The Christians

Originally formed as an a cappella trio, the socially conscious soul ensemble the Christians first consisted of the Liverpool, England-born siblings Garry, Russell, and Roger Christian. By 1986 these natives of the port city had added Henry Priestman, previously the lead singer of Yachts and It’s Immaterial, marking the initial shift in a roster that would undergo repeated alterations across three decades of intermittent activity. The band reached its commercial peak between 1987 and early 1988, when its Island debut album yielded five Top 40 U.K. pop singles—“Forgotten Town,” “Hooverville (And They Promised Us the World),” “When the Fingers Point,” “Ideal World,” and “Born Again.” Although the next studio effort took considerable time to complete, the intervening period included two highly successful charity singles. Colour finally arrived in early 1990, ascended to the top of the U.K. album chart, and drew much of its momentum from the tracks “Words,” “I Found Out,” and “Greenbank Drive.” The harder-edged follow-up Happy in Hell, issued in 1992, proved less popular, prompting the members to pursue solo and collaborative projects. Roger Christian succumbed to a brain tumor in 1998, yet the group resurfaced in the ensuing decade with the releases Prodigal Sons (2003), Speed of Life (2012), and We (2015), while also issuing 25th-anniversary editions of its first two albums.