Christick Jengiskhan - Jenghiz Khan

Born and raised in Lessines, Jengiskhan began playing the drums at the age of 15 as well as learning other instruments before he would go on to participate in a number of groups prior to joining what would eventually become the legend of Jenghiz Khan. It was a pleasure to be able to speak with Christick and hear his journey through life and music. Enjoy!

I was born in Belgium on 02/05/1950 in Lessines (a small town in Hainaut where the painter René Magritte is also from). I started playing drums at the age of 15, I also play guitar and a bit of keyboards. I’ve always been fascinated by percussions I must say since a very young. It was first The Beatles and The Stones who made me want to play, that was the time. And then it was the following ones, Kinks, genesis of Pink Floyd, Vanilla Fudge and finally I'm quite open to a lot groups. What connects me are the pieces, compositions and their arrangements, vocals, ecxt. rhythm...

I played in a lot of groups before of course like everyone else, the galleys of balls, parties and then I met Tim the keyboardist who had a trio, (Tim Brean Group) bass, drums and organ and his drummer was left and, so I joined the group. We played a lot in festivals for free to fill groups that had not come and we still had work, free but we could play. That was the most important. It was in a festival that we were noticed by Pierokenrol who offered us to form a group, and he added François Georges (Friswa) to us and we changed bassist who was Jean Pol Tinant by a bassist Remy Ramackers said " Bass…

Should you do it? And we started rehearsing and composing, Piero did the lyrics and we did the music, the compositions were signed by Tim & Friswa, we worked that way for a year, then we went back to the studio for the recording. It was at the Reward studio in Schelles (near Antwerp), during the recording, it was not going very well for the bassist who was having a difficult time and so we were assigned a bassist who was recording in the studio from à side with his group Laurelie, it was Pierre Rapsat.

As we had the same producer Eric Vion it was easy to make the recording, and as it was going well between us, he stayed in the jenghiz khan for the concerts, that's how the band started to tour. . Our first concert took place at passage 44 in Brussels in front of the press because Pierokenrol, who wrote in the magazine Télé Mosquito in the Rock section, had already prepared them for a group to form in the greatest secrecy in Brussels and that it was going to be great !! And so we had to live up to his words !! The album was signed at Barclay (France) quite rare for the time that a Belgian rock group signs with a French label.

We have total freedom to work with Eric Vion and the technicians, it was unforgettable moments of creation, it remains wonderful memories for me anyway. The concerts started and therefore we toured a lot in Belgium and a little in France. The best concerts were those of Huy, (with Yes on the bill) Jemelles (with Genesis and Slade on the bill) and the most awesome was that of Brussels Wolluwé Shooping with Golden Earring (memorable) The saddest one was that of Bilzen where following a transport accident our organ that of Tim had been damaged and as our repertoire was mainly based on the organ we had to improvise a blues classic with bass, guitar drums that we totally played and missed!!

And we wiped sprays of tomatoes?? Very bad memory!! We were about to record a second album, the material was ready when Friswa the lead guitarist left to join the Wallace Collection because of dissension between him and Tim?? So Pierre Rapsat then decided to go it alone and we found ourselves together, Tim and me?? We tried to reform the group but without success!! So we decided to devote ourselves each to songwriting.

I also did a lot of recording sessions as a studio musician to earn my living ! I was able to make music for Plastic Bertrand at the time, (Side B of Hula op) it was not really my style of music but we had to eat well!! I still continue to make songs but I moved more towards texts in French and more acoustic songs that must be because of the age without doubt!! (72 years old) it is no longer an age to do the clown, right!! I'm in the process of making a more acoustic version of ‘Made Lover’ and when it's ready I'll send it to you. Thank you for this opportunity to tell you my story.

Best regards and Happy Holidays,

Christick

Dakota Brown