Prepared and carried out by Frankie Bluesy Pfeiffer
March 2010 During Chris Birketts performances at the Déchargeurs in Paris
Photos : © Frankie Bluesy Pfeiffer
Chris Birkett may be unassuming even if his CV is rather impressive. Hell tell you chapter and verse about his second album without ever mentioning hes worked on albums with heavy weights such as Sinead OConnor, Buffy Sainte Marie, Alison Moyet, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Pogues, Talking Heads, Bob Geldof, Mel Brooks, Mango Groove, Siedah Garrett, Thomas Dolby, Steve Earle. He is certainly somebody in the music world and for the second time, he crosses the line to go on the other side, to make an album whose title is inspiring: “Freedom”.
With a mentor like Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, Moody Blues, etc.) we just had to meet him.
FP: So Chris, tell us about the first guitar you made when you were just 8 years old?
CB: I made the guitar from pieces of wood I found lying around and the strings came from an old banjo a friend had. It had a sound somewhere between a Chinese Pipa and a banjo.
FP: Why a guitar, why not drums or singing?
CB: I don't know why I chose this instrument, I played drums first. I was a drummer in the Sea Cadets band and I was always getting into trouble at school as I was always practicing on the desk top. To me, the guitar seemed a natural evolution from the drums.
FP: Who were you influenced by at that age?
CB: Chet Atkins, Les Paul, The shadows, mostly guitar music. Moving on, a few years later, I remember that Deep Purple played once at my school and I was mesmerized by Richie Blackmore. He came from the same area I did and later I took guitar lessons with his guitar teacher, Big Jim Sullivan.
FP: You grew up in a tough area, didnt you?
CB: I grew up in a very bad area. Most of my friends where getting into trouble, some were in prison. I felt a bit like a misfit as I didn't like going out and getting into fights and destroying things. So I sat at home with a bunch of records from The Beatles, The Stones, Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, etc. and learned how to play by ear the solos on these records. This saved me from being involved in my friends criminal activities of my friends.
FP: You then go on to play in your first band, aged 14...
CB: My first group was called "Friends of Fernburg". That's the old name for Farnborough, the town I grew up in. I was very dedicated and serious about playing, although I felt that the other group members didnt have the same aims as mine. They were more focused on their careers and college work. Music was everything to me, it was my salvation from a desperate and miserable life. We stayed together on a semi-professional basis for a few years but we never became professional. I was training to be an aircraft electronic engineer at the Royal establishment in Farnborough during the day and at night, I would play in clubs with my band. I didnt get much time to sleep in those days. Many years later, my training in electronics came in very useful. I have now built 4 recording studios.
FP: What did you play?
CB: We played songs by The Beatles, Rory Gallagher, Free, etc. and we also wrote own pieces.
FP: What good memories do you keep of those years?
CB: I don't have many positive memories of that time. I was practically an orphan, I never knew my mother, she left me when I was 3 years old, and I hardly ever saw my father who was a long distance truck driver. At that time, all I wanted to do was to escape and become a professional musician. The big difference between then and now is the social support structure. In those days, in the UK, It was possible to get enough unemployment benefit to live, pay rent, buy food etc. This enabled many young bands to stay together, practice, write songs, etc., without having to do full time work. Today it is very different. Young musicians can't survive on state aid and so they are forced to take full time employment. This has made a big difference in the "group creativity and spirit" that existed in the 60's and 70's. Song writers now tend to work in isolation on their lap top computers, the group energy phenomena has practically disappeared.
FP: You then joined the Montana Dogs for an 18 month tour at the age of 21. How did it go?
CB: I was working night shifts in a petrol station in Peckham, south east London. The bass player from "Montana Red Dog" came to see me at 2am, I had been recommended to him and he needed a guitarist for an 18 month tour of Germany. The band was due to leave the next day, so I had to make a quick decision.
FP: What do you remember of those 18 months on tour?
CB: This tour was very educational for me. We were playing on the American NATO bases, entertaining the troops. I would listen to the latest music from America on the juke boxes at the bases. I discovered great music from artists such as James Brown, The Ohio players, The Commodores, Tower of Power, stuff that I had never heard in the UK. We became known as the best R&B/Soul band in Germany. The concerts became more and more exciting, we had an Afro American female singer and eventually I started to take the mike as vocalist on some songs. The agency we were working for asked us to be the backing band for all of the Memphis stars that came to play for the troops. I did tours in Germany, and also other European countries with Rufus Thomas, Ann Peebles, Jean Knight and King Floyd. During that time I met Rod Temperton, who was in a band called "Johnny Wilders Chicago Heat Wave". We played many concerts with this band that later became "Heat Wave" and went on to have an international hit with "Boogie nights". Rod later became a writer for Michael Jackson and wrote songs for the album "Thriller".
FP: As for you, you then join Love Affair
CB: I joined 'Love Affair' a few years after their hit with 'Everlasting love'. I was not involved with making the record. We were touring all the time in England, Scotland and Ireland as a result of that hit. We also had a second release called 'Rainbow Valley'.
FP: Were you disappointed to join after they had this hit?
