Interviews & Media Articles

Source: BBC Radio 2
Presenter: Pam Rhodes
Date: 25 Nov 2001

What I didn't mention was that it would be standing room only here in the studio when 2 members of the pop group Delirious? and their guitars come in just after 8 o'clock this morning. Now all 5 members are Christians but they are already making quite an impact on the secular mainstream music market with records like this.
[Plays 'I Could Sing...' single]
The group Delirious?, with a question mark. We'll be meeting 2 of them later this morning.

[later on...]
Pam Rhodes: Now I have to say it's a bit of a squeeze here in the studio at the moment, as you might be able to hear, because I've been joined by 2 of the 5 members of the group Delirious? and their guitars, so we're in for some live music this morning. So welcome to Martin Smith and to Stuart Garrard, who's affectionately known as Stu G, is that right?

Stu G: Thats right, good morning Pam.

PR: I'm surprised that you're actually here with your eyes open, because where were you last night?

Martin Smith: We were in Bristol last night, we had a great time. Sorry I'm a little bit croaky. But it was a fantastic night and its great to be on the show this morning, thank you.

PR: Not much sleep behind you! Delirious? has a question mark after it, why is that?

SG: Well its a bit of a design thing really, we like to keep people guessing about that. One thing that we do is we never try to put ourselves into a box. Our Faith is very important to what we do. We're out there in the high street trying to play great music at the same time, so we're not just a Christian band although thats very important. We keep people guessing all the time.

PR: Thats interesting because all of you are committed Christians aren't you? I wouldn't have thought its very fashionable is it for young people to stand up and be called Christians today in the rock music market?

MS: It doesn't seem to be but its been around for centuries so I don't know whether fashion applies to Christianity really, but thats what we are and we're proud of it.

PR: I've had an e-mail through from Dave Wood from Southampton, who saw you when you were in Portsmouth last week, and he said that in Saturday's Daily Mail Weekend supplement it says that you are a bit reluctant to talk about your Faith in interviews, preferring to pass themselves off instead as a straight forward rock band. Is that true or do you feel you were misrepresented there?

SG: Good morning Dave Wood, we know you quite well actually don't we? We're very happy to talk about everything about what we are, what we do as a band. When we're asked we don't always go into a conversation saying 'hey we believe in God' because that would be a bit weird if someone did that to us. We're very happy to talk about it, but really we are a band and we'll talk about the music as well.

PR: Young people today, I think, face more challenges than any generation before them, from drink, drugs, sex and a variety of different answers potentially to the spiritual questions that they're asking, as all generations before them have asked. So do you feel that a band like yours is more relevant than ever?

MS: Thats a great question. I think we do believe that. Jesus has been relevant to people across the generations but especially now since all thats happened since 11th September. I think it is important that people do question where we're going.

PR: Do you play overtly Christian music as part of your repertoire? Would people in the audience actually know you're Christians from the music you play?

SG: Yeah I think so. We've been going about 10 years now and we started by actually putting on a youth event that was based at our local church in Littlehampton. We were writing songs that were modern day hymns really and we still do a lot of those songs in the set now. The worship theme runs through our veins as well as the pop theme, so when you come and see us live the whole thing is mixed in together and it just kind of works really well.

PR: What brought you together in the first place? Was it Faith or was it music, how did you meet each other?

MS: Its quite an amazing story really. We started running this youth event called Cutting Edge. It was once a month on a Sunday night and it was pulled together by some of the people in our local church. It was amazing we had about 70 kids the first month and every month it grew and grew until we did about 10,000 on the seafront. It was an incredible time in our lives when we saw a lot of kids come to the meetings and enjoy the songs and get into the music, and meet God as well. Then we stopped doing that to travel round the country, but they were incredible times.

PR: I know that you write a lot of your own music don't you and you're going to sing something for us now that the 2 of you have written. What is that?

SG: Yeah this is called 'Take Me Away'. We were actually going to release this as a single a little while ago, but for one reason or another radio wasn't picking up. So we decided to release it as an mp3 ourselves and we've had about 70,000 downloads world wide so far.

PR: There must be something to it then! Take it away...

MS: This is for John Bird because I've always wanted to meet that man. I've heard a lot of good things about him and I've just shaken his hand, fantastic.

[Martin and Stu play 'Take Me Away' acoustically]

PR: Delirious? and 'Take Me Away'. We played one of your tracks earlier, 'I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever' thats the new single isn't it? Whens that actually out?

MS: Thats right, its coming out on December 10th. We're very excited about it actually, we didn't intend to release it as a single. Its actually a very old church song. We went and rerecorded it this summer. Its being sung all around the world so we thought we'd unleash it on the British public.

PR: You're right about it being sung around the world. Talking of taking me away its taken you away, you're music, hasn't it? Where have you been to, how many different countries?

SG: We haven't really counted them all up. We've been to Australia, New Zealand, America...

PR: You're big in America I hear.

SG: Thats right, we love it there.

PR: You've been on tour with BonJovi haven't you recently, what was that like?

MS: Fantastic! That was something all together different. We were on the road with them and Matchbox 20, who are a big band from America. We did 5 big stadium shows in the UK and it was incredible.

PR: Actually you've got some big dates coming up this week haven't you? Nottingham on Wednesday, Manchester Academy on Thursday, Shepherds Bush Empire on Friday. How long is this tour going on for?

SG: Its going on till December 20th when we finish with a big Christmas show at Shepherds Bush actually, so we're looking forward to that. We all dressed up last year didn't we?

MS: Yeah thats right last year we had a confetti cannon so we're wracking our brains about how we can beat that this year.

PR: I have a feeling you'll come up with something. Now, I know Martin back in 95 you and the bass guitarist in the group, Jon Thatcher, had a pretty horrific car accident. Did that alter you in anyway that affected your music and attitude to life.

MS: Well it definitely did alter me at the time because I broke my leg. I did a silly thing really, we were travelling through the night as a lot of musicians do, to get home and see some friends. We were 1 road away from home, my wife was in the front seat and Jon was in the back. I just fell asleep, which has been known before while I'm speaking to people actually! But I won't do that this morning. But yeah, I drove into this wall and it was a right old mess. I spent a couple of weeks on holiday and I really felt that was an amazing time for me. I was on my own, just thinking and reading, thinking about my future. It was at that time that we decided to give our jobs up and go for this thing professionally. So it was an incredible turning point in our lives.

PR: Stu you've been quoted as saying 'I fell I've been waiting all my life for Delirious?'. What has it meant to you to be part of the band as it is now?

SG: Well its like a calling really I suppose. Since I was a kid I've wanted to play music for a living and to be able to get the chance to do it is a fantastic thing. And to be in a great band thats travelling the world playing music is even better, it really is a dream come true.

PR: What about tonight, do you have another gig tonight or will you manage to put your feet up?

MS: We've got a night off tonight, we're coming home. We've got about 20 for lunch today so I'm busy!

PR: Well I'm glad you weren't too busy to pop in and see us this morning. Its been great to meet you, I wish you well, lovely music. Martin and Stu.