Christie - "one hit wonder"?

Все слышали вещь "Yellow River". Естественно - это классика 70-х. Но как показывает практика, кроме этой песни Christie больше не знают, а напрасно! У группы масса великолепных вещей: San Bernadino, If Only, The Dealer, Pleasure and Pain, Iron Horse и т.д.

Jeff Christie - born in Leeds, UK - formed a band called Outer Limits while still in his teens. Although starting off as a skiffle band, Jeff and his group - which included Stan Drogie, Gerry Layton and Gerry Smith - eventually emulated the Beatles' sound, thereby becoming Yorkshire's local versions of the legendary group.

Unlike the majority of their fellow amateur musicians, Christie's band even brought out two singles. In 1967, Just One More Chance/Help Me Please was released by Deram, Decca's more progressive label, and one year later Great Train Robbery/Sweet Freedom came out on the local Instant label. Neither single was successful, resulting in the band's break-up - and apart from Jeff, none of the other members pursued a musical career. Jeff did what anyone in this business would. He tried - unsuccessfully - to get various record companies and song publishers interested in his songs with a demo tape.

His quest ended when the lead guitarist of the Tremeloes, Alan Blakley, got the tape. However, this was not because he was thinking of recording a cover of one of Jeff's songs, for the Tremeloes were already a successful band with several chart successes. Rather, it was because Alan's brother Mike was so convinced by the quality of the young man's work after first hearing it that he invited him to London so he could hear him play in person.

Jeff jumped at the chance. Mike borrowed 25,000 pounds for the studio time and got his brother's band to play. The Tremeloes passed on the chance to release any of Jeff's songs, although as fate would have it, they eventually did release their version of Yellow River.
Jeff then decided to form his own namesake group. He first invited Mike Blakley to appear with him, and Mike pulled in guitarist Vic Elmes, with whom he played in another band, The Epics. Interestingly, the drummer who preceded Mike in that band - Bill 'Legend' Fyfield - was to later achieve fame playing in Mark Bolan's band, T Rex.

The name of Jeff's new group was decided upon when the band members agreed Jeff's surname had a nice ring to it. Christie signed with CBS Records in England, the same home as the Tremeloes. The debut single Yellow River - essentially Jeff's and Vic's vocals over a Tremeloes backing track - was issued in spring of 1970, and it quickly sailed to No 1 in countries across the world, staying on the pop charts for 22 weeks. It reached No 23 in the US, where the single was released on CBS' Epic label.

Of course, a follow-up single had to be released, and in this Jeff once again had the Midas touch in the truest sense of the phrase. In October 1970, San Bernadino was released, and its sucess seemed destined to launch Christie on a stellar career. While it "only" reached No 7 in the English charts, the extremely catchy pop song rocketed to No 1 in Germany and across Europe. Only in the USA was the song conspicuously absent from the charts, climbing no higher than No 92.

Conversely, Christie's eponymous debut album did better in the US than in the UK. The LP - containing the two big hits and a stack of commercial, pop-rock songs - stayed in the US charts for 10 weeks.
It was perhaps here that the first hiccup in the publicity machine occured. Although every single track on the Christie LP was worthy of release on its own, no third single from the set was put out to follow San Bernadino. In hindsight, it could have enhanced the band's profile had a third, or even fourth, single been lifted from the strong debut album, as the songs were so catchy that they surely would have charted, boosting the group's image as well as sales of the album.

Instead, the recording company chose to release Man of Many Faces as the third single, at the same time as the first album was in the stores, even though the song was not on that set.

The sudden fame, constant tours and press duties took their toll on Mike Blakley, who quit the band within a year, and he was replaced by Paul Fenton. It was not until 1971 that there was enough time to work on the second album, and For All Mankind demonstrated an attempt by Jeff Christie to diversify into a heavier sound, infused with rock, blues and country. The recording company tried to promote one of the songs, Picture Painter , in an advertisement and video. Curiously, Picture Painter was never released as a single, and again demonstrates that perhaps Christie were the unfortunate victims of poor boardroom decisions.

Christie returned to the bright, poppy formula with a vengeance in 1972. With new member Lem Lubin (from pop group Unit 4+2) in tow, Christie were now a foursome, and their first effort, Iron Horse , was hailed by critics as one of Jeff's best compositions. Its catchy appeal, sublime melody, and the characteristic Vic Elmes intro indeed make this song one of the best pop-rock pieces ever composed.

The Christie hit sequence ended after this single, probably once again as a result of less-than-impressive publicity. This author has followed the group since its inception, and cannot recall any campaign of note to advertise Christie's singles, even though there were quite a few of them. The group did produce a single for release in South America only, featuring on its A-side a Vic Elmes composition called JoJo's Band, which surprisingly did well for them in that continent. Sadly, the relationship between Jeff and Vic eventually worsened, forcing the group with no option but to break up after a couple more singles were issued. Whatever the reason for the split, the undisputed part of the matter is that there was a special musical chemistry betwen the two that can never be duplicated while each performs independently of the other.

Jeff continued recording under the Christie name, and for the first time started using other composers' material. In 1974, Christie was moved on to the CBS sub-label, Epic, which released Alabama/I'm Alive. In 1976, Christie released on the Wizard label Most Wanted Man in the USA , and in 1980 and 1981 Jeff shifted to the minor RK label, which produced the singles Tightrope/Somebody Else and Both Ends of the Rainbow/Turn On Your Lovelight , both released under Jeff's own name. Once again, little publicity meant hardly any airplay of these songs. A solo recording by Jeff, released in the 1980s on CD only in Germany, was taken off the market after a dispute over Jeff's use of the Christie name when none of the original band members featured on the set.

