Jeff was interviewed
by Jim Jenkins of VENTS Magazine
in the lead-up to the release of Here and Now.
Interview with 30 Million-Selling Artist
Jeff Christie
Jeff Christie's life took a monumental turn in 1970 with
the release of Yellow River.
The song skyrocketed to the top of record charts worldwide,
selling over 30 million copies and earning Jeff numerous
accolades, including 10 gold discs and the prestigious UK's
Ivor Novello Award.
Following the success of Yellow
River, Jeff formed a band named Christie, which quickly
became a household name. In 1970, Christie was voted the
Number One Group in the British Chart Survey, the Number
One Singles Group by Record Mirror, and the Number One British
Chart Group for both 1970 and 1971. Their popularity extended
beyond the UK, making them the most popular group in Norway
and Ireland during the same period, and the seventh most
popular group in Germany.
Today, Jeff Christie remains an active
figure in the music industry. With over 300 self-penned
songs, he continues to write, record, and perform. His enduring
influence and contributions to music are a testament to
his resilience and creativity, securing his legacy as a
pivotal figure in rock and pop history. With a brand-new
release, Here and Now, being
released in September 2024, Jeff Christie remains a vibrant
part of the "Industry of human happiness.
JJ: Jeff,
you began performing at youth clubs and dance halls in Leeds
at just 13. What initially inspired you to pursue music,
and who were your early musical influences?
JC: From as
long as I can remember I was seduced by the magic of music
and the spell it cast over me. My mother used to tell me
that when she and my dad would take my brother and I to
Roundhay Park in Leeds, she could not pull me away from
the bandstand where they would have brass bands playing.
I would have been about 5 or 6 at the time. There was always
music playing on the radio in our house and my mother was
steeped in the classics, opera, and ballet music, whilst
my dad was into the lighter side with crooners and singers
of the time, ranging from the likes of Crosby and Sinatra
to Frankie Laine and Al Jolson to name a few.
So everything I heard that appealed to
me were my influences, some greater than others. Big jazz
orchestras like Count Basie, Duke Ellington etc. Operatic
overtures like Tannhäuser, The Flying Dutchman and
Ride of the Valkyries, Puccini arias, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky,
Mussorgsky and more.
I first heard Flamenco and Gypsy music
when I must have been about 9/10 years old and that just
blew my mind, the guitars, the singing and dancing, the
fire, and the passion of it all.
I had been taking piano lessons and had
started to feel a little bored but now the guitar was king
and I managed to persuade my dad to buy me a cheap Spanish
guitar from which I would learn to be a great Flamenco guitarist!
The dreams of youth!
There was no Flamenco teacher to be found
in post-war Leeds in those times so gradually the realisation
that I wouldn't become the next great thing in Flamenco
guitarists started to drift across my horizon of faded dreams.
Then, one day Elvis burst out of the kitchen radio and Scotty
Moore became one of my first guitar idols as well as Elvis,
even if he wasn't a guitarist, followed by all those great
rock'n'rollers from Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry Jerry Lee Lewis,
Fats Domino and Little Richard etc.
Within a few years, by the age of 13/14
I was able to get the intro and solo to That'll
be The Day note perfect, plus all the Eddie Cochran
rhythm chords on stuff like C'mon
Everybody, riffs like Twenty
Flight Rock, and Roy Orbison's Pretty
Woman. Around this time I also started to really
love and appreciate the songwriting genius behind the artists,
such as Felice and Boudleaux Bryant who were responsible
for so many great Everly Brothers songs. Also Carole King,
Bacharach and David, Jimmy Webb, Leiber and Stoller, Mann
and Weill to name a few, but there were so many great songwriters
from that era. Then came the Beatles, The Stones, The Who
and The Kinks of which whose songwriters were the next generation
to carry the torch. I loved all the great Motown artists
too, especially those wonderful songsmiths Holland Dozier
Holland.
Around 17/18 I also really got into the
great blues singers like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and John
Lee Hooker. There were so many more influences from those
early years, these were just the ones that immediately sprang
to mind at time of writing.
JJ: Can you
share some memories from your time with The Outer Limits,
especially touring with legends like Jimi Hendrix and Pink
Floyd? How did those experiences shape your musical journey?
