I’m unashamedly plugging my mate on this one! It’s not generally realised, as Jeff played guitar in the Christie line -up in which I featured on bass for over 15 years – but from his 60′s pop roots with The Outer Limits (who toured with Hendrix) through to the multi-million selling”Yellow River” hitmakers Christie, Jeff was a successful bass player/lead vocalist – not to mention a great songwriter. The U.K. pop band Tremeloes ignored Jeff’s songwriting skills to their cost however, as they turned down the chance to release Yellow River and Jeff proceeded to take it to Number One all over the world himself.
The initial Christie line-up was in fact a trio with Jeff providing the pumping bass lines underneath his distinctive vocal. A victim of their overwhelming singles success with “Yellow River” and “San Bernadino”, the band struggled to recreate those sales on subsequent, more experimental releases. But a look back at the album “For all Mankind” illustrates just what a great band Christie was, particularly with regard to Jeff’s writing. The title track of the album is still a great listen. Sony recently re-released the entire Christie canon on remastered CD’s and the fantastic artist-friendly UK label Angel Air have just released a double set featuring all Jeff’s early Outer Limits recordings, plus a previously unreleased solo album from the early 80′s entitled Floored Masters.
Jeff is a great example of a bassist as an all-rounder, singer – songwriter – bandleader – hitmaker.
Check out Ray Chan’s excellent Christie site HERE.
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