Ben Christo
Benjamin Christodoulou aka Ben Christo joined The Sisters of Mercy in 2005 to replace long-time guitarist Adam Pearson, who had left the band after their Twothousandfive Tour.
Ben Christo played his first gig as a guitarist with The Sisters of Mercy during their 25th Stage Anniversary at the House of Blues on February 16th, 2006 in Las Vegas. The concert was also the starting shot for the
worldwide 2006 Tour Sisters Bite The Silver Bullet.
Since then, Ben Christo plays lead guitar, at times also bass and does some background vocals with The Sisters of Mercy. Here's an interview with him about how he came to join the band. In case you should need an impression of his guitar playing at the time click here.
Other Projects
DJ-ing
Ben Christo is widely known for his love of hard rock, punk, glam, metal and rock in general. Already before he joined The Sisters, he occasionally appeared as a DJ at various events. He has been one of the inhouse-DJs at the weekly Decadence events, the hard rock hangout at St. Moritz Club, London, Soho.
Shot Through The Heart
Right from its beginning, Ben Christo has also been a member of Shot Through The Heart, a "monthly night of live hard rock, AOR and glam metal covers in North London", named after a Bon Jovi song and dedicated to covering 80s classic tracks from AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Skid Row to Guns N' Roses, Heart or Whitesnake to mention just a few. Here he would play (lead) guitar or do the vocals or background vocals. The live sets are usually enhanced with guest musicians from various rock/glam/metal groups and followed by an Aftershow DJ-night with Ben Christo until 4am. With all his projects, Ben Christo can be found on Facebook. A recent interview with Ben about Shot Through The Heart among other issues produced by SnakeBitePR and presented by The Naughty Reporter is here on YouTube.
Killswitch UK
Ben Christo is also the vocalist and guitarist of Killswitch UK, a Killswitch Engage tribute band who indroduced themselves as follows:
After collaborating together on New Year's Eve 2015 for a storming set of metal covers at the now sadly defunct 12 Bar Club, Andre Joyzi (Breed 77) and Ben Christo (The Sisters of Mercy) have decided to join forces once again to launch Killswitch UK - the ultimate Killswitch Engage tribute band. Joining them will be Martin Jackson of Confyde and Rich O'Donnell and Jay Gladwin of London death-metal outfit Karybdis. Playing hits and deep-cuts from the entire Killswitch Engage discography, be sure to catch Killswitch UK's at a venue near you!
Killswitch UK can be found here @FB.
<PIG>
Early in 2017, rumours appeared about Ben Christo collaborating with Raymond Watts and his <PIG> project on their coming six-track EP Prey & Obey. And indeed, the record was released with Metropolis Records mid-June 2017 and is also listed @discogs as an MP3 and WAV release, where Ben Christo is credited with "Guitars and Backing Vocals" as well as with having written the tracks 2 and 5 of the recording. For further updates on <PIG>, you might also want to keep an eye on pigindustries@FB. In January 2018, Raymond Watts and Ben Christo were "working on a new <PIG> in the studio" again. The result of which was the new <PIG> album Risen, released on 8 June 2018. In support of the album <PIG> including Ben Christo toured the US in September 2018.
Nathan Grey
In 2018 already, Ben Christo had started to cooperate with Boysetsfire singer Nathan Grey on his solo projects and accompanied him on the tour to his then released Feral Hymns album. Accordingly, Ben Christo can also be heard - and seen - on guitars, keyboards and backing vocals of the following Live in Wiesbaden Ringkirche Live in Iserlohn Dechenhöhle 2CD+DVD compilation released in 2019. Ben Christo also plays guitar and contributes backing vocals to the recently (2020) released new Nathan Grey album Working Title and has been touring with with band, including a short festival run in Germany from 11th to 13th August 2022, when The Sisters of Mercy's International Treasure summer festivals offered an according time window forr this.
Lord Of The Lost
- to follow soon -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFkesFBHwk
Esprit d'Air
- to follow soon -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXmY3Rasy6I
Diamond Black
In 2017, Ben Christo founded the dark rock band Diamond Black.
Soon in October 2017, the band released their debut single Sorrow, which was very well perceived by the music press and is available (together with other merch from their online store. An according video has also been produced (see here on the right side). The lyrics to this and other songs are available here (scroll).
Apart from their official website, Diamond Black can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
A most recent interview with Ben Christo on Diamond Black and his activities with The Sisters of Mercy dating February 2018 is available here @Live After Midnight Goes London.
For April 2018, the band have announced some first UK shows doing the support act for Cellar Darling from Switzerland. For these and possible future tour dates and ticket links, please check out Diamond Black's official Tour Dates page. Currently, Diamond Black are scheduled to play @The Underworld, London on November 1st, 2020.
