dnews 19
does it rock? yea baby, yea!

**** Q U O T E ****
"A lot of people are asking me why I'm wearing a hat. Well, that's what
happens when you don't wash your hair for a few days - you get a little bit
embarrassed."
~ Martin at Soul Survivor B

**** Contents ****
It's OK Promotional Campaign
+++ Radio
+++ TV
+++ Press
+++ Regional Radio
+++ Retail
+++ Performance & Signings
+++ School Visits
Spurious? Predictions
Queensland, Australia Review
Melbourne, Australia Review
Re: [dnews] 17 - Sheffield Gig Review
+++ 14 (edited) Replies
d:end?

**** It's OK Promotional Campaign ****
Finally, it appears things are clicking into place for a Furious? Records
release. Media articles, TV appearances, radio playlisting and even some
school visits are all on the cards, and the hype about what could be the
best delirious? single yet is underway: woohoo!

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+++ Radio +++
~ B list X-FM London from 10th January 00
~ Radio 1 week commencing 17/01 - not playlisted yet : (
~ Virgin Radio week commencing 17/01
~ Radio 2 will service week commencing 24/01 (played on Jonathan Ross Show
on Saturday 5th)
~ Capital serviced

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+++ TV +++
~ What's It All About 16th Jan ("See The Star" and "Gravity" videos)
~ Alpha Zone C5 (performance of See the Star and Gravity w/ interview)
~ VH 1 session 24th Jan (2 songs & interview televised week before release)
~ Videotech 24th Feb
~ London Today 24th Feb (Interview/performance)
~ MTV Brand New C list (5-7 plays per week)
~ Nickelodeon 18th Feb (Video & competition)
~ S2 Live (video)
~ Pop Noodle (Video)
~ Big Breakfast 15th Feb (interview and video) - TBC
~ Making a Difference (BBC NI) - TBC
~ Live & Kicking - Hit, Miss or Maybe 19th Feb - TBC
~ MTV Extra (digital) - Rotation playlist - TBC
~ Pepsi Chart Show (C4) - 22nd or 29th February
~ Top Shop TV - for rotation 12/2-3/3
~ CDUK (ITV) - Performance and/or video in Hot Shots
~ Exclusive C5 space on 20/2 show - TBC
~ The Ozone considering for Top Tunes - TBC
~ Showbiz weekly possible interview/video - TBC

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+++ Press +++
~ OK! magazine - Review
~ SMTV mag - interview - 25/02/00
~ Winchester Way - Interview
~ Glasgow Sunday Mail - Interview
~ Time out - single review & coming to Virgin Instore in London
~ TOTP - will interview at TOTP TV
~ Melody Maker - review of next live London gig
~ Dotmusic - Single Review
~ Heat - Single review
~ Music Week - single review
~ Teletext - running instore appearances
~ Ms London - Coming to Virgin Instore in London
~ Birmingham Evening mail - News piece re HMV PA
~ Manchester Metro News - News piece re Virgin Instore
~ Nottingham Observer - News piece re HMV Instore
~ New Forest Post - News piece re HMV Instore
~ Southampton Advertiser - News piece re HMV instore
~ Rochdale Observer - News piece re Virgin instore
~ Winchester Way- Interview and feature on HMV Instore
~ Bolton Evening News - News piece re Virgin Instore
~ Glasgow Sunday Mail - Feature and interview with band
~ Nottingham Journal - feature & interview @ HMV instore, inc single review
~ Hampshire Chronicle - News piece re HMV instore
~ Nottingham Evening Post - News piece re HMV instore
~ Nottingham Recorder - News piece re HMV instore
~ Newark Herald & Advertiser - News piece re HMV instore
~ Birmingham Metro - News piece re HMV Instore
~ West Midlands Observer Series - HMV instore w/ poss single review
~ Sutton Coldfield News - News piece re HMV instore

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+++ Regional Radio +++
~ serviced week commencing 31st January

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+++ Retail +++
~ HMV - NME ad week before release "1 of 8" to include windows and featured
racking.
~ Virgin - Prominent feature racking in all stores
~ Our Price - New Release racking on chart wall
~ Woolworths - TBC
~ The single will be available at all good record stockists!

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+++ In-store Performances and signings +++
~ Virgin Megastore Manchester 20th Feb 11pm
~ HMV Southampton 21st 4.30pm
~ HMV NOTTINGHAM Listergate - 22nd Feb 4.30pm
~ HMV Birmingham - 23rd Feb 4.30pm
~ Virgin Megastore - Oxford St London 6.30pm
~ HMV Guildford 25th Feb 4.30pm

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+++ School Visits +++
The week before the single release, the guys will be doing several school
performances and assemblies in Littlehampton they are:
~ Flora Middle
~ Connaught
~ Rustington
~ East Preston
~ Angmering
~ Georgian

~ taken from www.delirious.co.uk

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**** Spurious? predictions for It's OK ****
At Spurious? we decided it would be fun if we put our metaphorical money
where our metaphorical mouths are and put a finger on the exact position
where "It's OK" will enter the UK mainstream charts in the first week of its
release. Not only will this show you, the dnews reader, who is the most
intelligent Spurious? member, but the loser of this competition will have to
manually debug the javascripting of the cgi server. With a toothbrush.

