Keith Christmas was a student of engineering at Bristol University when he recorded his debut album Stimulus (1969) at Sound Techniques, Chelsea. Inspired by guitar legends he was seeing at the folk clubs such as Bert Jansch, this debut was laid down very quickly with Mighty Baby as his backing band and with the late Vic Gamm engineering on the original Sound Techniques 4 track console. Signed up to producer Sandy Roberton‘s September Productions, Keith would record a further two albums with Sandy at Sound Techniques: Fable Of The Wings (1970) & Pigmy (1971). Pigmy was engineered by the lovely Jerry Boys.
You can hear Keith’s confidence growing parallel to the technological growth into 8 track recording through these albums as he enlists friends like Shelagh McDonald, Rod Argent, Gerry Conway and Pat Donaldson to help, along with many fine arrangements from Nick Drake‘s friend and favourite arranger Robert Kirby. Kirby has finally been celebrated with a posthumous release When The Day Is Done on Ace Records collecting some of his orchestrations with many of the artists of the period recording at Sound Techniques, Chelsea. Listening to Forest & The Shore from album Pigmy on this compilation is an epic sound journey and it is easy to see why Keith is considered one of the top singer-songwriters of the period. It is great to see Keith on this album alongside Nick Drake, Shelagh McDonald, Vashti Bunyan, Shirley Collins, Sandy Denny and many more.
The Parts You Don’t Hear had a great time chatting to Keith at his home in Torquay. Many stories abound about those hazy days including his hilarious account of a photo session with Keith Morris. You can catch Keith touring regularly around the UK so please check out his website where you can also buy his albums including the fantastic Crazy Dancing Days. Listening to this new material it is clear that Keith’s music and songwriting continues to go from strength to strength.
