Neil Christian (born Christopher Tidmarsh, 14 February 1943 – 4 January 2010)
- accessed December 2010 was an English singer. Christian had a

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...

hit single in 1966, when "That's Nice" (

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

by Miki Dallon), reached Number 14 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. He remains, however, a one-hit wonder. Follow-up singles "Oops" and "Two at a Time" never reached the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

. He was born

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It li ...

, East London.

Career

Neil Christian and the Crusaders are one of the British

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

bands of the 1960s. They were signed to the Strike record label. In the early 1960s Jimmy Page was asked to join The Crusaders. Page toured with Christian for approximately two years, and later played on several of his

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, including their November 1962 single, "The Road to Love" / "The Big Beat Drum", released on Columbia and produced by

Joe Meek Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer, sound engineer and songwriter who pioneered space age and experimental pop music. He also assisted in the development of recording practices like over ...

under his RGM Sound imprint. At various times the band included

Albert Lee Albert William Lee (born 21 December 1943) is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked, both in the studio and on tour, with many famous musicians from a wide range of genres. He has also mai ...

and Alex Dmochowski, who later joined Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation.Larkin C 'Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) p112 When most of the line-up left to join Lord Sutch's Savages in 1965, Christian took on members of Luton Band The Hustlers, including

Mick Abrahams Michael Timothy Abrahams (born 7 April 1943) is an English guitarist and band leader, best known for being the original guitarist for Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1968 and the frontman for Blodwyn Pig. Jethro Tull Abrahams was born in Luton, B ...

, although in 1966 a touring version of The Crusaders was put together to promote the hit single "That's Nice" which consisted of Tony Marsh (

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

) (b. Anthony Marsh, 1946); Jimmy "Tornado" Evans ( drums);

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guita ...

(

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

); and Bibi Blange ( bass). Further singles failed to reach the charts, however, and Christian moved to Germany, where he remained popular. In fall 1970, Christian took on the management of Crushed Butler who changed their name to Tiger. Christian got them into recording studios both in Wembley at the new De Lane Lea Studios where he produced five songs by the band, and Tooting, London, at a demo studio producing the first version of Tiger’s glam rock song “High School Dropout” in January 1971. Everything Christian released between 1962 and 1968 has been reissued on the CD

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products *Compilation thesis M ...

, ''That's Nice'', which also added several unreleased recordings from the same era. Allmusic.com biography by Richie Unterberger/ref>

Related session musicians

Paul Brett Paul Brett (born 20 June 1947 in Fulham, London) is an English classic rock guitarist. He played lead guitar with Strawbs (although he was never actually a member), The Overlanders, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Ope ...

* Jimmy Page *

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

Carlo Little Carl O'Neil Little (17 December 1938 – 6 August 2005), better known by his stage name Carlo Little, was a rock and roll drummer, based in the London nightclub scene in the 1960s. He played in an early version of the Rolling Stones. Little ...

References

External links

* Allmusic.com - biographybr>Chartwatch.com - discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Neil 1943 births 2010 deaths People from Hoxton English male singers Singers from London

Career

Related session musicians

See also

References

External links