JC: By the time we (Outer Limits)
were picked to join that tour we had just scored a small
UK hit with my song Just One More
Chance, which just snuggled up outside the UK top
50 charts and helped secure Rolling Stones manager Andrew
Loog Oldham as producer for our follow-up The
Great Train Robbery. As well as being
well established on the live gig circuit we now had some
credibility in terms of record success so we weren't fazed
with touring with these other acts even though some of them
were far bigger names than us.
But that tour gave us a prestigious confidence
boost especially as it was to be the last of the great UK
rock package tours of the sixties and received great media
coverage and packed out venues including the Royal Albert
Hall . We would usually be the openers apart from the odd
time when we were shuttled forward into second place but
we would only get to do three or four songs.
At the time we were mainly doing Motown
covers but one night I tried sneaking one of my own songs
called Sweet Freedom into the
set and when we came off stage Lee Jackson, bass player
of The Nice, asked what was the song we played that he hadn't
recognised. I said it was one of mine, to which he said
that's the stuff you should be playing, your own songs,
not Motown songs. That was a breakthrough and another confidence
booster as The Nice were a highly respected 'underground'
act from which Keith Emerson emerged soon after to be a
founding member of Emerson Lake and Palmer, so to get some
kind of approval from one of them was quite encouraging.
From that point on we started using much more of my own
songs in the set when the tour ended.
There were many hilarious memories from
that tour but not many people knew that Ian Kilmister who
was Hendrix's roadie and 'fixer' on that tour was always
tapping everyone up for money. He would sidle up to some
unfortunate soul saying stuff like 'lemme a fiver' …
Lemmy and Motorhead just cemented that name even more.
JJ: Yellow
River became a global sensation in 1970. What was
the creative process behind writing and recording the song?
Did you expect it to achieve such monumental success?
JC: I couldn't
have imagined it would be the monster hit it became, but
I knew it was different to what was being heard on the radio
at that time. I'd have been thrilled just to get it released
and sell a few records so yes, a life changing experience
in so many ways.
I wrote it on the piano in April 1969
several months after the Outer Limits folded. I used a rolling
feel on the piano by alternating left hand octave notes
with right hand chord shapes which defined the mid-range
rhythm section. Going forward it was just a question of
layering some more guitar work, drums and vocals to that
basic arrangement and then it was done.
After the breakup of the band, I had decided
to concentrate on writing and pitching my songs to the big
groups and artists of the time that didn't write their own
songs as well as knocking on doors of producers and record
companies.
I had been listening to a lot of stuff
by people like Tony Joe White, Jerry Reed, Joe South and
JJ Cale. Also Glenn Campbell during his Jimmy Webb association
period with such great songs as Wichita
Lineman, By the Time I get To Phoenix etc. His version
of Galveston really knocked
me out and I had been reading a lot about the American civil
war prior to this and had already knocked out a couple of
soldier songs, but that song was pivotal in me writing Yellow
River as it used the same lament theme of the homesick war-weary
soldier, etc.
I demo 'ed it locally and sent it out
to music biz people and it created quite a buzz. 'Smash
Hit' were words that were coming back to me, which long
story short eventually led to me getting signed to CBS (Sony)
and recording it in London and the rest as they say …
JJ: After
the success of Yellow River, you formed the band Christie.
What was your vision for the band, and how did you navigate
the pressures of sudden fame during those years?
JC: Quite simply to just be
a good rock band and continue in the vein of my previous
band Outer Limits, playing a mixture of Americana, country
rock, and some punchy heavier rock when we had gotten more
established touring the world.
Fame is a two-headed monster which if
you're not careful will destroy your inner equilibrium and
sense of self, especially when one moment you're riding
high and the next you're brought down to earth. It can be
hard to stay level-headed when adoration meets fawning and
everyone wants to be your friend that eventually it can
be hard to trust anyone. Triumph and failure will look you
in the eye, every day you are alive so that's reality and
what we all must learn to navigate through, no matter how
rich, powerful, and successful we might be.
From day one, at an early age I just wanted
to earn a living as a decent musician, and somehow fate
propelled me into songwriting that led to a passionate love
of that craft which has shaped my life and given me purpose,
and to which I am forever thankful.
JJ: You were one of the most
traveled bands of the '70s, performing in countries across
the globe, including behind the Iron Curtain. How did these
international experiences influence your music and worldview?
