Blog

It's the old bus adage, you wait ages then 2 come along at once. It's been just like that with Delirious? concerts for me. After 6 months of no gigs, I've just been to my second one in a week. On Friday night I drove over to Horsham for the concert; it also happened to be Jon Thatcher's birthday, so on arrival I handed him a card. The venue itself was an extremely wide room, with a very low ceiling and a stage at one end. Outside a huge queue of people were waiting to enter.

On of the reasons I was excited about this concert was because I'd heard that the band were planning on doing a couple of the new songs for the first time. They spent the afternoon practicing them, and sure enough the set list confirmed the presence of 'Now Is The Time' and 'Paint The Town Red'. The performance of both was faultless and they are superb songs which are sure to becoming extremely popular over the coming years.

The concert as a whole was first-class, probably one of the most rocking d: shows I've seen in recent years. The band seemed to be on top form and the set list contained a nice blend of old and new. But of course it's the new songs that are most interesting. 'Now Is The Time' is a very church friendly kind of song, where as 'Paint The Town Red' has a much more rock-based feel to it. Both have overtly Christian lyrics, and demonstrate the range of musical styles the new album will contain. A major highlight of the concert was 'Mountains High' which always shines. There is something incredible about the power and emotion of the song. I was also particularly pleased with the photo I managed to capture during the song (see above), with Martin sat at the keyboard and the alien climbing a mountain visible on the video screen behind him. The band finished the concert with a moving rendition of 'There Is A Light', with Martin picking a girl out of the crowd (very bonoesque!) to hold a candle while he sung (see below).

So, things are hotting up with the build-up to the release of the new album. The title is still a closely guarded secret, but the release date is confirmed as being 7th November. There will also be an iTunes single released on 11th October, originally planned to be called 'Stronger' although this is now likely to change since the song may well be included on the Narnia soundtrack.