Today, Jeff still earns a good living off the royalties from his two biggest hits. He appears on the occasional classic hits shows, where he gives his all to his big hits and does what he has always wanted to do: travel the world. He plays these shows with a new Christie line-up.
Vic released some singles under the name Vic Elmes Again and also with an outfit called China. He joined the Tremeloes for a while - a fitting move as the Tremeloes, of all groups, probably come closest to the Christie brand of commercial appeal - and these days tours Europe with his own band, Christie Again. They play the old hits and also some new songs released under the Christie name. Vic also does the occasional film and TV score, with the most notable being the music for Space: 1999.

http://www.euro-wide.com/christie.htm

Официальный сайт группы: http://www.yellowriver.0catch.com

Дискография группы почти полностью собрана на двух CD:

Yellow River (Columbia/SONY COL 483591 2) 1995
For All Mankind (Columbia/SONY COL 487358 2) 1995

А вот как это выходило на виниле:

Albums:

Yellow River (UK CBS 4911) 1970
For All Mankind (Holland CBS S 64397) 1971

45s:

Yellow River/Down The Mississippi Line (CBS 4911) 1970
San Bernadino/Here I Am (CBS 5069) 1970
Man Of Many Faces/Country Sam (CBS 7081) 1971
Everything's Gonna Be Alright/Freewheelin' Man/Magic Highway (PS)
(CBS 9130) 1971
Iron Horse/Every Now And Then (CBS 7747) 1972
The Dealer/Pleasure And Pain (CBS 1438) 1973
Alabama/I'm Alive (Epic EPC 2044) 1974

Reissues:

Yellow River/Iron Horse (CBS 1145) 1973
Yellow River/(Flip by different artist) (Epic 152315) 1975
Yellow River/Iron Horse (CBS 5960) 1978
Yellow River/San Bernadino (Old Gold OG 9301) 1983

Christie- рулёз!Помню,как они в 1970 в Сопоте выступали как гости.Некоторым комментаторам чуть дурно не стало.Не часто нас тогда баловали выступлениями западных групп.

На этом самом www.yellowriver.0catch.com Кристиевские ЛП представлены так:

1970
Christie

1971
For All Mankind

1972
The Third Album?

1972
Los Mas Grandes Exitos

Спасибо, Сorvin, за напоминание о сладких днях юности :)
Да, Кристи - это нЕчто!

The Third Album? - это вообще нечто непонятное.
Los Mas Grandes Exitos - испанский сборник.

Так что в активе остаются те же 2 альбома.

Кстати, кто-нибудь ходил на концерт Джеффа Кристи, когда он выступал у нас?

Почему не знают... Еще будучи совсэм молодым был просвящен с помощью винила "Yellow River". Давненько Christie не слушал, сознаюсь. Но впечатления отложились до сих пор. Как сейчас помню, что 2 или 3 песни с пласта мне показались поразительно похожими на Битловские... Одна из них (как называется не помню) - практически копия с Oh, Darling!

Да - эта вещь тоже вполне по битловски называется - I've Got A Feeling/

Пару лет назад приобрёл оба диска, послушал и понял -есть группы выдерживающие испытание временем - но Christie, не одна из них. Первый альбом - ещё можно послушать раз в год, а второй - никуда не годится \очень слабенький по всем параметрам\.
Это моё мнение и только, а не истина в последней истанции.

Согласен, второй альбом слаб (кроме Man With Many Faces и If Only), но бонусы к нему - СУПЕР!

Да бонусы! - ты прав!

Perviy albom, da eshe s I`ve got a feeling - etoy klassnoy parodiey na Oh! Darling - eto shedevr - tan net ni odnoy plohoy pesni :)
A lyubimaya - Untill the down...

Кажется, "Веселые ребята" переделали когда-то "Yellow River" в "Толстого Карлсона". Так вот старый анекдот, рассказанный мне когда-то Алексом Редом.
Студент сдает экзамен по английскому. Ни бум-бум. Преподавательница в отчаянии: "Ну хоть пару слов по-английски вы знаете?" - "Знаю." - "Какие?" - "Yellow river" - "А как переводится?" - "Толстый Карлсон."

Это были «Поющие гитары» (для восстановления исторической справедливости, как говорит С.И.Грибушин :))))

А где можно скачать "Карлсона"?

Попробуй вот это:
http://www.google.com/search...8B%D0%B9+%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BD+mp3&lr=

Моя любимая вещь у Кристи San Bernardino. А с сопотским фестивалем был такой прикол у нас во дворе. Мы сидели на скамейке и вдруг выбегает из подъезда наш сосед саксофонист по кличке Дядя Ляма. И как заорет на весь двор: Чуваки, в СЧопоте Битлзы выступают. Нас как ветром сдуло, а оказалось Кристи. Хорошо, что они Yellow River еще раз в конце сета на бис исполнили.
Primal Scream***
ЗАГЛЯНИ В ИРАНСКУЮ ПОЧТУ!

to Primal Scream: THANX, но я Яндексом воспользовался - там ссылок больше.