dnews 12
does it rock? yea baby, yea!

**** Q U O T E****
"Christian Band In "Quite Good" Shocker!"
~ from the magazine 'Bassist'

**** Contents ****
A Letter From Jon
Chart Success? It's OK.
The Band Of The 90's
Studio Time Booked
Heat Magazine "God Squad"
Jon Thatcher In 'Bassist' Magazine
The Original Jon Thatcher Interview
More On Jon Thatcher!
Find Who In The River?
dnews Addresses
Favourite Lyric
d:end?

**** A Letter From Jon ****
Hello friends

It's good to be back on these ancient hills of England after a great tour of
the west coast of America, where we got to surf the waves of San Diego,
sample the Seattle coffee, hang out at the mall, play some music and make a
lot more friends.

This was our final visit to the united states of America of this millennium,
but it will be a tour to go down in history, with many sold out shows in
great locations and home-like crowds half way across the world, making us
think maybe it is a small world after all.

But now for the future...We have just slept off our jet lag which has been a
product of countless airports of the past months and are fighting fit ready
for our December tour of the UK. But before that we will be crossing another
ocean [or channel] and heading to Germany for a one off show, and then
returning to start work on a new project for a new millennium, as well as
fine tuning the plans for the release of our new single, 'It's OK' for the
21st of February 2000.

We can't wait to play back on our home soil where people understand the word
football the same way we do and to catch up with some old and new friends.
We've been back in the rehearsal room this week practising a few set pieces
and pulling out a few bicycle kicks...all for your entertainment.

Finally, thank you to all of you that turned out in America over the fall -
we look forward to seeing you in the morning of the new millennium. Thank
you in advance to all our d:friends in the UK - we can't wait to see you all
again and, to every one else..it's a small cyber world...

Jon The Bassist

Delirious?

[As usual, this appeared on the UK Official Website d:vine ~
http://www.delirious.co.uk. Spurious? would like to take this opportunity to
thank Furious? Records for their continuing generosity.]

> top

**** Chart success? It's OK. ****
The song "It's OK" has been chosen as the next single by Delirious?. The
choice of the ballad has surprised many industry observers. Said Delirious?'
manager Tony Patoto, "A lot of people have come back to us to say this is
their favourite track on 'Mezzamorphis'. We might be bucking the trend, but
we still feel it's a strong radio record. Other bands and artists like
Robbie Williams and The Verve have enjoyed Top 10 placings with melodic
ballads. So we're hoping for a similar breakthrough with ours. If all our
fans and friends turn out in force to buy it, then we could see that
happen."

With release date of 21st February, the single will be available on two
CDs - along with some brand new tracks and popular concert material like the
spoof 60's tune "Pursuit Of Happiness", reminiscent of the theme from the TV
series Friends. For those with CD-ROM drives, there will also be the
accompanying video to "Pursuit" - along with other surprises. "Offering so
many extra treats gives people value for money," said Patoto. "The fans are
always looking for something new, so both CDs will hopefully meet that
demand." Well before its release as a single, "It's OK" has already created
an impact. Ata concert in the USA, the band dedicated it to a young American
woman who'd tried to commit suicide - and who gained fresh hope after
listening to their music.

"I think there's healing in the song," said Patoto. "And we've seen from the
letters we receive how the band's music has touched people so deeply. So
we're believing that anything can happen, really."

~ Spurious? would like to thank Mike "Arnold" Rimmer of Cross Rhythms
(http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk) fame for allowing us to use
this article.

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**** The Band Of The 90's ****
"It's been a rock band from Littlehampton who have turned the international
Christian music industry's attention to praise and worship music. In the
'70s and '80s companies like Maranatha! Music and Integrity pioneered a new
form of worship more music more in tune with 20th century tastes than the
hymnody of earlier generations. But their soft pop/easy listening musical
approach had little appeal for today's youth culture and it has been
Delirious? who have spearheaded worship music using a more rock music
approach and have led the way to a wide range of more youth-orientated
worship music. Now Delirious? have metamorphasized to a full scale stadium
rock band with a talent and a vision to put Christian music into the
mainstream pop charts and the biggest stadia in the world. Their early
Cutting Edge recordings were profoundly influential, their 'King Of Fools'
album is acknowledged by all as a Christian music classic while
'Mezzamorphis' could yet be an album to produce a huge mainstream
breakthrough."

~ From "100 Years Of Christian Music: 1990-2000" where Delirious? were
nominated the band of the 90's in Cross Rhythms Magazine. Again, thanks to
Mike Rimmer.

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**** Studio Time Booked ****
Delirious? have booked studio time in January 2000 to record some early
tunes for their follow-up to Mezzamorphis. Inside reports indicate that they
are "great songs" and one, 'Everything', is "quite mellow..very easy on the
ears..very laid back". Although they begin recording in January, another
insider says "it'll be a long process". Delirious? are currently involved in
talks with "various mainstream big boys" about producing the album. You can
rely on Spurious? to keep you up-to-date with the latest news!