CB: No, as I did have a hit with my own group called 'Cry Sisco'. The hit was a song I wrote called 'Afro Dizzi Act'. It was fun to constantly hear it on the radio. I would be walking in London and sometimes would hear my song from a passing car. Later on I had many hits as a producer/engineer for example 'Geno' by Dexys Midnight Runners and 'Nothing compares 2U' by Sinead OConnor, etc. It was the same feeling of satisfaction hearing my work on the radio.
FP: With Love Affair, you shared the stage with Led Zeppelin How did that happen and where?
CB: This pleasurable meeting took place on the Island of Guernsey between England and France while I was in 'Love affair'. Led Zep was there for the same reason we were, it was a tax haven at the time. We were playing in a club for 3 months and Led Zep would come every night and jam with us.
FP: So you played with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant?
CB: Yes I played with the entire band. I was a big fan of John Bonham, he was my favourite rock drummer at the time. Jimmy Page loved my guitar. I had a 1959 Fender Stratocaster that I had modified. I built a pre-amp inside the guitar to boost the power for solos. It was probably the first active guitar known. A few years later I met Rory Gallagher, who also was very impressed with that same guitar.
FP: Do you still keep touch with the members of Led Zep?
CB: Unfortunately no. It was a very special time but we all had our direction and our paths never crossed again. John Bonham was one of the most powerful minimalist drummers I ever met. He told me that he would only allow one microphone on his drums in the studio. John-Paul Jones is a great riffer and also a good keyboard player. Jimmy Page is the arranger genius behind the band. Robert Plant was one of the best ever "screamers". The thing I remember most was an event with John Bonham. I was in the toilets at the club and he came in, followed by a paparazzi type photographer. The guy had no respect for John's privacy and tried to photograph him in the toilet. John picked him up by his feet and held him up-side down. It scared the "bejesus" out of him. I remember all the loose change falling out of his pockets.
FP: In the end, with these tours, isnt it a period of your life which ends when the tour finishes?
CB: Touring is a very strange and almost unreal experience. The level of excitement and constant flood of heightened adventure is a sharp contrast to ordinary life. After a tour it is very difficult to get back into a day to day routine existence. I think it must be the same for a soldier coming back home after being in a war.
FP: And then, you met Tony Visconti. How did you two meet?
CB: The bass player of 'Love affair' told me about a new band called 'Omaha Sheriff' who was about to sign a contract with Tony Visconti's 'Good Earth records'. They were looking for a guitarist to complete their line up before making their first album. I auditioned and got the job. We recorded the first album at Tony's studio in Shepherds Bush, London. He was producing David Bowie and Mark Bolan at the time I met him.
FP: What relationship did he have with the musicians?
CB: Tony had a way of adapting to any musical environment. Apart from being a great rock and pop producer, he was also an excellent string arranger. He had the soul of a great musician, and could communicate intuitively with any artist. I learned to do the same during the two albums he produced for my band. He also played as a guest bass player on 2 tracks of my new album 'Freedom'. He still burns bright like an Olympic torch.
FP: What attracted you to Tony?
CB: What attracted me to him most was his ability to encourage the best performance from an artist. He was also a great sound engineer.
FP: Why did you leave your musician side to work as a sound engineer?
CB: I never stopped being a musician during all the years I worked, first as a sound engineer then as a producer/arranger. One of the reasons I had so much success in record production was because I was a musician. My electronic training helped but this was secondary. For me the creative process is the most important. To participate in the flow of energy from the divine to the material world is something that happens on all levels. It doesn't matter which side of the studio window you are on.
FP: Isnt it frustrating not to be under the projectors?
CB: Sometimes I was frustrated. If the artist I was working with abused me or didn't show any respect I found it hard to deal with. In my experience the artists with the least talent would cause the most problems. I was working with some very talented artists, I was learning from them, so this was never frustrating. People like Buffy Sainte Marie, Sinead OConnor and Bob Geldof helped to shape my vision of the world. I believe that the universe is full of beauty looking for a way to manifest itself. Whatever kind of artist you are, you must understand that you are a vehicle for this manifestation. If you think like that, there is no question of egocentricity. I believe that music doesn't come from me, it comes through me. I feel that I am "in the service of music".
FP: You are still in touch with some artists like Buffy Sainte-Marie. Isnt it because, like me, you are from an older generation?
CB: The old and new generations have the same aspirations, to create and to perform their creations. I'm always surprised when I hear young musicians talking about artists from the 50's onwards. It's a kind of re-cycling of the same message.
FP: From all the artists you worked with, which ones did you have a special relationship with, that little extra thing which transforms a professional relationship into a friendship, a human relationship?
CB : Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tony Visconti, The Makumbi Orphan Choir, Etran Finatawa, Sierra Maestra (Buena Vista Social Club), Talitha Mackenzie,
FP: And amongst French artists?
CB: Ali Amran, Sarah Eden, Marc Berthoumeux and Andre Ceccarelli.
FP: Why did you come to live in France in 1993?
CB: I was at a crossroad in my life. In London I was working constantly and never had a chance to see my children. I came back from Africa once and found that they were calling my in-house engineer "Dad". I was missing the most important thing in my life, my children growing up. I decided to move away from London and start a new life in France. I bought an old Chateau near to St Emilion and built a residential studio. I could work from home with my international clients and be there for my family.
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