before Yellow River……

Jeff and psychedelic friends. Use the chart below to identify!

Way back in’ 67, three years before CHRISTIE would hit the heights  with Yellow River around the world, there was, making its way around the U.K, the last of a Sixties phenomenon – The Package Tour.  Previous incarnations had thrown together such unlikely bedfellows as The Beatles, Freddie and the Dreamers and Helen Shapiro, but by the heady days of psychedelia, there was an altogether different musical board of fayre on offer around Britains venues. It would put a young Jeff Christie and his band “The Outer Limits” – signed to his Deram label by the Stones‘ Andrew Loog Oldham  – on the same stage as the fast-rising guitar hero Jimi Hendrix. Oh, and in case anyone was thinking of heading to the bar anytime during the evening, the show included Keith Emerson’s “The Nice” , “The Move” , “Amen Corner ” and “The Pink Floyd“.- a band on the verge of dropping the definitive article, not to mention Syd Barrett. Not a bad line-up for your money!

The Outer Limits, after two singles – the second one banned from the BBC for being called “The Great train Robbery ” (unbelievable but true!) – disintegrated along with the Sixties, but Jeff’s tenacity and songwriting skills won through, and by the summer of 1970, he was Number One.

The tour was the last of its kind for many a year. Though Dave Robinson, founder of Stiff records and the road manager in ’67 for another band on the bill “Eire Apparent“- revived the format to promote Stiff artists over a decade later.

If it seemed like a good idea at the time, it was. Nowadays, bands adopt a similar policy. Earlier this year you could see Whitesnake, Def Leppard and Thunder all under the same roof, on the same night. Similar ventures have been undertaken featuring the bill of Deep Purple, Styx and Thin Lizzy, albeit without the late lamented Lynott.

So if you attend one of these new breed of musical package tours, pay close attention to the new bands further down the bill – they might be tomorrow’s stars!

Naming names. The Nice were absent.

Kev Moore