Born on this day ...

[Ruby]

Sonja Christina Shaw, better known as Sonja Kristina was born on this day in 1949 in Brentwood, Essex, England.  She is a vocalist, composer, musician and coach, and she is and always has been, the voice of Curved Air in all its many and varied incarnations. Prior to Curved Air she’d been a familiar figure in The Troubadour folk club in London which was the hangout of choice in the late 60’s – she played there, had a hand in organising events, and met several notable muso’s of the time. She then landed a role in the London stage production of Hair which helped to get her noticed, ultimately though, she didn’t have any desire for a theatrical career and music took centre stage and Curved Air was the next step. She’s also released a handful of solo albums and has credits on a few more. 

She was married to Stewart Copeland (who did a stint in Curved Air) who said of her …

"Sonja Kristina has arrived on stage. 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 underdulating 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/ How wrong I've been! She's not even singing yet, and she owns everything."

I’ve never really got to grips with Curved Air – on the one hand, I really like some of their stuff and on the other, am left cold, however, I try to listen to at least one album of a birthday person, if possible, so today I chose Lovechild which is actually an authorised bootleg – a collection of demos from 1973 that have been remastered. It appealed to me because the marvellous Eddie Jobson plays violin and keys and I think it’s probably somewhat less OTT than some of their other stuff. I loved it – very satisfying layers of sound …