spacer
Delirious Sends Message of Love to London in Bomb Aftermath (Assist News)
Last modified: 15 Jul 2005

Source: Assist News
Author: Dan Wooding
Date: 15 Jul 2005

The guitarist with the British Christian group, Delirous? says that British Christians need to react with love not hate to the July 7 London suicide bombings that claimed at least 54 victims.

Speaking before going on stage on the first night of Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium, Anaheim, on Friday, July 15, Stuart Garrard (Stu G) said, "I think all you can do is pray and live as a light for Jesus and just get there into the communities and serve and love people because it is time for an army that is motivated by love to rise and sweep across the UK rather than one motivated by hate."

The goateed guitarist said that he was with the band at Heathrow Airport when the explosions took place waiting to board a flight to Scandinavia.

When asked what his thoughts were at that time, he said, "Shock and a little bit fearful for friends that we have in London. In that situation, we were trying to find out what was going on and see the news because before the news gets out there were lots of rumors. So it was a nerve-wracking time for us all.

"I used to live in London and I can remember the Canary Wharf bombing and also the Lloyd's Building bombing [in the nineties]. I heard the Lloyd's bomb go off so, in some ways, the latest bombing was not really surprising because the threat has been there for a while now."

He added, "Our message is definitely one of love and one of peace - living a good life and the fact that God can help you do that. I think we are trying to get across in our music."

I then asked Stewart ("Stew") Smith, the band's drummer, if he thought there would be a backlash against the Muslim community in Britain?

"Yes, I think unfortunately, there already is," he said. "In fact, I was watching a news report the other day where it said that a young [Muslim] guy living in the UK who was probably 18 to 20 years old who said that he has just got over the 9/11 after being spat at an abused and now he said, 'It's all happening all over again.' And he was just an innocent bystander.

"I think that is dreadful really and as Stu G said, I think all we can do is pray for the peace of our nation and the world really and stand up to these terrorists and not be defeated.

"But it is scary especially as we've got friends living in London and we go in and out of London quite regularly and it definitely does put you on the back foot [set you back] but life goes on."

I then asked Jon Thatcher, the bass player, what a band like theirs could do to bring love into this horrible world that we live in?

"I think, as a band, we are called to make great music and write lyrics that point people towards God and give a positive perspective on life and that's what we try and do," he said. "We don't have all the answers. We are just musicians who play in a band and we want to encourage people, but when it comes to politics, unfortunately we are not scholars, but we do want to do what we do well and that's play music and that's hopefully going to inspire people to do what they do well."

I wondered if with all the horrors going on the world, if he ever felt like giving up?

"No, you just want to do what you are called to do and that's everyone, whether you are called to be a teacher or a pilot or a musician, you just want to do it with all your heart and you want to make a difference and make it count," he said.

He then stated, "Jesus said that we should treat others as you would wish to be treated and so I think that is a good thing to live by at this time."

"Stew" Smith then explained how the band got started. "Delirious? started 13 years ago on the south coast of the UK when we began an event called Cutting Edge which is basically two hours of worship music once a month on a Sunday night aimed at the kids in the church as something that the kids could bring their non-Christian friends to. There were 75 kids that turned up for that first month and within a year there were over a 1,000 kids showing up and God was doing some incredible stuff. The band was born out of that and we have been traveling the world ever since, playing music, preaching the Gospel and putting a smile on people's faces."

When asked where the name came from, he replied, "We had hundreds of suggestions, but we liked the sound of delirious in the good old English dictionary which talked about being wildly excited and we wanted to people to be excited about our music and also our message as well."

With that, the band headed for the stage, to bring their unique Delirious? message of praise and worship at the home of the Angels baseball team.

The 16th annual Harvest Crusade opened in Anaheim, California. On Friday night with senior pastor of mega church Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, speaking to 20,000 at Angel Stadium with a message: "God has a cure for troubled hearts." It runs from July 15-17.





Related Pages: