Keith Christmas

Keith Christmas:
More Tales From The Human Zoo

Keith Christmas came through during the late sixties playing his own brand of folk and rock tinged pop. More famously Keith played on the David Bowie album that would eventually be titled Space Oddity. From there he formed a rock band briefly before signing a solo deal with Emerson Lake and Palmer's record label Manticore. While with Manticore Keith Christmas released two albums Tales From The Human Zoo and Brighter Day the first of which Brighter Day was produced by ELP and former King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield. After these two albums Keith became disenchanted with the music business and dropped out for many years before reappearing with a new blues influenced style. In late 2004 Keith spoke to Jon Kirkman about his diverse and interesting career

Jon Kirkman
Tell us about playing on David Bowie's Space Oddity and how did that come about

Keith Christmas
It came about because he was running a sort of folk club in the late sixties when folk was really popular but being the sixties David called it the Beckenham Arts Lab and it was at the Three Tuns a pub on Beckenham High Street and out the back was a very large garden where people would go and commune with nature and various substances. It was a very popular place and stars like Marc Bolan used to go there and I was one of his favourite guests and he used to play and have a bit of a strum and be the warm up. Anyway I played his club a load of times and he asked me to go and play on his record which had the big production number on it Space Oddity which was done elsewhere and he had an album to fill up sort of fairly ordinary tracks and I played on around five of them

JK
You had released a number of albums prior to the Manticore deal, which covers Brighter Day, and Stories From The Human Zoo but these albums weren't as rocky as the Manticore albums why was that?

KC
The first three were done in 69-70 and 71. They were done while I was still at university and were more folk jazz oriented. The third one particularly had a band side with some really good musicians who played with Stephen Stills. We had Fuzzy Samuels on bass and on the other side was acoustic with strings arranged by Robert Kirby who did one of the Nick Drake albums and it was my sort of artistic experiment to show two sides of me. I was a folkie but I desperately wanted to be a rocker. I think if I'd had a bit more wit and common sense I would have realised that I haven't got the voice to be a rocker and I probably haven't got the temperament to be a rocker either and if I'd have stuck with the acoustic I'd have probably been alright.
Then there was a gap or hiatus when my management of the time dumped me down the toilet along with all the other artists and I found myself languishing in the country for a couple of years having finished university and I was doing alright gig wise but I didn't really know how to hustle but luckily I managed to get a deal with Manticore via Greg Lake with Pete Sinfield producing. To say those albums were more rocky wouldn't be totally correct, as in places it's quite folky. Its a bit of a mix though as some of those tracks are quite ethereal and some are very heavy. So that was Brighter Day. Human Zoo was recorded in Los Angeles with a bunch of session musicians.


JK
Tell us how the deal with Manticore came about and what it was like recording with Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield.

KC
Well Greg was weird (Laughs) No Greg was a mega star he was a member of one of the biggest bands in the world. Greg and the boys always thought big talked big, spent big and of course earned big. That was what they were used to and the way it was for them. I mean we booked Command studios went in there and Greg snapped his fingers and curries arrived and snapped his fingers again and musicians arrived. We banged these four tracks down together and then he disappeared to go off and do other ELP type things and handed the production over to Pete Sinfield. So initially some of it was done by Greg and then he swanned off to be a star and Pete did the rest. He did make me laugh though when we came to the financial reckoning at the end he had charged me for the curries (Laughs) Actually in fact he charged me half for the curries (Laughs) I thought that was funny.

JK
Were there any compromises made for the album or was it a joint effort between the three of you (Yourself/Greg Lake/ Pete Sinfield)

KC
Compromises? Well in a way I was very innocent and as a person I'm quite compliant so if someone comes along and says this person has got a great deal for you and this person is famous. I'll admit I was probably a bit of a groupie probably still am really certainly I was then. So these people would come along and I'd say everything was fantastic I'd turn around and say yeah that's good or whatever. I don't think I've ever turned round to anyone and said well I don't know if I want six-part sax on that on that or whether that is the right instrument for that track. I suppose if I'd had a bit more wit and wisdom I might have been a little more aggressive about my opinions but I'm of the opinion of get on with it and get on with something else. I don't suppose it's very professional really is it? So yes in a way I suppose it was one big compromise really. They would tell me what to do and then I did what I wanted (Laughs).


JK
Following the release of Brighter Day how much live work did you undertake and whom did you tour with. Was it just you as a solo act or did you form a band to tour the album. Did you play any festivals aside from the Glastonbury Festival, which was prior to Brighter Day?

