Liverpool's The Christians made waves on the music scene during the late 1980s; and their '87 double-platinum release fed the singles chart with four Top 30 hits - Forgotten Town, Hooverville, Ideal World and Born Again.
Incidentally, that album remains the highest selling debut album by any band on the prestigious Island record label.
During the three decades that have followed, The Christians have continued to tour and release new music, and the band, still fronted by Garry Christian, will play Bedford Esquires in April.
Garry talked music with Total MK...
The song that first awakened your musical senses
I wanna hold your hand .. it was so exciting and raw.
I was about eight – it was just something so different to what we’d been hearing on the radio. It made me feel really alive and with music swimming round in my head. I wanted to hear it again and again and again.
It made a life long fan of The Beatles from that moment to this day.
Physical or digital - how do you take your music?
Physical. I see the digital age as something that contributed to the demise of the music industry.
I think the older generation lost their connection with it … it became all about downloads and solitary listening on headphones – music used to bring people together - something people did together, a bit like sex!
Now its all about streaming and youtube and just a lonely experience. Whoever thought of streaming is responsible for killing album sales – not a clever move.
That’s why people LOVE coming to our gigs – they listen to songs that make them happy and nostalgic TOGETHER.
The first time you thought 'Music - this is the job for me'
Probably when I was about 12 or 13 – because my older brothers Denny Roger were in a group called The Gems. I just remember I really wanted to be in the group but I was too young.
One of the singers was sick one day and I said ‘I’ll take his place,’ but Denny just looked at me and laughed.
Your best on stage memory...
The SOS festival in Paris roughly about 1990 .. we went onstage just before Bruce Springsteen – he was chatting to me sidestage before I went on.
We played to about 150,000 people – it was crazy and they loved every single second of it.
The Christians were massive in France at the time. Meeting Springsteen was pretty special but we went on to open to James Brown and Fleetwood Mac so we’ve done a few special openers.
And the worst gig you've ever done
At the very start of our fame we did a venue called JB’s in Dudley. There were six punks sitting across the stage facing away from us.
At the end of this very long room were a few Island Record reps at the bar.
Forgotten Town was on the brink of release and we were doing a few ‘warm up’ gigs and that was one of them. A few months later we went back and you couldn’t even get into the building it was so rammed.
What made you take up singing
I suppose it was a combination of hearing The Beatles, my brothers' band, but then hearing Ray Charles ‘In the Heat of the Night’ I thought I want to do that.
My mother was always singing and obviously the whole family were very musical.
It was just ‘in us all’ to sing and play music. My brother Vic went on to become a music teacher … I went on to be in The Christians with Roger and Russell and my younger brothers Mark and Kevin both love singing.
I suppose we naturally harmonised together growing up – it was natural for us to take up the different Temptations parts.
Which one song by another artist do you wish you had written
What's Going On – Marvin Gaye – still so relevant … also Inner City Blues (which we cover very well, I'm told)
It Aint Me Babe – Bob Dylan (which my partner says is written about me)
And one - by yourself - which holds special significance
Father, on our third album Happy in Hell. It was obviously about my father and I. It wasn’t the easiest of relationships and the song documents that well. He was quite a ‘distant’ figure growing up
Are there any current influences you look to
Never current. I still love Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, … I'm not a big fan of current music scene.
I feel that the labels just focus on the ‘safe earners’ .. Ed Sheeran, Adele etc and there’s not enough encouragement for up and coming bands. Favourites of recent times have been James Morrison and Beverly Knight – they have raw soul .. would love to do songs with either or both.
If you could step into the shoes of another musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
Otis Reading, because he was so powerful and put 110% into every performance. His band were so tight and it was just so tragic that he joined the 27 club along with Janis Joplin, Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse etc
And any genre of music that you simply can't stand?
Dance music … thud thud thud. You shouldn’t need to pop pills to get into music
Finally, plug your show in Bedford - what can we expect?
We sing ALL our hits … people all say the same; 'I’d forgotten how well I know that,' but our album The Christians still remains the highest selling debut album from any group. It was triple platinum and had seven singles released – we sing all of them – and a couple of new … we meet fans after the show and sign vinyl and cds t shirts etc.
I'm told I'm very entertaining inbetween songs, and could easily have been a comedian!
> The Christians will play Bedford Esquires on April 19. Tickets are now on sale. To book yours click here
For daily leisure and news stories in Milton Keynes follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thisistotalmk
And on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thisistotalmk
