Delirious?
Delirious? Bio
Take a look at the titles of the Delirious? albums over the
years and the story tells itself. There were days of being Cutting
Edge youth workers, assaulting the UK mainstream charts singing
about the King of Fools followed by the delivering deeper messages
of transformation and Mezzamorphis. Glo took the focus back
to the source, while World Service indicated the new global
view that was coming into focus. And now this, The Mission Bell.
Ringing loud, ringing clear, this latest offering makes one
thing abundantly clear: the time is right for change. No compromise,
no holding back, now is the time to shine.
Delirious? have always talked about being on a journey, always
embracing change and looking out for direction. It all goes
right back to the start. In 1992 producer/engineer Martin
Smith (vocals and guitars) teamed up with studio owner Tim
Jupp (keyboards) and graphic designer Stew Smith (drums) to
provide the music for a local event aimed at joining the dots
between church and young people. The blend of Smith's open
hearted lyrics with the rest of the band's home grown delivery
made immediate sense to those who saw it first hand. Things
were rough yet soaked in the sweat of honest enthusiasm, and
the band quickly made a name for themselves as the most exciting
band on the UK Christian scene.
But if you're thinking that this was all part of some cynical
plot to manipulate good will and deliver fame via the back
door, you'd be wrong. Like they simply got there by merit.
Early tapes sold in abundance, and each project brought in
revenue that was ploughed immediately into bigger and better
successors.
Within four years the band were full time—joined by
Stu G on guitars and Jon Thatcher on bass—and within
five they were releasing singles and albums into the UK charts.
Their early Cutting Edge recordings had shaped the way people
thought of worship music; the tracks released from 1997's
King Of Fools edited the way in which the mainstream music
industry thought about Christian bands. For some they were
controversial, but for all, their success was undeniable:
two top twenty singles and a number 13 placing for the album
on the UK charts. The roughed-up guitars and euphoric melodies
showed the way forward, with Radio 1 dubbing them 'pop's best
kept secret.'
At the same time the North American market was getting ready
to embrace the band. Sparrow signed them and kicked off with
the release of their Cutting Edge back catalogue, which eventually
went gold. With that under their belts the market then got
to sample King Of Fools, which took up lodgings in the Billboard
'Heatseekers' Chart for 18 weeks, selling 200,000 copies.
The single 'Deeper' performed a similar role in America to
the one it had tucked into back home: sitting at the very
top of the Christian CHR Charts for six weeks. The band, it
appeared, had well and truly landed.
Perhaps now might have been a similarly good point for the
band to use the 'World Service' tag. Aiming now for a global
audience the band lined up some key players: the backing of
Virgin Records USA for mainstream releases, the headline tours
in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand,
as well as distribution deals under the wings of EMI. But
of all the forces at work none was so vital as their second
studio album Mezzamorphis. A big hitter by any standards,
the self-produced project captured the most comprehensive
Delirious? soundtrack ever. With the sound of titans clashing
in 'Heaven' and 'Bliss' and the wisdom of ages in the decorating
the lyrics of 'Mezzanine Floor' and 'Metamorphis,' the album
delighted press and fans alike. Q magazine called it 'dense,
ingenious… expansive guitar pop' while Billboard praised
the 'aggressive edge… but passionate, insightful lyrics.'
It hit number 1 on the American Contemporary Christian Music
Album Chart and number 25 on the UK charts, reaching number
2 on the indies. With further UK chart success with the single
'See The Star,' Delirious? were confirmed as a world class
act. Controversial, uncompromising and committed, but world
class nevertheless.
1999 onwards saw the band focus on live performances: playing
to over 1 million people in a single 12 month period, including
fans on UK legs of both Bon Jovi (2001) and Bryan Adams (2002)
tours. In between they finished work on their follow-up album,
Glo, a curious project indeed. What started out as a retro-novelty
act came out as a full-length masterpiece and wound up getting
tabbed by Amazon.com as the number one Christian/Gospel Album
of the year as well as being nominated for a Dove Award for
Praise and Worship Album of the Year.
Installed as an A list live act, crowds regularly topped
30 and 40,000, pushing to 80,000 at US festivals. Alongside
the touring, however, came a fresh passion for supplying people
with songs that marched to the beat of a different drum. October
2001 saw the release of Deeper. Billed as the 'd:finitive
worship experience,' the album collated the band's very best
material from their first decade, remixing a few along the
way, as well as unlocking some previously unreleased versions.
Next came something a little different. Employing the skills
of producer Chuck Zwicky (Semisonic, Prince, Madonna), the
band went in search of a different type of expression. Just
as Glo targeted a gospel audience, Audio Lessonover? crafted
a more esoteric vibe. The album was met with praise from the
UK fans, and the edgier sound reflected the peculiarities
of the home market. However, for the rest of the world there
was a wait in store, while Audio… went back into the
mixing booth to be re-sequenced, remixed and re-titled. Cue
autumn 2002 and Touch was born, delighting fans and strangers
along the way.