Adam: number 12. I don't think it'll go Top 10 - but I'd like to be wrong!
Adrian: number 20. Not sure why really, but that's it : )
Mike: number 22
Scooby: number 8

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**** Queensland, Australia Review ****
I am from a city called Toowoomba, and last night, 29 Jan 2000, delirious?
rocked the night away as the first major event leading up to the Australian
Gospel Music Festival in April. d: didn't fail to impress the 5000 strong
crowd who had travelled from all over Queensland just to see them.
Beginning with 'Bliss', and some awesome indoor fireworks, they audience
could sense how good a concert this was going to be. d: decided to do
autograph signings after the concert - about 20 minutes after they left the
stage they were sitting signing autographs. As they did mine, they all were
pretty nice, except you could see they were pretty tired (they had arrived
from England that morning at 5am - the only one who was still bouncing
around was Jon, who, after reading his profiles makes a little more sense
now!). Jon said hi and even talked to me a bit as i was filing along, he
also shook my hand [ :o) ], which no other major band has done before that
i've seen.

~ Spurious? thanks to Bethany Doyle

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**** Melbourne, Australia Review ****
On Tuesday, 1st February 2000, a crowd somewhere around 3000 strong packed
out the Camberwell Civic Centre in Melbourne. The reason was "Delirious?".
They were there for Delirious?'s only Melbourne gig and fortunately I was
amongst them. All the tickets were presold, and in scenes more attributed to
a SuperBowl or Cup Final people were scalping tickets at almost double the
retail price. However, those that got in were not disappointed.

Aussie alt/folk guitarist Carolyn Oates started things off playing in her
usual left-of-centre style. She received a mixed reception at the start as
the crowd was hyped up for the occasion. During her performance she seemed
overwhelmed by the crowd and the quality suffered. Even so, she still
adequately filled the first 45 minutes. The applause when she left was as
much for the imminent arrival of Delirious? as it was for her performance.

The next fifteen minutes were spent anxiously waiting while the Production
Crew fixed some minor technical glitches with the makeshift stage (the
permanent stage in the hall wasn't suitable). Delirious? finally appeared
and began to play. They moved through a mixture of older songs and their
newer material to the delight of screaming, moshing fans until they played
"Did you feel the mountains tremble". The powerful nature of this song
caused the crowd (almost all of whom were Christians) to tone down and the
crowd experienced some of the most unbelievable worship experiences over the
next 30 minutes or so. The band were able to constantly bring the whole show
back to God, playing alot of their better known "worship" style music even
repeating "Did you feel the mountains tremble" 3 times during the 30
minutes.

After that they played some of their better known material including
"Gravity", "History-Maker" and "King Of Fools" which caused the somewhat
inevitable resumption of the moshing. The MoshPit grew in size and activity
level, to the point when it encompassed the entire ground floor of the hall
(which was standing room only) and all of the 2500 people that were
downstairs. During "History-Maker" Martin crowdsurfed off the stage and into
the pit further encouraging crowd participation. By this stage the band were
starting to wrap up, and they said their goodbyes and left... to await the
obligatory screams of "MORE" from the pit.

After being off for no more than 5 minutes.. they returned. This second
segment lasted about 45 minutes and the band played through "Gravity",
"History-Maker" and "King Of Fools" again before building up the suspense
and finally playing the song that seemingly everyone had come specifically
to hear... "DEEPER". This live rendition of "Deeper" was a fitting finale to
the performance and lasted about 7 minutes.

The concert concluded then leaving all who had attended thoroughly pleased
with the night's entertainment, not to mention the exhaustion felt by all
who were moshing for the whole time. Delirious had also managed to maintain
a focus on God throughout and this meant that all who attended felt His
presence within the room, and left feeling spiritually refreshed. Delirious?
are still the only Christian band to have such stage presence to switch
between a rock concert and worshipping God mid performance without
disappointing fans!

~ A Review by Tim Johns "aka The Boffin" Written on the 5th February and
submitted via email on the 7th. Thanks very much to him!