Also in April 2018, Diamond Black released their second single Ghost In The Glass in CD and data format. 2019 saw the release of The Scarlet CD-single, this time on the UK-label Livewire. In June 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, their fourth single If You Kill My Demons. Check out the music videos, including the award-winning The Scarlet video below. All these releases have been available at the band's official webstore.
Ben Christo and Diamond Black producer & co-writer Jaani Peuhu are have recently also been part of the writing team for the current Lord Of The Lost record Swan Songs III released in August 2020. Unfortunately, this was curtailed to online communciations only due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
From 12th February to 1st April 2024 Diamond Black are touring the UK incl. Northern Ireland & Scotland, Ireland (Eire), The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium together with Esprit D'Air.
Night By Night / NxN
Apart from the above mentioned activities, Ben Christo has alongside with his activities in The Sisters of Mercy co-founded the London-based band Night By Night or,
in short, NxN. Starting in 2008, they produced their first official video Time To Escape followed by the promo video to their most recent single The Moment released
on August 5th, 2013. In March 2014 NxN then toured as support with the Swedish rockers Europe, who also shared the stage with The Sisters of Mercy at Rock Zottegem
in July 2014. In June 2015, however, the band declared:
"Now, for the foreseeable future, we will be exploring different avenues. Thank you again for all your passion for NxN!!" - and went on hiatus.
.Their debut album (and more) can be ordered from here
Links concerning NxN
Some interviews and NxN release facts
- Already in March 2013, Night By Night was awarded single/EP of the year with "Time To Escape" at the 2013 Pure Rawk Awards.
- On Friday, June 27th, 2014, Classic Rock Magazine played the new NxN single A Thousand Lies on their Tracks of the Week Round-up! Likewise, the according video
- was aired first exclusively via the Classic Rock website. NxN's single A Thousand Lies is now generally available for download @iTunes....
- On 6 Juli 2014, online music magazine Rockoverdose featured an extended interview with Ben Christo about the history of NxN, his music with The Sisters of Mercy,
- the new NxN album, video production, future gigs and touring, and everything one might possibly want to know. It was initially published in Greek language and in two parts on August 4th and 5th, before made available in English at:
- Ben Christo (NIGHT BY NIGHT, THE SISTERS OF MERCY) on Rock Overdose:"The beauty of NxN is that it is everything I have always loved about music in one band"
- unfortunately, the entire interview pages have meanwhile disappeared. All we can offer you now, is this large article/interview with Screamer Magazine, L.A. of July 2014:
- http://screamermagazine.com/interviews/proofed-night-night-moment-finally-arrived/
- Another interview of 2014 with Ben Christo (in German language, however) can be found @Terrorverlag.com/Interviews
Live Before The Sisters Of Mercy: AKO
From 2001 to 2004, Ben Christo played guitars and did backing vocals as Ben Chivers with the Bristol based band AKO, for whom he also partly wrote the lyrics and music under his real name Ben Christodoulou. The band released the 13-track CD-album Find Yourself in 2001, which can be found in full on YouTube for a listen. A live video of AKO's performance at Bierkeller, Bristol in July 2001 is also available here.
In 2002 the band released their 4-track EP/CD Tomorrow Night's Regret and, finally in 2004, the 7" single / CD-single The Last Goodbye, before they dissolved. Most recently in 2012, Ben Christo and Toby White came together for a one-off reunion gig and performed an acoustic set of their old AKO-songs, which has also appeared on YouTube.
Further Links
- AKO can also be found @myspace including some of their tracks for a listen.
- And there is a quite interesting page about them in the band wiki of @last.fm
- with a biography and a description of their music and appearance.
External Links and Interviews
- Ben Christo @wikipedia.en
- Ben Christo's Discography @discogs
- Ben Christo's YouTube Channel and plenty other videos featuring Ben Christo
- 2016/2017: Spoiler: The new ghouls are ...
- 2019: a comprehensive interview with Australian online mag WHAT'S MY SCENE - Star Scene: Ben Christo ~ The SISTERS OF MERCY
- 2022: some recent interviews with
- - Daniel Leigh - Part I (21.09 min.) and Part II (46.36 min)
- - BaGT - Become a Guitarist Today - Ben Christo - June 2022 (30.59 min.)
- - SerpentTongue94 @Metal Blade Records - Interview With Ben Christo - June 2022 (35.23 min)
- - Camilla Strand - The Sisters of Mercy - Interview with Ben Christo, 13.07.2022 (22.18 min.)
- 2023:
- - the interview of April 17th with the online music magazine ReGen ...
- - plenty more interview links can be found in the Reviews And Interviews Section @The Heartland Forums
- 2024:
- - interview with SOUNDSPHERE MAGAZINE, May 2024
