11/8/69 Disc Magazine

[macfan 57]

Here is an old U.K. music magazine article about Chris, then Christine Perfect. This is Part I of the interview/article.

Who's Perfect? Christine's rise from shopgirl to stardom-by Penny Valentine

When Christine Perfect was 19 and studying to be a sculptress in Birmingham, she was roped into playing bass for a local group that didn't have a bass player.

The highpoint of their yearly engagement sheet at that time was playing at the Liberal club for one night each week.

The group later turned into Chicken Shack. The experience proved to be Christine Perfect's highly unlikely start in music. Unlikely because at the time Christine's background was hardly conducive to any entry into pop.

Christine Perfect. Born 1946 in the calm beauty of the Lake District. Brother, a lecturer in bio-chemistry, father a lecturer in music. Moved to Nottingham and then Birmingham. Attended Chillingham Road Junior School, Upland Secondary Modern School and Mosley Junior Art School.

"At Upland they seemed to think I had a lot of artistic talent which wasn't getting the right outlet. So I was transferred to Junior Art School when I was 13," she recalls.

From there it was a natural progression to Birmingham Art College. She stayed "until the bitter end at 20"-and emerged triumphant with an MDD degree. "Something that meant I was ready for precisely nothing."

Strict

Her interest in music which until this point had stayed somewhat in the background, had been naturally nurtured by her father's job.

"I had a pretty strict upbringing but my father was in many ways, an incredible eccentric. He even did 'gigs'-going to London to appear at the Wigmore Hall and places. And I got used to packing up and moving on when he changed lecturing jobs.

"I started writing songs at 16-whether they were any good is another matter-and later, when the Spencer Davis Group were the real stars of Birmingham, I'd trudge all over the place to watch them."

Despite her time being taken up with art, Christine had an innate love for show business. But her first outlet into the music field didn't come until she met two friends-Stan Webb and Andy Silvester-in a pub one night.

At the time they were playing with a group called "Shades Of Blue"-a name which Christine now shudders at and describes their music as rock/r-n-b. They were hardly at the pinnacle of success, but they did have a few dates booked and no bass guitarist. Christine had a very musical "ear" and a talent for picking things up. Which was how a lady artist of Birmingham found herself on stage one night bashing hell out of a guitar.

"We used to kill ourselves laughing, saying I looked like someone from the Honeycombs or the Applejacks."

When she finally emerged from art school, waving her degree at the world, the group had split. "The lead singer had got married and, as he owned all the equipment, Andy was working as an electrician's mate and Stan as a chef at the St. George's Hotel, Kidderminster."

At this point things took an even more curious turn. Finding she didn't have enough money to launch herself into the art world, Christine packed her bass and moved to London. Having exhausted all her friends' floors, she finally got herself a tiny flat and a job-as a window dresser in a large London store.

Her few months in this was possibly the only period of her life she hated.

"The girls were made to look as unobtrusive and ugly as possible. We wore trousers that came in at the bottom and those lousy check shirts that made us look like lorry drivers. The only lift in the day was when we had coffee break and trudged round Carnaby Street looking at all the great clothes."

One day on this pilgrimage, she bumped into a friend who told her that Andy and Stan had re-formed a group who played a-la Cream and Hendrix, and why didn't she write and ask if they needed a pianist? She did.

The day after receiveing a letter saying: "Yes-come and join us" she'd packed her case, thrown her trousers and check shirt away, and caught the train back to Birmingham.

"Two weeks after that," she recalls-still looking stunned at the way it happened. "I was sitting playing piano on the stage of the Star Club, Hamburg, wondering what the hell I was doing."

And so Chicken Shack was born-at a period when slave labour was the order of the day.

"We worked seven nights a week, for five hours a night on and off. But in a funny way I quite enjoyed the slog and being part of a group, somehow suddenly knowing where I was going."

Christine Perfect, daughter of a lecturer, sister of a bio-chemist, was now a fully fledged member of a group through a series of accidental and unexpected events.

1967 saw Chicken Shacks' first introduction to a British audience. Thrown in at the deep end, the occasion was the Windsor Jazz Festival in front of a highly critical selection of musicians. Christine was terrified.

"I met people like Clapton and Mayall and I thought I'd never make it on to the stage. But thanks to Stan we did well. Quite honestly nobody had ever seen a guitarist that went so mad and did such extraordinary things on stage. So everyone's attention was on him and I could relax."

It was Christine Perfect's name that appeared on the Chicken Shack's first single "It's Okay With Me Baby"-which she wrote.

From then on, Chicken Shack's rise to fame was on the increase. There was no room for decline. Their success was assured.

Christine Perfect was now a part and parcel of the pop world she had always loved from afar. But her position as a girl in a group of this kind had its drawbacks and took its toll.

Drink

To help her merge with the group image she dressed like the boys, to help her get through the hectic pace of living on the road she drank with the best of them. Her beer arm was almost constantly on the lift. She became ill.

Then towards the end of 1967 she met John McVie at a concert at the Saville Theatre, London. It was November. And it was a meeting that was to prove fafeful for them both.

"Four months later we started seeing each other about once a month on odd occasions. Then John went to America and I went with the group to Germany. When I got back he rang me and asked me out. Four days later he proposed and ten days after that we got married. I suppose it was very romantic in a way."

Her marriage to guitarist McVie was to change her whole outlook and attitude to life. She softened up and stopped drinking. It was one of the factors that made her decide to try a solo career.

Of all the people who have influenced Christine Perfect's extraordinary life, it has been the quiet McVie who has brought her the stability she obviously needed.

[ThePenguin]

Gee some of those quotes sound familiar.... Brings back memories of trying to get it all straight to write the bio of those two. Between J and C, they have told so many versions of how long they dated for/when they got married etc...neither one of them seems to know exactly what the heck happened. In other accounts she has said that when HE got back from America he called her, and in this one she says when SHE got back from Germany he called her.

FWIW his account is that they met on the road, started dating, and 6 weeks after the 1st date they got married. Now first of all how could that be, if he was in America for 6 weeks? Makes no sense, and being a man I'm sure he is mistaken in terms of the details.

I think the general message is that they knew each other for quite awhile, dated casually occasionallly, then things got serious really quickly once she wrote him that letter and he got back from the US.

Anyway thanks for transcribing all that, Macfan. Love those old articles.....

-Lis

[NicksIllume]

Originally Posted by macfan 57

Here is an old U.K. music magazine article about Chris, then Christine Perfect. This is Part I of the interview/article.

I love you for posting this article!

From there it was a natural progression to Birmingham Art College. She stayed "until the bitter end at 20"-and emerged triumphant with an MDD degree. "Something that meant I was ready for precisely nothing."

Isn't that the truth? You graduate and there you go. I think that's going in my signature.

Of all the people who have influenced Christine Perfect's extraordinary life, it has been the quiet McVie who has brought her the stability she obviously needed.

Aww...

[NicksIllume]

Originally Posted by ThePenguin

FWIW his account is that they met on the road, started dating, and 6 weeks after the 1st date they got married. Now first of all how could that be, if he was in America for 6 weeks? Makes no sense, and being a man I'm sure he is mistaken in terms of the details.

At least, John somewhat has the story straight considering all those brain cells he's killed off over the years...excuses, excuses.