‘Chris Reeves is a fantastic guitar player but mostly, he is a first class songwriter. I have worked with Chris through his days with The Chairs, The Mystere 5s and now Johnny & The Birds and not once I have thought ‘That’s average’. Chris comes up with quality every time. What is most striking is that his tracks are full of soul, insights. You can hear the influences (who isn’t influenced by music of their youth) but they have been well digested: his tracks are never a simple copy or a pastiche of some long forgotten classic. No, no, Chris is an original in the best tradition of the institution that is the British songwriter. Just listen to ‘Moving Train’: tons of soul, wonderful vocals…it’s like an old friend even on first listen.’

M.D., Flicknife Records

‘Mr Chris J. Reeves. Yes, I am one of the many and varied musicians lucky enough to have worked with the man. First impression was of a tall, gangly scarecrow of a brightly clad modernist with seemingly boundless energy and a very well-trimmed Barnet. Eighteen years old. White loafers and cutting wit. We proceeded to immediately stroll the concrete jingle jungle of Croydon’s mean streets and its suburban tree-lined yawndom together, bouncing ideas back and forth on folk (Dylan), rock, blues, Beethoven, jazz (Mingus), Mad magazine, clothes (the perfecting of same) and inventive ways of escaping where we were and being heard (loudly). The last here was achieved – at least for the first time that involved both of us – ten years down the line, and after Chris had garnered some road experience with Rock Candy and started writing with Wayfarer. We formed an aggregation called the Dyaks – named after an earlier bunch that Chris had led with better hair but fewer chords. The new Dyaks were our version of the ‘New Wave’ – which boiled down to two dozen of Reeves originals stripped of their original lengthier poetry and played at a faster pace, too fast for the cloth ears of the booking agents we were inviting to our gigs – and, yes, we were loud. Never more so than at an hotel in Bournemouth where the crowd were pressed against the back wall by shear sonic force. Of course, those late seventies days are remembered for their violence as well as invention, and a surfeit of the former at our concerts would force us to finally quit. Incidentally, this period forged Chris’s previous rep as a rhythm guitarist and harmony singer into a forceful singer/songwriter and verily, a lead guitarist of some note (albeit a loud note). The latter he has spurned largely to concentrate on the former – but just thought I’d mention it.

When we reconvened in the early eighties it was to pool our satchels of experience and lean on a few of the friends we had helped to push up in the firmament along the way, for instance Kirsty MacColl, who had been known to sit in and sing at Dyaks gigs. With the joining of Peter Jennings, long time cohort of Chris’s writing and demoing sabbaticals, and former Hammond demon from Cressida – and also part of Jabberwock, the recording group that released Chris’s cult classic Sneakin’ Snaky single – together with Ian Powling, a recent absentee member of Elvis Costello’s first band, we built a studio in a Hoxten loft – long before that area was trendy – once rented by Barney Bubbles, who left it to us, and called our production company Room At The Top, also forming a musical ‘group’ called The Hat Between, a name bestowed on Chris by Captain Beefheart himself backstage at a Magic Band concert that year. Oh sorry, I’ve dropped so many names there – would you believe me if I told you I left so many out? The power of Chris Reeves’s attraction, then and now.

Many months were spent at that studio, with much of Chris’s art being honed along the way. We had visits from men-with-big-jobs at CBS, Polydor, A&M, EMI and Phonogram. They all dithered, however, not to run anybody down, we were just working on material that no-one was quite ready for yet. One or two of the songs were recorded by groups of the day. A cult single, Dining At Dzerzhinsky’s, would emerge from those days released under Chris’s name, with a b-side by Peter Jennings that went on to become the soundtrack to a film. Time was unkind to all involved in Room At The Top, and the radio was less kind.

My own involvement with Chris’s music would continue through other scenes and other studios, with names like House In The Woods. What emerged from these working days was a determined Chris Reeves, aware of his need to work alone, and work ceaselessly despite knock-backs from an ever changing music business. We saw his stage musical, Cloud Cuckoo Land, produced and performed. We saw a new band, The Nearest Thing, playing Fairfield Hall. But mainly we made do with occasional recordings that Chris would release himself from time to time, with a little of what he’d like us to hear.

Which brings us to Johnny and the Birds. You will agree, a collection of songs with much much more to say than, Here’s a new collection of songs. Here’s a songwriter with more experience than your average new ‘soul’ singer, who cares about the world more than is good for him now, who… hey, give it a listen…’

Musician / Author