In the spring of 2003 the slipstream of Touch brought along
with it Access:d, a live double album showcasing the band's
undeniable talent for bringing out the best in each other
when on stage. Fans were also still shouting 'gracias' for
the release of Libertad, a twelve-track best of with vocals
re-recorded in Spanish by Martin himself. Of the 100-plus
countries in which Delirious? product is currently available,
many are Spanish speaking, so for the band, Libertad was just
another one of those obvious choices that simply had to be
taken.
With headline tours of the US throughout the spring and summer
of 2003, the band found themselves perfectly prepared for
the finishing touches to be applied to World Service. But
more than the mix, the design and the promotion, the final
preparations were painted on a bigger canvas. The year spent
preparing the album was one punctuated by life in all its
technicolor realities: bereavement, birth, uncertainties,
the good stuff that's easier to deal with, and the hard that
takes your breath away. With thoughts about the nature of
success, the realities of grief and possibilities of hearing
God, Delirious? were on their knees at the immense goodness
of one heavenly concept: grace. In fact, they're still there
on the floor today.
Epic, soaring and fully supersonic, World Service lined the
listener up along with the band, taking part in one gloriously
tangible downhill tumble with God. This was head over heals
stuff, leaving the listener part of a global clan all taking
part in the same service.
What happened next was bigger, bolder, brighter than they
could have anticipated. Things really did go global, with
audiences including the Pope at the 2005 World Youth Day,
world leaders at the Athens 2004 Olympics and the biggest
crowd of Muslims in Morocco at the 2005 Friendshipfest. Asia,
Australia and beyond are now very much on the Delirious? radar,
with gigs in Indonesia, India, Singapore and Malaysia and
beyond signalling new adventures and a fresh time of following
God.
Next up…The Mission Bell…now is the time.
"The winds are blowing through again, so we must follow.
A people daring to believe we can change tomorrow, and be
the miracle of light… Now is the time for us to shine."—Martin
Smith
Delirious? has done the unthinkable in a constantly changing
marketplace where the trend of the moment often dictates a
band's direction. Not only has the group managed to stay together
through thick and thin (with its original lineup, no less),
but it's also continued to make music on its own terms. Globally.
The band, a galvanizing force that changed the face of worship,
played dates in 23 countries last year alone. From those stages
they looked over masses of people from every race and creed,
most recently playing in front of a million people at World
Youth Day in Germany. How does a band stay motivated to create,
motivated to tour, year after year? What else is to be gained?
Why the sense of urgency after so many years?
"We are in this age—13 years into the band—where
these are questions we all talk about when we get off stage.
The footnotes of all the conversations are 'We love what we
do, but there's gotta be more.' We want to make a change,"
answers frontman Martin Smith. "Surely, this whole God
thing is not just for putting Christian records out. Surely
God has called us to higher things. I think it's using the
thing that God has given us to make a difference, whether
small or large."
This is the shared vision of Smith, guitarist Stu G, keyboardist
Tim Jupp, bassist Jon Thatcher and drummer Stew Smith, delivered
in the vessel that is The Mission Bell. What really separates
The Mission Bell, quite possibly the bands most ambitious
offering, from the pack (or even Delirious?' previous efforts)
is the urgency, the call to action for the Church to quit
talking about what it believes and to take action with all
it's been given. "I think there's a lot of inspiration
for people to get out of these songs," says Stu G. "I
think it'll help some folks kind of work out their calling,
work out what they're supposed to be doing."
In "Our God Reigns," the band's global emphasis
continues as it tackles the subject of social injustice, particularly
A.I.D.S., abortion and the constant focus of Western culture
on self-improvement and materialism, definitely not the usual
subject matter for rock 'n' roll, but something Martin felt
was important to address.
"All I had was the chorus when I started out, and I
thought 'Oh, fantastic, this is going to be another little
church song that everyone will sing. That will be great.'
But I could not write any verses for it, and all of the sudden,
these heavy lyrics came out," Martin recalls. What happens
is the marriage of a most heavenly chorus with the boldest
most poignant verses on the record. At this point in listening
to the album it is clear there will be no sidestepping the
message Delirious? has to deliver.
And this message will resonate all over America as the band's
first stateside radio single from the recording, "Now
is the Time," continues its call to action. "It
was the beginning of a new year, and this song simply started
as an encouragement for our own people at church to believe
we were a 'city on a hill' and that the lives we live do make
a difference in our community," Martin says. "The
God we believe in really is alive and wants to transform us
and to take responsibility for this generation. The lyrics
set the tone for the whole record as we explore the theme
of mission and what it means to be a true follower of God."
And at the end of the recording journey that began last February
for The Mission Bell, we find a Delirious? that has received
an RIAA Certified Gold album, seen plenty of spotlights and
looked out over vast crowds. Now, more than ever, things are
personal. A little more broken, a little more fragile, a little
more determined. Now is the time all right. Courtesy EMI/CMG
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