Sonia Kristina

Hair, Playboy Bunny ears, Curved Air and much more.

In the 60s, musician, songwriter, poet and actress Sonja Kristina went from teenage folk singer to star of West End rock musical Hair to fronting prog rockers Curved Air. Always rooted in the counterculture, she’s no dizzy hippie; there’s always some sort of plan.

Tell us about your background?

My father was a criminologist and my mother the daughter of one of Sweden’s top tragedians and a film star, Gerda Lundequist. He became a headmaster at Ardale, an ‘approved school’ in Essex for boys who had been in trouble – later called borstals – and my mother became the matron. I was born there.

At convent school, aged eleven, you learned guitar. By the time you were thirteen you were performing at local folk clubs.

I’d seen Donovan on TV and was hugely influenced by Buffy Sainte-Marie. The folk clubs were trad but you could do floor spots. It was nerve-racking but I’ve always been an adrenalin junkie.

When you were fifteen you looked for a manager. You were already taking charge of your destiny.

I was beginning my hippiefication, but also reading Dale Carnegie books about positivity, focus and planning. I’m still very goal-orientated. You say: “Where am I going?” then “What’s the first step?” You might end up somewhere different but the important thing is to keep going. When the next bus comes along you hop on it.

And then the first-ever rock musical, Hair, came along.

My manager showed me an ad. It said: “Hippies wanted, must be good movers, Equity members only.” So I went along, had eight recalls then I got a part.

When was your hardest time for money? When Curved Air first broke up, in 1972. I’d been on a wage since Hair, and I had an eighteen-month-old baby, Sven. I needed an income so I joined a temp agency, adding up figures for ledgers. I wasn’t very good. Then I saw an ad to be a Playboy croupier in Park Lane. I wore the bunny ears and tail for nine months – the money was good enough. Then Hair called me to come back for its final run.

Apart from music and drama, what else has fired you up?

I’ve studied sound healing, all the magic and mystery of that. When I split up from Stewart [Copeland, in 1991] I noticed that punk and hippie culture were mixing, and I was interested in exploring what had become of hippiedom. Me and my little boys [Jordan and Scott] would travel for miles following the convoys to see what traveller lives are like. They tend to be people who didn’t fit into normal society rather than doing it out of choice.

What are you doing now?

My cat is my significant other. I’m a trained drama teacher, I’ve got grandchildren. I move house every few years, when I get the opportunity of a new space to live in. I’m also playing music, with the Norman Beaker Band, and soon I’ll tour small venues with my keyboard player, doing everything from Hair to my solo stuff.