Leon Russell,
Rita Coolidge,
Claudia Lennear, Bobby Jones, Pamela Polland, Matthew Moore, Daniel Moore, Chuck Blackwell and Bobby Torres and original Tour photographer
Linda Wolf. Wolf's iconic photographs from the 1970 Tour introduced the concert to the audience. A documentary movie of the reunion and concert was released in 2016, directed by Jojo Pennebaker, son of
D. A. Pennebaker and Jesse Lauter. Chris Stainton played on
Eric Clapton's 2016 album
I Still Do and subsequently joined Clapton for a brief tour of Japan in April 2016. As of October 2024, he is still regularly touring with Eric Clapton. ==Discography==