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The Christians are a soul-influenced sophisti-pop band from Liverpool, England, who scored several UK and international chart hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
[edit] Band biographyThe name of the band refers to the surname of the three brothers that were originally in the line-up, and is also coincidentally guitarist Henry Priestman's middle name. Garry Christian (born 27 February 1955, Liverpool) (lead vocals), Roger Christian (born 13 February 1950 - died 8 March 1998 from brain tumour) (vocals, instrumentalist), Russell Christian (born 8 July 1956) (keyboards, saxophone, vocals), and Henry Priestman (born Henry Christian Priestman, 21 July 1955, in Kingston upon Hull, brought up in Liverpool) (keyboards, guitars, vocals) formed the band in 1985. Because of a reluctance to tour, Roger left in 1987. Allmusic describes The Christians as 'blue-eyed soul', i.e. "soul and R&B music performed and sung by white musicians".[1] The Christian brothers are members of a large family born to a black Jamaican immigrant father, an engineer by trade, and a white Liverpudlian mother.[2] They can be described as a "combination of soul and pop" or "sophisti-pop".[3] The band were one of a number of soul-influenced groups in the 1980s that had strong links to UK punk rock, New Wave music and post-punk. Whereas Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall started out with punk-rockers The Frantic Elevators, and two of the Fine Young Cannibals were former members of post-punk ska revivalists The Beat, The Christians' principal song-writer Henry Priestman cut his musical teeth with new wave hopefuls Yachts. Also, the band's manager, Pete Fulwell, was the co-owner of the Liverpool punk club Eric's and also managed post-punk luminaries The Mighty Wah, Black and It's Immaterial. In terms of their politically-conscious lyrics, the band had similarities with groups like The Blow Monkeys and were labelled "socially-aware soul".[citation needed] Musically, they had more in common with classic black harmony groups such as The Persuasions.[citation needed] In Rock: The Rough Guide, one critic, Charles Bottomley, described the band as “The Temptations in ripped jeans, producing gritty-centred songs in a sugary vocal shell”.[4] Bottomley further argues that this “grumpy soul” worked well but, over time, “butterscotch harmonies and acrylic funk” came to “represent a middle-class lifestyle at odds with Priestman’s marxist conscience”.[5] [edit] Chart historyTheir first three singles all made the Top 40 in Britain, and their debut album The Christians (1990) entered the UK Albums Chart at number 2.[6] It eventually sold over a million copies. The highest placed single from this album was "Ideal World", which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart.[6] In 1990 they released a cover of the Isley Brothers' "Harvest for the World", with all proceeds going to charity. The video for the track was an animation, created by four leading animation companies, including Aardman Animations. The video won several awards, and the single reached number 8 in the chart.[6] 1991 saw another charity single success, this time as performers on a version of "Ferry Cross The Mersey", released in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough disaster. The single stayed at number one for several weeks (#5 in Germany). Their second album, Colour released in 1991, reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and yielded the international hit "Words" which was #18 in the UK[6] and Sweden, #5 in the Netherlands (for two weeks), and #1 in France (also for two weeks). The second single from the album, "I Found Out", reached #22 in France (#56 in the UK). In 1992, the following LP, Happy in Hell charted at number 18. Its single, "What's In A Word", entered the UK Top 40, and was a Top 20 hit in France (with there an impressive total chart run of 19 weeks); it also entered the German Top 75 reaching #60. The early 1990s saw the band continuing to tour, but declining in popularity. A Greatest Hits album, The Best of the Christians was released in 1993, and peaked at number 22.[6] [edit] Break up and reformationGarry Christian moved to Paris in 1995 to record a solo album, effectively breaking up the band, although no formal announcement was made, and the door was open to future reformation. In 1998 founding member Roger Christian died from a brain tumor. In 1999 The Christians began to perform together again in an "unplugged" acoustic format. They carried out a thirty six date tour of the UK, with a similar tour undertaken in 2000, with guitarist and songwriter Paul Campbell who accompanied them on all of their tours until 2003. By 2001 The Christians began to write songs for Prodigal Sons, which was released in 2003. This was supported by a UK tour in October 2003, and further promotion in France, Spain and UK throughout 2004. In 2005 Russell Christian decided he no longer wished to tour, and a decision was made to return to a full band format, rather than the four-man “unplugged” line-up that had been touring since 1999. This new 'band' comprising Garry Christian (vocals), Joey Ankrah (acoustic guitar/backing vocals), Stewart Boyle (electric guitar), Bobby Kewley (bass guitar), and Jay Iving (drums) was unveiled on the 2007 tour. Another tour followed in 2008. In 2009 Garry was approached by Archambault Records in France to arrange a Licensing Deal. This was agreed and in January 2009 'Soul from Liverpool' was released with a single 'Overwhelmed'. The new band line up have just completed a tour of France and are playing select UK dates. [edit] Discography[edit] Chart singles
[edit] Studio albums
[edit] Compilation albums
[edit] References
[edit] External links | |||||||||||||||||||||
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