> top

**** Heat Magazine "God Squad" ****
Heat Magazine is a regular publication reviewing music, films, books,
television etc - a total entertainment magazine. It came as a bit of a
surprise then when delirious? popped up in this magazine without launching
their propaganda machine:

"So Cliff Richard being number one is just a one-off then: we don't think
so! There's a lot more on the way from the God Squad.... So could Cliff's
success launch a spate of follow-up Christian songs? There is already an
evangelical Christian band, Delirious?, who cite the Manic Street Preachers
and The Verve as their main influences and regularly pack out 2,000 seat
venues..."There's no musical tradition of having Christian pop songs over
here," explains Anthony McGee, marketing manager of Travis' label
Independiente, "Unlike America, the church services in Britain are a bit
more uptight."

~ Spurious? says: great to see some d: coverage without seeing them fight
tooth and nail for it. It's also great to see that delirious? are making
headway behind the scenes of the music industry - didn't Martin once say
that they were known as the "God Squad" to the People In The Business? I
think this proves he's right : )

> top

**** Jon Thatcher in 'Bassist' Magazine ****
Delirious? ~ Jon Thatcher
CHRISTIAN BAND IN "QUITE GOOD" SHOCKER!
Bass player Jon explains how they do it

"My only job before the band was picking tomatoes," says Jon Thatcher. "I
think John Lee Hooker said 'All I've ever done is play guitar and pick
cotton'. Well, all I've ever done is play bass and pick tomatoes."

>From tomato picking to chart topping, Delirious? have had more credibility
and success than any stereotypically Christian rock band could have
expected - top 20 singles, their own record label Furious, over 200,000
albums sold in the last year - but then Delirious aren't exactly
stereotypical: this is a band that sound more like Radiohead than the
"happy-clappers" that critics might expect.

"One night we play in a church, the next night we play in a club, then we're
doing a big festival," says Jon. "I think our crowd is predominantly
Christian, because that's where our exposure has been up until now. We've
just had a single released on Virgin that's going to radio. That should open
up our fan base a bit in America."

Jon has recently changed his main rig. "I now use a 62 Fender Jazz bass
re-issue, and I've changed my amplifier to a new Ashdown rig. It's a custom
500w head with 4x10 and a 1x15 speakers - similar in style to the Mark King
combo format. It's great gear. We were out in the States and I had to use
Ampeg gear again, which is fine because that's what I used to use. Then we
flew back in on Monday and had a gig that night. After using Ampeg for three
weeks and then having my Ashdown again, it was quite bizarre. Like swimming
in a pool and then swimming in the ocean.

"We're not going to deny our roots, but we want to make it as good as we can
so that it is acceptable to more people"

~ by Paul Scott, Bassist December 1999

> top

**** The Original Jon Thatcher Interview ****

Jon Thatcher - Delirious? Steve Lawson

Getting to number 20 in the singles charts is quite an achievement by
anyone's standards. Having two out of your first three singles get there
without any record company backing and hardly any radio air-play is damn
near miraculous. But that is precisely what Littlehampton-based rockers
Delirious? did. Having formed their own record company (Furious? records)
and secured a distribution deal with Pinnacle, they set about conquering the
charts on their terms.

"We started up the record label so that we could keep full creative control
of what we were doing," Continues Delirious? bassist, John Thatcher, "People
were coming to us wanting to buy the stuff, so we thought, 'why give this
away to someone else who would only be doing what we could do anyway?!' "

This DIY stance reflects the humble roots that the band were built from,
starting as the in-house band at their local church in Littlehampton.
"Delirious? started off as a church-based thing, playing at a worship event
in Littlehampton, called Cutting Edge. It started off with 60 people coming
and grew from there until the last gig that we did on the sea-front at
Littlehampton had 10,000 people at it. The band developed with the event,
but kind of overtook it and people were coming just to see the band. We came
to a point where we had to distinguish between the band and the event and so
that's where Delirious? came from. Prior to that it had been Martin Smith's
(Delirious? singer/songwriter) band, but we just wanted to be a band that
played great music."

John came fairly late into the Delirious? fold, the latest and hopefully
last in a long succession of prospective low-enders. "I wasn't in the band
from the start. The first couple of albums (released as The Cutting Edge
Band) had a few session guys on them - I think they got through about ten
bass players. But I was the one who stuck it out! I joined about two years
ago, so it's not as though I just jumped on the bus at the
last minute, I have done some of the hard work as well!"

I wondered if being the last to join made it harder for Jon to place his
stamp on the music?

"It was a little strange, always playing other people's lines, until we did
the new album. Now there's lots of 'me' on there, it feels like I've made my
mark. My playing is quite different to some of the guys who played bass on
the earlier albums, but the music has changed anyway, so it was a natural
progression.'

