dnews
- Special Edition
- August 30th
does it rock? yea baby, yea!
"Thank you for the chance to live again
I will run always for you
Clouds have gathered all around my head
But these hands they lifted me
And I'll tell of this love that saved me.
Thankyou for the
chance to live again
I will run always to you
Walking closer you are all I have in this life
Only you
And I'll tell of this love that saved me.
And I'll wait
for this light to break
I'll come to you, yes I'll run to you
And I'll wait for this light to break
I'll come to you, yes I'll run to you
I'll be one with you"
- August 30th, delirious?
- written August 1996 by Martin and Stu G
This date, August
30th, holds a special poignancy for the band delirious?.
The question is, why? Why did Martin and Stu G get together and write the
song "August 30th" that appeared on 'King Of Fools'? And why did the
album
sleeve say, "(for pip) 'keep on running girl'"?
Purepop? has this to say....
"At the end
of August [1995] Martin was producing the live album for an
event based in Lincoln, called 'Grapevine'. The birth of Stew and Sarah
Smith's first child, Abi, had happened while he was away, and he (along with
Anna and Jon, who he had gone to visit) was keen to get back as soon as he
could. They decided to drive the 230 miles back home once the event was
over.
At 2.34am, just
half a mile from home, Martin fell asleep at the wheel. He
awoke after the car crashed into a brick wall. He was sitting with the
dashboard on his legs.
Whereas Anna and
Jon escaped with relatively minor injuries, Martin was
trapped in the car for over an hour and a half while the rescue services
tried to cut him free from the wreckage. At first Martin thought that he had
lost his legs. 'I remember looking at my hands and thinking, "at least
I can
still play". I can also remember a lot of pain.'
The two weeks
that he spent in hospital turned out to be a key point in the
Delirious? story. Martin read Bill Flannagan's 'U2 At the End of the World'
and was given a tape of the band speaking in the early '80s about their
lives.
'I knew that God
was speaking to me. I started to think about what I wanted
to do with my life. Was my aim to make good money as a producer or do what I
was made to do and make music? I felt that God was telling me to get out
there and raise the flag for this generation. "OK," I thought, "I
don't care
about the immediate hurdles or financial risk: I feel I've been given a
second chance and I'm going to take it".'
....Throughout
it [Cutting Edge Fore] can be heard the voice of a
post-accident Martin. Before the crash he sang about happiness and joy.
August 30th taught him about pain and suffering. 'When you've been crushed
to pieces' sometime all that you can do is 'rest your weary head'. 'Cutting
Edge Fore' marked a period of surgery: it was only in recovery that they
realised quite how much had changed. The band changed their name to
Delirious?: they were not a grown-up version of Cutting Edge - they had been
born again."
Purepop? continues,
"'August 30th' stands out as an example of the bits of
Cutting Edge that Delirious? did bring with them. The vibe is pure intimacy:
the lulling repetition of the rhythm and guitars marries the honeyed vocals.
These songs broaden the appeal of the band, because we all know, those young
punks may like it loud, but the oldies like to be able to hear the words.
'The song only
came to me a year after the accident,' says Martin. 'My
brother's wife, Pip, had a serious car crash and, like me, was fortunate to
be alive. We both went through the same experience of thinking, once it was
over, "Now I'm really going to do something with my life".'
Martin and Pip
became close, discussing how they had both reacted to their
experiences, swapping stories about how they had dealt with the shock.
'I suddenly realised,
through chatting with Pip, that I still hadn't got
over it. It made me very emotional, realising again that I had actually been
saved. I remember exactly where I was: I had put the phone down after
talking with her and sat on the bed. Straight away the song came; it just
seemed to spill out of me.
'The song is dedicated
to Pip, but it was also my way of finally putting the
whole experience to bed. I think the tenderness of the song shows just how
vulnerable I was feeling at the time.'"
All this information
is copyright "Purepop?: the Delirious? journey so far"
by Craig Borlase. Containing detailed biogrpahies of the band members,
useful insights, one average-to-good joke and an unmissable quantity of
delirious?-related information, it is available at your local Christian
bookshop and on d:vine, the official delirious? website
(http://www.delirious.co.uk) and is
well worth looking into.
Happy August 30th from Spurious?