Curved air sonja kristina biography

Suddenly there is no band, no stage, no college kids. Just Sonja glinting in the green light. She moves like smoke across the stage, hardly seeming to move at all, but undulating in slow motion. Who cares what the band is doing? As a muso I've never bothered with singers, considering them to be musical passengers.

Curved air sonja kristina biography: Born Sonja Christina Shaw,

How wrong I've been! She's not even singing yet, and she owns everything. Including the London version of the musical Hair[ 19 ] Kristina has performed in numerous theatre and musical theatre productions from the early s onwards, [ 20 ] including East Lynne[ 21 ] a lead role in Romeo and Juliet[ 20 ] The French Have a Song For It with Helen Shapiro[ 22 ] Man to Woman with Marsha Hunt[ 23 ] and Shona [ 24 ].

The award was presented by television broadcaster, and long-standing Curved Air fan, Katie Puckrik for helping pave the way for other female artists who followed, including Kate BushHeather Findlay, Anne-Marie Helder and others. Kristina was in a relationship with Stewart Copeland from at least ; they married in and had two sons. Copeland also adopted her son, Sven, from a previous relationship.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata curved air sonja kristina biography. English singer born Progressive rock folk acid folk. No, it did not. I think the guys in the band had already gotten used to me being involved with someone from a touring party.

Everyone was very cool about that, and there was never a sign of friction, so when Stewart and I got together, I never expected any problems. And there were none. Besides, the boys were busy hanging out with girls, so they had their own situations to deal with. You have always come across as assertive and confident. Is that the real Sonja Kristina?

Do you think I am assertive and confident? I have been told by some people that I can come across as being very cold. As I said earlier, I am very comfortable when dealing on a one-to-one basis with people. However, put me into a crowd of people and I am very unsure of myself. At parties, I would lie down and actually pretend to be asleep to avoid having to talk to strangers.

How people feel about me can depend on the circumstances, but I also have to admit that I never worry about what others think of me. I am very insular and in my own zone. Were there any times when you felt like quitting? Yes, there were. Sure, we were getting a very strong reaction from the fans, who were going wild for us. But I was totally unmoved.

I was dissatisfied with what we were doing. The original line-up had been technically superb, but also very exciting. Sure, the musicians we had at the time were very gifted, and you cannot argue with what they brought to Curved Air. But I felt removed from it all. I was going through the motions, and did think about leaving to start my own band.

You taught performing arts students at Middlesex University in the 90s. What was that like? Oh, I loved it. Because what I was doing was teaching on a one-to-one level. If you put me in front of a class and asked me to teach, then I would be totally lost. That was never for me, which is why I could not work in that situation with a choir.

But I am a natural when dealing with one pupil at a time, as happened at Middlesex University. I had my own music room and it was bliss. I even got to find out a lot about jazz from being there, a type of music I knew little about beforehand. I still teach, although not there. You are seen as being a big inspiration to the likes of Kate Bush. Do you see your influence in the way she performs?

I do, yes. I look at what she used to wear and I know a lot of the style came from me. But there are a lot of surprising people who have claimed Curved Air inspired them. Were they polite to you, given your prog background? The strange thing is that there was no real problem. Her first professional gig was at a Folk Festival in Southgate, London a year or so later.

She was generally known on the folk scene as "Sonja" having previously appeared several times on the British children's TV show "Song and Story" under that name. Her first manager was Roy Guest of Folk Directions. InKristina auditioned for and won the part of "Crissy" in the London stage production of the stage musical Hair. She features on the original cast album singing the song "Frank Mills", also released as a single.

She also briefly sang with The Strawbs, following the departure of Sandy Denny. The images needed to come alive and the delivery be very natural and intimate. I took as many takes as I needed of each section. Playing back and listening until it felt perfect. Yes, after high school I wanted to study drama. It was in beautiful leafy Hampstead with hills and the Heath.

The famous Roundhouse venue in Chalk Farm was just down the hill and in the centre of London was The Middle Earth hippy club and The Speakeasy where the rock stars went to eat and drink and play. There were nightclubs and folk clubs and blues clubs and jazz clubs. All easy to access and very exciting to an 18 year old hippy girl hungry for experience.

This was when I was around I had been playing in my local folk club for two or three years.

Curved air sonja kristina biography: In the following interview

I read a book on positive action and realised that I needed to find a manager. I approached Roy Guest who was one of the top agents for folk acts. It was he that got me Song and Story. The title of the show was a reference to the traditional ballad folk songs.

Curved air sonja kristina biography: Sonja Kristina (born Sonia Christina

I also performed on three more TV shows in those years. When did you first pick up a guitar and start playing songs? Would you like to tell us about those early days playing Swan Folk Club in Romford. Later on you also played Troubadour Folk Club, what was the folkie scene like back then? This brings me back to the beginning. The folk clubs of those days were the Open Mike clubs of the day.

Small rooms above pubs often.

Curved air sonja kristina biography: Sonja Kristina is an

I learned a bit of Spanish guitar then started learning songs from a book of American Folk Songs. There was a growing interest in folk style songs and traditional songs which was blossoming among the beats and poets and hippie musicians — Bob Dylan, Joan Baez et cetera and my muse Buffy Sainte-Marie. Their records were available in our library so I began to build up a set of my favourite songs by the new artists including The Incredible String Band.

This is what I offered playing support shows around the U. Dave Cousins used to play with his band, then The Strawberry Hill Boys in my local folk clubs and we became friends. When I was running a psychedelic folk night briefly at the legendary Troubadour club Dave Cousins used to come and play a few songs, as did Al Stewart.