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**** Re: [dnews] 17 - Sheffield Gig Review ****
As regular readers will know, issue 17 of dnews had a fairly controversial
review of a delirious? gig by a non-Christian (which is still available in
the dnews archive zone on www.spurious.org). Hitting some facts hard, the
reviewer obviously treaded on a few toes and as such incensed a few of you
guys into responding - here are some selected bits of what you had to say:

+++ I would actually agree to a fair extent. I remember the first time I
went to a d:gig - I only knew about 3 songs and it's hard to even hear the
lyrics to a song in a concert. It normally takes me a while before I'm able
to identify with the lyrics, rather than just getting into the tune.

+++ I also agree about the subject matter. How many of the d: songs can have
a completely nothing-to-do-with-God theme or idea ? Surely it's their aim to
break mainstream and not just play christian songs for christian people. Of
course, the moment they do do that, they get accused of selling out. Can't
win, I suppose.

+++ It's unfortunate that the reviewer felt that she couldn't relate but I'm
sure she's still thinking about d:'s message and who d: represent. And she's
right, Christians don't go to a concert for the music, they go there to
worship Jesus. I'm glad she got that point even if she doesn't quite
understand it all yet. ~ Chelsea Sargent, Canada

+++ Although the Cutting Edge days were great, that's the standard for which
Christian Delirious? fans have. So they are there to worship, rather than to
have a good night out and to listen to music. It's just the way it is. ~ Ian
Barker

+++ This is where Delirious has a teeny weeny problem. Two years ago, when I
found about Delirious?, I was kind of sceptical to go and see them as I knew
they were a worship band before KoF. However, I went to see them in November
1998 and they rocked and worshiped a bit too. However, this was their
transitional stage and they have moved more to being an out-and-out rock
band now. Which I prefer, however I know many people wish Delirious were
still Cutting Edge. Delirious have a problem then in moving forward like God
wants them too but trying not to alienate their fan base. I saw Delirious?
at Brixton last year and they rocked and it was almost like any other gig (I
could compare it to seeing U2 or the Smashing Pumpkins etc.) However these
last gigs before Christmas were more like Delirious of old around the KoF
time - half rocking and half worshipping sort of. Now for your non-christian
fan this is kinda strange indeed, and this is where Delirious have a
problem - what sort of gigs do they perform? Rock or worship? I am not too
sure how they can combine the two half and half. Obviously some of there
songs are very worshipful but others are not so obvious. So Delirious are in
a sort of quandary and so I think all of us who are christians need to pray
for them for direction. ~ DAVE

+++ Reviewer: The problem with Delirious? isn't the music, it's the lyrics
and the reaction of their fans.
Brandon: D:'s music is half of what makes the band so great. Their so
oft-called "infectious grooves" really gets you into the song. But the
other side of the coin is the intensity and power in their lyrics, and here
is where I disagree with the reviewer's opinion.

+++ d: is interested in worshipping God, in writing songs about the
experience of life and the glory of God. The message of D: is that
everything will be okay by entering into a relationship with God, and that
one day we will get to Heaven and then truly all will be well. You can't
just say, as the reviewer's choice of words would seem to indicate, oh,
okay, how does this relate to God? What does God have to say about this?
You actually have to get into a real relationship with God, and God will
help you out. Isn't that what the song "It's Okay" is about (which the
reviewer did like incidentally)? ~ Brandon Klassen

+++ Reviewer: Atmosphere makes or breaks a gig. If you're not a Christian,
don't go to a Delirious? gig, because you just won't 'get' it and you won't
be comfortable.
~ possibly, but in my experience of bringing non-Christian mates to
delirious? concerts, they've enjoyed it. Sure, they're not so keen on the
"preachy" songs, but they like the music - it's why they're there, and it's
why I'm there too! ~ Adam

+++ I wasn't happy with the review overall, though. Some truths were
painful; but some things were misjudged, and she made those fit the greater
picture.
Ian Barker: I thought it was a good perspective. But she did misunderstand
some things. But that's the point. If she misjudges it, who cares? People
shouldn't have to hear their vision statement to enjoy the concert. The fact
that she felt weird is not good especially when she showed up ready for a
good gig from this band she had heard of. But if the presence of God was
what really made her feel weird, I suppose that is a good thing. God must be
in control in those spots.

+++ there are universal themes to songs. some have double meanings.
Ian Barker: Which is true. But I don't think she got the other side. Maybe
to have some tunes without mentioning God (in whatever way) would be good.
That's what she thought (I believe).

+++ she basically got the crowd's atmosphere right - at least, that's what I
feel at d:gigs too, but it's good to be a part of a Christian crowd - but I
think she misjudged d:.
Ian Barker: I don't think she misjudged them, maybe the crowd a bit. But she
went there wanting to hear some good tunes, got freaked by the crowd, and
came away unfulfilled musically.