Starting in the church, the band got their first exposure on the Christian
music scene, building up a mailing list of a staggering 20,000 through a
routine of regular gigging at church events and lots of festival
appearances. But when the time came to break out of the insular church
scene, the level of their success proved problematic:

"We sent a biography to Radio One that said that we've played to so many
thousand people in the last year and sold so many records, and they got it
and thought, 'they're lying, we've never heard of them!' It got the stage
where they said 'If this is true then prove it to us, we're not going to
believe you without some evidence.'"

So on the back of precious little radio and TV coverage, relying mostly on
their dedicated fan-base, Delirious released 'White Ribbon Day', which got
to number 41 in the singles chart. The next two singles, 'Deeper' and
'Promise' both reached number 20, still with very little media support. They
did however make it onto the Radio one road show.

"That came about through the pluggers, who are the guys who scout around and
get you radio and TV coverage. We could have just sold the singles to our
fan base and still charted, but we want to open it up to a wider audience.
It was fun miming on the road show to a thousand 14 year olds. Martin had
lost his voice so it was a good job that we were miming!"

Keeping control of their own marketing has also meant that Delirious? have
been able to afford a few 'luxuries' that others in their position would
probably never have even contemplated, such as in-ear monitoring.

"We use the in-ear monitors to eliminate a lot of the problems usually
associated with big stages. We use the Garwood in-ear system which is what
U2 use. We all have individual mixes, I have a bit of everything, but with
the loops nice and loud, as well as the drums and lots of me!

"It takes a while to get used to playing with in-ear monitors, I've gone
through seven sets of moulds and different drivers and stuff and then mixed
and matched what I felt comfortable with."

Jon's stage set-up includes a vintage Ampeg SVT head and an 8x10 cab, that
has quite a rock 'n' roll history of it's own:

"I got the Ampeg rig from Dave Markee, who used to play for Eric Clapton, so
it already has quite a rock 'n' roll heritage! I use a Manley DI box for my
out front sound which gives me a really fat sound. My bass is an Ernie Ball
Stingray, and that's about it. I'm strictly a minimalist, in my playing and
my gear."

Jon's playing maybe minimal but they're success so far certainly isn't, and
with the band back in the charts and on the Radio with their single, 'Deeper
', which they re-released to coincide with this Autumn's D:tour, it looks
like the charts could be going Delirious? for quite some time to come.

~ From an old edition of 'Bassist'. Thanks go to Mad Fiddler for both
extracts. The first extract is a newer interview made of the same material
as the second, but at Spurious? we give you complete coverage so you can
read both : )

> top

**** More On Jon Thatcher! ****
Yes, everyone's favourite telly-tubby bassist has certainly been hitting the
headlines of 'big' bassist magazines. He features on the back page of
'Basslines' - which is the Bass Centre's glossy magazine/newsletter which
they send out to all their customers - with a 25 x 25mm picture and the
following text:

"Kind hearted Jon Thatcher from Delirious, giving his poor old SVT a
rest and ordering a brand new Ashdown custom "King" combo, a beautiful
chrome monster delivered direct to a video shoot in Kent."

This must have been the Gravity shoot, where Jon was observed to be playing
his bass upside down and spinning round. Either he hadn't worked out how to
play it properly or that's the way the video was supposed to look.

> top

**** Find Who In The River? ****
Tom asks, "I have been listening to the Delirious? song "Find Me in the
River" and I wondered if there was any discussion about the lyrics? I was
wondering specifically about the phrase, "Even though you're gone and I'm
cracked and dry" - who is the"you're" referring to? Any ideas?"

~ Spurious? says: "I [Mike Jones, aka m.] emailed Martin a few years back
about this exact same thing! He sent a reply back saying something along the
lines of the "'You're' is referring to God but its just the feeling that
He's gone. You know He actually isn't and but sometimes you just feel so
distant that you 'feel' like He's gone". Martin also said something about
the song just saying 'I'm now plunging back into the river and just letting
Him drown you in it'".

> top

**** dnews addresses ****
There's now a handy little utility for changing your dnews address in the
d:news zone on Spurious? at http://www.spurious.org in case you change
accounts.

> top

**** Favourite Lyric ****
~ "We can be so loud / We can write a song / That makes us all proud / But
without love / It's just a sound"
~ 'Good Stuff' by The Newsboys on 'Love Liberty Disco'.
~ submitted by Jessica
~ send your favourite lyrics to me on adam@spurious.org!

> top

**** d:end? ****
How can this be the end? After all, Stu G's let his goatee grow ginger
again. This gives me little excuse but to attend the next delirious? gig
adorned with a fake furry ginger goatee. With studio time booked, gigs
planned and a new single coming out, the d:train is getting up speed. Let's
go through the station. Let's get to the destination - who knows where?

Adam, Adrian, Mike, Mike, Scooby

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