JC: Travelling the world you
get to be exposed to many different types and styles of
music which somehow get stored in your subconscious and
to which you may call upon at some later stage to work their
way into a song. In terms of worldview, I'd say that basically
you learn that most people just want to find a way to put
food on the table, have a decent job, maybe raise a family
and live a long healthy happy life. I think it's hard wired
into the human psyche. Unfortunately though I've come to
the conclusion not everyone believes in love peace and Hare
Krishna and that's another reality!
JJ: Your career has seen incredible
highs, like topping charts worldwide, but also challenging
moments, such as the riot in Zambia. How did you cope with
the ups and downs, and what lessons did you learn from those
experiences?
JC: Well, that life is precious.
The Zambia riots were a turning point that left us all a
bit shaken and broke. What started out as 10-day tour in
Zambia's Copper belt turned into a marathon couple of months
that saw us forced to flee from Zambia to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
and eventually down to South Africa before limping back
home to England.
It's a long story that garnered world
media coverage at the time, basically because torrential
rain forced us to abandon one of the concerts in a stadium
with no stage cover and electrocution was a clear and present
danger. Being young at the time it never really scared me
as much as it should have but we all had death threats at
the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka where we were holed
up. That was a game-changer which had
to be taken seriously.
JJ: Your songwriting has attracted
the attention of major artists like Elton John and R.E.M.
How do you approach songwriting, and what does it mean to
you to have your work covered by such esteemed artists?
JC: Obviously a great feeling,
it's one thing to have pleased millions of people around
the world with a song and another to have highly respected
and loved artists record them. Aside from that there were
many other famous artists in their own countries, not necessarily
on a global scale that recorded my songs, such as the French
singer Joe Dassin who was a massive artist in France and
all French-speaking territories like Canada.
There were and still are hundreds of covers
across the globe from Mariachi bands in Mexico through to
Japanese brass bands and Peruvian Pan Pipes Combos to name
a few, although one of my favourites was Doyle Lawson and
Quicksilver's rip-roaring blue grass version.
JJ: After disbanding Christie
in 1974, you moved to Los Angeles to focus on writing and
production. What motivated this shift, and how did it impact
your approach to music?
JC: The breakup of the band
after the Mexico tour forced a rethink as to what to do
next because I'd been in groups since I was 14 till I was
29, and it was the total focus of my life. it was the obvious,
if somewhat scary choice to go it alone without the safety
blanket of a group around me. I had such a backlog of songs
that I never had the chance to work on during all those
touring years that I decided to just focus on those and
new ones that were always knocking at the door, and try
and make some headway in the US as a writer and also a solo
singer/songwriter.
Not sure if it changed my approach to
music other than my writing was evolving all the time trying
out new ideas with chord shapes, melodic shifts, tempo changes
and time signatures and always looking to write the perfect
song next, because that is what a songwriter is always trying
to do.
JJ: With over 300 self-penned
songs and a career spanning decades, what do you believe
has been the key to your longevity in the music industry?
JC: An inherent stubbornness
and the core belief that this is where I belong, this is
what I love to do, to create something out of nothing, like
pulling it out of the air and the sense of satisfaction
of writing a song that can potentially touch people's hearts
and inner emotions when they hear it. Music is magic and
can bring joy to so many, I can't think of a better job
than that!
JJ: You have a new release,
Here And
Now, coming out in September 2024. What can fans
expect from this album, and how does it reflect your current
artistic vision?
JC: I'm very excited about
this album as its genesis in many ways was just prior to
the duration of the COVID lockdown period and stretching
into the second half of 2023. Starting basically from some
rough home demos I had to find a way of working using remote
studio technology and working with a couple of local musicians
using Facetime and WhatsApp whenever I needed help with
stuff that I couldn't do myself.
I needed a saxophone solo for one song
so I sang the solo to him using Facetime and he learnt it
on that call whilst at home in East Yorkshire. He recorded
it in his home studio and sent over the file so I could
then incorporate it into the mix. This was the MO for many
musicians during that period I think. The songs are mainly
new apart from three older songs that I wanted to rework.
They range from slow, mid-tempo to fast
songs and encompass a varied style which has always been
how I like to write. They might be mini story songs about
relationships or with a philosophical tone, to ballads or
some punchy rock with a Cajun/Zydeco flavour.
If I have an artistic vision it is just
to try and continue to write what I feel are good songs
that mainly reflect my influences from the music from the
mid-fifties period through to the late seventies period.
As long as I have the hunger and the ability to write songs
that's what I'll do.
