An Interview with Jeff Christie
(Extracts from a series of chats conducted by Ray Chan)

1) On the Outer Limits

The group's members were Stan Drogie (drums), Gerry Smith (bass), Gerry Layton (rhythym guitar), and Jeff Christie (lead guitar, lead vocals and keyboards). This was the line-up that played on the the singles When the Work is Thru, Just One More Chance, and Great Train Robbery.
  Great Train Robbery should have been a hit, even arranger Tony Meehan and producer Andrew Oldham thought so. But the BBC — ever wishing to stay apolitical — did not give the single airplay because they felt it had something to do with the great train robbery in the UK at the time, even though the song clearly was about an incident in the US in the 19th century.
   Gerry Layton left before the group accompanied Jimi Hendrix on a pop package tour in November 1967, and was replaced by Steve Isherwood. Stan left the following year, and was replaced by Rod Palmer.
   This new line-up soldiered on for a while until the demise in late '68 or maybe early '69, it's hard to be exact here, but this break-up became the subject of a Yorkshire Television documentary titled 'Death of a Pop Group'.

2) On Christie's first album

We had to produce the first album in a rush, because of the success of Yellow River. But Mike Blakley had left by that time, and we had not got Paul in yet. Despite being credited on the album, Mike did not play drums on it, although he did play knife and Coke bottle on Coming Home Tonight.
   Mike only ever played drums on the 'B' side of the Yellow River single, Down the Mississippi Line, after that it was session drummies all the way till Paul joined, whose first session was Man of Many Faces.
   Clem Cattini (drummer with the Tornados) and Hugh Grundy (from the great UK band the Zombies) were much featured on the first album, but I had to overdub Clem's drums on San Bernadino as there were technical complications at the mixing stage.
   Clem played on San Bernadino, Put Your Money Down, Inside Looking Out, and possibly New York City, while Hugh did the others. They were both outstanding drummers.  

3) On Christie's second album

As a songwriter, I write for all genres. The Christie sound came about when I was in my country rock phase. But many of my other compositions were different types of songs. My Outer Limits works had a harder edge, and my solo stuff was also of a more "mature" style.
   By the time of the second album, the three of us had settled down and were a solid, tight unit. We had already been playing some harder rock on stage, so I decided to incorporate some of this material on the album.
   But the best song was probably the title track, which was a ballad. For All Mankind could have been more lavishly arranged; I spent a lot of time with producer Martin Clarke on the song, and originally I had planned to use a brass band on it. It's a song which I think has dated and I would very much like to redo it if I have the opportunity.

4) Memories of some Christie songs

Fools' Gold was a frustrating session. I remember we hired a sitar player to come in and play on the track, but he couldn't get it right. In the end, I almost decided to play the instrument myself.
   Iron Horse was written when we were in Spain. I particularly arranged the guitar introduction so that it gave the impression of rolling wheels.
   In chronological order, the singles after The Dealer were Guantanamera, Alabama, and Most Wanted Man in the USA. Most Wanted Man/Rockin' Suzanna was the last Christie single.
   Guantanamera, backed by Navajo, were cover versions of Spanish songs recorded for our South American fans. I remember Roger Flavell, our bass player, singing through the sessions with a very heavy cold. I had always wanted to have a bass player in the group so I could come on to keyboards. Roger replaced Lem, whom we had taken in to play bass instead of me. In the beginning, when there were only three of us, I played bass only because it was expedient for me to do so.
   When Christie were hot, people liked our stuff and were throwing songs at us. Some were so good we couldn't turn them down. The Ruzicka song, The Dealer, was one of them. Originally, it was a slow ballad, but I rearranged it to sound like a Christie song. I did a similar adaptation for Most Wanted Man, for which I changed the bridge.
   (Click here to read more of Jeff's thoughts on his other songs.)

5) On a possible third Christie album

We were always recording songs that could have been possibilities for the third album, but we were also out of contract at around that time, so plans were shelved.
   One For the Road was one of the heavier songs we did, like a couple from For All Mankind. Our country rock songs had us dubbed the English Creedence — a great compliment — but we were also keen to gain a bit more credibility from our peers by playing harder, more complex material.
   We did Tobacco Road on stage, a cover of a great song, and even the Nashville Teens agreed our version was much better than theirs! It used to feature a drum solo from Paul when we performed it live.

6) On going solo

After Paul left, it was a difficult period and I did a lot of soul-searching. Paul and I had been, and still are, very close friends. I didn't do anything for a while, and did think about restructuring and re-starting the group, which I did with a few new players who basically toured with me (Roger, Terry, Danny and the Capability Brown members).
   I put together a solo album of songs around 1979/80. It was the best album I'd ever done. But it was never released. The singles that did come out (Both Ends of the Rainbow, Tightrope) contain songs from the album sessions.

7) On unreleased songs

A lot of unreleased and unfinished songs are on demos, cassettes and tapes.
   I also recorded songs in Denmark for a "Best of and Rest of" CD .. but that never got off the ground, and the tapes are still there. The project involved me redoing some of the old Christie tracks, and recording new ones. While at Gil Markle's Long View Farm, I recorded about five new tracks.
   I am still writing, and have many new songs.
   I would certainly like to produce a CD of my favourite Christie songs. That's in the pipeline, but I need to get the project together, to find a producer or label.
   I am heartened that people are still recording my songs .. not only Yellow River, but others as well. A Finnish band has recently recorded Until the Dawn.

8) On the future

I tour occasionally with my new band; we've been on tours of Russia and Germany, which were great. I would love to perform anywhere in the world .. like we did in Russia. But the most likely venues will be in Germany, where there is a big market for "oldies" groups.