Christie are an English

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

band that formed at the end of the 1960s. They are best remembered for their UK chart-topping

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

", released in 1970, which hit number one in 26 countries that year.

Career

In addition to Jeff Christie (born Jeffrey Christie, 12 July 1946, Chapel Allerton,

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, Yorkshire, England) their vocalist, bassist and songwriter; they initially included guitarist Vic Elmes and drummer Mike Blakley (born Michael Blakley, 12 January 1947,

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

, Kent, England, brother of Alan Blakley). Jeff Christie had previously worked with several bands, including The Outer Limits, who released "Just One More Chance" / "Help Me Please" (1967) and "Great Train Robbery" / "Sweet Freedom" (1968). In 1970, Jeff Christie offered his composition "

" to The Tremeloes. They recorded it to release as a single but changed their minds as they were going more progressive as the seventies started. At the same time Tremeloes member Alan Blakley's brother Michael had a little group called the Epics and Alan wanted to give his brother a break. They decided to get Jeff Christie to come down from Leeds and let him use the Tremeloes' backing track. The Epics became Christie with Jeff as the lead vocalist and the result was a UK number one hit in June 1970, and subsequently No. 23 in the US, also accumulating more weeks (23) on the Hot 100 than any other entry on that chart completely inside 1970. It was a worldwide hit and was number one in 26 countries with global sales of over 3 million. The follow-up single from October 1970, " San Bernadino" (misspelled if referring to, for example, San Bernardino, California), reached UK Number 7 and Number 1 in Germany, but only US No. 100. Both tracks became flash songs on their eponymous debut album of that year, and it stayed on US

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, 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 repres ...

for ten weeks. But the trio failed to sustain a lasting career, and Blakley was replaced by Paul Fenton (born 4 July 1946, Huddersfield, Yorkshire) just before the release of the band's second album, ''For All Mankind'' (1971). Lem Lubin (ex- Unit 4 + 2) was added to the line-up after the release of ''Iron Horse'' (1972), but the title track proved to be the band's final

. The departure of Fenton and Lubin hastened the demise of the original line-up, but Jeff Christie returned with new members Terry Fogg (drums) (born Terrence George Fogg, 25 September 1945, Chesterfield, Derbyshire), Roger Flavell (bass), and Danny Krieger (guitar). A 1974 single "Alabama" / "I'm Alive" failed to resurrect the band's fortunes, and new members Tony Ferguson (guitar) and Roger Willis (drums) were brought in to join Christie and Flavell. "JoJo's Band", written by Elmes, was a major hit for Christie in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, while the last Christie hit, "Navajo", was Number 1 in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In 1982 Vic Elmes enlisted Mick Blakley and Peter Morrison of NYPL, to tour Germany on a package tour. At the end of the tour, the band folded. The band recorded an Elmes song, Deep in the Night, produced by Alan Blakley. Jeff Christie reformed the band in 1990 with members of UK band Tubeless Hearts, Kev Moore, Simon Kay and Adrian 'Fos' Foster. Tubeless Hearts tried to represent United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 with a Jeff Christie song, "Safe in your Arms", but were unsuccessful. They continued to tour for a further 16 years all over Europe, Russia and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, recording intermittently. Following the release of Jeff Christie's ''Floored Masters'' double album, the 1990 line-up of Christie embarked on a 2009 European Tour. In 2012, a Christie double album, ''No Turn Unstoned'', was released, a collection of Christie demos and unreleased songs.

Band members

Current members

*Jeff Christie – bass, vocals, keyboards (1969–1976, 1990–present) *Simon Kay – guitar (1990–present) *Adrian Foster – drums (1990–present)

Former members

*Vic Elmes – guitar (1969–1973) *Paul Cardus - bass guitar (1969) *Mike Blakley – drums (1969–1970) * Paul Fenton – drums (1970–1973) *Lem Lubin – bass guitar (1972–1973) *Terry Fogg – drums (1973–1974) *Roger Flavell – bass guitar (1973–1976) *Danny Krieger – guitar (1973–1976) *Tony Ferguson – lead guitar (1974) *Roger Willis – drums (1974–1976) * Kev Moore – bass guitar (1990–2003)

Discography

Albums

* ''Christie'' (1970) * ''For All Mankind'' (1971) * ''Iron Horse'' – unreleased (1972) * ''Los Mas Grandes Exitos'' (1972) * ''Navajo'' eleased in Mexico(1974) * ''Christie Again – Greatest Hits and More'' (2004) * ''Jeff Christie – Floored Masters (Past Imperfect)'' (2009) * ''Christie – No Turn Unstoned'' (2012) * ''Jeff Christie – Here and now'' (2024)

Singles

Jeff Christie with The Outer Limits * "When the Work Is Thru'" (1967) * "Just One More Chance/Help Me Please" (1967) * "Great Train Robbery/Sweet Freedom" (1968) Christie Jeff Christie solo * "Both Ends of the Rainbow/Turn On Your Love Light, Turn on Your Lovelight" (1980) * "Tightrope/Somebody Else" (1980) * " Happy Christmas (War Is Over)/Yuletide Lights" (1997) * "Hattrick of Lions (Come on England)" (2010) * "You're Not There" with Lorenzo Gabanizza (2021) * "I guess I am the only one" with Lorenzo Gabanizza (2022) * "I don't want to live without you" with Lorenzo Gabanizza (2023) * "Rainy day man" with Lorenzo Gabanizza (2024)

References

Reference bibliography

* * *

External links

Christie official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Christie CBS Records artists English soft rock music groups Musical groups established in 1969 Musical groups disestablished in 1976 Musical groups reestablished in 1990 Rock music groups from Leeds 1969 establishments in England