Chip Kendall: The evangelist, teacher and prophet on CD, radio, books and TV

Sunday 25th September 2011

Tony Cummings threw questions at the perpetual motion machine known as CHIP KENDALL



Continued from page 1

Chip: My wife Helen is English, and we met at an Arts and Bible College in California. When we started seriously talking about getting married, we inevitably had the discussion about where we'd live. I've always had a calling on my life to reach the nations. Helen felt more called to England than I felt to any other particular nation. So this is where we've been since. That's not to say we're not open to re-locating in the future. Lord, save us from the British weather!

Tony: How and when did you meet up with Mark Pennells and Zarc Porter?

Chip: I was a fan of The World Wide Message Tribe during my teenage years, and when we moved to England someone suggested we audition for the group. After sending in a video we were amazed and honoured to be invited to Manchester to meet Andy Hawthorne (Director, The Message Trust) and Tim Owen (Tribe Team Leader). Honestly, I'd never sweated as much as I did during that interview! Helen and I both were very impressed with the work of The Message and their commitment to modelling something great in Manchester for the youth of the UK. I'll never forget how that interview finished. We were all sat there in these comfy seats, and Andy suggested that we pray. Without hesitation Tim fully dropped to his knees, bowed his head, closed his eyes and lifted both hands to Heaven. Here was someone who lived what he sang about on stage! Initially The Message wanted us to join one of their bands, but after a bit of re-shuffling of people and time spent waiting on God, it was decided that we be passed along to Mark Pennells and Zarc Porter, to help launch their new ministry Innervation Trust. One of the things that attracted me to Innervation was their vision to impact not just one city with the Gospel, but every major city across the UK, and potentially further afield into Europe and the rest of the world. So with no promise of a salary, and a commitment to raise our own sponsorship, we took a major leap of faith and moved to Manchester in the summer of 2001.

Tony: Looking back over your ministry with thebandwithnoname, give me a comment, memory or overview of 'The Blitz'.

thebandwithnoname circa 2002
thebandwithnoname circa 2002

Chip: When I look at pictures from that period, I realise just how young Adam, Bobby and I really were. We were totally just kids! So pumped with ambition to blast into the pop music industry for Jesus, and seriously working our behinds off for the Gospel. We did a 60-date tour in the space of three months. So many young people got switched on to the music and couldn't believe Christians could worship God like that. We had a lot of fun. To this day, I don't know how my wife put up with me being away so much. Somebody please fashion a diamond encrusted medal for her!

Tony: Ditto 'Schizophrenix'.

Chip: Looking back, I'm amazed how relatively quickly we released that album. 'Blitz' had only been out for a year, and it would be another five years before we made 'Dying To Be There'. But I'm so glad we made 'Schizophrenix' because there are some really great songs on there which carried us through a very long, diverse and (at times) difficult period for TBWNN. There were loads of line-up changes, but my favourite was when we started touring with dancers. Finally Helen could come on the road with me!

Tony: Ditto 'Dying To Be There'.

thebandwithnoname circa 2007
thebandwithnoname circa 2007

Chip: 'D2BT' was definitely the re-birth of TBWNN. Leon, Straff and J brought so much freshness, and we were given so much more freedom to be a bit theatrical with our live shows. I can't speak for the others, but Helen and I were in Heaven! We did our best tour of the States, just as the album was launching in the UK, and most of my favourite memories from my nine years of being in the band happened during that tour. Probably my most embarrassing moment was during a 'costume malfunction' when I found myself helpless, centre stage, legs spread, rocking side to side, with a giant metre-long chain dangling out of the crotch of my boiler suit. Nightmare!

Tony: Ditto 'The4Points: The Best Of thebandwithnoname'.

Chip: TBWNN's chief aim was always to present the Gospel in a language young people could understand, so for us "The4Points" was a match made in Heaven. The track and subsequent tour went down a storm, right up to our final tour where we accidentally set off the fire alarm in the middle of our first song! We were thrilled to find out months after we finished the band that a load of young people used "The4Points" track as the soundtrack to their dancing flash mob, advertising the launch of a Christian Union in their Uni. There's no way we could ever dream that sort of stuff up.

Tony: What do you think are the strengths (and any weaknesses) of the 'K Is For Kendall' EP?

Chip: The biggest strengths for me are the songs themselves. I see a ton of potential in every single one of the five tracks. However, the EP's biggest weakness was that, for some people at least, the project wasn't cohesive enough. For them, it was a bit like a various artists compilation. The fact is, to pull the whole thing together as quickly as we did (the deadline was the final TBWNN gig... I didn't want to disappoint my primary market!) was nothing short of a miracle. And even though we had an absolute nightmare getting that first run of 300 copies made (they didn't print the "C" on the cover, so it read "hip Kendall"... Hilarious!). So even though most of the songs have had complete overhauls for the live show, I can still say I'm very proud of the EP. You know what, though? The next project is going to be absolutely blinding in comparison!

Tony: What were the circumstances that led to the writing of The Mind Of ChipK: Enter At Your Own Risk?

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Reader Comments

Posted by Libby Van Aken in France(Brittany) @ 15:09 on Feb 18 2013

I met Chip on the aeroplane 3 days ago travelling frim RSA to Paris.I soon sensed that this man was a Christian; and therefore, it's great to read this interview and learn more of the work he does. I hope I can go to see his music at Nantes in May. I'm also keen to tell people abot the youth study bible and maybe i'll buy it for my grandkids!



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