The Christians, The Duchess, York, August 28

2:51pm Thursday 26th August 2010

By Charles Hutchinson

GARRY Christian is keeping the Christian name alive in the Liverpool soul band The Christians.

Celebrating 24 years as the front man, 45-year-old Garry will be leading the relatively new formation of Joey Ankrah, Neil Griffiths, Lionel Duke and Clifford Watson at The Duchess in York on Saturday.

This will be The Christians’ first appearance in the city for ten years, and the wait has been a little longer than first planned, as originally they were booked to play on June 19.

All but drummer Duke will be contributing vocals to the distinctive, harmony-rich Christians sound once made by Garry, Russell and (the late) Roger Christian and Henry Priestman. “What I’m really pleased about is that we have all the vocals back, because that’s what we’re renowned for,” says Garry.

“From our first single, it was like, ‘Oh hello, these guys can sing in harmony’, and for me, when I was growing up, I always listened to harmonies. If bands could do harmonies, I had a lot of respect for them.”

The Christians made an instant impact when their self-titled debut album of socially-aware soul songs entered the charts at number two in 1987, given impetus by three first three singles, Forgotten Town, Hooverville (They Promised Us The World) and When The Fingers Point. Further hits followed with Born Again, Harvest For The World and Words, and in 1993 they made the Top 40 for the last time with The Bottle, peaking at number 39 that March.

Come 1995, Garry uprooted to Paris. “I just think I needed a break. I went for the weekend…and stayed there for five years,” he recalls.

He made a solo album but The Christians never left his soul. “We haven’t really stopped since I got back from France at the end of ’99. I met up with the lads again as we always said, ‘Let’s not say we’ve split up but we’re just having a break’ and so we came back with a 33-date acoustic tour and we thought, ‘hey, there’s life in the old dog yet’.”

Indeed there is, as new material continues to be added to The Christians’ live set. “We have some new songs every time we do a tour; we’ll sneak in a new song through the back door, saying ‘marks out of ten for that one’ to see if it’ll go on the album.”

Ah, did Garry just say “the album”? Will there be a new Christians’ album, in the wake of their March single, a cover of Cat Stevens’s Where Do The Children Play? “We’ve been working on new material for 15 years now, and it’s definitely coming out next year or the year after that…but when it comes out it will be so, so good,” promises Garry.

Whether or not a new album emerges, the legacy of The Christians as the soulful social conscience of the 1980s will never be diminished. “Back in the Eighties, we had Thatcherism decimating the north, so that was an obvious thing to write about as we were never a pop band but tried to put pop elements into those songs without being over the top about the politics,” says Garry.

“I like to think that they’ve kept their contemporary edge. They still stand up, like Ideal World, which is even more relevant today, now we have a whole new audience.”

The Christians play The Duchess, York, Saturday; doors, 7.30pm. Tickets are still valid from their postponed June 19 show. Box office: 0844 477 1000