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UK SInger Songwriter
In 1969 Keith Christmas recorded his first album ‘Stimulus’ at Sound Control in Chelsea, London when he was signed up by Sandy Roberton. Mighty Baby were given the task of backing the tracks and partly because of this it has become a collector’s item
That same year because of the gigs he played as the main act at the Beckenham Arts Lab, then run by a rising star called David Bowie, he was asked to play the acoustic guitar on David’s first album ‘Space Oddity’. He played his Fender Palomino Acoustic guitar while David played his 12-string on ‘Letter to Hermione’, ‘God Knows I’m Good’ and ‘Occasional Dream’
That year he was asked by Michael Eavis to appear at a small festival in Pilton later known as the Glastonbury Festival. He made many appearances in the years that followed, some as a booked artist and some simply turning up and playing.
In 1970 he recorded the album ‘Fable of the Wings’ and in 1971 he wrote and recorded the highly-acclaimed ‘Pigmy’
Beckenham Free Festival, August 16, 1969 supporting David Bowie
That summer he graduated from the University of Bath. He finished lectures on Tuesday and by Friday was trying to convince a doorman at the Leicester DeMontford Hall to let him in as he was the support act that night for The Who
Supporting the Who, Sunday 4 Leicester De Montford Hall July 1971 – photo kind permission of the Keith Morris Estate
Two highly-charged gigs later and he was on a UK tour firstly with King Crimson then straight after, Ten Years After.
Throughout the 70’s, as well as playing club and University gigs all over the UK and Europe he was also the opening act for Argent, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, The Kinks and Roxy Music’s first UK tour. He also toured as singer for the multi-European prog-rock band Esperanto
Dressing room, Esperanto tour 1q974
In 1974 after splitting with Sandy Roberton, he was signed by ELP’s house label Manticore and with firstly Greg Lake, then Peter Sinfield producing, recorded the album ‘Brighter Day’. Keith formed a band at this point as the music he was creating was heading further and further away from the folk genre but after some very successful gigs at the Roundhouse in Camden Town and the London Marquee, together with his manager Jackie Krost of BKM, they decided to head to LA and write the next album there. Keith settled into the famous Sunset Tower on Sunset Boulevard and in the 20 months that followed recorded ‘Stories From the Human Zoo’ at the legendary Indigo Ranch studios at the head of Solstice Canyon in Malibu
Recording ‘Stories from the Human Zoo’ summer 1975
In 1976 he came back to an England gripped by financial crisis and after a few years stopped playing.
In the 80’s he raised his children running a Painting and Decorating company in London, later expanding his business to full house renovations in the booming property market of London, then in the 90’s retrained as a teacher and taught Design Technology in Bristol city schools for 19 years
Retiring in 2013 did not mean any lessening of workload as he and his wife took on a series of major house renovations and in June 2015 Keith went to France and started writing again, and this time the ideas were really starting to flow. Two weeks later and seven songs started, he came back to England and finished the album in less than 10 months.
‘Crazy Dancing Days’ was released in January 2017 and early versions of eight songs that were posted on YouTube, SoundCloud and Fandalism were played over 47,000 times, 14,000 of those plays for one track ‘Cross the Water’, an appeal for tolerance to refugees
Orkney Festival, 1998
Over the next 18 months Keith raised the songwriting bar yet again and ‘Life, Life’ was released in September 2019 with a beautiful painted cover by award-winning artist David Alderslade.
Containing stunning new songs such as “Love in the Gold’, ‘Round the Stones’ and ‘Book of Magic’, Shindig Magazine gave it a 5 star review in October and called it “the year’s finest acoustic release to date”.
Keith is currently writing the next album
Signing CDs – 2021