TRICKY CHRISTIANS:

Let there be rock: You probably haven't heard of this band, yet they have sold more albums in America than Robbie Williams. But Radio 1 still won't give them airtime. The reason? They are Christians. Richard Grant joins Delirious? on the road (Daily Telegraph, 29/11/2002)

Surfing through the Christian radio stations and television channels, you still hear plenty of schmaltz, happy-clappy folk pop and third-rate power rock ballads, but the big new Christian stars have left all that a long way behind.

Payable on Death (POD) are tattooed, pierced and dreadlocked, and play loud, abrasive, Pearl Jam-inspired grunge metal with overtly Christian lyrics and some snarled rapping.

They have succeeded in crossing over to the mainstream market - the big ambition for Christian rock bands these days - and have sold 4.5 million albums. The roots-rock Christian band Jars of Clay have sold five million. The Nashville-based dc Talk, who combine influences from Sixties pop and contemporary British indie bands such as Radiohead, have sold 6.5 million albums.

Delirious? are the leading British exponents of the new Christian rock, a hard-working, ambitious band on the rise, usually able to sell out 5,000- to 10,000-seat arenas in America.

Earlier this year they headlined a Christian music festival in Pennsylvania with 80,000 people in the audience, their biggest gig to date. Last time they played Dallas, they drew a crowd of 10,000 under their own name. 'We must have been crap,' says Jon Thatcher, because tonight the stadium is three-quarters empty.

Later they find out the reason for the poor turn-out: the Billy Graham evangelical crusade is in town and has siphoned away most of their fans.

A couple weeks ago Mickey Kaus had a bit about a long trip he took by car and he mentioned that he'd been tricked either 5 or 6 times by good songs into listening to Christian rock stations. One would like to think it was tongue-in-cheek and that he's aware he stopped listening to music he enjoyed just because of its Christian message. Otherwise one would assume that he also skips past reggae stations, what with the insidious Rastafarianism they espouse. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2002 5:02 PM