Christy received its first mention in the Trade press in 'Music Week' of the 11th of November 1978, which said that Rob Cooksey and Martin Birch had formed a production company, Christy Records, in association with Curzon Sounds (q.v.), and that the company was to have its own label, with distribution via Selecta. According to the article both Cooksey and Birch had connections with Rock band Deep Purple: Cooksey had been their manager, while Birch had produced several of their albums and was currently producing for Rainbow. A couple of weeks later 'MW' of the 25th was able to reveal that the first release was to be 'Who Do You Love?' b/w 'Got To Rock And Roll' by Mainland, which for some reason was numbered CML-0104. The next single, 'By Your Side' b/w 'So Long', was also by Mainland; it appears to have been licensed to Charly Records (q.v.), as its catalogue number, CYS-1050, was taken from Charly's main series. Charly was credited on the label, and the Charly logo - not the Christy one - was featured on the picture sleeve. Copies can be found credited to 'Les Payne' on the 'A' side (2) and 'Les Payne And Mainland' on the 'B', and there were also picture discs. Subsequent singles, including another by Mainland, returned to the CML-0100 numbering; the group also recorded an album, 'Exposure' (ACML-0200; 1979). Power Pop / New Wave band the Night Pilots added a now modestly collectable single, 'Dancing With Myself' b/w 'Open Top Sports Car' (CML-0107; 11/79).
The next reference to Christy in 'MW' came in the issue of the 9th of June 1979, which gave the owner as Peter Salmon, of Curzon Sounds - by that time Birch had started producing for Whitesnake, so it may be that he had relinquished his interest in the company. The article describes Christy as Curzon Sounds' 'Pop' label, with the Curzon Sounds label itself being for MOR. It also said that Christy's distribution was by Pye and Charly, but that seems to have only applied to the current single, Mainland's second, as 'Music Master' gives the next two singles as being handled by Selecta. There may have been a slight hiatus after the Night Pilots' single, as catalogue numbers CML-0108 and 0109 seem not to have been used and there were no releases for the next ten months. Then 'Music Week' of the 20th of September reported that Christy had signed a pressing and distribution deal with Spartan, the first fruits of which were to be singles by David Prowse - the Green Cross Code man - and Don Estelle. Sadly these first fruits also seem to have been the last, for both Christy and Curzon Sounds.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.