THE
pop music industry in the Iron Curtain regions owes a great deal to
Christie. They were the first foreign pop band to perform live in these
countries, introducing the rock sounds of Western nations to millions
of people.
Their most celebrated performance there was
at the Sopot Song Festival in Poland in 1970, televised via satellite
to 200 million viewers in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries.
Today, Christie are perhaps better known among
many pop fans in the eastern bloc than they are remembered in other
parts of the world.
In 2001, Jeff Christie and his band returned
to Russia to perform live, playing to rapturous audiences. See these
gallery pictures.
Read this enlightening
account from a Russian Christie fan to find out more about the group's
influence.
Unfortunately, because the industry in these
countries was almost non-existent in the heady days of Christie's fame,
no contractual agreement was able to be put in place for locally-made
Christie recordings (or, indeed, recordings by any other Western bands).
As such, companies in Russia and adjoining
countries can still often produce recordings by various artists without
having to pay royalties a move which represents piracy of sorts,
but certainly at a more sophisticated level than that practiced in many
Asian countries.