The Christians are a soul musical ensemble from Liverpool, England. They had the highest selling debut album of any artist at Island Records and international chart hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 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 1998 from brain tumour) (vocals, instrumentalist), Russell Christian (born 8 July 1956) (keyboards, saxophone, vocals), and Henry Priestman (born Henry Christian Priestman, 21 June 1955, in Kingston upon Hull, brought up in Liverpool) (keyboards, guitars, vocals) formed the band in 1985. Paul Barlow (drums), Mike Bulger (guitar/vocals) and Tony Jones on bass were also early members. Because of a reluctance to tour, Roger left in 1987 to record a solo album.
In Rock: The Rough Guide, critic Charles Bottomley, described them as "The Temptations in ripped jeans, producing gritty-centred songs in a sugary vocal shell".
Links to Peel[]
Peel was enthusiastic about some of the band's songs in the late 80's and even played some of them on his shows, including their cover of the Beatles' Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
On his 28th December 1988 show, after the Christians concert was broadcast before his programme, he praised them as 'sounding as good as they did just now on Radio 1 FM'
After the 80's, when the band's popularity declined, Peel never played any of their material.
Shows Played[]
- 26 January 1987: Forgotten Town (LP - The Christians) Island (JP: 'Top quality pop here from the John Peel wingding. Those are the Christians and that's a big favourite of course with our Janice as well and that's called Forgotten Town')
- 1988
- 16 February 1988: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (v/a LP - Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father) New Musical Express