KC
I'm not sure really I don't remember. Well I remember before Brighter Day I was doing solo gigs but they were beginning to dry up a little bit. I was doing all right solo wise and I'd done a few tours after I left university. At the time 71-72 73 ish I toured quite heavily and then I had a bit of a quiet period. In 74 I did Brighter Day and after that I put a band together and I remember we did two gigs. One was at the Marquee, which got great reviews.

JK
Why did you decide to record Stories From The Human Zoo in Los Angeles?


KC
Well after the two gigs with the band I signed for management with Jack Cross and he said I should go to America and I said ok that sounds like a good idea. So I said to the band after these two gigs. "Sorry lads that's the only two gigs we're going to do" and that was that. At the time Jack said let's go and live in America I'd always wanted to live in America anyway and also I'd had some pretty hard years. I’d done a lot of sleeping on people's sofas. I remember when I was recording Brighter Day I was sleeping on someone's sofa so you can see that I was two stages removed from what people thought a successful musicians life was about. So I'd been pretty poor and we were doing a lot of drugs I'll admit that and so America gave me the chance to get away from all that, which is of course what I did. I think it was a very good idea to get away from London So why Stories From The Human Zoo was done in LA was because that was where I had gone with Jack. They actually gave me the chance to go and do it with Creedence Clearwater up in San Francisco. Thinking back that might have been a better idea but I didn't want to do another album with a band I'd done that in the past with Mighty Baby and they were a great bunch of guys but the recording was done very hastily and the quality of the stuff that came out I didn't like. I'd been writing stuff that was across such a wide range of styles that I didn't want to get tied into one thing so I thought that was better.


JK
The album has a very American feel to it was this the plan at the time and in hindsight are you happy with the direction the album took

KC
It was interesting because some of the musicians like Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn were wonderful and legends and other great musicians playing on it. It was done at Mike Pinder's (ex Moody Blues) studio in the canyons north of LA and it was really cut off from everything and we'd been up there a week or so and this strange character comes up and says Hi I'm Mike Pinder! Anyway In terms of style when I first met the girl who is now my wife one of the things she asked me about was my albums so we sat down one night and got an old tape deck out and played them all and something struck me very strongly that the first three had a very rough and ready feel to them in places, mistakes, naive writing very naive playing but they did improve. The production went from awful to pretty good. So with these later albums you can hear I am almost learning my craft sort of having to grow up. There was more money spent on them of course. They are slightly darker albums but they are better produced




JK
Following Stories From The Human Zoo you took a rather low profile and in 1981 withdrew from the music business why was this.

KC
(Laughs) Well I came back to England in 1976 there was no market for artists like me. It was black cold wet and miserable with strikes going on and everything and I struggled on. I wound up in a little bedsit and then wound up on the dole because I couldn't get anything. I was watching everything coming apart. Believe me there's nothing great about being poor and I just got fed up and I realised I wasn't going to be anymore than I was at that moment so I started digging holes in the ground for a living. That was the only work I could get. After twelve years of being a musician I was unemployable I had no real life skills at all and I remember quite clearly I was thirty-five years of age. I'd got a degree and I'd recorded five albums and I'm digging holes in the ground!
I went round my mind like a rat in a cage looking for one door out and there was only one door and I realised that I had to dig better and deeper and longer holes and be the best digger of holes I could then I realised from that moment on that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
I did that for a while a few years actually and then left that to train as a teacher.


JK
What made you want to move back into the music business in the late eighties? Was the musical climate more to your liking?

KC
I never moved back. I have never become a musician again. I'm not a musician. I'm a teacher now. Inside in my soul I will be a musician until I die. It's never left me so I don't have to go back to it. I just don't do it as a job.
I have dabbled with a few things like a working band for a few years and made albums like Weatherman. Then I did a solo album in my front room, which I'm very proud of. So I've never really gone back to it but every now and then a bit of product comes out.



JK
Weatherman in 1991 was a return but with a blues format to it is this where you would like to be musically

KC
It goes back to what I said earlier about having the mind of a rocker and the voice of a folky.

JK
In closing then. What does the future hold for Keith Christmas?

KC
I don't know. The way I used to live my life I used to make things happen and forced them into the mould as I thought they should be. Unfortunately that wasn't the best way for me as a person, it doesn't suit me. I'm much better making things happen organically rather than forcing them. So what I have is a very nice life. I've got beautiful wife great kids and a nice house and some time in the next two years I'm going to be able to take a pension from my job and that's the time to look at some of the plans I have in my mind.
© Jon Kirkman 2004 and 2011

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