+++ I am a Christian, yes, but I don't love delirious just because they're
Christian. It's great that they are, and that they're breaking into the
mainstream and all that, but I just happen to love their music, and them
being Christian is a bonus. I wouldn't go to just any Christian bands'
concert. If I didn't like their music, what would be the point of suffering
through however many loud hours of it? Unlike in the States, Canada (or at
least where I live in Canada) really doesn't have Christian radio stations,
there is no division of religious and secular music, so I really listen more
to the music, not necessarily the lyrics. At my first d:concert - unlike
many others in the crowd - I didn't know all the words, but I still enjoyed
it. It wasn't the lyrics that grabbed me at first, (because amidst all of
that, unless you know them, you can't really decipher too many lyrics,) it
was the music. Delirious really introduced me to Christian music, and I
love it, I love their music, I love their lyrics, I love everything about
them. If delirious comes back (and I really hope they do) then yes, I will
be one of those in the crowd singing all the lyrics. The atmosphere of the
concert is not to estrange non-Christians, though it may have that feeling.
I didn't feel estranged being one of the only people in the crowd not to
know all the lyrics, and I don't think it had anything to do with being a
Christian. Depending on what mindset you go into the gig with, you can
either love it or hate it. It seems to me that that person had gone into
that gig with a rather paranoid mindset, and so every factor served to
estrange that person from the rest of the crowd; the fact that they weren't
Christian, the fact that they didn't know the lyrics, etc. I agree that many
of the songs could be hard to relate to if you're not a Christian, but there
are a lot of non-Christian songs out there that are hard to relate to as
well. I know I can't relate to a huge amount of songs out there, but that
doesn't prevent me from enjoying them. And there are delirious songs that
have a universal theme, like Blindfold, besides the 'glory' part at the end,
I'm sure everyone's felt that way before, or 'It's OK', actually, almost all
the 'Mezzamorphis' songs can be interpreted differently. I'm sorry that
person had such a bad experience. I would like to assure them that I don't
know anyone who would tear them to shreds just for not being a Christian and
not knowing all the words. That would go against all our beliefs as
Christians anyways. Anyways, that's my opinion. ~ Sahra Stewart-Kroeker

+++ I've been to only one Delirious gig in my life. But when I went I was
already "delirious for Delirious." So I was totally hyped up about it, being
a Christian I could connect to the whole atmosphere not only only because I
knew all the songs but because of my faith. I can understand that reviewer's
point of view, feeling out of place and stuff. But I was at the concert with
a "non-Christian." He's been hanging out with my group of Christian friends
for quite some time, never seeming to really accept our beliefs, but never
rejecting us either, he had more of an open mind, like he was trying to
figure out if he wanted to live a non believing life, or have what we do.
Anyway, he'd heard d: before in my car and stuff and liked their style and
stuff, I said we were going to the gig and he said he might like to go, so I
bought him a ticket and we went together, Switchfoot opened for d: and that
was good, and then Delirious came on. My friend had such a blast, he loved
the music, the atmosphere and everything surrounding it. So I guess it
really depends on how you come to a gig or in fact wherever you go when you
know you'll be around people who believe in something you don't. The
difference between these two situations is that my friend came with an open
mind, I think he was prepared to try and feel what everyone else was
feeling, and if he liked it well then maybe his life will change. But a
similarity between the two situations is he'd heard good things about d:
from me and my friends, but hadn't been to a concert, and he went and
totally loved it. Anyway, that was my little opinion on that review. Some
people get drawn to the music by just the style (my boss liked it when I got
into the habit of using Delirious while testing speakers at work) while
others feel sort of out of it. I understand both sides of this, it's just
that I've had more people liking them by just hearing them. ~ Jonathan

+++ I am an absolutely huge Delirious? fan and when I first read the review
of the band's gig in Sheffield I was absolutely incensed. However, the more
I looked at the article, the more I seemed to see what the girl was talking
about. There were some points that I disagreed with, one being because of
the fact that I think Delirious? are musically excellent, but most of the
gigs I have been to have been quite overtly Christian which may put some
non-Christian music fans out of touch with the gig. This probably stems from
the bands very strong relationship with God and also their fans, but can we
really expect a non-Christian to understand the way in which Stu G sometimes
feels led by God to do stuff, or the way Martin sings in tongues etc. I
reckon that Delirious? are the best band around at the moment and they have
a real opportunity to crack the non-Christian scene, but to do this they may
have to tone down their gigs a tad more. ~ Sam Osborne

~ Spurious? says: thanks for all your contributions. The over-riding theme
is that delirious? are caught between total satisfaction of the
non-Christian fans and total satisfaction of the Christian fans, and as such
are truly on the Mezzanine Floor.

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**** d:end? ****
It's the end of another jam-packed dnews. But while you're upset that your
dnews d:fix is over until I do the next issue, DO NOT WORRY! There's always
the thought of the new single to keep you happy. If you live in the UK, that
is.

Adam, Adrian, Mike, Scooby

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